The Sunburst is a lightweight, affordable and slim touch-screen cell phone that features internal accelerometer, GPS, full HTML browser, 2-megapixel camera

Thumbs Down:

The touch-screen responds slowly.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM

Band: Quad-band of GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Phone Design: Candy bar

Caller ID: Yes

Other Features: Bluetooth, 2-megapixel camera, EDGE

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Samsung Sunburst has inbuilt 189MB memory and a micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 16GB cards. The supported wireless interface is Bluetooth 2.0.

3 inches resistive touch-screen display has 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 18bit (262,000) colors. The additional features are Mobile email, AT&T Navigator, EDGE, Web browser, GPRS, and TTY compatible. The supported video formats are WMV, H.263 video with AMR audio, and MPEG4.

2-megapixel camera features 4x digital zoom, multi-shot, self-timer, and video recording. The image storage resolution options are 640×480, 1280×960, 1600×1200, and 2048×1536. The shooting modes are Frame, Mosaic, Smile Shot, Panorama, Continuous, and Single. The white-balance presets include Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Daylight, and Auto.

The Sunburst handset has 1000mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 300 minutes talk time and 250 hours of standby time.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Samsung Sunburst has gray slab simple design that is a reminiscent of thick fog. It is 4.3 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide and 0.5 inch deep and weighs 3.08 ounces. The soft-touch finish of body and round edges provides comfortable feeling while holding in hands. The phone is wrapped inside gray matte with chrome details on the side.

Inside Dope:

Samsung is not a new manufacturer for the messaging mobile phones. The AT&T had announced to launch some messaging phones at CTIA 2010 and the Samsung Sunburst was one of them. The Sunburst features 3-inches touch-screen display, virtual QWERTY keyboard, 2-megapixel camera, excellent messaging features, and Web browser; but does not support 3G. Despite its sunny name, it does not transude a feeling of joy and warmth. It looks like other Samsung touch-screen phones such as the Caliber. The Sunburst costs $59.99 with two-year AT&T contract. On the dark side, its touch-screen is slow to respond occasionally. Still, the Samsung Sunburst is the first cell phone to feature AT&T online cloud services including AT&T Address Book.

3-inch touch-screen of the Samsung Sunburst has 240×400 pixels QVGA resolution that supports 262,000 (18bit) colors. The touch-screen is resistive instead of being capacitive. So, it is slow than the touch-screen of Nexus One and iPhone. You can set the Sunburst phone to provide the haptic feedback. What’s more – you can change the backlight time, the brightness time, the transition effects for page swiping, the greeting message, and the font type.

The Samsung TouchWiz interface is located on the left side of home screen. It consists of various shortcuts and widgets; which can be dragged and dropped to the home screen for instant access. The Samsung Sunburst has three customizable home screens like the Caliber that allows adding/removing shortcuts and widgets. We like that you can switch between these home screens by swiping the fingers on the screen. What’s more – you can change the wallpapers for each home screen. The virtual dial pad, contacts and menu button are located on the bottom row at display and remain visible in all home screens.

In curved style, three physical buttons including the Send/talk key, Back/Clear key, and End/Power button are located underneath the display. You will find the charger jack, the screen lock key, and the camera key on the right side. The micro-SD card slot and the volume rocker are on the left spine. The camera lens is located on the back side.

The Samsung Sunburst can save 1000 contacts its phonebook. Each entry can save four phone numbers, a note, a birthday, street addresses, a job title and company name, a nickname, a URL, and two-email addresses. You can categorize the callers into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.

The basic feature set includes text and multimedia messaging, 17 polyphonic ring-tones, a stopwatch, a timer, a world clock, a unit converter, a tasks list, a memo pad, a calendar, an alarm clock, a tip calculator, a speakerphone, and a vibrate mode.

