Novatel MiFi 2200 Specifications:

• Network: Verizon Wireless CDMA
• Wi-Fi Mode: 802.11b/g
• Security: VPN & WEP/WPA/WPA2
• Size / Weight: 3.5″ x 2.3″ x 0.4″ / 2.05 oz
• Connector: microUSB
• Battery Life: 4 hours use / 40 hours standby

Hardware: 5/5 stars
The MiFi 2220, developed by Novatel, is about the width and height of a business card. It’s 3.5 inches wide, 2.3 inches tall, and just 0.4 inches thick to be exact. While weighing just about 2 ounces, it packs both a CDMA and WiFi antennas inside. There’s a power button on the top that lights up green when it’s on. A microUSB connector, for charging the device, resides besides another green LED indicator that displays WiFi activity. On the bottom, there’s a sliding back door that reveals a battery pack. Other than that there’s not much else to say. It’s light weight and compact enough to take with you.

Setup Process: 3/5 stars
For someone who doesn’t know much about technology, the idea of this device might be confusing. It’s essentially a 3G modem that has a WiFi router built in. So instead of having to connect it to your computer with a cable, it broadcasts a WiFi signal. Just find the access point on your computer, connect, and behold: the internet! Sounds easy right? Unfortunately not. Although our unit was pre-configured since it’s a sample review model, a normal user will have to go through some mess. Unlike phones where you just dial a number to quickly activate, MiFi owners will either need to do it over the internet or at a Verizon Wireless Store. To get it done over the web, you’ll have to download and install some drivers for your computer to recognize the device. Unfortunately that ends up defeating the major selling point of the device: not having to install crappy software.

Features: 5/5 stars
Anyways once you get it activated, there’s a lot this device offers. Just connect to the hotspot and key in the IP address to access the web interface of the device. Just like a standard home Linksys or D-Link router, it offers a panel to change settings. I was able to pick a new SSID, change the security to WPA2, and pick a new pass-phrase. I was quite impressed that such a small device was even capable of offering such options. The local web interface even displays 3G signal strength, data usage, and your IP address and plenty more. Plus since up to 5 of your devices can join in on your network, it even displays the number of connected users. Considering this first model has so many options and capabilities, I’m quite excited to see what’s in stock for a future version.

Network Speed: 5/5 stars
The most important aspect is the data transfer speeds the device offers. To give this a shot I decided to use the SpeedTest.net application on my iPhone to test the speeds when connected to the MiFi over WiFi. Yes, I have Verizon on my iPhone, through WiFi. Speed test recorded throughout the San Francisco Bay Area consistently averaged at about 1200kbps down and 700kbps up. Every time I ran a test on the MiFi, I also tested AT&T’s 3G speed on the iPhone. The results disappointingly averaged at about half of what the MiFi offered: 650kbps down and 250kbps up. I also used the Verizon MiFi to access the internet through my Dell Mini 9 netbook. The speeds were speedy enough to browse most webpages, check emails, or instant message. Streaming rich media such as Hulu or YouTube just isn’t too practical. It works and sometimes well when signal is really strong, but requires waiting for a lot of buffering most of the time. Plus with data caps, I wouldn’t recommend using up precious bites.

Battery Life: 5/5 stars
According to the specifications, Verizon claims four hours of use and 4o hours of standby with the 11mAh battery. After testing for short periods over a period of few weeks, I can agree that the claims are about right. Although the power saving feature, which turns itself off when there’s no activity, is sometimes annoying; it offers plenty of hours for the average user. Plus charging it is as simple as plugging it into either a computer with the included microUSB or a power outlet with the AC Adapter. The device takes about 2.5 hours to replenish and can even be in use while recharging.

Conclusion:
Overall the Verizon MiFi is a new and interesting technology that is simply great. Other than the weird setup process, it makes life on the go truly convenient. Transfer speeds are great. Battery life is probably enough for most users. The only issue comes in with data caps. The plans are just ridiculously overpriced. A 250MB usage plan costs $40/month and a 5GB plan is $60/month. That’s more than what most people pay for unlimited high speed internet at home. And while the hardware lets you easily share internet access with a friend traveling with you, the data caps makes you think again. Other than that issue, the rest is great and I highly recommend it. If you are interested, the device is available for purchase for $99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate with a new 2-year contract.

Deal Alert: Verizon MiFi For Free [with contract]
Links: VerizonWireless.com MiFi

Samsung Rogue SCH-U960 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (1.9 GHz /850 MHz CDMA)
• Displays: 3.1-inch 800 x 480 pixels & 18 bit colors
• Camera: 3.0 Megapixel Camera w/ Autofocus, Flash & Image Editor
• Music: MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC/eAAC/eAAC+
• Memory: 512Mb (internal) / 16GB microSD (external)
• Dimensions: 4.29″ L x 2.17″ W x .65″ D
• Battery: 280 Minutes Talk Time & 300 Hours Standby
• Other: Bluetooth 2.1 | 3.5 mm Audio Jack

The Body: 4/5 stars
The Samsung Rogue shares the same form factor as the Samsung Glyde, a sliding keyboard under a touch screen, but it has a new look. Although this phone is taller than the Glyde, it is thinner and has a more streamlined finish. The face of the phone is very simple. Underneath the 3.1″ touch screen, there are three “brushed metal” buttons: send, clear, and end. The back of the phone has a rough bronze-colored texture, which offers a decent grip. The speaker, a 3.0 megapixel camera, the flash, and a tiny mirror for self portraits are on the back. The position of the camera causes one small issue. Each time I picked up the phone, I had a tendency to place my index finger directly on the camera lens. I found this to be annoying since it was a pain to continually have to clean the lens, but then again, this might be an issue only for me. The volume controls and the USB connector, used for both charging and data transfer, are on the left side of the phone. On the right side there’s a screen lock, voice command, a zoom in/out button for the camera, and a camera capture button.  The lower portion of the right side features the 3.5mm headphones jack and the microSD expansion slot.

The Keyboard: 2/5 stars
Verizon Wireless advertises the Samsung Rogue as great phone for texting. Therefore, I expected it to have a great keyboard, unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. There are four lines of keys instead of having a additional symbol function. This makes things easier to find and faster to type. The keys are not small or cluttered, but are neatly spaced out. Unfortunately the problems begin with the layout of the keys. Some buttons are too far off to the left and others are properly centered. Even though the keys feel great to type on, their locations don’t feel natural. They feel as though they are a bit jumbled and not placed in traditional keyboard format.

The Display: 5/5 stars
I was impressed with the 800 x 480 pixel (AMOLED) touch screen display. With a higher resolution than Apple iPhone’s 480 x 320 pixels, the Samsung Rogue’s display looked beautiful and had rich colors. Even with a mid-range brightness setting, the display was fairly visible even in direct sunlight. The Rogue also has haptic feedback. Every click results with a small vibrating pulse in addition to audible feedback. A built in accelerometer changes the orientation of the display automatically from portrait to landscape and vice versa. A proximity sensor automatically turns of the display when the phone is held up to your ear to save battery life.

User Interface: 4.5/5 stars
To lock the phone, there’s a physical side button. To unlock it, just press any button so the display turns on, then click the on-screen unlock button. The home screen is quite customizable, you can change the brightness, the banner, change the text font, the wallpaper, and even the clock format. There is a collapsible side bar that holds all the supported widgets. You can easily drag the ones you use the most on to the home screen by simply dragging them over. There’s an analog and  digital clock available as a widget as well.  On the bottom of screen, there are two rows for actions. The first row is for notifications for missed calls, voicemails, text messages, calendar, alarm clocks, and more. The second row contains four buttons for the phone dialer, contacts, messaging (text, picture, email, etc.), and  the full menu. These two rows are static and can’t be customized. It would be a great idea if they offered the ability to dock other programs such as the web browser or media player to that menu. In general, the user interface is clean, simple, well designed, and works!

