The newest Windows Mobile slab phone on AT&T is actually a slider. Find out why going Pro made all the difference in our Samsung Propel Pro review.
Review summary of the Samsung Propel Pro:
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 For Windows Mobile fans, we can easily recommend the Samsung Propel Pro, since its definitely our favorite WinMo device from Samsung (to check out Samsung's recent full-QWERTY WinMo phones, click here). It's a simple, yet powerful device all around. Don't let the lack of a touchscreen fool you. The Propel Pro still has all the powerful messaging and scheduling capabilities of Windows Mobile, and some of the fastest network speeds we've seen on AT&T's 3G network. We even like the design, with the chrome shell, the slide out QWERTY keyboard and the smooth joystick action. Where Windows Mobile stumbles, the Samsung Propel Pro stumbles, especially in multimedia playback and Web browsing. More adventurous and, dare we say, stylish users might want to wait for the Nokia E71x, a superthin Symbian smartphone that will offer similar capabilities, including MS Exchange support. But Windows Mobile fans looking for a slab alternative need look no further. Release: April 2009. Price: $150.
Pros: Cool design is thick, but still compact. Easy one-handed use. Solid calling and e-mail features. Super fast network speeds, especially as a tethered modem.
Cons: Chunky compared to smartphone competition, tough to open. Still using Internet Explorer? Really? Proprietary connector for USB and headphones.
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Full Samsung Propel Pro Review:
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Design - Very Good
We first saw the design for the Samsung Propel Pro more than a year ago on our trip to Korea, when it was being called the Samsung Sangria, so we were actually surprised when we saw the original Samsung Propel, as we always thought of this phone as a business messaging phone. In fact, we think this device works much better as a Windows Mobile phone than as a simple carrier phone. We prefer the polished gunmetal shell and the more professional look of the device. We especially like the new joystick, which floated smoothly beneath our thumb, feeling more like a PlayStation Portable's analog joystick than a simple flick-point. The white ring around the joystick lights up different colors, too, say to let you know when the phone is done charging or when messages await.
Closed, the Samsung Propel Pro is a stout little phone. It isn't thin enough, but with its sliding form, it's acceptably compact. The non-touchscreen version of Windows Mobile 6.1 is, in our opinion, the easiest version to use, so even with the keyboard shut, the Samsung Propel Pro was easy to navigate and use one-handed. Samsung has a few options for the Today screen to mess with the theme and layout a bit, but stick with the default, since it looks the best and functions well.
The display on the Samsung Propel Pro looks good, but it isn't anything special. The screen seems small against the phone's giant Frankenstein monster forehead. Too bad we couldn't get a premium model with a larger, VGA screen, like the display on the HTC Fuze. Also, the phone lacks a good spot to grip for the slider action. There's no lip to press, and it's a large phone to manipulate, so we sometimes had to two-hand it.
Calling – Very Good
For calls, the Samsung Propel Pro performed very well. Callers said we sounded clean and clear, and conversations sounded good on our end as well. Reception was always good, and we usually found at least 3 bars of service on AT&T's 3G network in New York City and Suburban New Jersey. For battery life, the Samsung Propel Pro came in a bit under our expectations. We got about 5.5 hours of talk time, but Samsung promises 6.5 hours. Even 5.5 hours was acceptable, but we're always looking for a power sipping smartphone.
We wish the calling screens were a bit more robust, as Samsung has been doing great work on their TouchWIZ phones, like the recent Samsung Impression. Windows Mobile is a very business affair, so features are useful, but a bit obscured. We had no trouble connecting 4 calls in a conference, once we figured out how to get the "Conference" option under the Menu to light up. Windows Mobile 6.1 does a great job keeping track of when you've spoken to a contact, but you have to know where to look for the best information.
Samsung uses Microsoft's Voice Commands for speaker independent voice dialing, and though we wish it wasn't strangely buried under the AT&T Globe key, it worked well in our tests nonetheless.
Messaging – Very Good
For messaging, the best options on the Samsung Propel Pro come from Microsoft, and the phone is much better as a business messaging tool than a casual e-mail device. Even basic text messaging fans will be happy to find threaded SMS messaging, so conversations are grouped together like an IM chat. Windows Mobile also does a great job helping us pluck contacts from our address book to use in messages. Everything is tightly integrated. Instant Messaging is the biggest disappointment on the phone, as the client is a simple app for access to AOL, MSN and Yahoo. We'd like to see Google Talk, and perhaps some more social networking services built in.
