Samsung Freeform review – with cramped keyboard
For:
Inbuilt music player, 1.3-megapixel camera, GPS; excellent messaging features.
Against:
Little cramped keyboard and mediocre photo quality.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Samsung Freeform is based on CDMA2000 1X technology that supports CDMA2000 1X 1900/800 / AWS 1700/2100 band. It has 55MB internal memory and micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 16GB cards.
2.2 inches LCD display has 144×176 pixels resolution that supports 18-bit (262000) colors. 1.3-megapixel camera can capture pictures in four different resolutions: 176×144, 320×240, 640×480, and 1280×960. The available four shooting modes are Fun Frames, Mosaic Shot, Series Shot, and Single Shot.
100mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 360 minutes talk time and 200 hours of idle standby time.
Razzle Dazzle:
Samsung Freeform is 4.4 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.5 inch deep and weighs 3.63 ounces. Its most of the parts are made up of lightweight and hard plastic except black matter border on the sides. It feels comfortable while holding in the hands.
Inside Dope:
Whenever you talk about the prolific cell phone manufacturers in the United States, you will also count the Samsung. Its Samsung Freeform for Alltel Wireless is a good messaging phone. Its unlocked version has a price tag of $199.99 and also costs $69.99 with one-year contract after a mail-in-rebate of $50. The Freeform features GPS, basic multimedia capabilities with 3.5mm headset jack, and corporate email support. It has familiar rigid design unlike its name. The additional highlights are three-way conference calling, voice recognition, Bluetooth, and more. The overall call quality is good and its messaging features are the main selling point. Samsung also offers two display languages: English and Spanish. However, its QWERTY keyboard is bit cramped and photo quality needs improvement. If you need an entry-level budget phone then Samsung Freeform is a good choice.
Design
The charger jack and camera key are located on the right spine, while volume rocker sits on the right side. You will find the 3.5mm headset jack on the top. The camera lens with self-portrait mirror and external speakers are on the back side. Micro-SD card slot is located behind the battery cover.
Display
2.2 inches display of the Samsung Freeform has 144×176 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. The screen provides colorful and bright graphics. You can customize the dialing font size, backlight time, greeting banner text, and clock format.
Navigation Array and Keyboard
Navigation Array sits underneath the display and consists of two soft keys, four-way directional pad with center select button, speakerphone button, Talk key, Power/End key, and Back button. You can customize all the four directions of the pad.
The QWERTY keyboard has small and stiff keys, but they are raised above surface. The numeric keys are marked with black colors. You will also find dedicated email and calendar keys on the keyboard.
Phonebook and PIM features
The Samsung Freeform can store 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each entry can save two email address and five numbers. You can organize the contacts into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone, an alert sound, and a photo for caller ID.
The basic feature set includes a tip calculator, 16 polyphonic ring-tones, five alert tones, a unit converter, a stop watch, a calculator, a world clock, an alarm clock, a memo pad, a calendar, text and multimedia messages, a speakerphone, and a vibrate mode. The advanced highlights are Web browser, GPS support with Alltel Navigation for turn-by-turn directions, Bluetooth, and voice command.
The Samsung Freeform has inbuilt Mobile Email that supports POP3/IMAP4 accounts and Web mail services like Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL mail. You will also get the Microsoft Exchange support via Outlook Web Access (OWA). What’s more – You can sync the Outlook email with the Freeform through Mobile Email Personal Account software at your computer.
Camera
1.3-megapixel camera on the Samsung Freeform features self portrait mirror and night-shot, but there is no flash. The still capture image options are four shooting modes, five color effects, three quality settings, four resolutions, and five white balance presets. The overall photo quality was best while testing. The images looked blurry and showed overcast colors.
Music Player
The inbuilt music player of the Samsung Freeform features on-the-fly play-lists, shuffle and repeat modes, onscreen equalizer and album art.
Games and Personalization
The Samsung Freefrom comes with some games and applications including Tetris, nuTsie, My-Cast Weather, Collapse Chaos, and Wallpaper Universe. The cell phone can be personalized with wallpaper, ring-tones, alert tones, and other graphics. More options can be downloaded through Alltel Web store via browser.
Call Quality
We made few calls through the Samsung Freeform via Alltel service for testing. The overall call quality was good. We received loud and clear sound at our end with a bit harsh sound. The callers received good and natural sound at their end without any noise. The speakerphone call quality was also good. However, there was environmental noise and echo during conversation.
Battery Life
The battery life of the Samsung Freeform is 6 hours of talk time and 8.3 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR is 0.48 watts per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
If you need a budget friendly messaging phone with decent multimedia capabilities, but do not mind cramped keyboard, then buy – Samsung Freeform.
