Samsung Alias U740 Review

The U740 from Verizon Wireless is Samsung’s first attempt of offering a phone with a QWERTY keypad, which happens to be in direct competition to LG’s enV (VX9900). While both phones offer a QWERTY design, that is where the similarities end. LG took the previous VX9800 and made significant improvements with the second-generation VX9900 device. However, the Samsung U740 lacks many of the improvements that are found on the VX9900. The VX9900 is a large clamshell phone that incorporates a 65K color display on the front, 2MP camera, Stereo Speakers, and QVGA 320x240 display on the inside. Meanwhile, the U740 has the appearance of a standard slim-sized flip phone, with an external 65K color display, 1.3MP Camera, and touch-sensitive music playback buttons. The inside has a QWERTY keypad (which also serves as the dialing keys), Stereo Speakers, and 220x176 display.

Included in the retail package is the U740 phone, 800 mAh battery, travel charger, headset adapter with 2.5mm jack, and user guide.

PhoneArena's Samsung SCH-U740 Video Review:




Slim is in, and the U740 is much sleeker and lighter than the enV. There is almost an inch difference in the size (3.84”H x 2.04”W x 0.58”D) and 1oz difference in weight (3.6oz), making it fit better in the hand and not as noticeable while in your pocket. Unlike the silver plastic on the enV, the U740’s exterior is champagne (gold) color and is more slippery feeling. For those not into the champagne color, look for the all-black U740 soon to be released. What makes the U740 so unique is that it’s a dual-hinge flip phone. It can be opened like a standard flip phone for normal calling, or opened clamshell (sideways) for use of the QWERTY keypad. When opening it either way, the hinge feels very sturdy and seems like it will hold up over time.



Located on the front of the phone is the 1.3MP camera with flash, and the 65K color 96x96 pixel STN display, that is just large enough for showing the date & time, message alerts, status icons, and also MP3 song information. Below it are the touch-sensitive MP3 playback buttons, which allows you to Play/Pause, Rewind, and Fast-Forward. On the left side is a Hold button that will lock/unlock the phone, Volume Up/Down buttons, and combination Charger/Data/Headset port. The right side has the dedicated Speakerphone button and MicroSD card slot.


Opening up the phone will show the 262K color 176x220 pixel TFT display. We were disappointed that Samsung chose not to use a higher quality QVGA display on the U740. When comparing the internal display of the U740 to the enV, the U740’s display was not as sharp, with images and text having jagged edges. We also noticed that images were more washed-out looking, despite adjusting the Brightness setting in the U740’s software.

On both sides of the display are Stereo Speakers that are use for playing ringtones, MP3 music, and speakerphone use. When the phone is closed, ringtone and MP3 playback can sound muffled. Because of this, we recommend having the phone opened while playing MP3 files. The overall sound from the speakers were loud, but had noticeable distortion when playing at medium to high volume levels. This was also noticeable when having the volume turned up while using the Speakerphone. We found that the enV did a better overall job with ringtone, MP3, and Speakerphone sound quality.



At the top of the keypad is the 5-way navigational control that accesses various functions of the phones menu. The menu is divided into five sections (Get it Now, Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools). One thing that we did not like about the menus is that some selections are only available when the phone is opened clamshell. For example, when selecting My Music, you are given a message saying “Feature Available in Rotated Mode”. You must then flip the phone closed, open it sideways, and then access that menu again.

The numeric/QWERTY keypad on the U740 is a mixed blessing due to the small size of the buttons. While dialing phone numbers, we often would accidentally press a wrong button and would need to delete it. For QWERTY text messaging we encountered the same problem, the buttons are too small for normal sized thumb use. Also, when looking at the keypad, it is very eye-straining since there are letters and numbers facing different directions. Between the small buttons and cluttered appearance, we were quite dissatisfied with the overall functionality of the keypad. Between the U740 and enV, the QWERTY keypad on the enV is much easier to use, has larger and more spaced-out buttons, and is easier to look at without straining.

