Mobile News

Release Date: April 22, 2010

$250 Retail
$50 with 2-year Verizon Contract + Online Discount

Battery

There is nothing too special about the Samsung Reality’s rechargeable lithium battery. Its 1080mAh battery can hold a 5-hour talk time and 12.5-day standby time, which is what most moderate phone users will experience.  As with the majority of other phones, the Reality will not last long when using its navigation or video streaming capabilities. However, users can separately purchase a 1600mAh battery that will give them longer use life between charges of 6-hour talk times and 21-day standbys. Potential Reality buyers should be aware that the battery back is difficult to open.

Memory

Although light to moderate cell phone users will get all they need from the Samsung Reality’s 100MB of internal memory, this phone does have the capability to support a 16GB micro SD card. For the price range of this phone, its memory is directly on par with comparable phone models from other cell phone brands.

Screen

While the Reality’s 3-inch LCD display screen is nothing to sneer at, the 200 x 400 pixel does not really stand up to other cell phones that have recently hit the market. Although, it still has decent color and saturation.  However, the video quality has surprised many users during HD playback but there is the downside of the HD mode is its intermittent frame drops. During “Normal” resolutions, Reality users will enjoy smooth video playing.

Form

This phone by Samsung comes in red and black, both of which are elegant and sleek. The standard 3-inch screen envelops the front of the phone, making the screen seem to appear larger than it actually is. Also included on the front of this phone is a “End/Power” button as well as “Clear/Back” rectangular button. The overall design is user-friendly, even for the most casual of cell phone users.

Controls

A nice feature to the Samsung Reality is its TouchWiz user interface that has seen some dramatic improvements over the past couple of years. Applications can be launched straight from the Widgets bar, which is totally customizable. Newer cell phone users not quite comfortable with the click-and-drag method can utilize Verizon’s grid interface option. While this phone features a QWERTY keyboard of four rows, it still has an overall spacious key layout.  On the side, users will find the audio jack, camera launcher, volume rocker, voice recognition, screen lock, and zoom key/speaker launcher.

Users can thank the Samsung Reality’s color saturated and sharp pictures to its 3.2 megapixel camera. Some of the camera’s features include story shot, night shot, and panoramic shot.  This in addition to its options for color and white balance affects.  Even though the quality of video is adequate, the lowest video resolution is only 176 x 144 pixels.  The lens of the camera also remains unprotected so it will need to be wiped clean before each use.

Other Features

•    VZ Navigator and GPS
•    Bing web search
•    Optional mobile email application
•    Polaris web browser