Samsung Caliber review – a touch screen multimedia handset
For:
Attractive looks, 3 megapixel camera, accelerometer, full HTML browser, good call quality
Against:
Touch screen interface could have been better.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Samsung Caliber is a CDMA phone which runs on CDMA 800 band, it has a candy bar design,
Additional features include touch screen, USB, voice recognition, microSD card slot.
Messaging and data features include HTML Browser, Voice messages, Voice mail, Picture messages, Multimedia messages (MMS), Text messages.
The handset has a 3 MP camera and can record videos too. Underneath the display there are three physical buttons, End key, Clear/Back key and Talk key. On the top there is screen lock button and the 3.5 mm headphone jack. One side of the phone has the volume rocker and the charger jack whereas the other side has microSD card slot, voice command key and the camera shutter button.
The handset has a rated talk time of 300 minutes and the standby time is 400 hours.
Razzle Dazzle:
Samsung Caliber looks different from Delve which was from the same manufacturer. it is 0.47 inches thick, 2.23 inches wide, 4.55 inches long and weighs about 3.59 ounces. We really liked the rounded edges and the smooth curved corners of the handset. The phone has a plastic exterior which feels a bit cheap.
Inside Dope:
Samsung Caliber is a touch screen phone which has made its way to U.S. Cellular, which is a regional carrier from Chicago. The service hasn’t had a lot of phones from Samsung, in fact the only other product was Samsung Delve which was released last year. Compared to Delve, the Caliber has a bigger display; it has multiple menu screens as well as additional home screens. This handset also looks a lot different from Delve. The latter had a rectangular look whereas this phone is long and lean. The call quality of the Caliber is good and the handset is great for multimedia features that it offers however the touch screen is not responsive and if you lack patience you will get frustrated pretty quickly with the handset. On the bright side, the display is big, doesn’t have a low resolution and gives a haptic feedback, to show that the device has registered your tap. Caliber will set you back by $319.95 without any contract obligations. Other goodies on the phone include a full HTML browser, 3.0 megapixel camera and built in accelerometer.
Display
The display of the Caliber is 3.2 inch big and gives a resolution of 240×400 pixels with support for 262,000 colors. The images look bright and the text is easily readable. You cannot adjust the font size but you can fiddle with the brightness size and backlight time. There is a touch calibration wizard for accurate tapping. Caliber gives haptic feedback when you touch the screen.
We thought the Caliber had a really bad touch screen interface. It isn’t responsive and the resistive screen requires a stylus. We often selected something when we were just trying to scroll around. Using fingers for the screen will be a miserable experience; we recommend using a stylus all the time. Samsung gives us an extra stylus with the phone.
The Samung’s TouchWiz bar is still there on the phone and it provides you shortcuts to the most used applications on the phone. You can add and remove applications on this bar according to your requirements. There are three home screens and you have to swipe your finger on the screen to access them. On the top of each home screen, you get a collapsible bar for Bluetooth settings, music player, new memo and new text message
Navigation array and keyboard
The phone is touch screen only and there is no navigation array. For dialing you get a virtual dialer on the screen. The digits on the dialer are large, you can access the address book and caller groups from the dialer screen. You can send messages from the dialer as well.
There is accelerometer on the phone which automatically changes the display from portrait to landscape mode when you turn the phone. Fortunately, this is available for the keyboard also, you get a virtual numeric keypad for portrait and landscape mode gives you full QWERTY keyboard.
Text messaging
The phone doesn’t have a physical keyboard and all you get is a virtual keyboard. The built in accelerometer changes the layout of the keyboard to full QWERTY format when you tilt the phone. There is handwriting recognition tool and you can access this in the half screen and full screen mode. There are dedicated buttons for www.” and “.com” for entering URLS. The virtual keyboard is easy to type, we didn’t have any mishits with they keys though we would have liked an auto correct feature too.
Phone book and PIM features
The phonebook of the Caliber is limited to 500 entries and a single entry can take five phone numbers and an email ID. The phone supports photo caller ID, you can also make groups and put your callers into them and assign custom ringtone.
Other basic features include top calculator, unit converter, timer, stopwatch, world clock, memo pad, alarm clock, calculator, calendar, multimedia and text messaging, speaker phone and vibrate mode. For advanced features there is USB mass storage support, voice recorder, PC syncing, email, GPS, stereo Bluetooth and voice command support.
Browser
There is a full HTML browser on the Caliber with which you can bookmark your favorite sites and it also has a full screen mode. To zoom in and out, you either use the magnifying glass on the screen or use the volume rocker buttons. We prefer the latter. Another unique way to do this is to touch the screen, hold it for some time and then move it up and down to zoom in and out respectively. The browser also has Flash Lite, so you can enjoy videos from sites like YouTube.
The caliber supports EV-DO network of U.S. Cellular, but we couldn’t accessing it when we were on roaming. Loading web pages took about a minute and mobile version of the sties took about half a minute. When we tried to stream video, it didn’t lag in buffer time but the quality of videos was bad.
Music Player
Music player is one of the best features on the phone. It is simple and has an easy to use interface. Songs are categorized by albums and artists; you can edit and create play lists while on the move. Usual features of shuffle and repeat are included. Music player of the phone cannot be accessed without the memory card. The 3.5 mm headphone jack lets you plug your favorite set of headphones. Speaker phone quality for music was awful.
Camera
The phone has a 3.0 mega pixel camera at the back which can take photos in six resolutions, the maximum being 2,048×1,536. It has four shooting modes (frame, mosaic, multi, single), three settings for quality, five balance for white presets, self timer, six effects for color, adjustable ISO up to 400, flash with three shutter sounds and three settings for exposure metering. Other goodies include choice between macro focus and auto focus mode and brightness adjustment.
The camera can also take videos in two resolutions, 176×144 and 320×240. Settings for the video are similar to the camera. The photo and video quality is a bit disappointing considering this is a 3 MP camera with loads of features. Video quality was mediocre, with lots of jerky movements and pixelation.
Games and personalization
You can personalize your handset with variety of ring tones, graphics and wallpaper. If you are games enthusiast, Caliber has just one game Namco’s Pac Man. However, you can get more from U.S. Cellular. There are also a few apps there for weather news, local sports, etc.
Call quality
We tested the phone for call quality and were satisfied with the results. There was no distortion and we could hear what our friends were saying clearly. The sound was loud enough and we could even talk easily in noisy backgrounds. Our friends too were fine with the call quality, they could hear us clearly. There was fuzziness on both the ends while talking but it wasn’t a big deal. Speaker calls had a bit of echo other than that, they were fine.
Battery life
The rated battery life of the Caliber is five hours for talk time and 16.6 hours for stand by time. However, in our lab tests the battery survived for a little less than four hours.
Verdict:
Samsung Caliber is a good multimedia phone with loads of good features like 3 MP camera, music player, full HTML browser. The lamentable touch screen display is the only drawback on the otherwise great smart phone.
