CTIA 2009
The Nokia 1661 is an incredibly basic bar phone. The hardware feels pretty good for the most part. It is comfortable to hold and will easily slip in and out of your pants pocket. The front face of the 1661 felt very loose, with shoddy build quality. No one was able to tell me if it was pre-production or not, but it was definitely not up to the build quality I'd expect from a production Nokia.
The 1661 has an LED flashlight built into the top. It's nothing remarkably powerful, but it should be handy for finding your keys in the dark, etc.
The number keys are mashed together in a very compact and tight space. The spacing of the number keys was too tight, in fact, for my thumbs. The 1661 is definitely meant for people with dimunitive digits. The keys had OK travel and feedback, but the quality issued made them less than stellar.
What's really confusing is the D-pad. The controls all work fine, but the center of the D-pad does not select whatever it is that you've highlighted on the screen. Instead, if you want to open an application, you have to use the left soft key, which is labeled as "select". This is amazingly counterintuitive and not the way nearly 100% of all other phones work. In fact, pressing down on the middle of the D-pad sends the selector into fits all over the page. Very odd behavior.
The 1661 has a basic menu system that makes sense for the most part. If the D-pad weren't so strange, it would have been more intuitive to use from the start.
Video Tour: WebOS 1.4
Video Demo: Palm Pre Plus Mobile Hotspot
Review: Palm Pre
CES 2009
Samsung Refreshes Galaxy S Series with S Pen, New Cameras
Samsung Finesse R810
Palm Pre (CDMA)
PCD TXTM8 / TXT8026
