Mobile moves fast; nowhere is this more evident than in high-end phones like the Droid X or iPhone 4. However, as premium phones become cheaper and more feature packed, low-end phones like the Reality begin to blur the lines between smartphone and feature phone.
The Samsung Reality is a feature phone on Verizon. Like many of the other feature phones on Verizon, it has an all-plastic body, but it also has a very distinct design that separates it from the rest of Big Red's lineup. The phone is a black slab of plastic with three buttons on the front-a call, back, and end button. The front is also home to a small 3-inc h 240x400 resistive touchscreen. The whole thing is lined with a maroon or blue chrome band. The back is houses a 3.2 megapixel camera and small mirror for self-portraits.
Let's begin with the screen. The screen is small but adequate for the size of the phone, and it's very easy to reach elements on any part of it. The display is resistive, so it won't offer the same kind of responsiveness as a capacitive touchscreen like on the iPod Touch or Droid lineup. Despite this, I was shocked at how well it worked; it's incredibly responsive to touch for a resistive screen. You don't have to apply much force to scroll through menus or select items. The screen also provides haptic feedback, a slight vibration, when you touch an element or scroll.
The three buttons below the screen are slightly curved and have an edge that sticks out at you. They provide plenty of space for big fingers. All three feel very solid and provide fantastic tactile feedback, but the middle button felt slightly hollow and cheaper than the call and end buttons. The buttons are fairly straightforward; the call button places a call or takes you to a Recent Calls page, the back button takes you to the last screen you were at, and the end button takes you back to the home screen. The end button will also end any applications that are running and hang up if you're in a call.
The chrome band around the front of the phone is less tacky than I was anticipating. Instead of being a pure, unadulterated shade of silver, the band is instead subtly colored a red or blue hue. The red is much more pronounced than the blue; the blue just seems like a darker silver.
The left side of the phone is home to a standard microUSB port that's used for charging or transferring data. The port is covered with a firm plastic flap, like most other feature- and dumbphones on the market. The left side also houses a classy-looking volume rocker; essentially a typical black rocker with a bit of silver inset into the middle. The rocker feels a bit mushy, but not annoyingly so. Finally, there's also an unlock button near the bottom.
The right side has an minSD card slot covered by the same flap as the microUSB port. It also has an odd voice control/speaker phone rocker on the side. It seems a bit strange that they separated this into two different buttons, but it aids in creating a symmetrical look to the sides of the phone. Lastly, there's a one-stage camera button parallel with the unlock button on the bottom.
The only thing on the top of the phone is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The bottom is unmarked except for a small hole for the mic.
The back of the phone is black or red, depending on what model you bought. It has a neat fishnet pattern screen printed onto the back. The top and bottom of the back have small bumps that lift the phone a little bit and prevent the camera from touching whatever surface it's sitting on. Speaking of the camera, it's a fairly typical 3.2 megapixel shooter. Next to that, there's a small, slightly convex mirror that Samsung says is for self-portraits. It seems fairly useless given how tiny it is, but it works for the occasional shot.
The biggest feature of this phone is, of course, its full QWERTY keyboard. The keys are flat and arranged in rows; it's slightly uncomfortable to type on because of how little space there is between keys. Despite this, the keys feel very nice. They're coated in soft-touch plastic which makes it virtually impossible for your fingers to slip while typing on it.
Battery life is very good for a touch screen phone like this. I average about two full days on a single charge with some moderate web browsing.
The camera is a nice perk, but only takes so-so pictures. Like most other phone camera, the Reality blows out highlights and creates pictures with fairly lifeless colors. I found that they're quite blurry when zoomed in, and the noise quickly becomes evident in dark pictures.
As a whole, the phone feels very solid for a feature phone. It has practically no give when pressing down or squeezing on it, and only creaks a little bit. The sliding keyboard gives a nice click when you open it, but as a whole the sliding mechanism is disappointing. It opens slightly when holding the phone normally in portrait mode. It feels especially cheap when compared to other high-end sliders like the Droid.
Despite coming at such a cheap price ($20 with a new two-year contract), the Samsung Reality feels less like a feature phone and more like a fledgling high-end phone.
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