Samsung Messager III

Samsung Messager III Call them the decent messaging phones with the annoying name, the Samsung Messagerseries marches on at MetroPCS. The prepaid carrier by now has open us with the Messager and Messager II, and now it offers its third model, the Messager III.

Even if you’d guess theMessager III to offer a solid update over its predecessors, the reality is a bit different. Its 1.3-megapixel camera is in fact a lower from the 2.0-megapixel handgun on the Messager II, and it doesn’t offer any facial appearance that we haven’t seen previous to. Opportunely, its point is changed, but that’s not enough to make it stand out. We also had some performance complaints, but it’s not a terrible device by any rate. And it’s just $89 after a $30 mail-in discount and without a contract.

Point
We’re glad that Samsung at least made an try to alter the Samsung Messager III point. It’s not quite as blocky as the earlier handsets, even if it lacks some of the sturdiness that we found on the Messager II. The consequence is a practically slick and simple-to-use device with a spacious upright. It’s not showy, but it works.

The Samsung Messager III measures 4.59 inches long by 2.11 inches wide by 0.57 inchthick and weighs 3.7 ounces. The black-and-blue color machinate is austere, yet pleasing, and the charming lines give it a comfortable feel in the hand. As we mentioned, the Samsung Messager III doesn’t feel quite as well-built as the Messager II, but it should stand up to regular bumps and bruises.

 

The Messager III’s point is all about the basics.

 

 

The QVGA sight measures 2.5 inches and chains 262,000 sign (320×240 pixels). The resolutions won’t blow you away, of way, but most all–from the graphics to photos to the user-friendly menus–shows up well. Also, even if it lacks the touch cover we found on U.S. Cellular’sSamsung Messager Touch, we don’t mind at all, taking into account we weren’t fans of that models’ resistive sight in the first place. Read more at allitreview.com

 

Sonim XP3300 Force

Sonim XP3300  hard not to be impressed by a phone you can sink in 6.5 feet of water for half an hour without it drowning, drop into antifreeze, and break out of ablock of fastidious without it sustaining destruction. This is just so the rough-and-dive roughness that spurs harsh-phone maker Sonim Technologies along in its quest to furnish construction staff and others in outdoorsy occupations with cell phones well-built enough to survive a range of environmental hazards. Its latest try, the SonimXP3300 Force, has the same air force specifications for powering through shock, dust, greatest temperatures, difficulty, oil spills, and so on as the previous build, the Sonim XP1300 Core. Even if construction on the two handsets looks like peas in a pod, the Force is more high-class, with a few bonus apps, a camera, and helped GPS with turn-by-turn steering. The lack of facial appearance is a protest we had about the Core, and it’s elevating that Sonim listened.

While the phone’s bulk, heft, grip, and roughness show “harsh” is the name of the game, we did deal with to crack the Brute Glass cover. We don’t hold this against Sonim, not too much, anyway. The company promised austerity, not indestructibility, and we were consciously chucking the handset at a fastidious surface (read the Roughness part for more). It’s just a excellent thing the phone comes with a three-year warranty.

You’ll have to pay a pretty penny for all that safeguard. The Force costs $499 without a contract and will be available in the third week of March through Sonim’s Web site and through its distributor, Feature One.

Point
If the Force were a comic book reputation, it would be the Incredible Hulk, assuming that the Hulk was part fiberglass and not so green. The Force comes in two sign–all black, and black with golden-haired accents. Both versions stand 5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 1 inch thick and weigh a muscular 6.5 ounces.

 

 

The Sonim XP3300 Force has more advanced facial appearance than its predecessor, the XP1300 Core. Read more at allitreview.com

 

Palm Pre 2

Palm Pre 2 Announced back in October 2010, the Palm Pre 2 is irrevocably available from Verizon Wireless for $149.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in discount. On the one hand, it’s wonderful to have a additional WebOSmanufactured goods on the promote, primarily with the fantastic enhancements of WebOS 2.0. On the other hand, the timing of the relief is very awkward since HP just announced the Pre 3, which is due out this summer and has a closer PC, better hardware, world phone capabilities, and more. Given that a better, closer Pre is on the way, is the Palm Pre 2 still worth it? Let’s have a look.

Point
The Palm Pre 2 doesn’t stray far from its roots, generous a point very akin to the previous versions of the Pre. It retains the arresting pebble-like shape, but it’s not quite as round since the smartphone’s sight is flat instead of curved. Still, it’s comfortable to hold and has a soft-touch close on the back and along the outer edges. It’s also compact and sack-friendly at 3.96 inches high by 2.34 inches wide by 0.66 inch thick and 5.1 ounces.

 

The Palm Pre 2 isn’t all that different from the Pre Plus in point.

 

As we just noted, the Pre 2′s sight is flat but remains at 3.1 inches with an HVGA (320×480-pixel) pledge, just like the Pre Plus. Admittedly, it feels small compared with the bevy of smartphones we’ve experienced person lately with 4-inch-plus displays and it’s not the sharpest, but it’s still clear and sharp and the multitouch cover is open. Read more at allitreview.com

 

Samsung Galaxy Indulge

Samsung Indulge We have to hand it to MetroPCS. The contract-free carrier is mesmerizing the 4G bull by the horns and building the 4G-competent Samsung Galaxy Indulge its first lasso at the smartphone rodeo. TheIndulge, an off-shoot of Samsung’s respectable line of glossy black plastic smartphones, has Apparatus 2.2, a 1GHz Hummingbird PC, and a slide-out QWERTY upright in addendum to a Swype-enabled virtual upright. There’s excellent voice feature, and a nourishing set of facial appearance.

Even if, the specs pale in comparison to its more-premium Galaxy S cousins, like the Samsung Epic 4G. The Indulge lacks the brilliant Super AMOLED cover of other high-class Galaxy handsets, its camera isn’t as excellent, and numerous TouchWiz facial appearance are absent, like the shared and media hubs and the mobile hot spot. Array life is disappointing, as well.

Despite those setbacks, it’s still poised to be the carrier’s best phone yet, primarily if you don’t mind often juicing up your phone.

The Indulge costs $399 without a contract, a high figure at first glance, but one that doesn’t lock you into a two-year contract. MetroPCS is offering two plans: the boundless rate plot (talk, text, Web) with 1GB data costs $50 per month, and the $60 monthly plot gets you boundless talk, text, Web, and data, not to bring up 4G speeds for both. Read more at allitreview.com

 

Motorola i886

Motorola i886 On paper, the Motorola i886 seems like a pretty run-of-the-mill Nextel phone. It has push-to-talk with Nextel Supervise over Join, stereo Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, GPS, and as it is not a smartphone, it has no Wi-Fi. Like most Nextel phones, it is billed as a durable handset, with thick rubberized casingthat is air force-qualified to take a beating. The i886 also looks like a regular messaging handset, with its slide-out QWERTY upright.

Yet, it has a trick up its sheath–its user interface looks very near like peas in a pod to that of Apparatus. To be sure, the multiple home screens, the pull-up menu, and the app icons look uncannily like Apparatus. But it is not–the OS is a proprietary Linux-based in commission logic. While we at the start plotting the use of a fake Apparatus interface was odd, we in fact reckon it’s a fantasticthought, as it is far better than the usual Nextel one. The inclusion of Opera Mini is welcome, and we be thankful for having a dedicated GetJar attention store as well.

We do worry that some public might get fooled into thinking this is a smartphonewhen it’s obviously not. At the end of the day, the Motorola i886 is just a well-made Nextel messaging phone, which is not a terrible thing. Just don’t guess anything more than that. The Motorola i886 is $79.99 after a two-year benefit contract.

Point
As far as harsh handsets go, the Motorola i886 is positively diminutive. At 4.6 inches long by 2.0 inches wide by 0.7 inch thick, it’s not just so wafer-thin, but compared with other Nextel phones like the Brute i680, it’s quite slim. Clad in hard plastic and thick padding, the i886 is air force-qualified to survive dust, shock, trembling, greatest temperatures, low difficulty, solar radiation, and humidity. We couldn’t theme the phone to such a array of tests, but it did carry on a drop in a bucket of water. While the black-and-gray color machinate is a bore, we do like its compact form factor, and at 4.98 ounces, it feels very solid in the hand.

 

The Motorola i886 has a home cover that is very near like peas in a pod to Apparatus’s.