Interface:

There are a total of 5 themes on the U740. Two of which are the new FlashUI themes My Desk and Amoeba, while the other three themes are the standard Rainbow, Business, and Tropical. The My Desk theme is loaded as the default. It shows a picture of a desk with 5 icons on it: Phone (recent calls), Address book (contacts), Tool box (settings & tools), Mail box (messaging), and a TV (get it now). Selecting any of those icons will then open a menu on top of the desk showing the sub-menus. Even though the My Desk theme is very graphical, we found it a bit cumbersome to go though sub-menus to find what you are looking for. The Amoeba theme is not as graphical, but it has a streamlined appearance and gets you to where you want to go a lot faster. Out of all the themes, this was the one we preferred using. The other 3 themes (Rainbow, Business, and Tropical) are the standard Verizon UI that has been around for over two years. It would be nice if the U740 came with more than just two FlashUI themes.


Phonebook:

Most Verizon phones share the same Phonebook features, and the U740 is no different. Up to 500 contacts may be stored, each with Name, Mobile 1, Home, Work, Email 1, Group, Mobile 2, Fax, and Email 2. There is also the capability to select a Picture and Ringtone to be associated with each contact. When that person calls, the Picture will be shown on the display and their specific ringtone will be played. To access saved contacts, you simply press the right soft key on the phone’s keypad. Stored contacts will be listed alphabetically. If you have a lot of contacts, you can type in their name in the “Go To” field and search for it. This saves time, instead of scrolling though pages of contacts. There are 98 speed-dial locations that contacts can be saved to.

The VoiceCommand feature will allow your voice to operate certain features of the phone. The most useful of these is the voice activated dialing. With it, you can speak the name of the person (saved in the contact list) that you wish to call, or you can speak the digits you want to dial. This features works well in quite environments with little background noise. We were able to use this feature in a car, but with wind noise it had some problems understanding. Other features of the voice commands are Send Message, Lookup Name, GoTo Menu, Check item, My Account, and Help.

The speakerphone can be used with the flip opened or closed. Even though there are stereo speakers on the U740, the over all quality is somewhat lacking when in comparison to the enV. There are 5 volume settings, but we found raising it higher than the first level (Low) would start to cause distortion in the speakers. The louder the volume, the greater the distortion. This reminded us of the poor sound quality that we encountered last year on the LG Chocolate and VX8600. Because of this poor quality of speakers used on the U740, we cannot recommend someone buying this phone if the use of a speakerphone is a main concern. They would be better off with the KRZR or enV, which provides a high quality speakerphone experience.

Organizer:

Accessing the Calendar can be accomplished with pressing the down button on the 5-way navigational pad. It will start by displaying the current month with the date highlighted. You can then use the directional pad to go to any month/date/year that you want. Each date will allow you to enter multiple events, including the appointment name, start date, end date, start time, end time, recurrence (once, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly), alert tone (ringer, vibrate, or lights), and reminder. Once the alert is saved, the phone will notify you by playing the selected ringtone and by showing the appointment information on the screen.



There is a total of 60MB of internal memory on the U740, with 10MB being used by the phone’s software. The rest of this can be used for saving ringtones from Get it Now, pictures and videos, and other downloadable applications. There is also a MicroSD slot that allows you to insert a MicroSD card with MP3 music, pictures and videos from your computer.

Messaging:
The main design feature of the U740 is the QWERTY keypad, which is used when composing Text Messages. First you must flip open the phone sideways (clamshell) and then press the bottom-left softkey button to access the Message menu. From there you can select what type of message you want to send (text, picture, video, sketch, postcard, or email). When selecting Text Message, you start by entering the destination cell phone number. Then you can use the QWERTY keypad to begin typing the body of the message. This should be a relatively easy task, but this is not the case. Due to the small size of the keys, and them being so close together, we often pressed the wrong one by mistake, and would then need to delete it, which takes time. We also noticed that the “P” key was the difficult to press, due to the raised plastic that is next to it. Entering in punctuation was also a problem, since it is not laid out the same a normal keyboard. The overall functionality of the QWERTY keypad on the U740 is more difficult to use than we would have hoped, and does not compare to the better designed keypad on the enV. For heavy Text Message users, we believe the enV to be a better choice. The U740 can also send picture and video messages to other capable cell phones and E-Mail addresses. It is accomplished in similar fashion, except that a picture or video (stored on the phone or MicroSD card) is attached to the message.

