Whatever happened to touchscreen phones being top–end titans, designed for moneyed gadgeteers only? Today, you’re no one unless your slice of cellular action has a proddable screen. The Samsung Blade is the latest bargain bucket effort, following the Orange Vegas and LG Cookie. But can it beat down its affordable opposition? Read our full Samsung Blade review to find out.
It’s easy to dismiss low end touchscreen mobiles as wannabes, a pointless way of getting top notch tech into the cheapest of devices. The Samsung Blade, however, is a surprisingly neat package, besting the Orange Vegas and even the best–selling LG Cookie. This is thanks almost entirely to its excellently responsive haptic touchscreen, which feels great to the touch and will let you skip about menus in style.
While the 240×320 2.8–inch touchscreen is lacking when it comes to resolution and size, you have to remember this is not meant to be a killer smartphone, up there with the Samsung i8910 HD or iPhone 3GS. While 2.8–inches is on the small side for a touchy–feely phone, the screen is fine for quick video snacking and took stabs from our fingers easily.
Tapping out messages on the Samsung Blade is incredibly easy. We found the T9 keypad to be near faultless, with no need to push hard to get a response or go back and change annoying spelling errors.
While the Samsung Blade’s on board web browser does leave a lot to be desired, the inclusion of HSDPA is a real boon and means getting about the web is as quick as you like, something the Cookie just can’t do seeing as it lacks 3G. Likewise, the 3.2MP camera is on the average side, but keep in mind that this is not meant to be a snapper phone on a par with Samsung’s posher models and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the crisp results.
There’s no doubting that there are better touchscreen phones out there. But as budget efforts go, the Samsung Blade easily sees off the Orange Vegas and should cause its Korean rival, the LG Cookie, to wear a look of fear and envy.