The advanced highlights are mobile-email, instant messaging, USB mass storage, PC synchronization, GPS support, stereo Bluetooth, voice recording, and voice command. The mobile e-mail provides access to Web mail services including Gmail and Yahoo for $5 per month. The pre-installed instant messengers are Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger.

Although the Samsung Sunburst is not a 3G phone, yet there is a full HTML Web browser. This features zoom in/out, search, favorites list, and basic URL location bar. You can hold the finger on the screen for few seconds, then move it up for zoom in and down for zoom out.  The browser is not full featured like that of a smartphone. It has clunky user interface and does not support tabbed browsing.

As already mentioned, the Samsung Sunburst is the first cell phone to launch with AT&T cloud services. That includes AT&T Address Book – to manage the address book on computer and synchronize online; Online Locker – storing the pictures and uploading to a social media Web site; and App Store – buy and download ring-tones, applications and other options from the phone.

The Samsung Sunburst also has AT&T Mobile Music that contains all music applications such as Make-UR-Tones – app for making ring-tones, a song ID app, and MusicID2.  It also houses inbuilt music player and works as gateway to AT&T Mobile Music store. You can buy and download songs via eMusic and Napster for $1.99 per song. The music player has similar interface like other AT&T phones and features on-the-fly play-lists, shuffle and repeat modes.

2-megapixel camera of the Samsung Sunburst features 4x digital zoom, self-timer, and video-recording. The still capture options are brightness, five white-balance presets, six shooting modes, three quality settings, and five resolutions. We captured some still pictures and recorded few clips for testing. The overall photo quality was good with sharp pictures, but the images were not good in low light.

The Samsung Sunburst comes with some games including Diner Dash Flo on the Go, Bejeweled, Tumbling Dice, and more. The preloaded applications are WikiMobile, Where, Loppt, AllSport GPS, and AT&T Social Net for instant access to social media Web sites such as Twitter & Facebook. You can personalize the phone with available ring-tones, alert-tones, wallpapers, and graphics. More options can be downloaded via AT&T AppCenter.

We made few calls through the Samsung Sunburst via AT&T for testing. The overall call quality was good. We received harsh and crackled sound at our end. At their end, the callers received loud sound with some scratches, static and background hiss. The speakerphone call quality was good, but the volume was not fully loud.

The battery life of the Samsung Sunburst is 10.4 days of idle standby time and 5 hours of talk time. Its digital SAR rating is 0.857watt per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

You can buy the Samsung Sunburst because it is an affordable messaging phone with mid-range features and AT&T cloud services. Please remember that its touch-screen is slow and you have to pay $5 per month to access Mobile Email feature.

Samsung SGH-A657 has sturdy and rugged design. The feature set includes 3G Support, push-to-talk and GPS.

Thumbs Down:

The rated talk time is short and there is no voice dialing. The streaming video quality is not good.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Bluetooth, GPS, 3G support, Push-To-Talk

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Samsung SGH-A657 is a rugged phone and works on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. It has 16GB of user-accessible memory and a micro-SD expansion slot that supports up to 8GB cards.

2-inch LCD display has a resolution of 220×176 pixels and it indicates missed calls, signal strength, battery life and keypad lock. Samsung SGH-A657 is capable of 3-way conference calling. The supported wireless interface is Bluetooth 2.0. The pre-installed software includes Currency converter, alarm/world time, MP3 player, calculator, ActiveSync, Calendar, Games, Task and Notes.

Samsung SGH-A657 has inbuilt messengers such as Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. The other messaging features are mobile email, and multimedia and text messaging. The additional features are EDGE, HSDPA, GPRS and Intelligent Typing (T9).

Samsung SGH-A657 has 1420mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 240 minutes of talk time and 252 hours of idle stand by time. The accessories included inside the package are battery, travel charger, user manual and headphone.

