Mini-review

WOW!! I have been waiting for this phone for months. The rumor thread at pdaphonehome.com started last November and has gone over 6000 posts. It still hasn't been officially released, (you can get accessories, read on). Today it finally came. I bought it from someone who bought it new and kept it a week. I am taking a real chance here but I think it's worth it. I am sick of my Treo and already put the Q up for sale. I have ben using this phone since 11:00 am today and I thought I would share my first impressions. I am not giving this a 10 out of 10 lemme tell you right now, there are a few things I don't like.

Packaging:
The box is small compared to any other pdaphone I have gotten. Included is:
Phone
Standard Battery
Extended Battery
A/C Charger
Sync Cable
VZAccess Manager CD (For Tethering)
All the other manuals and User Manual CD

Note the packaging calls it a smartphone. That kinda bugs me.



Unlike the extended battery for the i730 this one is much slimmer MUCH. This is a pocketable phone with the extended battery which I like a lot. With the extended battery its still a skosh thinner than my Treo 700wx!



The highlight of this ppc for me is the external numeric keypad. you can bring up contacts quickly without using the touchscreen or extending the keyboard. You can also type SMS or emails with it (if you need to do so one-handed). When you are using the keyboard you can also enter numbers with it instead of using the function key on the keyboard and then pressing the number on the keyboard. The keyboard buttons have a nice feel and good tactile feedback. The soft keys on the keyboard and on the face are not directly under their screen counterparts. That bugs me. At least on the keyboard they could have repositioned the right soft key like I have seen on some HTC devices. On the face there's not much you can do since the keypad is there.

The slider is crisp and solid. No wiggling at all. When you push it about 1/3 of the way it springs the rest of the way open, just like the i730 did. Same thing for when you close it. There is a slight screen lag when going from either lanadscape to portrait, but nothing to complain about. I thought I would have problems with the send/end keys being on the corners but so far no accidental presses.



One thing I don't like so far is that the Start Menu and OK keys are on the side. I am not used to using side buttons at all except for the camera. Again I think this is the tradeoff for having a external keypad. I'm sure I can hack the soft key buttons on the front.

It's got a 1.3 MP camera, which is an improvement for i730 users because we didn't have a camera before. The camera works in landscape mode and you can use the numeric keypad to change the options. One hack that needs to be worked on is a flashlight prog. The flash only comes on when you take a picture. I only use a flash as a flashlight. I haven't printed any pics yet, I have one quick pic of my truck radio posted below. I hope it does well because my phone camera is my main shooter.

Reception and call sound is good so far. Speakerphone is good too.

The stylus loads in the side of the phone and not the top, which right now I don't like. The stylus is metal and has a cheap antenna feel.




The top of the ppc is made of hard rubber. I think it will defintely cut down on scratches. Kudos to Samsung. If this is like my old i730 it will be a tough rugged phone.

Another thing I didn't like was the absence of a cradle or at least some cheap form of holster. You really need a cradle if you tether because the USB cable does not charge the phone. I ordered those today. I had to give the Verizon guy the actual part numbers for the accessories, but they did show up in the system. Go figure, the phone doesn't exist and yet you can order accessories for it. One thing I will say nice about Verizon, if you are a power user like me you can join the Merits program and get 20% off all accessories and if they don't have it in stock at the store they will two-day Fed-Ex to your house for FREE.

Tomorrow will be first full day with a full charge on the batteries. I am going to try the standard battery first and will definitely post my results.

Ok, well if you have questions ask away.

As of today I would rate the phone a 7.0 out of ten. Most definitely a keeper.