Posts Tagged ‘Sprint’

Samsung Galaxy Prevail (Boost Mobile)

June 15th, 2011

Don’t let the name fool you: the Samsung Galaxy Prevail ($179.99) is not a high-end Samsung Galaxy S cell phone. It is, however, a wonderfully functional, inexpensive Android device for everyone who wants a budget smartphone. Just how inexpensive, you ask? Boost is charging $50 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data on Sprint’s nationwide 3G network. That price shrinks by $5 every 6 months you pay your bill on time, until you reach $35. It’s not like this is breaking news, but it’s a lot more relevant now that Boost finally has a device capable of taking full advantage of those rates. Sure, it may not have the same high-end specs as the latest and greatest Android gadgets, but it’s an excellent choice for anyone looking to get in on the Android action on the cheap. That makes it our Editors’ Choice for smartphones on Boost. It also makes the cut for our list of The Best Android Phones.

Design, Call Quality, and Pricing
The Samsung Galaxy Prevail measures 4.4 by 2.3 by .5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.8 ounces. And while the phone is surprisingly light, it feels solid. It looks a bit like T-Mobile‘s Samsung Galaxy S 4G ($199.99, 4 stars), with curved edges and a silver border that runs along the outside of the phone’s face. The back is made of a soft-touch black plastic, which gives it a comfortable, luxurious feel in the hand. The 3.2-inch glass capacitive touch screen LCD has 320-by-480-pixel resolution, which is common on midrange Android phones. The display itself is a bit on the small side, but it was nicely bright and vibrant, and suitably responsive to touch. Typing on the on-screen keyboard felt predictably cramped, but still entirely doable. Four function keys sit below the screen on the face of the phone, and light up whenever the screen is touched.

he Prevail is a dual band EV-DO Rev. A (800/1900 MHz) device, with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. It connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network quickly and easily. Reception was average, and voice quality was good overall. Calls sounded bright and clear in the earpiece, if a bit thin. On the other end, calls made with the phone sounded fine, though voices were a touch muffled and fuzzy. The phone didn’t completely block out the sound of a passing city bus while I was making a call, but I was still able to hear my voice above it just fine. Calls were clear through an Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset ($99, 4 stars), and voice dialing worked well. The speakerphone was also clear, but I couldn’t hear it outside on a slightly noisy city street. Battery life was good at 6 hours and 33 minutes of talk time.

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HTC Inspire 4G

June 15th, 2011

The HTC Inspire 4G ($99.99) is a big, powerful and affordably priced Android cell phone for AT&T, and it can stand up well against Apple’s iPhone. Comparable in many ways to Verizon’s popular Motorola Droid X, this high-quality super-phone is loaded with useful apps and makes a good big-screen theater for videos. It’s one of The Best Android Phones, as well as one of the The 10 Best Touch-Screen Phones.

The HTC Inspire 4G is AT&T’s answer to big-screen phones like the HTC EVO 4G ($199.99-$449.99, 4 stars) on Sprint and the Motorola Droid X ($199.99-$569.99, 4.5 stars) on Verizon. Like with those other two phones, you’ll want big hands to manage the huge 4.3-inch screen; the iPhone 4 ($199-$699, 4.5 stars) is better for daintier folks. At 4.8 by 2.7 by .46 inches (HWD) and 5.78 ounces, this isn’t a thick phone, but it’s big and broad. The Inspire 4G looks classy, with a solid heft and a metal back. There’s a power button on top; the 3.5-mm headset jack is on the bottom. One sore spot, though: The battery door is so tough that it took me half an hour to remove it. It’s a good thing you won’t replace the battery often.

The Inspire 4G won’t save you from dropped calls. Tested side by side with an iPhone 4, I actually connected fewer calls in a weak signal area than on the iPhone. Oh, well. With decent AT&T signal, though, the Inspire 4G did just fine. Voices sound loud and clear in the earpiece, without scratchiness or distortion. Transmissions sounded clear on the other end, as well, and only sent through a minimum of background noise, even from a noisy area. The speakerphone isn’t great; it’s on the back, and while it’s loud enough to use outdoors, it could be louder. Transmissions made through the speakerphone sounded a bit echoey.

The phone paired easily with an Aliph Jawbone Era ($129, 4.5 stars) Bluetooth headset, including triggering the accurate voice dialing. Battery life, at 5 hours 51 minutes of talk time, was fine for a 3G—oh, sorry, 4G—phone.

The device connects to the Internet via AT&T’s and foreign 3G HSPA and HSPA + 21 networks, and via Wi-Fi. It can be tethered to a laptop with the appropriate service plan, and it also works as a Wi-Fi hotspot. On the Ookla speed test app, I got significantly faster Internet speeds than on an iPhone 4, but not what I’d consider “4G.” I got an average of 1.5Mbps down on the Inspire and 1Mbps down on the iPhone. That makes for a faster Internet experience on the Inspire, but I’d want to see numbers like 5Mbps before I start trumpeting 4G to the masses.

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HTC Arrive

April 19th, 2011

 

HTC Arrive

HTC Arrive

First known as the HTC 7 Pro at its New York unveiling, the HTC Arrive is Sprint’s inaugural foray into the brave new world of Windows Phone 7. And the Arrive also represents two other minor “firsts”: it’s the first CDMA Windows Phone 7 phone in the United States, and it’s the first Windows Phone 7 model to ship with Microsoft’s cut-and-paste update.