Razzle Dazzle:

Samsung SGH-A657 is 4.53 inches tall, 2.05 inches wide and 0.77 inch thick and weighs around 4.34 ounces. The SGH-A657 has plastic shell covered with thin rubber material. This gives a weighty and sturdy feel while taking the phone in hand. For protection, there are rubber sidings all the sides. The left and right spines have ribbed pattern, so that you can grip the phone easily. It is worth mentioning that the SGH-A657 is a bit heavy with all protection around it.

Inside Dope:

There are not a lot of rugged phones out there. Sanyo models from Sprint and Motorola handsets from Nextel had captured this market until Samsung launched its Rugby with AT&T. Now, the company has launched another rugged model – Samsung SGH-A657 for AT&T. The SGH-A657 is built and shaped like a brick. The phone does not have fashionable smooth look, but its rubber sliding and hard shell are making the phone tough. The SGH-A657 does not have a camera but offers features including 3G support, GPS, Bluetooth and push-to-talk. Samsung SGH-A657 is available at AT&T business channel for $129. It means that you must have a business account with AT&T service to purchase this phone.

2-inch LCD display has 220×176 pixels resolution and 262,000 colors. The display is bright, sharp and easy on the eyes. It exhibits sharp graphics and vibrant colors. The menu interface is available in two styles – icon and list. You can adjust the backlight time, and dial font size, type and color.

Samsung SGH-A657 does not have a beautiful design. It is made to withstand the environment conditions and can protect its parts from any bruises and bumps. The SGH-A657 is certified by military specification for vibration, shock, dust, moisture and similar elements. Unlike Motorola i365, the Samsung phone has respectable showing on the front side. The phone is not fully waterproof, but it can survive a dunking. For testing, we dropped the SGH-A657 phone on floor but there was no scratch on the phone. Also, there was no effect when we splashed some water on the phone.

The navigation array has a silver-colored square toggle. The toggle is tactile and easy to use. Its central OK button has squishy feel and launches main menu, instead of Web browser in other Samsung phones. The other controls are Talk key, End/power button, back button, GPS shortcut and two-soft keys. The soft keys are little narrow in size. We did not face any problem while using the array for menu navigation. The keypad buttons of Samsung SGH-A657 are raised above the surface. The keypad has bright backlight. You will get an audible click sound while working with the keys.

A volume rocker and an orange-colored push-to-talk button sits on the left spine of Samsung SGH-A657. Whereas, the headset jack/charger port and flash light button are located on the right spine. Samsung continues to have its proprietary ports for charger and headset, so you have limited choices of peripherals. The small flashlight and looped antenna sits on the top. The flash light is bright enough to display the things in a dark room. The battery cover has a locking mechanism that makes it secure. The SD card slot is located behind the battery cover.

Samsung SGH-A657 can store 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can save six phone numbers, an instant messaging handle, an email address and notes. You can save callers to group and pair them with one of 10 polyphonic ring-tones and photo for caller ID.

The basic feature of Samsung SGH-A657 are stop watch, timer, world clock, tip calculator, currency and unit converter, calculator, task list, notepad, calendar, alarm clock, call timer, multimedia and text messaging, and vibrate mode. The additional features include instant messaging, voice recorder, USB sync and mass storage, and stereo Bluetooth. AT&T services like Navigator GPS and PTT network are also available.

Samsung SGH-A657 also supports AT&T Cellular Video service to show tons of streaming videos and AT&T Mobile Music for wireless song downloads from various partners. The music player also supports numerous audio formats and has features like play-lists, shuffle and repeat modes, and album art.

There is also a good selection of various features like support for music videos, Billboard Mobile channel, Music ID application, XM Radio Mobile and a community section for downloads and fan sites. The SGH-A657 also has an application to create the ring-tones and save them. You can personalize with various greeting message, wallpaper, background colors and themes. Additional ring-tones and options are available from AT&T via Web browser. The A657 phone has demo versions of three games: World Poker Tour Hold Em 2, Tetris and Midnight. You can purchase the complete version too.