Call Quality & Features: 4/5
The call quality was excellent, plus there were a few extra unique features added in. For example if you are in a library or a lecture hall and have to whisper, there’s a mode for that! Just click the “Whisper Button”  and it amplifies your voice so it sounds almost normal for the person on the other end. For the most part, the regular voice quality was excellent on both ends, no complains. The only reason the phone didn’t live up to a five star rating was because of the speaker phone. The speaker wasn’t loud enough or clear enough. It works fine if you are in a truly silent room, but it’s quite difficult to hear when in a car. If you normally use a Bluetooth headset, you won’t need to worry about this.

Messaging: 4/5
Just like most phones today, the Rogue supports text, picture, video, and voice messages. Text conversation history is saved to keep track of everything that’s been said. You can compose a message with either the pull out QWERTY keyboard or the on-screen digital keyboard. The digital keyboard isn’t in a QWERTY layout, but a normal alpha-numeric keypad.

Voice To Text: 1/5 stars
This was a feature I was truly excited for. It theoretically allows you to say a phrase to your phone, which should automatically be converted into text. Unfortunately this feature barely worked. Even after training my voice, I only had successful results about 25% of the time. The rest of the time, the program types in something completely incorrect. For it to work, you’ll have to speak very slowly and clearly, emphasizing each word. For example, I said “This is a cell phone review” and the program typed in “This is itself under view”. It doesn’t accept slang too well either. Another example, I said “Let’s go see Zombieland at 10 o’clock” and it typed in “Left to see some reliant@koch”. To wrap it up, this feature is a great idea, but needs a lot of work. For now it’s not worth using; it’s faster to type the message yourself.

Camera & Camcorder: 4/5 stars
The camera on the Rogue has all the standard features you would expect: zoom, flash, and focus. There are alternate image options such as mosaic, frame, panoramic, and multishot. Image resolution and brightness are also modifiable. After you take a picture, you can edit it with some fairly cool effects. In addition to the standard effects such as sepia and black & white, some other effects such as sketch, emboss, soft-elegant, and fright are thrown in. For the most part, the camera takes excellent photos. The only issue I faced was a small lag from when you click the capture button to when it actually takes the image. If you make any sudden movements, it looses focus. That results in blurry image quality.

The camcorder mode can record video only limited by the available space on the memory card. However you can only MMS clips that are a max of 30 seconds. It records at a 640 x 480 pixel resolution. There are five recording effects, similar to the ones for the camera. Quality looks fairly good for a phone, but gets choppy at times. It obviously isn’t comparable to a decent camcorder or even a Mino Flip.

Music Player: 3.5/5
The Samsung Rogue was designed to be a full MP3 player with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The media player has a search function and lets you browse your library by Artists, Genres, and Albums. During playback, the album art isn’t shown on the full screen, but rather as a thumbnail. Other than that, the interface is quite nice. Controlling playback, such as play/pause, next track, and so on, are easy to use and work without any problems. The media player has a shuffle and repeat mode. The audio quality with headphones was great and it didn’t cackle when turned up too high. The speaker on the other hand was an issue. They just weren’t loud enough and wasn’t clear. Another major issue is the lack of multitasking. You can’t do anything else while playing back music. Phones such as the LG enV Touch allow browsing the web, texting, and doing other things while the music player runs in the background. This is a major drawback and needs to be addressed.

Other Features: 4.5/5
There are a lot of other features that this phone offers. Some built-in tools include a calculator, a tip calculator, and a unit converter. The Rogue also syncs to your computer with the included USB cable to transfer music and data. The media player also supports playing video files, however quality isn’t too great and supported file formats are limited. The web browser was impressive. It still isn’t on par with a browser such as the one found on smart phones such as the iPhone. But for the most part it has all the essential features such as navigation, favorites, and zoom. It rendered most pages fairly quickly as well. The VZ Navigator works really well. The GPS module tracked my location very precisely. I do feel that the navigation interface could use a bit of a face lift. The program also offers voice turn-by-turn directions, but once again the poor speaker quality was an issue. Another truly unique feature is the business card reader. All you have to do is take a close up image of a business card in a fairly well lit location. It automatically scans the card and creates an entry in your address book with all the information from the card. It worked really well with just about every card I tested it on. The final feature I’d like to note is the document viewer. It supports viewing Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, and Power Point) and PDFs. The interface allows scrolling and zooming for all files. To get files onto the device you can simply copy them onto a pre-created folder on the microSD card or sync them over using the data cable.

Conclusion:
After spending a little over a week with this phone, I was fairly satisfied. I was impressed with some of the rather unique features such as the voice-to-text and the business card scanner. The largest drawbacks were probably the odd layout of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the quality of the speakerphone. Other than that, the phone performed quite well. The home screen is one of the best parts of the user interface experience. The phone excelled in the most import aspect, call quality. I suggest going into a Verizon Wireless store to handle the phone before buying it over the phone or online. If you are ready to buy it, the Samsung Rogue is available online for price of $99.99, with a 2 year contract.

Buy: Samsung Rogue for $99
Links: VerizonWireless.com Samsung Rogue

LG enV Touch VX-11000 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (1.9 GHz /800 MHz CDMA)
• Displays: 3-inch 800 x 480 pixels & 1,600K colors
• Camera: 3.2 Megapixel Camera w/ Autofocus, Flash & Image Editor
• Music: MP3, WMA, Unprotected AAC/AAC+
• Memory: 250Mb (internal) / 16GB microSD (external)
• Battery: 260 Minutes Talk Time & 408 Hours Standby
• Other: Bluetooth 2.1+EDR | Stereo Speakers

The Body: 3.5/5 stars
There is no doubt that the enV Touch is a large phone; 4.5 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and over a half inch thick. Despite being a tad bit too large, it actually looks a whole lot more attractive than the Voyager and the Dare. The back of the phone features a soft rubberized texture with a unique engraved pattern which offers a decent grip. The left side has the camera trigger, volume toggle, and the display lock button. A 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD slot can be found on the right side. On the bottom you’ll find the microUSB connector which serves two purposes: charging and data transfer. The face of the phone has a large 3-inch touch screen and three “brushed metal”-looking physical buttons at the bottom: send, clear, and end. The clear key seconds as the voice command button when on the home page and initiates voice memo recordings when held down. When you flip open the phone you are introduced to another 3-inch display, stereo speakers, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a navigation D-pad. Compared to the Voyager, the keyboard now has larger keys and remains well spaced at the same time. LG has finally placed repositioned the “space bar” to the center of the keyboard instead of two “space bars” on the bottom left and right as they were on the LG Voyager, LG enV2, and LG enV. Overall, though the enV Touch isn’t the most compact phones I’ve had for what it offers, but remains functional and isn’t too large to fit into an average sized pocket or purse.

The Displays: 4/5 stars
We were quite impressed with the resolution and the colors of the displays. The enV Touch’s 800 x 480 pixel display has a higher resolution than the iPhone’s 480 x 320 pixel screen. Both photos and videos look great on both screens. The external display also uses a sensor that dims out the screen as you hold it up to your ear, but I found this to be sometimes problematic since it often didn’t turn back on if I were to try to use the interface during a call. The only way I managed to get the screen working again was to either flip open the phone or by placing my finger over the sensor for a second and then moving it away. Other than that small annoyance, the displays are bright, sharp, and even looks decent outdoors.