Connectivity:

The U740 supports Bluetooth Version 1.1 and allows up to 20 pairings. Supported profiles include Headset (HSP), Handsfree (HFP), Serial Port (SPP), Dial Up Networking (DUN), and Object Push (OPP) for vCard. We were able to get about 25 feet of static-free use with our Jabra v250 headset. Unfortunately, the U740 does not support Bluetooth Stereo A2DP, which limits listening to MP3 files to the phones stereo speakers or wired headphone.

Internet:

Web browsing is also limited to the included WAP 2.0 browser, which uses Verizon’s Mobile Web service. It will provide basic information for News, Weather, Sports, and Entertainment. You may also enter in a WAP or HTTP address. Most WAP site will load in under 5 seconds while in an EVDO coverage area, but HTML site can take 30 seconds or longer to load depending on content. Also, most HTML site will not format correctly and will not be fully featured (no java or active-x). Because of the limited functions of this browser, we can only recommend going to WAP sites.

Camera:

The camera on the U740 is a standard 1.3MP CMOS sensor, which is used on most phones. So we were not surprised by the sub-par images that it takes in comparison to the 2MP enV and 3MP A990. Pictures that were taken outside lacked sharp edges and did not have good color representation. Indoor pictures were more faded and blotchy, depending on lighting conditions. There is a small LED flash that can provide light up to 4 feet. Once again we felt that the U740 was a “budget” phone because of the poor images that it took, reminiscence of the Chocolate and VX8600.


Taking a picture can be done with the phone flipped open either way, but there is an important difference. With the phone opened the normal way, pictures are taken in “Portrait” mode. While opening the phone in the clamshell fashion will take pictures in the more traditional “Landscape” mode. This is the only phone on the Verizon line-up that can take images either way. Despite the lack-luster images, the camera software is easy to use and has some of the same features from the more high end A990. There is only a 1.5 seconds delay from the time you press “Ok” to take the image until the image is actually taken. If choosing to save the image, it will show you the default file name it will be saved as. You can either click Ok and use that name, or erase it and enter in another file name. Saving the image takes another 3 seconds. An easier and faster way is to select Auto Save in the options menu. This will bypass the screen asking you to select the file name. With the Auto Save turned on, the total time to take a picture, save it, and then be ready to take another picture was a reasonable 5 seconds.

Camera menu options include:

• Color Effects: Normal, B&W, Sepia, Antique, Negative, Green, Aqua, Cool, Warm, Sketch
• White Balance: Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Manual
• Light Metering: Average, Center, Spot
• Save Memory: Phone, MicroSD Card
• Auto Save: On, Off
• Preview Mode: Actual, Full
• Icon Display: Display All, Partial, Guideline, No Icons
• Ready Sound: Off, Say Cheese, Look Here, 123
• Shutter Sound: Off, Shutter, Ok, DingDong
• Reset Settings: Yes, No
• Flash: Off, Always On, Auto, Only This Shot
• Self Timer: Off, 2sec, 5sec, 10sec
• Save Quality: Fine, Normal, Economy
• Resolution: 1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120, Picture ID
• Multi-Shot: Series, Divided, Auto/Manual
  

Pressing the camera button a second time will take you to the Camcorder mode. Video recording is limited to only 176x144 resolution, but can be recorded up to the available memory on the phone or MicroSD card. But if you are looking to send a video to another phone or E-Mail address, you can only record up to 15 seconds. Many of the same Menu Options are available in the Camcorder mode, including Color Effects, White Balance, Memory, Auto Save, Icon Display, Start Sound, End Sound, Recording Time, Flash, Self Timer, and Quality. Due to the low resolution of recording, it is best to view the videos on the phone. Viewing them on a PC will show that the images are fuzzy with poor color and soft edges. We would of liked to have seen the U740 be capable of recording videos in 320x240 resolution. This would have helped with the overall video image quality.


