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Review: Microsoft Kin One and Two

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Is It Your Type? Body The Three S's Touch

May 4, 2010, 11:00 PM by Eric M. Zeman

Microsoft unfurls its Kin One and Kin Two social networking phones, complete with Zune media software. Both phones do one thing fairly well, but fall flat in other areas. Updated with info about battery life, signal, and music syncing.

Unboxing

Microsoft is hoping to appeal to a new kind of user with the Kin One and Kin Two, two phones that are aimed at a younger, more social crowd. The Kin One and Two bear absolutely no resemblance to any phone that has come out of Redmond before. In fact, they are so different, many will be surprised to see the Microsoft logo on the back. Similar to concepts such as Motorola's MOTOBLUR and HTC's Friend Stream, Microsoft (and Verizon) are banking on the highly connected user to adopt this new platform, which puts socialization before all else. In order to focus so keenly on social networking, Microsoft did forsake a few key features.

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About the author, Eric M. Zeman:

Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.

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Sharp Kin One

2.6" display 320 x 240 pixels
Tegra APX2600 processor
1,240 mAh battery
Hardware Text Keyboard, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

Sharp Kin Two

3.4" display 320 x 480 pixels
Tegra APX2600 processor
1,390 mAh battery
Hardware Text Keyboard, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

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Comments

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rafster

May 5, 2010, 4:18 PM

Is this really that surprising?

Is it really that surprising that MS bombed on hardware and software for a device? Look at the XBox and 360....

muchdrama

rafster said:
Is it really that surprising that MS bombed on hardware and software for a device? Look at the XBox and 360....

Yeah? And?

There's nothing wrong with the Xbox.

thatguy_overthere

I thought you were going to mention something that bombed, but you mentioned the xbox and the xbox 360. I guess one of us is confused.

ddsindpls

Not Surprising. It's Microsoft. 🤣

bluecoyote

May 5, 2010, 12:22 AM

Laughably bad- this doesn't bode well for WM7 either.

WM7 is supposed to be "super tightly integrated" with social networking too. Let's hope it's significantly better than this.

Honestly this is just friggin pathetic. No offense Microsoft, but your products are so bad that Windows 7 was considered a "massive improvement."

muchdrama

bluecoyote said:
WM7 is supposed to be "super tightly integrated" with social networking too. Let's hope it's significantly better than this.

Honestly this is just friggin pathetic. No offense Microsoft, but your products are so

...
(continues)

...

iDont Care

May 4, 2010, 11:53 PM

This is just a bad idea

But M$ will learn the hard way

Cellenator

Yep TOTAL FAIL!

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