User Interface: 4/5
The enV Touch has a similar interface to the Voyager and like its predecessor, duplicates features on the external and internal display. However, not all features on the external work from the internal, and vice versa. For example, photo editing only functions on the external touch screen. To unlock the phone you must slide up an overlay on the screen or press the lock/unlock button on the side of the phone. The home screen has 5 permanent icons on the bottom: messaging, dialpad, menu, phonebook, and favorites. The favorites menu allows you to set 10 favorite contacts for quick access. In addition 3 “widgets” can be placed anywhere the main page; memo, calendar, and clock. The memo is very similar to a sticky note on a Macs. On the right side of the home screen there is an arrow which links to the shortcut menu, which manages all application/utility shortcuts. Mostly any tool on the phone can be placed in the shortcut menu or can also be placed as an icon on the homepage. The interface on the internal display has a more traditional interface, familiar to that most Verizon Wireless phones. The D-pad can be customized to launch various applications when on the home screen. One major problems I ran into occurred when an application on the internal display then closing the phone would exit out of the application and return to the home screen instead of moving to the outer display. Overall, the interface is very intuitive and for the most part it works seamlessly between the two displays.

Messaging: 5/5 stars
After many iterations of the enV lineup, LG has mastered the messaging feature of this phone. The physical keyboard does not need much of an explanation, it works as it should and feels great. The external display also supports messaging, with support for both a portrait and landscape virtual keyboard. The virtual portrait keyboard does the job just fine for quick responses, but is a bit impractical for typing long messages. The horizontal virtual keyboard works a whole lot better than the portrait and is a viable option. The interface enlarges the letters you hit as they are typed and provide haptic feedback as well. The size of each virtual key and spacing helps the usability experience as well, however the internal physical QWERTY keyboard is by far the best solution for messaging.

Camera & Camcorder: 5/5 stars
The enV Touch has an extremely feature packed camera and camcorder interface not found on other phones. The 3.2 megapixel camera can take photos up in various resolutions up to 2048×1536. It features an unusually bright LED flash, which can automatically turn on in low-light situations. The camera uses the auto-focus setting by default, but can be switched to macro for close-up images as well as a manual focus option. The camera has white balance, brightness, color effects, and self timer settings. In addition to these settings the camera has a couple of “goodies” that you will not see in the typical phone camera. One would be the panorama mode, where the phone will actually guide you through the process of snapping a panoramic photo with on screen instructions and then stitching them together. Another would be the smile detection, where the camera will only snap the photo only once the subject smiles to get the best picture. My favorite by far was the NameCard reader, which lets you snap an image of a physical business card and it uses OCR to extract the name, email, and phone number into your contacts. A built in image editor allows cropping, draw on the image, and adjusting the brightness of the photo.

The camcorder can record clips with a max resolution of 640×480 and offers custom white balance, brightness, and color effects. Most phone’s camcorder functions are rendered useless in the dark, but not the enV Touch. The camcorder can switch on the LED flash during a recording which turned out to help a lot. Finally, the enV Touch does a great job with video editing. One of the much hyped feature on iPhone 3GS was video trimming and this plus much more can be done on the enV Touch. The trim feature allows a simple crop, after choosing a start and end point. But say you wanted to cut together multiple parts of a video, that’s where the multi-trim feature comes in. You can cut together up to 3 different parts of a video (3 different start and end points) and the phone will merge these different parts together into one video. The camera in the enV Touch really stands out because of the depth of options presented and puts it clearly ahead of many other phones in the U.S. Market.

Music: 3.5/5 stars
The enV Touch was designed to work as a full time mp3 player with a set of  internal stereo speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The music player is organized by Artists, Genres, and Albums. It can also display album artwork which looks good in its sincere imitation of “cover flow”. The player can create on-the-go playlists and manage music storage between the microSD card and internal memory. Music playback supports shuffle and repeat modes. For listening options, the Dolby settings allows you to toggle between preset equalizers, such as bass booster and classical. Audio playback on the speakers was clear with no crackle, even when turned up all the way. One of the features I liked the most was that music application can run in the background. Performing other tasks such as look up a contact or texting is possible without having to exit the music player. I decided to use my enV Touch when I went for a jog. I found it extremely difficult to use the external display to navigate through songs. In addition to the poor visibility due  to sunlight, it was difficult to even manage to click the next button or pause my music. Some external controls for music would have gone a long way. Overall the music player felt solid, keeps getting better, and usable but not polished, it needs to be put back in the oven for a bit longer.

Syncing: 4.5/5 stars
The enV Touch uses a standard microUSB port to connect to a computer. It can be used in data mode, which shows up as an USB Mass Storage Device on a computer and allows you to manually transfer photos, documents, and music to the microSD card. The other option is to use the phone in music mode, in which it can be synced with the Verizon V Cast Music with Rhapsody program or with Windows Media Player as an MP3 player. The charger is also modular, the AC adapter is actually a USB charger. The same cable needs to be disconnected and is used to sync with your computer. One small quirk I noticed was the fact that the phone significantly heated up while charging. It wasn’t too hot that I’d be concerned about the phone getting damaged, however constant heat isn’t good for batteries, meaning a reduced lifespan.

Document Viewer and Other Features: 4.5/5 stars
The phone offers many other features including the now standard world clock, tip calculator, and alarm clock. The one feature that stood out the most was the document viewer, an application not usually found on a non-smartphone. The viewer can read, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xslx, .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, and .txt files. The documents loaded fairly quickly and were fairly readable once zoomed in. I found using the Document Viewer more pleasurable than the iPhone. Mainly since I could simply copy them straight over to the phone’s storage or microSD, rather than having to email them to myself as you have to do on the iPhone.

Conclusion:
After using the enV touch for a few weeks, it has left us with a very good impression. I would say as of now, it is the best non-smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network. It has an amazing display, two displays to be correct,  and excellent media features. It supports a full HTML web-browser, VZ Navigator, V-Cast videos, voice commands, and text to speech. If you are looking for a new phone and just can’t justify paying those required high rates for data plans associated with smartphones, the enV Touch is a no brainier. It has a solid set of features that just about everyone from a casual consumer to a tech-junkie can appreciate. It is available online and in Verizon Wireless stores now for $150 for new customers. Existing customers eligible for upgrade should be able to knock off about $50 to $100 based of the type of calling plan they currently have.

Buy: $99 for LG enV Touch
Links: Verizon Wireless

Ever since Apple released the “revolutionary” iPhone, competitors have been trying to imitate and create a better phone. LG has been fairly successful so far. They released the LG Voyager through Verizon Wireless last year, which we reviewed but weren’t too happy with. Fortunately their latest phone, the LG Dare, has surpassed our expectations and can truly be considered an iPhone competitor especially at its price point. It also has plenty of unique features that impressed us.

LG VX9700 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (CDMA 850MHz / 1.9 GHz)
• Form Factor: Full Touch Screen Candy-Bar
• Display: 3 inch, 240×400 pixels, & 262k colors
• Media: MP3, WMA, & AAC(+)
• Imaging: 3.2 mega pixel camera with flash & auto focus
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, GPS, & microUSB
• Others: microSD, ambient light, & accelerometer
• Size / Weight: 4.1″ H x 2.2″ W x 0.5″ D (inches) / 3.8 oz
• Battery Life: 4.7 hours talk time & 360 hours standby
• Price: $200 with a new 2 year agreement

The Body – 5/5 stars
The LG Dare is quite compact and can fit into even a tight pocket. It is actually about 16% smaller in volume than the iPhone 3G. The phone looks quite sleek with a silver trim on the front and a black colored back. Unfortunately since it is a touch screen, it is also prone to attracting finger prints. The front of the phone contains the send, clear, and end buttons in addition to the display. Although not too visible, when looking carefully at certain angles the ambient light sensor can be seen at the top blank portion above the screen. The left side of the phone contains the screen lock button, the microSD card slot, speaker phone key, and the microUSB charger/data port. The volume increase and decrease toggle and the camera/camcorder capture button can be found on the right side. The backside of the phone merely contains the digital camera with flash, the speaker, and a battery cover lid. Finally the 3.5mm standard headphone jack can be found at the top of the phone. Overall the entire design is a success.

Display – 5/5 Stars
In reference to the brightness, contrast, and color representation, the display was top notch. Probably one of the better displays I’ve seen in a while. The Dare’s three inch screen can display images at a max of 240×400 resolution which seemed to fit the needs of the phone just fine. The ambient light sensor is a great addition as it automatically dims the screen when in darker situations and brightens it up in broad daylight. The phone also has a neat sensor which automatically turns of the display during a call when the phone is held up to your face. It immediately turns back on when it gets further away. These two features assist heavily in conserving more battery life whenever possible.

http://skattertech.com/media/2008/07/lg-dare-interface.mp4

User Interface – 5/5 Stars
The LG Dare’s user interface is quite intuitive. The interface seems to have LG Voyager ancestry, however much has improved since then. The sensitivity is just right, however it can be adjusted. The phone’s screen is quite responsive without delay and all transitions are smooth and everything flows smoothly. The home screen features a clock, the date, and two notifications bar. Five items will always available on the bottom of the home screen: messaging, dial pad, menu, address book, and favorites. Although, this quick access bar cannot be modified, shortcuts can be added to the home screen from the shortcut menu. This shortcut menu can be accessed by clicking on the arrow on the main screen. The eleven default items can be customized to show any of the over fifty items in the phone including downloaded applications. The Main Menu displays the standard nine items found on any Verizon Wireless phone: Contacts, Messaging, Recent Calls, My Music, Media Center, Browser, VZ Navigator, V Cast Video, and Settings & Tools. Navigating through just about any part of the phone was simple and self-explanatory. The LG Dare also addresses the issue plaguing many touch screen devices which is the lack of tactile feedback. This phone solves that issue by releasing small vibrations below the screen each time something is clicked. Sound effects can also be enabled to indicate that a command has been accepted. The Dare also automatically locks itself after a certain period of inactivity. The screen can be activated by pressing the unlock key on the side or pressing the unlock button on the screen.

Messaging (Email, IM, & Text) – 5/5 Stars
Text messaging addicts will not be disappointed by this phone as it supports text, picture, and video messaging. Since the phone has tactile feedback it is much easier to type on this phone than I had expected. The keyboard also turns into a QWERTY layout when the phone is turned sideways thanks to the accelerometer. The keyboard was also quite accurate and the predictive text also helps speed things up. Although nothing beats a real keyboard, this wasn’t as bad as other phones I’ve used. The LG Dare also features Verizon’s Mobile Email client which has built in support for Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL/AIM Mail, and Verizon.net. If you use other services the phone also allows configuring your own POP3/IMAP servers for incoming mail and SMTP for outgoing. (SSL Security Supported!) The phone can automatically check and notify you when immediately when a message reaches your inbox. The client isn’t too great for reading messages with graphics; however is plenty for reading text in emails. Finally the LG Dare also has a built-in instant messaging client that supports the AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger clients. You can log into all three at once and view your full contact lists. Overall the phone has not forgotten about the messaging side of things even while the emphasis of the phone might be the touch screen.

Web Browser – 5/5 stars
The built in HTML web browser excels just as most other components of this phone has. It begins on the Verizon Wireless Portal offering quick links to news, weather, movies, and more. The homepage can be customized to a site of your choosing. To visit a webpage, just press the WWW button and enter a URL to navigate to any webpage. Just as the keyboard did previously, the entire browser switches over into landscape mode when the phone is rotated. The volume toggle can then be used to zoom into or out of a page. A Full Screen option is available in the menu to allow the webpage to take up the entirety of the screen leaving no wasted space. The back/forward, refresh, home, and other keys will only appear as overlay when in the full screen mode. The major drawback would be the lack of flash, however most simple JavaScript works. And since most people will probably have this question, YouTube does work perfectly. The bookmarks are also a thankful to have feature saving having to retype URL. The only other issue I faced was that links were sometimes hard to click and I would have to zoom in to get to them. Large web pages sometimes are slow to move around, however I would still have to say this is the best browser found on a Verizon Wireless phone.

MicroSD + Syncing – 4/5 stars
The LG Dare supports up to 8GB microSD cards, which is great for those planning to use it as their music playback device. 8GB cards have also come down in price and can be purchased for as low as $30 through some major online retailers. When you connect your phone to your machine using the included microUSB to USB cable, you can enter the data or sync music mode. The data mode will turn the microSD card into a mass storage device so you can add or remove content directly onto it. The sync music mode will allow syncing media with Windows Media Player 11. Unfortunately Vista users will have no choice but to install the horrid VCast Music Manager to get the phone working with WMP11. If files are placed directly into the music folder, the phone will manually re-index them the next time the music player is started. So to put all of that together, the phone can be synced as a media player device, a mass storage device, or by using a microSD card reader.

Speakers + Headphones – 4/5 stars
The LG Dare’s speaker is fairly decent. It isn’t as loud as I hoped when being used as a speakerphone. It does sound decent for music, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It might have been better if they had been able to stuff a set of stereo speakers into the phone. Fortunately one of the big pros of this phone is the fact that it has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Those who plan to use this as their music device will have the opportunity to use their standard headphones without having to deal with using messy adapters. The headphones quality is plentiful for most consumers, audiophiles not so much.

Media Playback – 4.5/5 Stars
The LG Dare supports playback of MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+. Verizon recently made a deal with Rhapsody, so music purchased there is completely compatible as well. Controls are fairly intuitive to use. The touch screen makes navigating through songs quite simple. The library can be browsed by a full song list, custom playlists, artists, genres, or albums. The phone also contains preset equalizers. Album art is displayed while playing back music. LG has hilariously included a cover flow type of view when the phone is turned sideways. It doesn’t look too good or function too well, so I would just stick with the standard view. The best part of the Music Playback component is probably the fact that player can be turned into a background process. This way you can begin to browse the web, email, chat, or even send messages while listening to music. Overall this is probably the best music player I have seen on a Verizon Wireless phone to date. As for video playback, although I didn’t have a chance to test it, according to the specifications it supports playback of WMV, MP4, 3GP, and 3G2.

Digital Camera & Camcorder – 4/5 stars
The LG Dare has a Kreuznach 3.2 mega pixel camera which also doubles as a camcorder. Photos can be captured at a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 pixels, while videos can be recorded at a maximum resolution of 640×480. The camera allows for many different options such as a self timer, white balance, face detection, multi-shot, panorama, slit, and frame shot types, and a variety of scene modes. LG has also implemented face detection to focus on people in a shot. The camera allows manually setting the ISO, for those who are interested. The camera also launches within a second unlike most other phones that take a while to startup the application. The Dare’s camera is quite a strong point of the phone as it even includes built-in flash and auto focus. The camcorder offers plenty of neat features including a high frame rate option which will record video in slow motion.