 

As a result there’s a lot riding on the Arrive’s rounded shoulders, and for the most part it succeeds in carrying that weight. Like the HTC Surround, the Arrive is a thick chunk of handset, but that extra bulk makes possible a responsive keyboard and a screen that tilts for optimal typing and media consumption. While the data speeds are fine, we were a little disappointed that 4G WiMax isn’t an option.

While there’s a lot to like, the Arrive also has its drawbacks, some having to do with the handset’s construction and some stemming from the Windows Phone 7 OS. For the most part, though, it acquits itself well as a Sprint newcomer.

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Sanyo Zio

October 18th, 2010

Introduction:

For years there had been rumors on Sprint forums about a Sanyo smartphone; at first it was going to kill the Treo, then the BlackBerry.  These were back in Sanyo’s heydays when the manufacturer was winning customer satisfaction awards left and right.  That mythical smartphone never appeared, and Sanyo has fallen into the ranks of also-rans since then.  Sure, there have been some decent phones, but they have yet to venture out of the featurephone market, often content to stick with entry-level devices.  But now we have the Zio, the first smartphone from Sanyo to run Google’s Android platform.  The Sanyo Zio is a bit of a mixed bag, offering at the same time higher-end features such as a WVGA display and low end elements like a bit of a cheap feeling.  Like we said, it’s a mixed bag.  Included with the Zio you’ll find a 2GB microSD card, microUSB cable and AC adapter.

Sanyo Zio Video Review:

Design:

The Sanyo Zio is a black slab device, except that it’s got some significant silver on it.  The 3.5” 480×800 capacitive display dominates the phone and is quite a nice screen.  With 262K colors the TFT panel looks very good, especially with a high resolution and smaller screen size (the 4” Epic 4G and 4.3” EVO 4G also have WVGA resolutions) the pixel density is very good. The colors, however, are a bit off and in sunlight the display was washed out almost entirely.  When placed next to the Samsung Transform and HTC EVO 4G you could tell that the colors were over saturated, and in the same lighting conditions we could still use the Transform whereas the Zio needed to be shaded to be used.  The display also has responsiveness issues.  We often found ourselves having to select something multiple times before our input was registered, much like you would have to do on resistive touchscreens.  Another drawback is that it does not support multitouch, a feature we have grown accustomed to even in entry level smartphones.

At just 3.7 oz the Sanyo Zio feels incredibly light in the hand.  This is nice because the device easily slips into your pocket without being noticed, but at the same time makes it feel cheap.  The lightness is likely due to the heavy use of plastic- in fact the total use of plastics.  It is nearly an ounce lighter than Sprint’s HTC Hero, a similarly sized device with a smaller display.

The Sanyo Zio feels incredibly light in the hand


You can compare the Sanyo Zio with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

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Smartphone Palm Pixi webOS Review

October 7th, 2010

I started using Palm devices back in 1997 with the Pilot 1000 and then spent several years moving through a full lineup of Palm devices. I still have a few Palm devices, including the Centro and Treo Pro. I purchased a Palm Pre on the day they were released last year, but had to return it because I just did not have a great Sprint signal and found the hardware to be a bit weak with a wobbly display. I found the operating system to be fantastic while app support was weak at that time. I asked several questions in the PreCentral.net forums and received some excellent responses from the readers there. With the Pre coming soon to Verizon Wireless with a MiFi capability I am going to take a serious look at the devices again because I have a special place in my heart for the Palm name. This week here on Nokia Experts I am taking a look at two Palm webOS device (the Pre and Pixi), the operating system, some capabilities & functionality, a quick comparison to S60 and Maemo, and some closing thoughts.

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Samsung Vibrant

September 18th, 2010

We’ve been spending some quality time with Samsung’s Galaxy S phone lineup for the past few weeks, and our most recent candidate has been the Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile. Just like the Samsung Captivate for AT&T we reviewed last week, the Vibrant is stacked with a Super AMOLED screen, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5-megapixel camera with 720p video, and Android 2.1. In fact, the Samsung Vibrant is nearly identical to the Captivate, save a few minor architectural differences and preloaded content. Let’s just say James Cameron must be grinning and frolicking about like a little schoolgirl who just won the spelling bee, for T-Mobile hawks Avatar on the Samsung Vibrant like no tomorrow.

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Samsung Epic 4G

August 18th, 2010

Samsung Epic 4G

Samsung Epic 4G Review

Description

The Samsung Epic 4G is Sprint’s second smartphone with WiMAX.

This Android OS device is well supplied with other cutting-edge features too, a 1 GHz processor and a Super AMOLED touchscreen.

It has a 4-inch, WVGA display and a landscape-oriented sliding keyboard.

The Epic 4G sports a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera as well as a VGA front-facing one for video conferencing.

Quick Specs

Operating System: Google Android OS 2.1
Processor: 1 GHz
Memory: 16 GB microSD Card Pre-installed
Screen Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels (WVGA)
Screen Size: 4.3 Inch
Keyboard Type: On-screen, QWERTY
Communications: Bluetooth, CDMA, EVDO, Wi-Fi, WiMAX
Meda Type: microSD, microSDHC
Camera Resolution: 5.0 megapixels
GPS: Yes
Dimensions: 4.9 x 2.5 x 0.6 inches
Weight: 5.5 ounces
Battery Type: 1500 mAh battery
Battery: 1500 mAh battery
Release Date: 8/31/2010

Price Comparison

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