E-mail is much more impressive, especially if you pair the phone with a Microsoft Exchange Account. The mobile Outlook app can handle HTML e-mails, though HTML and e-mail attachments required us to jump through a few extra hoops and hit the "send / receive" button a couple extra times. We'd prefer if everything downloaded more efficiently to cut down on the extra steps. For non-corporate users, the built-in e-mail app and AT&T's XpressMail were both completely capable of automatically configuring all our extra accounts. No HTML for those e-mail apps, but they worked well nonetheless.
Typing on the Samsung Propel Pro's keys was quite comfortable. Samsung gives plenty of room to the keyboard, so our fingers didn't slam into the top of the slide, a problem we had on the Samsung Impression. The keys are a bit stiff, but they feel solid, and their shape lends to easy typing. We especially like that holding a key on the keyboard activates the symbol above. That's a trick we wish every small keyboard would use.
Scheduling and Productivity – Very Good
Like all Windows Mobile phones, the Samsung Propel does a nice job synchronizing with our Outlook calendar, especially since we use Microsoft Exchange for our work accounts. The phone keeps approaching appointments listed on the Today screen, so it was fairly easy to keep track. We wish the calendar looked better, as it's a bit wiry and dated looking, but highly functional.
For productivity, the Samsung Propel Pro comes with a slew of apps, none as valuable as the Office Mobile suite. Strangely, on non-touchscreen versions of Windows Mobile, you can't create a new Office document, but we had no trouble reading our existing Word and Excel docs. Beyond Office Mobile, there is a business card scanner app, and this worked okay, about 65% in our simple OCR tests. The phone also comes with a Mobile Banking app, though it didn't work with our bank, as well as an RSS reader.
For the Samsung Propel Pro, Samsung heard our pleas and included Internet Sharing, a very simple app for using the phone as a tethered modem for a laptop Internet connection. No extra software is required to use Internet Sharing. We tethered the phone to our Vista laptops and were quite impressed with the results. In speedtests, the Samsung Propel Pro propelled us to download speeds around 1.7Mbps, which is very impressive, near the top of what we see on the U.S. networks. If you can't get a good 3G signal, the Samsung Propel Pro also ups the ante on the older Samsung BlackJack phones with Wi-Fi networking.
Multimedia and Web browsing - Good
For multimedia and Web browsing, there were few surprises and nothing too impressive. You can browse through songs, as well as play and pause music, from the Today screen, but don't expect a satisfying music experience. Samsung has reskinned the Windows Media Player, but the interface is still very bare, and the features are lacking. Managing a library on a Windows Mobile phone is still a pain. Worst of all, though, is the lack of a real headphone jack. Samsung insists on using a proprietary all-in-one plug for power, USB and headphones, so you'll have to track down an adapter online or use stereo Bluetooth for a wireless headphone connection.
For video, the phone uses AT&T's Cellular Video service, which is mostly a collection of streaming clips with a few full episodes sprinkled in. It's hardly worth the hassle, unless you need to kill plenty of time. Clips were slow to load and didn't play through smoothly. Surprising, considering the super-fast network speeds we saw elsewhere on this phone.
Web browsing is still the biggest disappointment of Windows Mobile phones. Unless the manufacturer bundles a third party Web browser like Opera Mobile, the experience is always sub par. No luck on the Samsung Propel Pro, as Internet Explorer is the best you'll find. It does an acceptable job in a pinch, especially with mobile sites, but it doesn't fool anyone into believing it's a desktop grade browser.
Camera - Good
For the second time in a row, Samsung beats our admittedly low expectations for cameraphones. We liked the 3-megapixel shooter on the Samsung Impression. The 3-megapixel camera on the Samsung Propel Pro was almost on par with that camera, though not quite as bright. Where the Impression saw some advanced shooting modes, the Propel Pro gets an auto focus mechanism. This should have been a great help, but we had trouble locking onto a smaller subject in the foreground, as the camera always wanted to focus on what was behind.
The People Tree
The Hug
Flowering Tree
Good detail on all of these, and fairly accurate color. You can see the individual branches and flowers in the third shot, and read the sig for the statue in the second. Not bad.
Self Portrait
Out of Focus Flower
The second shot here is incorrectly focused because the camera locked onto the ground behind instead of the flower in front.
GPS Navigation - Good
We tested the turn-by-turn navigation on the Samsung Propel Pro and were pleased with the results. The phone seemed to take a bit longer to find us on our first run than we'd like, but once it had us locked in it held on tight. Navigation service was provided by AT&T Navigator, a TeleNav product. If you don't want to pay for the full navigation app, you can still use AT&T Maps, which is kind of like a Google Maps app, but less useful.
Price and availability
The Samsung Propel Pro is available now from AT&T, selling for $200 with a two-year contract. A $50 mail-in rebate is given when signing up for a qualifying plan.
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