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR – 5/5 stars
Bluetooth pairing is unbelievably easy; the phone gives instructions as to how you need to go about pairing the phone. The instructions are simple and easy enough for any person to understand how to do it. It automatically pairs itself with the Bluetooth headset once you have completed the steps, no need to enter a password or anything, very convenient. The Dare fully supports use of stereo Bluetooth headsets, which is welcome addition that the iPhone lacks. The phone also supports sharing calendar events, contacts, or printing photos to a printer, although most probably won’t ever use them.

GPS VZ Navigator – 5/5 Stars
The VZ Navigator has become the strongest point of Verizon Wireless phones in recent times and is also a strong point of this phone. The software allows getting voice turn-by-turn directions and even is aware of traffic congestion. It now also has an improved local search that can find movie timings, gas stations, local events and much more. Just like the browser, the app runs in landscape mode when the phone is turned sideways. The GPS was accurately able to find my location just about anytime I tested it.

Extras – 5/5 stars
One small feature which I loved was the power supply that was included with the phone. Instead of providing an addition data cable, the power supply is actually a USB cable in disguise. The cable can be unplugged from the head and can be plugged into a USB port to charge or sync data. No other hardware is included with the phone. As for the software the Dare has voice commands, a basic calculator, tip calculator, a powerful calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, notepad, voice recorder, and a drawing pad. I also wanted to mention that the Notifications bar is an actual menu on this phone instead of just being meaningless indicators. When clicked on, information about missed calls, messages, and events will be displayed. The extra components were also though through carefully.

Conclusions
The LG Dare is the best Verizon Wireless phone I have yet to review. I would have to highly recommend this phone for those interested in a new device. It has been well throughout and is a very worthy competitor to the iPhone. Although it may lack the huge application store that Apple offers, there’s still plenty to keep you busy. Everything from the large touch screen display, the camera, the browser, and music player are all solid. The reception was one of the better ones I have seen as well. The phone is available for purchase already through Verizon Wireless stores and online. The LG Dare will cost $200 with a new two year contract. Those of you who are eligible for upgrade should be able to get an addition $50-100 knocked off the price based off your current calling plan.

Links: Verizon Wireless – LG Dare
Buy Now: LG Dare for $137 with New 2-YR Contract (via Amazon)

LG VX-8610 Specifications:

• Service Provider: Verizon Wireless (CDMA 800/1900MHz)
• Form Factor: Slider with attached Bluetooth headset
• Display: 2.2″ 262k Color QVGA TFT, 320×240 pixel resolution
• Imaging: 2 Megapixel camera and camcorder
• Media: MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+
• Other: Bluetooth 2.1 & microSD (8GB max)
• Dimensions: 4″ H x 2″ W x 0.7″ D (inches)
• Battery Life: 3.8 hours talk time & 330 hours standby
• Price: $180 with a new 2 year agreement

Body: 3/5 Stars
The LG Decoy looks sleek, with only four buttons (two programmable buttons, a “Speaker” button and a “Clear” button) and a joystick on the front. The back of the phone houses the Bluetooth headset, which makes a bulge, and to the right of the headset is the 2MP camera. The right side of the phone has a camera button, microSD slot, and a 2.5mm headset jack. I have no idea why they added a 2.5mm headset jack considering that one would purchase this phone to use with the Bluetooth headset. A 3.5mm jack for standard headphones would have been a better choice. The left side has two volume control buttons and a microUSB port. The only other folly might be that it is difficult to slid open the phone to access the keypad. There is no way easy way to slide the phone open without touching the joystick in the middle or touching the screen, unless you want to get more fingerprints all over it.

Display: 2/5 Stars
With regard to the brightness, contrast, and color representation, the display is excellent. The Decoy’s 2.2″ screen can display a 320×240 pixel resolution, which has been approximately the standard for the past few years. Unfortunately due to the high amount of “glossy-ness” of the whole front of the phone, the display becomes extremely difficult to read in direct sunlight. In addition, you’ll find yourself constantly wiping down the phone since it is literally a fingerprint magnet. But with regards to the display, if you are in doors, you probably won’t have any problems.

User Interface: 4.5/5 Stars
The LG Decoy has a slick user interface, the menu has only nine categories, however, you can dig down into the sub-categories and change and settings, send messages, media playback, recent calls, etc. The menu also has a nice feature where even after you’ve dug into a certain category you can change to a different one simply by moving the joystick left or right. The transitions to additional options when trying to, say, add another recipient to an SMS message, are subtle but create an overall better experience.

Media Playback: 3/5 Stars
The LG decoy supports the following codecs: MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+. Controls are pretty simple to use, with the joystick controlling most of the functions, such as play/pause, fast forward, rewind, next song, and previous song. The volume is controlled by the two side volume buttons, which are also used for increasing call or ringer volume. Sound quality is not exactly great when listening through headphones, but is better than the speakerphone quality. Though I would not recommend this phone as your primary music player, when on the go and nothing else is available, it will suffice.

MicroSD + Syncing: 3.5/5 Stars
The LG Decoy supports up to 8GB microSD cards, which should be more than enough space for the majority of users. Syncing music onto the phone is easy; just drag the files onto the card. You can either use a micro-USB cable and sync content using a program such as Windows Media Player 11 or use a microSD card reader to copy content into the automatically created folders on the card. The phone will automatically index the added content before beginning playback.

Speaker & Bluetooth Headset: 2/5 Stars
Looks like LG dropped the ball on the speakers for this phone. They start to crackle at about 60% volume and voices become high pitched at 100% when using the speaker phone. It was much worse than I had expected out of a phone. The Bluetooth headset, which is pretty much the defining point of this phone was utterly atrocious. It is extremely difficult to get the earpiece to fit comfortably in your ear. If it fits you’re lucky, however if it does not you are out of luck since no extra sized earpieces are included. The quality wasn’t exactly to great either. Overall the entire implementation was poorly execute. Another thing to keep in mind is that there’s a big ugly hole on the back of your phone when the headset has been removed. It looks as though something broke off your phone.

Digital Camera & Camcorder: 3/5 Stars
The LG Decoy has a 2 megapixel camera which doubles as a camcorder. Photos can be taken at a max resolution of 1600×1200 pixels, while videos can be taken at a max resolution of 320×240. The camera has many different options such as a timer, white balance, a night time mode, and even color effects such as negative mode, sepia, and black & white. There is about a five second delay from when you hit save and when you can take the next picture, so you’ll have to wait if you want to take lots of pictures in a row. The camcorder can record up to an hour of video on the microSD card, however only 30 second clips can be sent.

GPS VZ Navigator: 5/5 Stars
The VZ Navigator is probably the coolest feature of this phone, despite not being unique to the Decoy. The interface for the VZ Navigator, now on version 4.11, is simple and intuitive. The performance was surprisingly fast; it found my location in about ten seconds. It could even locate all the movies playing at every theater in my area and even show traffic conditions. The VZ Navigator also offers turn-by-turn directions with voice overs so it can be an extremely useful tool while driving.

