Samsung Epic 4G
The largest model in the Samsung Galaxy S series, the phone measures a hefty 4.9 inches long by 2.54 inches wide by 0.56 inches thick. But Samsung sacrificed small and sleek for performance and screen size when it designed the Epic. And in spite of its chunkiness, the 5.46-ounce phone feels light in the hand, even though it won't fit in any pocket.
All trepidation about the phone's size dissipates when the Epic's colorful, 4.0-inch display lights up. It dwarfs the iPhone 4's 3.5 inch-screen, while it doesn't quite measure up to the 4.3-inch screen on the HTC Evo 4G. The Epic is equipped with an accelerometer and can be set to automatically switch the screen orientation when rotating the phone.When typing, users have a choice tapping on a virtual keyboard or thumbing the slide-out, full QWERTY keyboard. The backlit, raised keys press solidly and respond quickly for no-nonsense typing. Designated keys to the left and right of the keyboard also provide "Search," "Home," "Back" and program functions. And on the bottom right corner of the keyboard, four-way directional keys make editing texts or emails a breeze.
When the phone is activated, the same basic buttons found on the keyboard -- "Search," "Home, "Back," and Menus" exist on the front screen as touch-sensitive keys on the bottom of the phone. Each key brings up an elegant, pop-up menu for its respective function. However, the "Back" button in particular is buggy, and sometimes won't respond at all. Other times, instead of going back to a previous screen, it simply quits an application. Samsung has not yet fixed the issue, which some users say gets worse over time.
In the settings menu, users can choose whether or not the soft keys respond with a vibration feedback, and set the intensity of the vibration -- a small detail, but a nice option to have, in case you don't want the phone to go crazy in your hand every time you press a button. Just like the Droid or the iPhone, the home screen uses a grid of application icons -- called a "drawer" -- that users can scroll through. The Epic has a limit of six pages for icons.
Other physical keys on the phone include an on/off switch and a camera activation button on the right edge of the phone. Among the Galaxy S models, the Epic is the only phone that features camera lenses on both the front and back of the phone, as well as a LED flash on the back lens.
HTC Droid Incredible
The front of the phone is flat and smooth, dominated by its 3.7-inch touch screen display. There are four additional touch-sensitive shortcut keys for the standard Home, Menu, Back and Search functions. Unlike the Google's Nexus One, which had missed sensors that "looked" up, the soft buttons on the Incredible are very responsive.
The previous trackball, now replaced by a recessed optical joystick, works much like a computer touchpad, by sliding a finger any direction and pressing down to select an item. The optical area is small and can be a bit sensitive for individuals with large fingers.
The Incredible uses HTC's "Sense" user interface for swiping, tapping and pinching. It has a "swipe-down" to unlock feature which can be a bit confusing, but overall it's very similar to functions on the iPhone.
The virtual keyboard is much improved in accuracy and responsiveness over previous Android devices. With hepatic feedback, users get a slight vibrating response when they press a key, for a better feel. The option can be disabled.
On the back of the phone is the lens to its 8.0-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and external speaker.
The top of the phone contains a standard 3.5mm headset jack along with the power button. The bottom shows a small pinhole that's the microphone. An outlet for the USB cable and charger, regrettably micro-USB, is located to the left of the phone along with the volume up and down button.
The Incredible does have a bit of flare in its red earpiece and bezel ring around the camera lens, but aside from that, it's mostly dark, brooding and black.
This new, more compact design over the HD2 makes it easier to handle during those occasionally in-the-moment photo ops. It fills commutes with fun and entertainment while still looking professional.
Out of the box the HTC Droid Incredible comes with a battery, a USB wall charger and micro-USB cable, but without a stereo headset.
Samsung Vibrant
The highlight of the Vibrant is its brilliant Super AMOLED screen, which displays amazingly detailed and colorful images and sharp HD video. The sleek and simple design of the phone keeps the focus on the screen, which is probably Samsung's best selling point.
On the exterior, the Vibrant takes its cue the iPhone. A metal band encircles the top of the phone, just like Apple's smartphone, although the gunmetal color is darker than iPhone's bright silver detail and the Samsung is obviously larger. Two interchangeable back panels, in maroon and dark green patterns, give the Vibrant a trendy look that is more colorful than the iPhone.
One possible design shortcoming is that the Vibrant feels very lightweight in the hand, and while not flimsy, does not seem to be built as solidly as the iPhone 3G or 4G. Samsung designed the Vibrant to use 20 percent less power, according to the company's website.Although the back of the phone must be removed to install or remove the microSDHC card, this is relatively easy to do because the back pops off with only gentle prodding from a fingernail. Simply use a notch at the bottom of the phone to pry off the back cover.
Removing the cover also reveals the 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated for up to 13 hours of talk time on 2G networks and up to 6.5 hours on 3G networks, according to Samsung's website. The Vibrant is rated for up to 750 hours of standby on 2G.
The phone is lighter than the iPhone 4G, and slightly larger as well.
The sleek Vibrant gets by with minimal physical buttons, instead relying mostly on touch screen keys at the bottom of the display and the user interface. It's not quite as elegant as the iPhone, but it's close and the physical buttons have their benefits.
Samsung relies upon a single power/lock key on the upper right side of the handset to take it out of locked mode. A quick touch illuminates the phone and prompts users to "swipe screen to unlock," while a sustained touch gives three quick options: silent mode, flight mode and power off.
The unlock function is similar to the iPhone, where a click of the physical "home" button at the center bottom of the screen prompts users to swipe the screen to unlock it. But the iPhone relies on a separate on/off button at the top of the phone to power the phone on and off, and to dim or illuminate it. The 5.0-megapixel camera is located on the back of the phone, on the upper left side.
Motorola Devour
Three things likely to catch a person's eye when seeing the Devour for the first time: its size, its sliding face, and its color. The silver exterior looks bold and futuristic, but it's also boxy and looks outdated.
The Devour has a single touch screen feature, which is the ability to flirt between displays by moving a finger left or right across the screen. With such a large screen, it's surprising there aren't more touch screen capabilities.
It has buttons to turn on the camera, adjust the volume, and activate voice commands on the right side, and a battery, microSD card compartment and a micro-USB connector on the left side. A 3.5 mm headset jack is located at the top of the phone and the 3.0-megapixel camera lens is on the back.
This may have seemed like an innovative way for the phone's designers to make the Devour look different, but it really just takes up space that could have been eliminated. The keyboard and its buttons are no bigger for having this style of slider, and neither is the screen, so it's hard to see a benefit to this design. After a lot of typing, the raised edges on either side of the keyboard could even get in the way and become annoying.
But it has the advantage of listing numbers and letters separately, however, having the symbol and capitalization key separate would be nice, too.
The Devour has the advantage of a large screen and a full QWERTY keypad, but the horizontal sliding design is made in a way that takes up space that the phone would be better off shaving from its exterior. And with such a large screen, it wouldn't have hurt to add some more ouch screen features and make some buttons on the phone's face smaller.
Out of the box, the Motorola Devour comes with a standard battery, charger, a built-in 8GB microSD memory card, a quick reference guide and a product safety and warranty brochure.
Sharp FX
A slide-out QWERTY keyboard is no longer enough for even handsets targeted at serious texters, and the FX follows the trend of a touch screen and QWERTY combination. Other examples include the Motorola Droid 2 and Samsung Rogue. Raised keys on the handset's QWERTY keyboard make it easier for texters to dial or type by touch.
At approximately 5 ounces, the FX is actually slightly lighter than the roughly 5.96-ounce Motorola Droid and Droid 2. And in comparison to the range of other slide-out keyboard phones currently on the market, the FX weighs in somewhere in the middle.
The FX is approximately 2.2 inches wide, 4.5 inches tall and 0.6 inches thick. That makes the Sharp FX slightly narrower and shorter than the Motorola Droid and 2, although just a hair thicker than those handsets.
The touch screen dial-pad has large, easy-to-use keys and the screen itself is very responsive. As a result, it was easy to dial numbers correctly.
The backlit keys on the slide-out QWERTY keyboard are raised to help users text by touch, and they feel solid and well-made. It does take a strong, intentional touch to dial these keys, which minimizes mistakes. It's easy to correct errors made on the QWERTY keyboard, because the touch screen displays an option to "clear" mistakes.
A couple of difficulties with the keyboard include that number keys are located on the right side of the QWERTY keyboard, which makes dialing difficult for left handed people who want to use the keys. At least the numbers are laid out in the same, intuitive pattern as a normal handset keypad.
Another potential problem with the slide-out keyboard is that the top row of keys is very close to the touch screen, so people with large fingers might struggle to use those particular keys.
In addition to the QWERTY keyboard, there are three navigation keys on the exterior bottom end of the handset. This includes, from left to right, a send key, a back and multitask key, and an end key. A tiny microphone is located just to the left of these buttons.
- Access Facebook through the most used areas of the phone such as the picture gallery, music player, phonebook and calendar
- Integrated app to get a world of music and videos at your fingertips including Facebook recommendations from friends
- Tap the "Infinite" button to access to new content about favorite artists, such as music videos, artist information and lyrics search
- Built-in Qriocity music and video content services to access millions of songs from all major labels and watch thousands of movies from all major studios
LG Revolution
Released for Verizon, the LG Revolution is a speedy 4G smartphone that features a 4.3-inch display, Android 2.2 software and two cameras -- a 5.0-megapixel camera with HD video capture and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel lens for video chat. As one of Verizon's first LTE-capable devices, the Revolution offers speedy downloads and video streaming through VCAST or Netflix. There's also a 1-gigahertz chip to ensure smooth-running apps and Wi-Fi, LTE and Bluetooth 3.0 for multiple ways to connect.
Main Features- One of Verizon's first 4G smartphones to run Android, offering a speedy device to stream video and multimedia
- Built-in 5.0-megapixel camera with HD video recording, and a second 1.3-megapixel lens for video chat
- Runs on Android 2.2 software with access to hundreds of thousands of apps
- Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth 3.0