Samsung Alias 2 U750 Review

Introduction:

When the Samsung Alias U740 was first released two years ago, we were intrigued by its dual-hinge design and QWERTY keyboard.  Unfortunately after using it, we felt the keyboard buttons were too small and the lack of a good display and camera also made it trail behind the LG enV.  Now the manufacturer has reworked the design and has come out with the Samsung Alias 2 U750.  Most of our original gripes have been addressed, as the keyboard uses E-ink technology with larger buttons, the display is now QVGA, and the camera is 2MP.  But with the enV3 due out any time now, how will this phone stack up? Let’s take a look.

In the retail package you'll find:

Design:

The new Samsung Alias 2 U750 is larger and slightly heavier than the original, but that is a good thing.  Where the original Alias felt cheap and flimsy, the Alias 2 feels sturdy and durable.  The color is also a more attractive gunmetal gray, which gives it a more professional appearance.  Located on the front is the slightly larger 1.3” 128x128 pixel display, 2MP camera, and music control buttons.  Along the left side is the 2.5mm headset jack, charging port, volume rocker and voice command button, with the power button, hold/lock button, and microSDHC card slot on the right, which supports up to 16GB memory cards.




You can compare the Samsung Alias 2 U750 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The flip can be opened in either portrait or landscape fashion, and the hinge feels durable and opens smoothly.  The internal display is 2.6” QVGA and is capable of reproducing 262K colors.  It is currently the largest display of any Verizon flip phone, and images and text look amazing on it.  Located on either side are stereo speakers, which are used for ringtones, music, and speakerphone, but only the top speaker is used as the earpiece while in calls.

The most fascinating feature of the device is the E-ink keyboard, which Verizon calls “Magic Key”.  The technology has been around for several years, but until recently hasn’t found it’s way to the cell phone market.  With E-ink, the keyboard buttons can be mapped dynamically, which means they could be used for any function.  When the Alias 2 is opened in standard portrait mode, the keyboard shows a d-pad and left & right softkeys at the top, with numeric dialpad at the bottom, as well as functions keys for the camera, speakerphone, voice command, messaging, Bluetooth, alarm clock, games, and voicemail.  When the phone is opened in landscape mode, the buttons immediately change their layout to face that direction.  When going into messaging, they change to a full QWERTY keyboard, and you can also cycle through numbers and symbols.  The keyboard buttons on the Samsung Alias 2 U750 are larger than the original, which makes dialing and messaging easier and with fewer mistakes, even though they have a plastic feel to them and are close together.

Software / Features:

Four themes are included on the Samsung Alias 2 U750: Slick Black, White, Gliss, and My Place.  The My Place theme is factory-selected as the default, and shows an image that looks like a classroom wall with animated icons for the different menus.  While this is colorful, we feel that the Gliss theme looks best on the Alias 2, and you can change the menu layout between Tab, List, and Grid view.  Other customizations include the wallpaper, clock style, and menu fonts.



The phonebook on the Alias 2 and Trace are identical, which allows for up to 1000 contacts to be saved with their name and contact numbers, but it also allows you to save a person’s IM screen name, street, city, state, zip code, and country.  Once a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 999 speed dial locations.



Because of the E-ink QWERTY keyboard, the Samsung Alias 2 U750 is ideal for those individuals who like to send a lot of messages.  The messaging menu hasn’t changed that much however, and still allows you to send and receive text, picture and video messages.  Once nice addition is that you can have messages threaded by Contact, which groups all the sent and received messages by a contact in one list view.  Of course Mobile IM is available, as is Mobile Email (for a monthly fee).



The 2MP camera is also a dramatic improvement over the previous model.  Images we took outside had excellent color representation, sharp edges, good detail, and accurate white balance.  Interior images only came out good if there was plenty of light, as low-light images were blurry due to the slow shutter speed and lack of flash.  Videos can also be recorded, but are limited to the mediocre 176x144 resolution.




Since the Alias 2 is not designed as music-centric phone, like the Samsung Trance U490 or LG Chocolate 3, it comes with the standard Verizon “red” music player, which categorizes your music files into genres, artists, albums, songs, and playlists.  Music playback through the stereo speakers was adequate, though lacking in bass and not as loud as with the Chocolate 3 or Trance.  We also experienced a lot of background distortion when using the Samsung Alias 2 U750 with our Motorola HT820 and S9 Stereo Bluetooth headsets, though music sounded fine with our 2.5mm wired earbuds.

Other software features include Mobile Web 2.0, VCast Video, VZ Navigator, ringtone and game downloads.  Phone tools include voice command, calculator, calendar, three alarm clocks, stopwatch, and world clock.  All of which can be used with the display in portrait or landscape mode.

Performance:

The Call Quality of the Samsung Alias 2 U750 was quite impressive, about equal to the Samsung Trance  U490 and  LG Chocolate 3.  Voices through the earpiece speaker sounded clear and natural, lacking any static or background noise, but there was a slight distortion if turned up to the highest volume level.  People that we called, who were using a landline, said our voice also sounded clear and natural on their end.  The speakerphone is also loud, but it too had a bit of distortion at the highest volume setting.  Reception was good, as we averaged between 2-3 bars of 1X and EVDO around South FL and didn’t drop any calls.  The Alias 2 uses the same 880mAh battery as the Trance and also achieved 5 hours of continuous talk time on a full charge.

Conclusion:

Unlike the original Alias, the new Alias 2 is an all-around winner for the heavy text messenger.  The E-ink keyboard is what truly sets this device apart from the competition, as there is a definite cool factor involved, even though the buttons are still packed close together.  The internal display is a joy to use and the camera takes good 2MP images, despite it not have auto focus.  Music quality could be better, but since this isn’t a music-centric phone, this is to be expected.  Both the call quality and reception were equal to most other mid-to-high-end Verizon phones, despite the slight distortion at high volume levels.  If you are looking for the coolest QWERTY phone for Verizon, without going to the touchscreen Versa or a smartphone, then the Samsung Alias 2 U750 is for you.

Samsung Alias 2 Video Review: