We open up Verizon Wireless' new dual-hinge phone, the carrier's update to the SCH-U740. Can it compete with all the new consumer QWERTY phones?
Review summary of the Samsung Alias:
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 Clearly, there were issues with the Samsung SCH-U740, which is why Verizon Wireless essentially re-released the phone a year later as the Samsung Alias. But the only improvements this phone has seen are cosmetic, and slight at best. The interface is still troubling, and though it still has the same great call quality as its predecessor, the messaging features haven't seen any improvement. This phone should be a messaging powerhouse, ready to compete as a smaller, more clever competitor to the bulky Sidekick family, but ends up in the shadow of the carriers other consumer QWERTY phones. In the year since we saw the original, the Samsung Alias has not improved, and we wouldn't be surprised to see this phone being discontinued soon. Release: April 2008. Price: $80.
Pros: Unique, slim design. Good call quality.
Cons: Interface is not made for messaging. E-mail costs a lot extra. Low-res screen hampers Web browsing. Video quality is poor. No accessories.
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Full Samsung Alias Review:
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Design
Being a part of Verizon Wireless' growing consumer QWERTY phone portfolio, the Alias is a repainted version of the Samsung SCH-U740 that we reviewed over a year ago, now coming in a silver hue color. The keyboard has been slightly retooled, though we found it almost as crowded as the original. Still, the paint scheme helps differentiate the digits from the letters. Switching the phone from portrait to landscape modes will also stop some multimedia functions, making the dual-hinge design less attractive. For what it's worth, the Alias is however the slimmest consumer QWERTY phone in Verizon Wireless' portfolio.
Calling - Very good
Call quality on the Alias is very good, with clean sounding calls that only suffer from slight digitizing. Reception is a bit disappointing, with EV-DO reception at 1-2 bars, while 1XRTT reception was much stronger, at 3-4 bars. The speakerphone could be a bit louder for our tastes, but sounds accurate, whether used for calls or as a tiny music speaker.
The phone features robust calling options, including Bluetooth and speaker-independent voice dialing. We found the contact list lacking, with no dedicated address or URL fields, and no way to add additional fields to a contact. Dialing on the Alias turned out to be a slightly better experience, with the improved look of the number keys. Still, entering phone numbers into our address book while the phone was open in landscape mode was difficult, requiring a head-tilt to read the digits properly.
Samsung promises 3.5 hours of battery life, and we were pleased that the phone exceeded that promise with almost 4 hours of talk time, but an hour or so more would have been truly impressive.
Messaging - Good
Messaging on the Alias is good, but it should be a much better experience. For advanced messaging, the phone comes preset for AIM, Yahoo, and MSN instant messaging, but the fun stops right there. Compared to other messaging phones in its price range, Verizon Wireless' proprietary solution makes e-mail practically useless on this phone and $20/month is also a hefty price to pay for something that doesn't work very well. We won't delve into the dirty details, other than saying that whatever you do, don't buy this phone for sending and receiving e-mail.
Overall, the messaging experience feels like a keyboard slapped onto a plain-old VZW phone, when it should be more focused on die-hard texters. The keyboard on the Alias was also a bit cramped for comfortable typing. The keys run close the ridge at the right end of the phone and are small enough that you'll have to keep your eyes on your fingers. We did like one feature that Samsung seems to have borrowed from the T-Mobile Dash. To use a punctuation mark, you can simply hold down the appropriate key, instead of pressing shift. All QWERTY phones should work this way.
Camera - Mediocre
Pictures taken with the Alias' 1.3-megapixel camera were horrendous and blurry with lots of noise, though color wasn't as bad as pictures from other cameraphones we've used. The external screen can be used as a viewfinder for self-portraits, which is a nice feature. For an unknown reason, however, Samsung has removed the autofocus we found in the original SCH-U740. Photos can be sent by MMS directly from the camera application, but it doesn't look like Verizon Wireless wants you to spread the poor photos to more capable photo viewers via USB or archived on the phone's limited memory for that matter. And, we don't see any reason to shell out the extra bucks required to unlock those possibilities, either.
Multimedia - Mediocre
V Cast services will only work on the Alias when the phone is opened in landscape mode, but because of the wider aspect ratio, this is probably the better choice for watching video. Regardless of whether the video was full screen, video quality was disappointing and had obvious compression artifacts. Streaming was smooth, except when reception problems took us out of EV-DO range, and buffering times were usually only a few seconds to start. We could buy music videos, but at $2.50 for a small, low-quality video handled by a poor video manager, we wouldn't buy two.
Tracks purchased through the music store at $2 each (twice what Sprint charges) are also available to your PC at no additional charge, but the memory card, USB cable and even the music transfer software to get files onto your desktop will have to be purchased separately. Once we purchased a song, it downloaded very quickly, usually in under a minute for a 4-minute track, but the entire process of managing purchases and downloaded music is at best confusing.
The hardest part about using the Web browser is finding it in the first place. It is hidden under the "Get It Now" menu, under the "News & Info" submenu, as if Verizon Wireless doesn't want you to know that the phone can browse the Web. Figuring out how to enter a URL was just as difficult, requiring the browser to load a separate page, which took a few seconds. The browsing experience is however seriously hampered by an outdated resolution (176 by 220 pixels) for a 2.2-inch screen. Our own homepage even crashed the phone's browser.
GPS navigation - Good
GPS is handled by VZ Navigator, and reception was nothing special. We were able to find ourselves in Manhattan, and maps and directions downloaded quickly from the VZ Navigator servers.
Price and availability
The Samsung Alias is available from Verizon Wireless for $80 with a two-year contract and an instant online discount of $50.
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