We made some calls through quad-band based Samsung SGH-A657 using T-mobile service. The overall call quality was very good. We received natural and clear sound with strong signal strength at our end without any electronic interference. There was a very little static and a bit of background noise during our conversation. The callers also received good sound at their end, but could tell that we were using cell phone.

The speakerphone call quality was also good. We received loud and clear sound at our end. The callers also received good sound even when we were at a distance from the phone.

The streaming video quality was poor and the display size was too small. The images are suffered from choppy notion and pixilation. The audio was not being sync and we had to pause the videos to buffer. The videos loaded quickly due to strong 3G connection. The music quality was good. The external speaker and headphones provided the good output.

Samsung SGH-A657 has lithium ion battery that has a life of 3 hours of talk time and 10.5 days of idle standby time.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung SGH-A657 has rugged design with good features. The overall call quality is perfect, but streaming-video quality is not good.

Thumbs Up:

Good call quality, nice innovative 20 key QWERTY keyboard.

Thumbs Down:

Bad camera and music quality.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band)
Phone design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: EDGE, GPRS, camera, stereo Bluetooth, music player.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The display of the SGH-T349 is 2.2 inch big, has a resolution of 176X220 pixels, music player can read formats of MIDI, AAC/AAC+,  and MP3 and the video player can play 3GP, H.263 and MPEG-4. The 1.3 mega pixel camera photos of 220×165, 320×240, 640×480, 800×600, 1,024×768 and 1,280×1024. The video resolutions are 128×96, 160×120 and 176×144.

The phone has 50 MB of internal memory which can be further expanded to 4 GB through microSD cards. The handset has 1000 entry memory for contacts and there is 90 entry memory each for missed calls, dialed numbers and call received. Downloadable content on the phone includes screen savers, ringtones, video files, wall papers and games.

Razzle Dazzle:

The phone has pretty standard candy bar phone design. It is 4.49 inches long, 0.53 inches thick, 1.97 inches wide and weighs about 3.2 ounces. We really liked the attractive lime green and pearl gray color scheme. The phone is 2 inches wide, 4.5 inches high, 0.5 inches deep and weighs 3.2 oz.

Inside Dope:

Samsung SGH-T349 is a messaging phone, which sports the latest in-style 20 key QWERTY keyboard layout. Having a full QWERTY keyboard makes the phone quite big so it has been shrunk but still has great ergonomics while typing. We have seen this keyboard on BlackBerry Pearl’s SureType and we loved it. This is a message centric phone, although great on messaging is low on other features. It has been made for business men who need messaging applications while on the move. There is no GPS or 3G however; there is a music player, Bluetooth and 1.3 MP camera. The handset is extremely cheap at just $15 with a two year contract. It is also available for $99.99 with T-Mobile’s Prepaid service.

The display of the screen is 2.2 inch big and has support for 262,000 colors with resolution of 176X220 pixels. Although a bit small, it serves its purpose. The display is vibrant and bright with colorful animated icons on the interface of the menu. In the display, you can change the size and color of the font, backlight time, background color of the dialing display and the wallpaper can be set up to show the calendar on the home screen.

Below the display there is the navigation array which has 2 soft buttons, talk and end keys, four way square navigation toggle button with OK button in the center. There is also messaging and back key in there. The navigation toggle, back and messaging keys are raised more above the surface as compared to the other keys for easy use. The messaging key is user programmable and can be used for going to your message in-box, audio postcard, instant messaging, e-mail and text messaging. The navigation buttons have shortcuts on each side.

The semi-QWERTY keyboard is a mixed bag with 2 letters per key. It is definitely better than a standard numeric keypad but not as good as full QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard has taken best of both worlds to enhance user experience. The full QWERTY keyboard has been avoided to keep the phone size small.

The hardware on the sides of the phone include a volume rocker, microSD card slot, charger jack and camera key. We thank Samsung for giving us the memory card slot on sides so that we don’t have to go digging behind the battery cover.

The SGH-T340 has a 1000 entry phone book and a single entry can take an email ID and five numbers. There are 19 polyphonic ringtones however you can use your MP3 tracks as ringtones. Photo caller ID and grouping of contacts is also supported.

Other basic features on the stopwatch, timer, unit conversion app, world time clock, tip calculator, notepad, to-do list, alarm clock, calendar, voice recorder, multimedia and text messaging, vibrate mode and speakerphone. For messaging the phone comes preloaded with messengers like Yahoo, Windows Live and AIM, the mobile Web e-mail has support for Comcast, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, AIM, etc.

The handset has a built in music player which can play formats like MIDI, AAC/AAC+ and MP3. The player has all the music features that you would want in a phone like repeat and shuffle of tracks, album art, etc. The video player can play formats like 3GP, H.263 and MPEG-4. For storing videos and tracks, the phone has 50 MB of internal memory which can be further expanded to 4 GB through memory cards.

Don’t expect great photos from the below average 1.3 MP camera at the back of the phone. It lacks flash and self portrait mirror. It has nine effects for color and five settings for white balance. There is also a mosaic shot mode, multi shot, 4x zoom and self timer. The camera can also take video clips, with the maximum resolution of 160X120 and the options are similar to that of the camera.

The handset comes with two games – Midnight Pool 2 and Block Breaker Deluxe 2. The wireless Web browser on the phone lets you download games, sound and graphics. There is no 3G on the phone, all you get is GPRS and EDGE.

We had nothing to complain about when we tested the phone for call quality. Both parties had a good experience with the calls. Speakerphone calls were better than what you see on other phones. The inclusion of Bluetooth lets you pair up wireless headsets for music or phone calls.

The battery of the SGH-T349 has a rated seven hours of talk time and standby time is of 12.5 days. We were impressed with the battery which lasted about over an hour for rated talk time.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung SGH-T349 is good messaging phone; it has all the features that you need for messaging. However, it is pretty average for music and camera quality. Don’t buy this phone if you use the latter two features a lot.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Nothing in particular.

Thumbs Down:

Outdated looks, low on features.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Slider
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Music player, camera, recording, speakerphone.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Samsung SGH-T659 has a 2.5 inch display, resolution is 320×240 pixels and has 262000 colors. It has a numeric keypad below the display of the screen. The phone is 3G capable and has EDGE/GPRS/HSDPA1.8 Mbit/s/UMTS/HSDPA 1.8 Mbit/s/HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s. For phone book the features are 1000 names capacity, picture ID, multiple numbers per contact, ring ID, caller groups.

Supported audio formats for the MP3 player are AAC+, WMA, AAC, MP3 and supported video formats are H.263, 3GPP, MPEG4, H.264. The phone has 80 MB of built in memory and is expandable through microSD card. The mobile has WAP 2.0, stereo Bluetooth. The phone has a slide out interface with just a numeric keypad and no QWERTY keyboard.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Samsung SGH-T659 is a bit of a loser when it comes to looks. It looks pretty old and the old days have been revisited. Such phones are now stopped being made and maybe Samsung has been cleaning out closets and trying to sell old phones. What we are trying to say is that the design is old and no one makes it now. This doesn’t mean that the phone is ugly but in these days everyone is looking at the beauty of the phone rather than the features (which is why the iPhone is still hot property) and we don’t know what Samsung was thinking when they made such a design for this phone.

Inside Dope:

The Samsung SGH-T659 has old looks but the features, though few, are pretty up to date. This is a basic phone, it is not made for your gizmo gadget freak but it serves well for the functions it is offering.

The display of the Samsung SGH-T659 is 2.5 inch big and will give you a resolution of 320×240 pixels. The screen has 262,000 colors, the icons and the text is good and clear. In the display you can change brightness, font size, color, type and backlighting time. A lower backlight gives you larger battery life. The phone is slider material and it is quite sturdy and strong. It was also comfortable to hold in the hand. You can also change the alert tones, wallpapers and colors of background.

