Samsung Renown Review

Introduction:

The Samsung Renown U810 for Verizon Wireless is designed for the individual who requires a device capable of international roaming (CDMA/GSM), but who doesn’t need a Smartphone, such as the Saga.  Its main competition comes from the Motorola Z6c, which has similar features, but in a slider form factor.

The retail package includes the Samsung Renown phone, 800 mAh battery with cover, wall charger with 3 adapters (UK, European, Australian), SIM card, and user manual.

Design:

The exterior styling of the Renown is similar to the Gleam, except that a dark cappuccino color is used.  Even though it is constructed out of plastic, it feels fairly durable and should hold up to normal every day use.  Since it is also about the same size of Gleam, it can easily fit into your pant’s pocket without being too noticeable.  The hinge is designed well, and has a fluid movement when opening and closing.  Located on the front is the standard 2MP camera, external display, and touch-sensitive music control buttons.  On the left side is the volume rocker and charger port, and on the right is the 2.5mm headset jack, camera button, and hold button (used to lock the external music control).  The battery cover has to be removed to gain access to the SIM slot and microSDHC memory card slot, which supports up to 8GB cards.



You can compare the Samsung Renown with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The external display is the same 1” diagonal 96x96 pixel resolution we saw on the Gleam and U550, but the color depth has been increased to 262K, not that it matters on a screen this small.  It should come as no surprise that the internal display is also similar, measuring 2.1” diagonal and with a resolution of 320x240 pixels and 262K color support. Images are shown with good color detail and saturation.  There are six levels of brightness settings available, but even at the highest setting it difficult to view while in direct sunlight.

Located on the bottom flip is the white backlit keypad, which is easily viewable against the surrounding black plastic.  At the top is the D-pad used for menu navigation, but we felt it was too small, and often times we would accidentally press the center OK button instead of the top or bottom button.  The numeric keys were easy to use for dialing numbers and for typing text message, thanks to their large size and good response.

Software and Features:

The main menu is laid out in standard Verizon fashion, with categories for media center, messaging, contacts, recent calls, and settings & tools.  However, the themes are somewhat disappointing, as only 2 are included (Slick Black and Twilight), and it doesn’t come with the Living Wallpaper that we saw on the Gleam. The only other customizations you can make are choosing from tab, list, and grid view, font size, and clock format.


The only change made to the phonebook is that it can now store up to 1000 contact instead of the standard 500, each with their Name, Mobile 1, Home, Work, E-Mail 1, Group, Picture, Ringtone, Mobile 2, Fax, E-Mail 2, and Notes.  After a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 999 speed-dial locations.


Images taken outside using the 2MP camera are a bit underexposed (dark), but the detail and color representation appear to be better than the Gleam and Sway.  Interior images also faired slightly better as long as there was plenty of light, keeping in mind there is no flash.  One area of disappointment was the amount of time required to save an image: 5 seconds when stored to the phone and up to 10 seconds when stored to the memory card.  This is completely unacceptable, as most other models only take up to 3 seconds to save an image.  Hopefully a software update will increase the speed of this process.


Unlike the better-looking music player used on the Samsung Sway, the Renown still uses Verizon’s standard player with categories for Genres, Albums, Artists, and Playlists.  Since there is only one speaker located on the back, both the music quality and volume range is lacking.  When the flip is closed, you can use the external music controls to rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward.  Unfortunately, they only light up red when pressed, which means finding the correct one to press in the dark can be difficult.



The new Dashboard software is included, which has categories for news, music, games, tones, community, entertainment, weather, business, and ESPN.

Other softwarefeatures include Mobile Web 2.0, VCast Music downloads, V Cast Video streaming, and VZ Navigator for GPS guided directions.  You can also download a wide variety of games and other application using Media Center (Get it Now).


The Renown is capable of operating on the Verizon CDMA 800/1900 MHz voice and EVDO Rev 0 data networks within the US.  While roaming outside the US it can also connect using GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, but UMTS 3G is not supported.  Bluetooth 2.0 is standard and supports headset, handsfree, dial up networking, stereo, phonebook access, basic printing, object push, file transfer, and serial port profiles.

Performance:

Two areas where most new Samsungs models appear to be equal are in regards to the reception and call quality. We continually only had 1-2 bars showing in high coverage areas, and a few calls were dropped in fringe areas. We believe this is due to the poor placement of the antenna, which is located at the bottom of the phone and naturally rests in the palm of your hand. Thankfully, the call quality was good with voices sounding clear and natural, and with no distortion in the earpiece speaker. People that we called on a landline also agreed the voice quality was clear and easy to hear. Our testing was performed in South FL using Verizon’s CDMA network. We are not sure how the reception and call quality would be while using international roaming.

Accessing any of the downloaded applications is easy and there is very little delay in opening them up. We also did not encounter the random re-boot problem that occurred with the Gleam. The User Interface is fast, regardless of which theme and layout we chose. Internal memory is limited to a total of 55MB, with 16MB used out of the box. To counter this, most users will install a microSDHC card to allow up to 8GB of storage space.

The included 800mAh battery is rated by Samsung to provide 5 hours of talk time or 13 days of standby time on a full charge and we were able to achieve 4 hours with one charge.

Conclusion:

As flip phones go, the Samsung Renown isn’t most feature-rich available, despite its attractive appearance. If you are not the type of person who requires a smartphone, but needs a basic device that can be used internationally, the Renown is your best choice. However, if you don’t need the GSM support, there are plenty of other options.