Messaging (IM, Email, & Text): 3/5 Stars
This is not the best phone for texting since it does not have a QWERTY keyboard, but people will manage to use it for that purpose anyways. Mobile IM supports AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. Regrettably the web email function only supports MSN Hotmail, AOL Mail, and Yahoo Mail. The lack of Gmail support was disappointing. The phone lacks the Mobile Email client which most Verizon Wireless phones now have. Despite all that this is a pretty basic phone for messaging. If you are a heavy texter, you might want to consider another phone.

Conclusions:
This is a fairly mediocre phone and I wasn’t too impressed by what it had to offer. I do give them credit for begin implementing the concept of integrating a Bluetooth headset into the phone. The idea was great, however more effort should have been placed into making this a better phone. In addition a higher quality Bluetooth headset, possibly with noise cancellation, would have turned heads towards this product. For the price of $200 you can get a phone such as the LG Dare which has much more to offer in just about all aspects. My recommendation, however, would be to purchase a better phone and quality Bluetooth headset that fits your ear separately. If you are seriously interested in a phone with a built-in headset, this is the way to go. This phone is now available on Verizon Wireless’s website and in Verizon Wireless stores for $180 with a 2 year contract.

Buy Now (Limited Time): LG Decoy for $99 with 2 Year Contract (via Amazon)
Links: Verizon Wireless LG Decoy

Nokia N95 8GB Specifications:

• Type: WCDMA 850/1900 + WiFi
• Display: 2.8-inch with 320×240 resolution
• Form Factor: Two-Way Slider
• Battery Life: 5 hours talk & 12 days standby
• Main Camera: 5 megapixel w/ flash & auto-focus
• Storage: Built-in 8GB Flash Memory
• Special: WiFi, GPS, 2nd Camera, Home Network
• Other: Bluetooth and Standard Headphone Jack
• Dimensions: 3.9″H x 2.09″W x 0.83″D
• Price: $550 – $650 for an Unlocked Version

The Body – 4/5 stars
From looking at the images, you’ve probably realized that this isn’t exactly the best looking phone. It’s a bit bulky and definitely doesn’t look attractive. Keep in mind the reason you are probably purchasing this phone is for it’s features. On the front of the phone you’ll find the large 2.8-inch display with four-way controls, send/end buttons, the left/right soft keys, and a couple other short cuts. Above the screen is the secondary camera with its flash for video conferencing and self-portraits. Sliding the screen up will reveal a numeric keypad while sliding it in the opposite direction will reveal multimedia controls. The power button can be found on the top of the phone while the mini-USB and charging connections are on the bottom. A standard 3.5mm headphone jack can be found on the left side of the phone besides an infrared transmitter. A volume toggle, media button, and camera key are all on the right side. The 5 mega pixel camera is on the back above the battery compartment which also holds the SIM card.

The Screen – 5/5 stars
The N95’s 2.8-inch screen can only display at a maximum of 320×240 pixels, but is extremely bright and sharp. Just about anything displayed on the screen such as the menus, photos, or videos all look wonderful. The screen also looks great out doors and glare isn’t as bad as it is on other phones. And for those of you wondering if the screen is touch capable, it isn’t. Although I felt it would have been neat for such a large, the control system is fairly easy to use once you get a hang of them.

User Interface – 5/5 stars
For a first-time user of the Symbian OS it took a little bit of time figuring out how everything in the phone work. But once you learn the general stuff, everything becomes quite easy. Just about every place you want to go in the phone such as the phone book, email, or browser are all individual applications. You can open them up and close them when you are done. Running too many at once can slow down or possibly crash the phone. Most of the apps have a similar layout. The left soft key just about always brings up a context menu of options to perform including quitting. The four-way pad is to browse through the menus and the center button is usually the ‘Enter’ key. The home screen is also quite informative as it displays shortcuts to the phone book, email, web browser, clocks, and camera. It also will show alerts, upcoming calendar events, connected access points, the time, signal strength, and battery life. Overall I loved it a whole lot more than the Windows Mobile OS which I dreaded to use on the HTC XV6800.

Office Suite – 5/5 stars
I also discovered that the Nokia N95 had a built in Office Suite with support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs. I was able to quickly transfer a couple of documents onto the internal storage device with a USB cable then view them on the phone. Although the formatting on some them got distorted and others were slow to load, it would indeed be quite need to have these document views on a phone. To create new documents or modify current ones, you’ll have to buy the full $70 QuickOffice Suite. As for email, the phone supports the IMAP, POP3, and SMTP protocols. The interface is neat and easy to use. Push email is also supported by using the widely popular corporate Microsoft Exchange Server.

Digital Cameras – 5/5 stars
The Nokia N95 8GB has a 5 megapixel camera, which is the most powerful camera I have used on a phone. I only wish it had some optical zoom, which it didn’t. It does have a digital zoom, however this means quality is lost the further you zoom in. The phone takes photos quite instantly, however I noticed some lag when it tries to auto-focus and when saving the photos to the memory. The built-in LED flash is also quite bright and can easily make photos taken in under lit places a whole lot better. The quality of the photos themselves were pretty darn good. The colors looked natural in outdoor situations while the images were well focused and sharp. I was shocked to see how many options the camera settings offered. There were 6 scene modes including an Auto and a Custom option. The Flash can be turned off, always on, or set to reduce red-eye. There’s a self timer to take group photos. A burst mode to continuously take photos is available in addition to an option to take photos at a set time interval until the space runs out. The color tone, white balance, sharpness, contrast, and ISO can all be customized as well. Moving on to the .3 mega pixel camera on the front, it is plentiful for video conferencing since too much bandwidth can’t be transfered anyways. The quality is incomparable to the camera on the back and barley any customization settings are offered for the secondary camera.

Multimedia Playback – 5/5 stars
Once again, the N95 beat my expectations regarding music, video, and photo management. Starting with music, I was able to immediately start syncing my DRM-Free Mp3s in Windows Media Player 11 with the Nokia N95 without any additional software. I was also able to manually drop music onto the phone’s mass storage device and the files were also automatically recognized if placed in the right folders. The phone supports playback of AAC, MP3, and WMA files. I loved the music player interface as it was quite powerful and allowed me to browse by Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres, and Composers. Browsing through was quick and smooth without any hiccups. And with a 3.5mm headphone jack I was able to use my own Shure SE210 earphones. The built in FM radio was also a neat addition in case you get bored listening to your 8GB of music! To make things even better the phone also has a built in podcasting client. I was quickly able to download and start listening to the latest episode of TWiT through my WiFi network. (Can also use 3G data network!) Moving onto Video, the phone runs Real Player which has an excellent 3GP and MP4 decoder turn it into a great portable media player. I was also able to playback iPod Formated movie trailers and even DiggNation episodes without needing to re-encode the content into a special format. Everything worked as it things should without any horrible twists.

Speakers & Headphones – 5/5 stars
The Nokia N95 has a set of stereo speakers which was the best that I had seen on a mobile phone. The quality was clear and crisp. Even with the volume turned up to the max, it remained clear without beginning to crack like most phones do. The audio playback quality through the headphones was excellent. I wasn’t able to tell apart it apart from when playing the same song on my iPod Nano.

N-Gage Games – 4/5 stars
I had a chance to play some demo games available on the phone and the quality was quite impressive. The graphics was much better than I had expected a mobile phone to have the power to handle. The games are by no means as good as those on the Sony PlayStation Portable, but are much better than games available for most mobile phones. The games seemed a bit pricey, but it’s still a plus that they are available for purchase and that the phone can handle and support playing them.

