Considering a Moment for the kiddies...

[TheHoard]

Hey guys, as the title states I'm thinking about getting a couple of Samsung Moment phones for my 2 boys and I'm curious to hear the opinions of the Moment from people who actually own one. I'm an Evo 4G owner myself and I want to get my boys on the Android platform because they love the games and all that, but the Evo would definitely be too much for them, and I've already had to replace 3 phones through insurance between the 2 of them and the Evo is just too expensive to deal with that. Plus they really like their slide-out keyboard.

I was at first looking at the HTC Hero but I've heard the Moment is a bit faster and better. I also know the Moment 2 is supposed to be on the horizon, but does anybody know exactly when it's going to be available? How do you all feel about the Moment versus other comparable Android phones? How do you think the phone would fare for a teenager? Please don't mention the upcoming Galaxy because that would be too much for them also, and it doesn't have a keyboard. Remember, their phones will most likely get destroyed one way or another (thank God for insurance).

Thanks in advance for your input!

[Carla]

Honestly you are probably going to get mostly Pro-Moment opinions in the Moment forum. That being said, I own one, used it when I first got it and then got a Hero and never touched it again. I did miss the screen at first, it is very pretty, but other then that I missed nothing about the Moment including the keyboard. I didn't see much of a performance difference at all, and I just liked the Hero better out of the two. If they need a KB it isn't a bad choice, but not one I would make. I agree with forgoing the Evo, especially if they have been known to break things easily.

[subprime]

I got one for my 12 year old about 3 weeks ago and he loves it. We went back and forth trying to decide between the Hero and the Moment but the keyboard was the deciding factor. He had the Instinct and just did not want to deal with an on-screen keyboard again considering he mostly uses it for texting. My concern was that I've read alot about how Samsung abandons phones when a newer one comes out and we experienced it first hand with the Instinct. If it was for me I probably would have went with the Hero.

[TheHoard]

I know this probably isn't the best place to get an unbiased opinion on the Moment, like in the Evo forum we defend it to the bitter end, but I trust most members here to be honest. I'm just really tied between the Moment and the Hero now. I went to the Sprint store and played with both of them and it made my decision even harder. They both have their pluses and minuses.

I guess the Moment has an AMOLED screen right? I compared the two side by side and the Hero screen actually looks better to me, more crisp and vibrant. I also really like HTC Sense as opposed to the "vanilla" Moment interface. I like the fact that the Moment has a flash for the camera, and like I said before, the keyboard is a huge plus for the kids because they text A LOT. I'm talking like around 12,000 monthly for the oldest. Then again that could be a drawback because maybe they would wear out the keyboard long before the phone. The Moment has a faster CPU, but in terms of real world performance does it make that much of a difference?

Thinking about what matters most to a teenager (texting, camera, games, youtube, etc) overall the Moment just seems like a better fit. They could probably care less about HTC Sense, even though I love it. I would just take them to the Sprint store and let them try them both out but I want it to be a surprise. Dare I ask for anyone else's opinion of the Hero in the Samsung forum? (BTW thanks for your input Carla, and your bravery.)

[Carla]

From my experience, the screen on the Moment is much more vibrant than the Hero. I did miss the screen at first, but not for long. I don't have big hands or fingers, so texting on the Hero is nothing for me. I text a lot, not 12,000 a month but I send my fair share. I had my phone rooted obviously, and I ran Fresh Rom (I don't remember which one, it was a 2.1 ROM) and I honestly didn't flash it to much once I got on that ROM. I never had to reset either which was very nice. Real world the moment did NOT feel faster at all compared to the Hero. The camera on the Moment is superior, I don't think there is much debate on that. Even though the Hero is 5mp it never felt like it to me. Like you said, they both have pluses and minuses. For me a Hard Keyboard isn't a big deal because I am great on a virtual KB, and having used an Instinct the Keyboards are better on both devices (Virtual wise) and you can change the KB to let them use Swype or BetterKeyboard (or any number of other choices). It is all up to them to make it their own ya know. Are you going to be buying outright or renewing? I know the prices are really good on both right now, so at least that is a positive. If they are mainly going to be texting, playing the occasional game and a bit of web browsing you really can't go wrong with either.

You're welcome for the response BTW.

[TheHoard]

Going to be adding 2 lines to my current plan, so buying new. There's only a $20 difference in the price for each, so that's a non-issue. I'd say 90% of their usage is going to be texting, playing games, using the camera, just generally screwing around. They won't browse the web much I'm sure, but they may use a Facebook app or Myspace. One thing I forgot to mention about the Moment is the capacitive buttons which I like a lot better than the mechanical buttons on the Hero.

Ugh, I know choice is a good thing, but sometimes it's a royal PITA! I'll think some more on it, maybe read a few more reviews, and see exactly how much customization can be done with the Moment.

[Carla]

The mechanical buttons are actually one thing I miss from the Hero, I always hit the capacitive ones on accident

[JCSands]

Just a quick .02 concerning the camera. The 2.1 update ruined the camcorder recording quality, so if they like to take videos and put them on YouTube or something, they'll get better results recording on low quality rather than high; at least until (if) they do an update.

[chibucks]

Originally Posted by JCSands

Just a quick .02 concerning the camera. The 2.1 update ruined the camcorder recording quality, so if they like to take videos and put them on YouTube or something, they'll get better results recording on low quality rather than high; at least until (if) they do an update.

there's a fix for this on the sdx-developers site. codecs and lib updates...

[TheHoard]

Thanks for everybody's input. I ended up taking them to Radio Shack with me and they got to see the difference between the Moment and the Hero. One of them picked the Hero, and the other picked the Moment, so I didn't have to decide after all. They're both stoked to have Android phones though. Both phones are great so they're happy and I'm happy. Now I just need to try to pry the phones out of their hands long enough to root them...