CTIA Fall 2009
Oct 7, 2009, 1:13 PM by Eric M. Zeman & Rich Brome
updated Oct 8, 2009, 6:38 PM
Live from San Diego for the wireless industry's big fall event. Hands-on with the new Samsungs, Nokias, HTC HD2, Pantechs, and the PCD Razzle, including hands-on video.
Our hands-on photos of the Samsung Moment Android phone for Sprint:
As you can see, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the memory card slot is unfortunately located where you must remove the battery to change it. However, the slot supports up to 32 GB cards, so you can put in a very large card, and with the standard micro-USB connector makes it easy to move files on and off the phone.
The phone itself is a decent size; not large, but not surprisingly small. It feels good in hand, with a good slide mechanism. Having touch keys along the bottom instead of physical keys is annoying for us, but they work fine. It has a dedicated search key like the Hero, but it's located on the QWERTY keyboard, which makes a lot of sense. The keyboard is good; not great, just good.
The active-matrix OLED display is gorgeous, of course. We're getting used to that on high-end Samsungs, but it's still a wonderful thing.
The Moment also sports Wi-Fi and a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera. There's an optical trackpad (like the Omnia, and instead of a physical trackball.) An 800 MHz processor keeps things speedy (and they are.)
The interface is pretty much stock Android. (Prototypes we tried ran version 1.5, but Samsung promised that it will ship with 1.6.) What's curious is how little customization they've done. There's no TouchWiz, no fancy widgets, no expanded or custom home screen... just standard Android. That's not a bad thing - stock Android certainly has its fans. It does have the full Google experience, plus important extras like support for Microsoft Exchange. Naturally there are also standard Sprint apps loaded, such as Sprint TV, NASCAR, and Sprint Navigator.
One area that could really have used some customization is the camera. Unfortunately, even the camera app is stock Android, meaning the ONLY setting is to turn the flash on or off. Samsung knows how to do a great camera interface on a touch-screen phone, and the Omnia II is a great example. It's a shame they couldn't bring that to Android on the Moment.
Here is a quick video of the Samsung Moment for Sprint:
About the author, Eric M. Zeman & Rich Brome: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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Comments
these phones suck...
(continues)
Slow day
Samsung Omnia II
