Hands-on with the Samsung Blast

Filed under: Handsets, Features, Messaging, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE


As US carriers lean harder and harder on messaging, offering a plethora of QWERTY and otherwise messaging-enhanced (case in point) phones, unlimited messaging plans, and tighter email integration, we're liking what we're seeing. Needless to say, we've come a long way from the early days when BlackBerry 850s and Nokia 9200s ruled a fairly niche market, and the Samsung Blast personifies that reality. Put simply -- and messaging capabilities aside -- this is a very attractive phone. In fact, we got a couple compliments and questions about it just walking down the street with the phone to our ear. Of course, a large part of that can likely be attributed to the Blast's screaming pink backside -- but that backside is real metal, something you don't typically see of a phone at this price point. Besides the metal, other high-end features include a fairly robust email client, an ultra thin package, and the trick SureType keypad. We've never personally been able to get used to SureType, but folks that can should have no trouble adapting to this one; we were initially worried about the size of the keys and tactility issues, but we found that we were able to feel 'em out with our fat fingers pretty easily and we had no mistypes whatsoever. The 220 x 176 display and 1.3 megapixel cam are disappointments, but only because they feel mismatched to the solidity, feature set, and attractive design of the phone -- and for T-Mobile and Samsung, that's a very good problem to have considering the reasonable price point. Check out our full gallery below!

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