 

 

The 2.2-inch QVGA sight is quite sharp and peculiar, with 262,000-color help. We like the bold graphic icons, and the text is clear and legible, too. We did reckon the text was a modest on the small side, and, unfortunately, you can’t change the font size. You can change the brightness and backlight timer, even if. You can also toggle dialogue box animations from the sight settings. Read more at allitreview.com

 

Cricket TXTM8 3G

Cricket TXTM8 3G As standard as smartphones may be, there are still customers who want a phone primarily for building calls and carriage out text post. For Cricket customers who want just that, they could opt for the Cricket TXTM8 3G. It has a slate point akin to the MSGM8, but has moderately advanced facial appearance like mobile e-mail, a music player, stereo Bluetooth, and, of way, 3G speeds where available. We do reckon it’s in a weak spot by a less than planetary point, but for just $59.99, it’s not a terrible deal. The Cricket TXTM8 3G is manufactured by ZTE.

Point
Disparate the first TXTM8, the TXTM8 3G has a candy bar point instead of a square slider. This gives it a slim and austere fascinate, with straight lines on both sides and affront curves at the top and underside. It’s clad in silver and black, with hints of copper on the front plate. Measuring 4.5 inches long by 2.36 inches wide by 0.55 inch thick, the TXTM8 3G has a very cheap feel in the hand, as if it were a family vegetation toy instead of a real effective phone. At the same time, it’s frivolous at 3.58 ounces and won’t weigh you down.

 

The TXTM8 3G has a full QWERTY upright on the front.

 

 

On the front of the phone is a 2.2-inch sight with 262,000 color help and a QVGA 320×240-pixel pledge. The cover appears sharp and peculiar, with bold graphics and clear text. You can change the menu style, the wallpaper and theme color, the clock format, the graphic for incoming calls, the salutation banner, the backlight time, and the sight’s brightness. Read more at allitreview.com

 

Kyocera Rio E3100

Kyocera It’s excellent to see Kyocera getting its name out there again. The recent kickoff of the Kyocera Echo dual-cover smartphone twisted some heads, but the same can’t be said for the obviously run-of-the-mill Kyocera Rio for Cricket Wireless. There’s nothing incorrect with the figure phone per se, but there’s very modest to set it apart from the pack of touch-cover messaging phones. That said, it’s not a terrible choice for Cricket’s more top bolt from the blue team, and the amalgamation of a resistive touch-cover phone with a honestly finger-friendly interface and e-mail capabilities will certainly fascinate those in search of a perfectly functional handset.

Music fans perusing Cricket’s wares would do better to try the Samsung Suede with Muve Music. We saw it at CES, but are still awaiting a assess unit, which we hope to get in our hands soon.

The contract-free Rio costs $129 in stores or $109 if you buy it online. Since there’s no two-year benefit contract, you can pay for benefit month to month.

Point
We despise to say it, but the Kyocera Rio looks and feels like a cheap phone. It isn’t the black body or rounded corners–those gear are standard by today’s mobile point aesthetics. Very, it’s the glossy plastic ridging of the back cover combined with overly shiny silver accents, and a consequence that feels a tad lighter than it should (3.2 ounces). The dimensions are pleasing and sack-friendly at 4.1 inches tall by 2.2 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick. The phone feels fine when flat on the hand, and it gave us no vex on the ear. Even if, there’s a touch about those back cover ridges that gives us the shivers when alternative up and usage the handset–even if we grasp this won’t be everyone’s consequence.

 

 

The Rio sports a 2.8-inch resistive touch cover that’s honestly sharp and clear. The QVGA pledge chains 240×320 pixels and 262,000 sign. Even if the sight is resistive very than capacitive, we could frequently get the phone to register habitual-difficulty finger presses. In some views, we looked-for to press harder to scroll up or down. We’d also say that the virtual QWERTY upright you sometimes see (like when adding a new supporter) is a modest small–it’ll be best suited for those with more slender fingertips. At other times when the cover won’t thrash to landscape view, you’ll be able to turn on predictive text or a half QWERTY upright (two or three calligraphy per key). We’d prefer the QWERTY mode on plea, but the half QWERTY is better than nothing.Read more at allitreview.com