Samsung Moment Review

[dannzeman]

The Moment is the second Android device to hit Sprint, after the HTC Hero, but the first to have a QWERTY sliding keyboard. It’s running Android 1.5 (a.k.a. Cupcake) and has a few hardware features not seen on Sprint devices before, the most notable being the AMOLED screen and the 800MHz Arm11 processor. It includes a 2GB microSD card, microUSB connector, and 3.5mm headset jack, which is finally becoming the standard. Will the combination of all these features be the answer to your prayers? Keep reading to find out...

Hardware

The first thing I notice about the Moment when I hold it is its size. This thing is a brick. The actual dimensions aren’t that big but the squareness of it makes it feel bigger than it actually is, and it definitely has some weight to it. This gives a sense of quality that you just don’t get with lighter devices and this is certainly built very well. After a full week of use I’ve not noticed any creaking, or wobbling of the slider mechanism.

This is one of the first devices that has an AMOLED screen. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a new screen technology that everyone has been raving about but in reality is only slightly better than what we currently have. The colors are supposed to be more vibrant and its supposed to less energy. The best implementation of AMOLED I’ve seen is in the ZuneHD. The Moment’s screen is nice, but I can’t tell a difference between it or the screen on the HTC Touch Pro 2, or the Hero, or the Pre.

The camera on the Moment is a 3.2 mega-pixel with flash unit that does record video in the .3gp format at two different resolutions, 176 X 144 and 352 X 288, both at 15fps. The device does have a dedicated hardware key for the camera, which is nice, but it takes 6 seconds before the camera opens. Six seconds can seem like a lifetime when you’re trying to catch that expression on a baby’s face, an accident on the side of the road (assuming you’re the passenger), or that special someone you’re trying to capture to submit to peopleofwalmart.com. One way to speed this up is to use the app short as it only takes about half the time as using the hardware button. The flash is a very welcome feature but it’s strange that there’s not auto flash setting. You have to dig down into the settings to turn it on or off. Below are a few shots taken with the camera. The first is no flash in a room lit by incandescent bulb, the second is in a dark room with only flash, and the third is taken outside on a cloudy day.

Besides this being an Android device, the keyboard is what initially got me excited about the Moment. Unfortunately, it leaves a lot to be desired. The layout is just strange. After a weeks worth of use I still can’t get used to it. The ’space’ key divides the bottom row of letters and every time I want to switch to upper case I press the function key instead. I think the ‘fn’ key and the ’shift’ key should switch positions. I also don’t like where the ‘return’ key is because that’s where I’m used to going for ‘delete’. But, I do like the number row and a key for searching. The back light is nice but it would be much nicer to be able to adjust the length of time it stays on. It turns off after only about 5 seconds. The keys are large enough and spaced out enough from one another that I don’t think anyone will have a problem typing on this keyboard. For those of you who can get used to the layout I think you’ll really like it. Its just not for me.

The optical trackball is a new feature I’ve never used before. I like its design and what it does for the look of the device but its actual operation isn’t as good as a real trackball. I noticed this the most when trying to replace the cursor while editing text. Moving up and down between lines of text is simple but moving just one or two characters is difficult because there’s no feel for how fast you move your thumb and the correlation to how many characters it moves the cursor.

One last thing I need to discuss is access to the microSD card. To get to it you have to take the back cover off and remove the battery. I hate this because when I put the card back in I have to wait for the phone to boot up. This won’t be a problem for most people because its not very often that you’ll have to remove the microSD card. But, when you do it is a pain.

Software

Cupcake runs very well with a 800MHz processor powering it. Switching between applications is a breeze and there’s absolutely no lag when opening or closing the notifications or applications slider. This device does include all the Sprint bloatware such as the NASCAR app, NFL Mobile Live, Sprint Navigation and SprintTV, which is to be expected. I would love to see this device get rooted so we can remove these apps. I’ve read the HTC Hero runs like a champ after these apps are removed and I assume the same would be true for the Moment as well.

There is a rather large bug with this device that has been mentioned on a lot of Android forums. Android 1.5 does not have support for aGPS built in. What this means is that the accuracy is poor and the refresh rate is slow. HTC managed to get this to work on the Hero with 1.5 and I wish Samsung would have done the same for the Moment. Using GPS is just frustrating on this device. Map locations are off by 30-100 meters at times and can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes to update your location while driving, all this while being connected to 5+ satellites.

Anyone who has used Android before is probably used the voice search feature using the Google Search Widget. Well, I hope you weren’t too attached to it because the Moment doesn’t have it. It has a voice control button that uses software by Naunce but the accuracy isn’t that great, even after going through the 15 step adaptation process.

Conclusion

Once the Moment gets the update to 2.0, which should fix the aGPS problem, I could probably live with this device. I’m sure after a few more weeks of use I could get used to the keyboard and find third party apps to take care of any settings or customizing I’d want. This is especially true once the device gets root access. I just really wish it had an LED for notifications. I like being able to tell if I have emails, texts, or missed calls without having to unlock my device. The same goes for the battery charge status. The Moment is available for $179 on a 2 year contract. That’s not a bad price, but with the Pre at $150, the Pixi at $100, and the Hero at $179 as well, there’s lots of choices out there. Don’t be afraid to try out a couple before you make a decision.

