Review: Kin Two
Browser
The browser on the Kin Two is sluggish and underpowered. Since the Kin wouldn't recognize my Wi-Fi network, I tested it using Verizon's data network, and it simply crawled along. Most pages took much longer to open on this device than on other feature phones I have on hand, which is unfortunate because all that waiting only earns you a simplified, mobile version of most pages, anyway. Even Google took almost 30 seconds to open. That's embarrassing. CNN, the New York Times and even Google Reader all defaulted to their most basic format, the same as you'd see on any simple feature phone. Considering this phone has a "Windows Phone" badge emblazoned on the back, I'm disappointed that it didn't get a proper Windows Phone browser.
Our own PhoneScoop homepage looked okay, though spacing and layout was a bit off. You can pinch to zoom in and out of a Web site, but the screen is so small that there isn't much room for pinching, especially when the phone is tilted into landscape mode. Zooming in was not very smooth, and the Kin browser took some time to redraw text and images in steps as I looked closer at a Web page.
Customize
There are numerous options to customize shortcuts and the layout of the interface, but nothing to change the overall look and feel beyond a limited color palette. You can add Web pages and RSS feeds to the main Kin Loop screen, including the status update feeds from MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. On the Favorites screen, you can add an endless stream of contacts, and each person shows up as a cropped version of their social network avatar. You can also customize the lock screen wallpaper.
For themes, there are four color palettes to choose from, and the selection is limited and uninspired. You can turn the menus green, pink, blue or red, but these color choices don't affect much in the interface design, mostly highlights and accents. The phone remains dark and dreary throughout many of the top levels, dull white and grey through the settings menus and deeper levels. You can also customize ringtones and various alerts, but you can't use tracks from the Zune player, not even DRM-free songs. You have to use the preset sounds, and some of these can be fairly grating.
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