CTIA Fall 2005
The SGH-D307 is Samsung's answer to the QWERTY-keyboard phone trend started by phones like the Nokia 6800 and the Motorola A630. LG recently entered the fray with the F9100, and now Samsung is finally joining the fun with yet another new form factor idea.
Actually, this form factor is not completely new - if it looks familiar, it should - the design is clearly inspired by the ill-fated Motorola MPx. The difference is that the D307 is not a smartphone, and doesn't try to pack in every possible feature, so it is much smaller.
The features are very business-oriented. Naturally it has a full suite of messaging applications, and a high-resolution main display for reading lots of text. Bluetooth is also included. Although full specs were not provided at this event, FCC documents indicate the phone will have EDGE and possibly be quad-band. There are no unnecessary frills, though: the outer display is a practical black-and-white LCD, and there is no camera.
The D307 is a good shape and size, with clean lines kept smooth by an internal antenna. The dual-twisting hinge is well-designed. It feels solid, and operates smoothly in each direction. As it should, if you start to open the phone one way, the hinge locks the other way, making it easy open and keeping the display from flopping around all over the place.
Similar praise cannot be lavished on the keypad, however. Alternating rows of color on the keys combined with very small text make it hard to read. In "phone" mode, the keys that form the 5-way direction pad feel exactly like all of the other keys, making it very difficult to navigate. It's also not immediately obvious which keys are the softkeys that correspond with the options on the display. Worse, though, is that in "messaging" mode, those softkeys are at the bottom, and are keys that have other uses. This leads to incredibly counter-intuitive situations like needing to press the "Back" key to start a new message.
In some respects, the D307 will compete against LG's new VX-9800 for Verizon. There is quite a size difference, however.
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