Visit the blog post for pictures. http://www.dannzeman.com/2009/11/18/...amsung-moment/

[dannzeman]

Post updated to include full review.

[Dr.8820]

i have to admit that it's a solid phone. the wife loves it.

[dannzeman]

Originally Posted by Dr.8820

i have to admit that it's a solid phone. the wife loves it.

Its not bad, but there are a lot of things they could to do improve it.

[clockcycle]

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1 of the best Android phones available in the US, November 9, 2009
By W. Serrano
Form Factor: thick, heavy, dense feeling, giving it a high quality look and feel. Mostly plastic, it's built of high quality shiny and soft touch rubbery matte plastic as well. Full QWERTY makes the phone thicker than most, but having both is like having your cake and eating it, too. Is it the most beatiful cell phone in America? Probably not. Is is one of the best built and most solid high quality feeling phones you can pretty much count on to stick around for your 2 year contract? Absolutely. When it comes to cellphones, Samsung, Nokia, LG, and HTC are, hands down, the best there is at what they do: make solid long lasting phones.
Touch screen: brilliant AMOLED screen displays brilliant colors, doesn't need much battery life, and just produces eye popping visuals. Many reviews are constantly talking up how amazing the screen is on the new Moto Droid on VZW, but this screen is as good with color and touch response as the Droid's and iPhone's, if not better. The touch sensitive home, back, and menu keys could be more sensitive, but with the nature of Android, that could be addressed.
QWERTY: one of the best out there. Reviewers on line complain about its "odd button locations," but listen to them carefully, and then listen to their other reviews on other fully QWERTY keyboard having cell phones... they'll say the exact same thing about them. That's because they got it in the mail that day from the carrier for a quick review, they've got a day or two to spend with it, and then they have to ship it back so it can go to another reviewer. And most video reviews are like 10 minutes long tops, so NO REVIEWER would really ever get to spend time using the keyboard long enough to get a feel for any full QWERTY, let alone the Moment's. Its keys are spaced a little differently than a lot of other ones, but if you'll be owning the phone, or any other full QWERTY keyboarded phone, you'll get the hang of it. The keys, to me, while different, are pretty logically spaced. Also, you'll have full access to a full virtual QWERTY both in landscape and in portrait modes, as the phone has an accelerometer, which means that even with the keyboard closed, you'll be able to flip the phone on its side in landscape and type on the screen instead. Very, very, very convient for having to type out a long email or fill in lots of fields if you're filling out a form on line or something.
PROCESSOR: it's faster than an iPhone 3GS in my opinion, which is, one of the fastest responding cellphones ever available in America. If you've had any other Android phone running on the classic Android phone having 528MHz processors in the Hero, G1 (Dream), MyTouch 3G (Magic), Droid Eris (pretty much just a different bodied CDMA Hero for VZW), you'll notice a significant difference when it comes to response time, web page rendering, texting, screen response, app downloads, up loads... you name it. It's really fast, like crazy fast.
OS: great! Android is easy to use, very logically programmed, and very powerful with its open source platform. Eventually it will be the #1 smartphone OS. Although it doesn't have as many apps as iPhone, it didn't have the luxury of coming out almost 2 & 1/2 years ago, either. Plus, being open sourced, the apps available actually do things, and can be run at the same time. For instance, you can be streaming a song in Pandora while surfing the web; all of a sudden, your IM app, which is running in the background alerts you, you switch to it without losing your space on line on the webpage to respond; suddenly a song you've never heard of comes on in Pandora; you can immediately switch to Shazaam or Midomi and identify it, get info on it, and download it within seconds. Although all that is possible on an iPhone, as well as other phones already on the market, the way the Android OS handles it can't be matched. On the iPhone you'd never be able to Shazaam or Midomi any track streaming from Pandora or your iTunes playlists. While IM apps on iPhone can now just recently alert you, you have to close whatever you're doing if you're in another app to answer, close the IM app after responding, and re-open whatever you're doing before you got the IM, all while not being able to stream any music streaming app because it can't be open while using any other app. That gets old, and while the iPhone is the most popular phone in the world, people who have it either have another real smartphone with multitasking capabilities, or don't know what a real smartphone is and should do. Period.
Battery life: average.
Bottom Line: Sprint/Nextel has the most dependable 3G EV-DO network in the country. Speeds are awesome and you're rarely gonna drop a call within the network. Getting the Simply Everything plan for $99.99 a month is a steal; you can do everything the phone can do unlimited, and know that at the end of the month when you get your bill, you'll only pay $100 plus taxes and other fees.

[clockcycle]

Altho the post above is not my review, I thought it was a good unbias comparison.

[kennyidaho]

So are you sticking with the Hero or Moment?

[dannzeman]

Originally Posted by kennyidaho

So are you sticking with the Hero or Moment?

I returned the Moment after less than two weeks. The GPS problem was a total deal breaker. I can't wait for an update from Sprint or Samsung for that. If Samsung had polished Android like HTC did, or it came with 1.6 or 2.0 then I probably would have kept it because after long enough I'm sure I would have gotten used to the hardware keyboard. So, needless to say, I'm back on the Hero.