Email bag

A few readers have been emailing me questions. This one is pretty good so I am posting it. My replies are in italics. Feel free to email me any question you like, (gadgets, my work, my life) and I will post them here if I want to, sans your name if you request.

I originally found your youtube video review of the Samsung Saga, one of the first video reviews! (very helpful). This led me to your Blog, also very informative. Searching around the internet, I realized you are also at "pdaphonehome.com". I posted a question about pics "taken with the Saga", (no responses). I'm wondering about the images from the camera phone look like? I was hoping (if you had some time), you could email me some full-sized pics taken from the Saga? I would greatly appreciate this. (I know it won't be great, but my xv6700 1.3mp camera sucks).

I did email some pics, all the pics lately have been sent by MMS from my Saga. They were downsized automatically to be sent, but still look good on the blog. The short MMS video clips for some reason show up on the blog with the audio messed up. They are not that way on my phone or computer. I have no explanation for this.

Unfortunately, my local VZW stores do not plan on stocking the Saga, so I can't hold/touch one. I was hoping you could provide some feedback/suggestion about some questions?:

It seems the the touch-screen on the Saga is a hard glass/plastic, or some kind of hard plastic... (like the XV6900 or Omnia)?
(to clarify: the xv6700, Samsung i760, Treo 700wx, all have "soft screens", by my definition) Is it a hard screen or a soft screen?

The Saga has a hard screen, not a soft one. It is more responsive than the i760 was. I don’t know what type of screen the omnia has.

I'm trying to decide between the Saga and Omnia. Currently, have a XV6700.

I like the keyboard on the Saga, the optical-mouse also looks very useful (nice and big). But, overall dimensions, it also seems kind of large (long, a little wide). I usually wear my phones on my belt, using a plastic-holster. Not sure if it will look funny with a long phone clipped to my waist? Also, not sure about the blue color, but that's minor. (of course, that brick called the XV6700 is pretty large)


The Saga is the biggest device I have used, and I have small hands. (You know what they say about small hands........Small Gloves!!). The optical mouse is what really allows me to use a phone this big so I can keep my hand down near the bottom of the phone. I really don’t use the touchscreen at all. If a Q had a optical mouse, I would have used one of those, I hate scrolling with a d-pad. I just cant say enough about the optical mouse, it allows me to click on very small links in a webpage and know exactly what I am pressing everywhere else. The scrollbars on pdaphones are basically unusable for my fingers and now I use them all the time, which I think makes up for the lack of Touchflo that you see on HTC devices.

Since I don’t have an Omnia, the only non-keyboard phone I have used is the Touch (6900) so I will base my comparison to a non-keyboard phone using it. I will also compare the Saga to the Touch Pro as a sliding keyboard phone.

I really like the front keyboard layout versus the slider keyboard as my thumbs don’t have to reach so far to the center of the keyboard. I also type faster and am more willing to type longer emails with the Saga versus the Touch (6900) which has no keyboard. Although using T9 on the Touch was nice for quick texting one-handed, I could not type two-thumbed with the Touch. The Touch Pro keyboard is laid out very poorly and I just don’t like using it. I really want to like it but it has sat on my desk and I have had no inkling or motivation to re-activate it. If you had longer thumbs then perhaps a sliding keyboard is better.

In comparison, the Omnia looks pretty slick, has that accelerometer, a really nice camera (5mp, autofocus etc). Also, since there is also a GSM version of this phone, there will probably more accessories, programs (programs that use the accelerometer feature) and tweaks/hacks (GPS!!!). But, negatives: optical mouse is small, the lack of a physical keyboard. Also, it has very few buttons, in general.

I noticed that you mentioned the autofocus on the omnia. I personally am not a big fan of autofocus on a phone. I usually want to take a quick picture. The Touch Pro has autofocus and adds way too much time to the process. For what I do, the 2mp camera works fine. It does convert pics to pdf using scanr.com pretty good.

I know that the Omnia looks slicker and surely must be smaller, but I think the Saga is one of the most functional phones I have used since the Treo.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for all the information, reviews, pics/video (extended battery looks nice) that you have provided about the Saga. If you are too busy to respond or email sample pictures, I understand.

Thanks,

No problem.