Music:

The U740 sports three Touch Sensitive music control buttons that have been showing up on phones since the LG Chocolate last year. They are located on the front of the phone, directly below the external display. You can press the Play button to bring up a list of all the MP3 files on your MicroSD card, or you can access them by going into the My Music menu located in Get it Now. This is the preferred method, since you can choose to play songs by certain Artists and Albums. Once the song is selected and begins playback, it will display the song information on the screen. You can either keep the phone opened or closed while the song is playing. When closed, you can press the three buttons on the front (which will light up red) and have it Rewind/Skip Back, Play/Pause, and Fast Forward/Skip Ahead. The quality of the music playback was someone better than the Chocolate, due to the stereo speakers, but still did not sound as good as the enV. Music had a “tin-can” sound to it and would become distorted if the volume was turned up to High. Also, if listening to music with the flip closed, it would muffle the sound. The U740 is an overall decent phone for MP3 playback, but the enV and A990 still hold our top marks in this category. Not to mention the fact that the U740 does not support Stereo Bluetooth A2DP, which means you can only listen to music from the phones speakers or with a 2.5mm wired headset.

Software:

Qualcomm’s BREW format is used for applications on the U740, but there are no preloaded software or games included. One free application that can be downloaded is Mobile Instant Messenger. It will allow you to sign into AIM, MSN, and Yahoo instant messaging services, just like if you were at a PC. You can view you buddy list and send/receive messages. Keep in mind that sending and receiving messages are counted as Text Messages in your calling plan. Another useful application is Verizon’s VZ Navigator GPS service. For $10 a month (after a 15 day free trial), you can have car-like GPS directional service on your phone. It allows you to enter in your destination (street address, cross street, or airport) and it will automatically find the most direct route from your current location. Not only will it show you a map on the screen, but a helpful voice will speak the directions to you. The U740 also comes with several useful tools, including a Calculator, Alarm Clock, World Clock, Stopwatch, and Notepad. The alarm clock allows three independent alarms to be set, while the world clock will list the current date and time for cities around the globe.

Performance:

Most modern cell phones now come equipped with an internal antenna, and the U740 is no exception. The RF reception was quite good, as long as we were in adequate coverage areas. While in fringe areas, we experienced several dropped calls and occasionally no signal. The overall voice quality was clear and easy to understand. However, there is a noticeable “hiss” sound in the background that can be heard. We were unsure as to why this “hiss” sound was there, but it was noticeable during all calls. We can only assume that this is a design flaw with the U740, since some other phones do this as well.

The included 800mAh battery is a far cry from the 1000mAh battery comes with the A990. This was probably done to help reduce the overall size and weight of the U740. With the 800mAh battery on the U740, we were able to get 3Hr of Talk Time or 5 Days of Standby Time. This is in comparison to the 3.5Hr Talk Time or 8 Days of Standby Time that Samsung claims the U740 will get while using the included battery.

Conclusion:

After reviewing the LG enV, we had high hopes for the competing Samsung U740, since both devices offer a QWERTY keypad. Unfortunately, we came away from the U740 with a feeling that Samsung dropped the ball when designing this phone. The U740 shares none of the “high end” features found on the enV, and even the QWERTY keypad is difficult to use. The camera is only 1.3MP, the internal display is not QVGA, the stereo speakers are distorted at high volumes, and the keypad buttons are tiny and crammed together. The call reception and voice quality were good, but was hampered by a constant “hiss” sound in the background. The only feature that we believe the U740 has going for it is the slim size and weight, but this smaller size comes at the cost of a QWERTY keypad that is almost unusable for heavy text message users. Given a choice between the U740 and enV, and with close prices, we believe the enV is the clear winner. We sincerely hope that Samsung will address these issue if they are planning a newer version of this phone.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

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