Phone Functions – 5/5 stars
The phone comes with all the standard functions of most phones on the market. These features include an excellent phone book with pretty much no capacity limit, speaker phone, conference calling, bluetooth headset with stereo support, speed dial, voice commands, text messaging, email, calendar, calculator, notepad, voice recorder, and more! With a 3G Network, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, and WiFi (b/g) the phone is almost always connected to something. Despite this it has a impressively powerful battery and manages it’s power saving quite well with the ambient light sensor. The phone had better signal in most locations versus the phone I usually carry. Call quality was pretty clear and crisp. WiFi signal strength was quite strong as well. The Bluetooth in the phone supports more profiles than any phone I have ever used meaning that it should connect to just about any device you can think of. The phone also supports the new DLNA media sharing protocol so once I connected my phone to my home network, I was able to access music, photos, and videos on the phone from my laptop and even my Sony PlayStation 3.

Web Browser – 5/5 stars
The N95 features an impressively powerful web browser. Sometimes web pages took a bit long to render, but in general they rendered a whole lot better than on most phones I have seen. I still feel the iPhone’s Safari browser is superior to this one in most aspects. However the N95 topples the iPhone’s browser in some aspects such as supports for the Flash player. This means YouTube and a whole slew of other streaming videos can be viewed from within the browser. The browser works by accessing either a WiFi access point or using the Cell Phone network, both of which functioned well.

GPS and Maps – 5/5 stars
The phone has a built in GPS which can be utilized for many different purposes. The N95 allows locating yourself on a map, getting directions, looking for points of interest near by, and much more. I didn’t have a chance to test the turn-by-turn directions, but I would expect it to work as advertised. The phone also has a cool feature to tracking your jogging and it takes it to a whole new level by recording pace, distance, time, altitude, speed, and steps taken. (Displays pretty-looking data graphs too!)

Included Items – 5/5 stars
The Nokia N95 comes with a couple accessories in addition to the power supply. Nokia includes a USB cable for data transfer and syncing media. A pair of headphones and a small wired controller to control music playback. The phone is also capable of video output using the included composite cables. Other than that Nokia provides a CD with some software, a couple of manuals, and a quick start guide. For the price that this phone goes for, I wish they would have also thrown in a case.

Conclusion
Overall the Nokia N95 is now one of my personal favorite phones. It is definitely not for everyone and most people will probably never get to using even half the features it offers. But for those who are looking for a high end smart phone, the N95 8GB will not be a disappointment. The only thing I felt that this phone lacked and that I should mention is the fact that it lacks a microSD expansion. Although it has 8GB of on board flash storage, it would have still been a nice addition. The phone offers more battery life talk time than most phones. With a powerful office tools and media playback tools the phone covers just about all grounds. The only downside might just be the high price of $600. The phone is currently not available through any service providers in the United States. However that doesn’t mean it won’t work here. You can just go ahead and purchase the North American version from a site such as Amazon. And for service, you can sign up to a calling and data plan from AT&T and insert the SIM card you receive.

Links: Nokia N95 8GB (nokia.com)
Purchase: Unlocked Nokia N95 8GB (US) – $580

Last week Sprint announced the availability of the Samsung UpStage (aka SPH-M620). Sprint was kind enough to provide Skatter Tech with a unit for review. The dual-sided UpStage is notable due to having a phone on one side and a iPod-like Mp3 player on the other.

Although the phone is extremely compact, at first glance, the front side of the phone looks dull due to the tiny LCD display. However everything changes after turning the unit around to the backside. In terms of basic features the Samsung Upstage features a 1.3MP camera, MicroSD, Bluetooth, and background Music Playback. As a bonus Sprint’s service allows access to 99 cent music downloads, Live TV, Internet Radio, Games, Web Browsing, and other Power Vision services.

Samsung SPH-M620 Specifications:

• Provider: Sprint Exclusive (CDMA)
• Form Factor: Dual-Sided Candy bar
• Dimensions: 1.73W x 4.07H x .37D inches
• Battery: Up To 6.3hrs Talk Time with Wallet
• Screen: Front 176×65 & Back 176×220 pixels
• Digital Camera: 1.3 MP with 5x Digital Zoom
• Storage: ~53MB Internal + MicroSD (2GB max)
• Sound: Standard Headphones with Adapter
• Others: Bluetooth v1.2 + 4hr Wallet Battery
• Price: $150 + Tax w/ New 2-Year Contract

UpStage Body: 5/5 stars
This phone is tiny, measuring only .37 inches thick, making it thinner than the Motorola RAZR. Although a bit larger, the phone resembles the shape and form factor of an iPod Nano. The front side of the phone has a Alpha-Numeric Keypad for making calls or text messaging. The back side looks like an iPod Nano, but with a large screen and an square touch pad. The phone is small enough to fit in most pockets and can be placed flat on its back or front. The phone almost doubles in size after placing into the battery wallet, which I assume most people plan to use. Although the case allows access to both sides of the phone, it still becomes quite tedious to keep switching back and forth. Despite the fact that the unit is harder to hold with the wallet, the flexibility of removing the case is an advantage.

Displays: 4/5 stars
The front display is extremely small only 176×65 pixels making it hard to read text. Navigating the front display is quite difficult since it can only fit about one-line of data on the screen at a time. Luckily most functions of phone are performed through the large/bright 176×220 pixel screen on the back side. Unfortunately since there is no keyboard on the back, you will find yourself having to “flip” back to the front side for data entry.

Music Playback: 5/5 stars
The UpStage supports playback of DRM-Free MP3s, WMA, AAC, and WAV in addition to music purchased through Sprint’s Music Store. Sprint now offers .99 cent over-the-air downloads of high quality tracks (with a data plan). Music can be sorted by Songs, Artists, or Genre in the interface, however due to the lack of a search function, scrolling through hundreds of track is tedious. We still prefer Verizon’s standardized music playback application, which works on most of their phones. One big bonus is the ability to “hide” the music playback app while listening to music and continuing with other tasks such as browsing the web or playing games. Album Art is displayed during playback in addition to the track title, duration, and artist/album. Also supports playlists & shuffling songs.

Speaker and Sound: 3/5 stars
For a “music phone” the lack of a decent set of stereo speakers might be problematic. The phone’s single (mono) speaker does a mediocre job, which functions as a speaker for calls and music. As the volume level increases, the sound begins to crack. Although this should be fixed in a future model, the issue should be non-existent since most people will use headphones for music. (Adapter for standard headphones included.)

Digital Camera / Camcorder: 2/5 stars
The camera on the UpStage remains a mere 1.3 mega pixels while most new phones on the market are now 2.0. When the camera is activated, you must flip the phone around and use the large LCD on the back as the viewfinder. From our results, the image quality was mediocre and images were blurry even in well lit situations. Video clips may be recorded for a duration limited only by MicroSD capacity, however clips longer than 30 seconds may not be mailed. The small front LCD functions as a tiny viewfinder for self-portraits.

Battery Life: 5/5 stars
Unlike the majority of phones on the market today, the UpStage does not have a removable battery. Instead, the UpStage has a battery built into the unit. Since the unit is small and the talk time is only about 2.5 hours long, Samsung provides a battery wallet with the phone. When the phone is in its case, the talk time increases by over 4 hours. (up to 6.5 hours) Since the case is easily removable, you’ll have the freedom to choose whether you want the additional battery life or light-weight phone to carry around.

Usability & Interface: 4/5
The interface on the front is a joke, it only allows performing four menu actions: view call history, find contacts, add a contact, or send a text msg. Other than that, the only other use of the front is to display caller id, date/time, battery life, signal, and Bluetooth status. The interface on the back is a different story. The back is controlled by using the square touchpad at the bottom. UpStage users must make up & down motions on the left/right sides and left-to-right motions on the top & bottom instead of using circular motions to navigate as you would do on an iPod. (Apple Patent!) In addition the top left/right corners act as soft keys while the other labeled parts are the Menu, Back, and End buttons. The only hark key is the center Select/Play button. Although navigating becomes quite easy after a bit of practice, data entry will remain a hassle. For example, while browsing the web (back side), you’ll have to flip over to enter the URL text and then flip back to view the page. Some applications support an onscreen keyboard, however you’ll find yourself flipping back & forth a lot.

MicroSD: 4/5 stars
Like most phones on the market today, the M620 supports up to 2GB MicroSD cards. Since Samsung intends this phone to double as a MP3 player, as a bonus, they include a USB data cable, which most cellphone makers do not. The included CD assists installing the necessary drivers. When placed in “Sync Mode,” the phone appears as a disk drive. Windows XP users can either manage data themselves or use the included application. Mac OS X users must manage the data on the MicroSD themselves since the included software is Windows Media Player based.
P.S. 1GB microSD cards cost only about $12. 2GB microSD for ~$25

Bluetooth: 5/5 stars
The Samsung M620 uses Bluetooth 2.0, which supports the use of Stereo Headphones for music playback, in addition to standard headsets. The Bluetooth can also be used for transferring contacts, printing photos to wireless printer, and to connect to computers for use as a wireless modem. Another new feature is Audio Caller ID, which reads out a name or phone number when using a bluetooth headset. From our testing, sound quality was excellent there were no issues with pairing devices or other features.

Sprint Power Vision: 4.5/5 stars
At this time most Chatting, Navigation, and Gaming apps are not yet available for the M620 due to compatibility issues because of the unique controls, however new working versions should be available soon. Applications such as Google Maps Mobile and Opera Mini work great. The On Demand section provides access to News, Weather, Movie Show Times, Maps and more. Sprint Power Vision offers access to thousands of clips and Live TV channels such as ABC, FOX, MSNBC, CNN, and Comedy Central (plus radio). One of my favorite features is the built in Podcasting client, which streams any podcast you choose directly to your phone without the need of a computer. Saves the hassle of having to sync new files.

Designs similar to that of the UpStage have been available in Asia for a while, yet this marks the release of the first dual sided phone in the U.S. Although we like this phone a lot for its new innovative and compact style, text entry remains a hassle and is probably the #1 problem. Other than that, another thing we found frustrating was that songs you own may not be used as ringtones. Anyways this is one of the best phones Sprint has had in a while, therefore if you are ready to upgrade you should consider this. The Samsung UpStage is available in Sprint Stores and Online now for $150 + tax with a new 2-year contract. In my opinion this is quite a good deal since Sprint includes the Battery Wallet, headset adapter, USB Sync Cable, and a 64MB microSD all of which is not normally included.

DEAL ALERT: FREE Samsung UpStage (M620)
Links: Sprint.com | SPH-M620 Spec Sheet
Product Shot: High-Resolution UpStage Image
Help & Support: fourms.skattertech.com

As expected, Verizon Wireless has finally released the LG VX8600, becoming the first cell phone carrier in the U.S. to offer the phone. The LG Chocolate flip phone is intended for consumers who plan to listen to music on their phone and even features a MicroSD slot for extra storage. Although the phone may look like a rip off Motorola’s KRZR, LG had actually released the VX8600 overseas before Motorola even pushed out their phone. Anyways we hope LG has added something to make this phone better than the Moto KRZR, which we were quite disappointed with.

Verizon LG VX8600 Specs:

• Type: 1.9GHz CDMA and EV-DO
• Form Factor: Clamshell Flip Phone
• Dimensions: 3.89″ x 1.93″ x 0.58″ inches
• Weight / Battery: 3.26 oz / 3hrs40mins talktime
• Camera / Camcorder: 1.3 megapixels w/ zoom
• V Cast: music store, video content, 3D games
• MicroSD: store music, images, videos, etc.
• Bluetooth v1.1: stereo support for music
• Others: Mobile Web 2, Get It Now, VZ Navigator
• Special: Music-Only mode, External Touch Controls
• Price: $129 with a new 2 year contract

The phone will now be available in all Verizon Wireless stores and authorized retailers for a price of $129 with a new two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in-rebate. Current VZW customers, who are eligible for upgrade, can get an additional $100 off the phone, therefore costing only about $30 before adding taxes. We would recommend this phone over both the KRZR and the original Chocolate phones since it is cheaper than the KRZR, has more features, and has a standard flip phone form factor.

DEAL ALERT: FREE VX8600 w/ New Contract

Links: Verizon Wireless – VX8600 | Press Release
Related: Motorola KRZR Review

If you are a Sprint customer you’re in luck. Sprint has just announced the availability of both the Motorola KRZR K1m and SLVR L7c through their service. Although Verizon Wireless has already had the KRZR since late-September, Sprint did however beat them in getting the new SLVR. Also as another bonus for Sprint users, phones offered through Sprint will retain the original user interface unlike Verizon’s phones.

Motorola KRZR and SLVR Features:

• 1.3 Mega-Pixel Camera
• Bluetooth Wireless
• TeleNav GPS Directions
• Phone as Modem EVDO
• MicroSD Storage
• Speaker phone
• Voice Dial + Caller ID
• Downloadable Java Apps

Both Moto phones will have access to all of Sprint’s new Power Vision services such as Music, Movies, and TV. Customers will have access to over 50 channels through Sprint TV, about 45 full-length movies such as “Spider-Man 2″ and “National Treasure” through Sprint’s pay-per-view Movie service, and thousands of songs through Sprint’s Music Store. All of which can be purchased and downloaded directly to the phone (no computer necessary).

The KRZR K1m is already available through Sprint’s online store for $199 with a new service plan, however Sprint hasn’t yet announced pricing or the exact launch date for the SLVR. When we tested out the KRZR K1m for Verizon, we didn’t exactly give it the best review because it literally had no new features over the RAZR other than the external music controls. However lets hope that these Sprint phones have something more to offer since they aren’t limited to Verizon’s software user interface.

Links: Sprint.com | KRZR K1m | SLVR L7c
Related: Verizon KRZR K1m Review

Looking for a new phone? Well the brand new Motorola KRZR K1m is now available through Verizon Wireless. After being frowned upon for being the last cell phone provider to get the RAZR, VZW is now the first to get the new KRZR. This new RAZR-like phone features a 1.3MP camera, Mp3/Mp4 playback (plus V Cast Music/Video), MicroSD expansion slot, Bluetooth, and Verizon’s V Cast services. The KRZR has now has many of the features that the RAZR lacked, which include external music controls (touch sensitive), a more robust battery life, and a slightly larger internal storage capacity.

Anyways if you wish to get one it is available online now for $199 with a new 2-year contract and $99 for existing customers who are eligible for upgrade. (Note: Won’t be in stores until October 5th) Although we havn’t had a hands-on-review yet, by the looks of it, it seems as though it will be a pretty good phone, despite the fact that it is a bit pricy. Also Skatter Tech will be getting a KRZR by Monday (10/02/06), so check back and expect an in depth review with plenty of pictures soon!

UPDATE: Moto KRZR Review (Verizon)

Links: Verizon Wireless | Motorola
Press Releases: Verizon News Center | MotoInfo Center