Below the display there is a structure of buttons which will again remind you of the old days. There are two soft buttons, the call and call end buttons and the middle OK button that is surrounded by the four way navigation circle.

The keypad will reveal it self when you slide the Samsung SGH-T659 upwards. The keys are comfortable and it is a small phone and there is no mess of too many keys on the keypad.  On the sides of the phone there is a volume rocker and a slot for putting a microSD card. We were unhappy with the charger jack which is also the port for putting your headphones. You cannot charge and use the headset both at the same time. Also we would have liked a 3.5 mm head set jack instead of a proprietary port. There is also the camera shutter on the side.

Samsung makes sure you never run out of storage space for your contacts by giving you a generous 1000 entry phone book. The SIM card is capable of storing additional 250 contacts. A single entry can take four phone numbers, three instant message IDs, e-mail ID, birthday, URL, anniversary, notes and home address. You can make a group and put your friends in that group and you an also pair up a photo with a contact and you can assign a ring tone an individual out of the 72 built in polyphonic ring tones. You can buy more from the T-Zone of the WAP browser.

The Samsung SGH-T659 has POP3 connectivity but with this small display and basic numeric keyboard we didn’t enjoy it much. The phone has a WAP browser and that too was not good.

There is a 2 mega pixel camera on the camera and it is located behind the slider so you will have to open the Samsung SGH-T659 to access the camera. Camera located behind the slider will protect if from accidents and dust as it closes when not in use. But we would have liked a camera on the external body itself and with a lens cover because holding the camera is a bit difficult horizontally.

The camera has a mirror for self portrait. The maximum resolution that the camera can take is 1600X1200 and the least is 320X240. There are three quality settings, three white balance settings, self-timer, adjustable brightness, three shutter sounds, a night mode, three color tones, spot metering and a silent option.

The camera also doubles up as a video shooting device which gives you a 176X144 resolution. If you intend to shoot MMS then you cannot go beyond the capped 45 seconds but for storage on the memory you can shoot your heart out. Camera quality is good considering this is a 2 mega pixel camera but a 3.2 MP camera would have been better.

Camera has no flash so if you shoot in low light conditions there is a possibility of getting a big black block as the picture.

Other features on the Samsung SGH-T659 worth mentioning are multimedia and text messaging, voice recorder, calendar, vibrate mode, speakerphone, alarm clock, task list, memo pad, world clock, stopwatch, timer, unit, tip calculator and currency converter.

The Samsung SGH-T659 has a music player built in so you can groove to your favorite tracks. The supported formats are AAC+, WMA, AAC, MP3. We would have liked a 3.5 mm jack so that we could plug in our own set of phones without an adapter. The features for the music player include airplane mode, equalizer, shuffle and repeat modes and play lists. There is no support for album art but there are few visualizations. Music quality is not very good and speakerphone makes it worse. Video player of the phone is capable of playing 3GPP, H.263, MPEG4, H.264 formats.

The Samsung SGH-T659 has games like Brain Challenge 2 and Platinum Solitaire 2. Both are pretty basic games and you can buy more from the store if you think that this display is good enough for gamming.

Other features on the Samsung SGH-T659 include instant messaging, stereo Bluetooth, RSS reader, GPS, PC syncing. You can use the memory of the phone as mass storage device.

The Samsung SGH-T659 was tested for call quality and it was quite good. We could hear the voice clearly and the other party could also hear our voice clearly. There will be a bit distortion when you push the volume to its limits and the distortion will be more in the speakerphone mode. But it is loud enough even when it has not reached the limits except in places where there is too much crowd and noise around. There is Bluetooth in the device and you can plug in your Bluetooth headsets. We tried the headset and the quality was pretty good.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung SGH-T659 belongs to the same category as 2xxx family in Nokia. It is very basic and is meant for people who just need a phone to calling and sending text messages and occasional browsing. The outdated body, 2MP camera, proprietary jack make it a bad phone.