How many times have you had to correct the problem on a text that you were sending from a screen-based QWERTY keyboard? When using a phone in vertical mode, the buttons on a modern smartphone keyboard can become so small that a single finger press could wind up hitting one of eight different letters. Even in a horizontal position, some keyboard setups aren’t a whole lot better. In looking at the Samsung B7610, there is a natural advantage for this Windows phone. That’s in the fact that it has a sliding design which allows users to access a full tactile QWERTY keyboard.
That’s not the only advantage that users may find with this sliding phone. Samsung has come to impress feature phone users with an upgrade that includes smart device options while keeping the highlights that make the feature phone so popular still today. Could this be the right phone for you?
Size Does Matter When It Comes to the Modern Phone
The primary issue with all sliding phones is that they are a little bit clunky. You’re basically having to hold two phones because of the sliding design. The Samsung B7610 is no different. At 16.2 mm thick, it’s only slightly smaller than the largest phones that are in its price point category right now, so it is a beast. Although the overall design of the QWERTY keyboard and the phone itself are nice and clean, this isn’t a phone that you can necessarily slip into a pocket and carry around with you all day.
A phone that is this size needs to have a good viewscreen in order to compensate for some of its potential design flaws and the Samsung B7610 does its best to make that happen. At 3.5 inches in size, this phone’s screen is comparable to some of the smaller true smartphones that are on the market right now. The resolution at 480p is also comparable to a majority of smart devices and the organic LED technology actually provide a little crisper of an image overall. That’s because the black levels are deeper and truer than what you’ll find in the average LCD display. The colors are also more vivid, although direct sunlight does make seeing the screen a little problematic at times.
What is surprising about the design of this phone however is that Samsung has decided to use resistive instead of capacitive technology to register inputs. This means you are going to have a sluggish experience whenever you attempt to initiate a touch command. Even when compared to other resistive phones, the Samsung B7610 is a little slower. You might be able to get away with a faster result with the small stylist that is tucked up in the right-hand corner of the phone, but the whole system isn’t very user-friendly.
The Data Input On the Samsung B7610 Is Out of This World
There are two initial advantages that are seen with the tactile keyboard input on the Samsung B7610. The first advantage is that instead of a five row design like many similar devices have, this phone has a four row design which makes thumb inputs a lot easier to manage. The second advantage is that users are able to blast through their data input needs with a remarkably high words per minute ratio. It is not uncommon for experienced typists to be able to hit 50-60 words per minute while you this device.
The keys of the keyboard actually have a decent amount of travel space on them and the entire feeling is one that can only be described as comfortable. You might hit an occasional error key here or there because the sizing of the keys is a little smaller than usual and there’s no extra spacing between the keys. The backing strength is strong, however, and the sliding design makes using the phone rather effortless.
Is the TouchWiz Interface Worth It?
Instead of the Windows interface with the classic tiles design, Samsung has put their own interface on top of the Windows operating system. In some ways this is nice, because data is a little easier to access thanks to the swipe screen mechanisms. This is where having a capacitive touchscreen would give this phone a much better user experience. Because it is resistive, you have to sit and wait with your finger on the screen to get the menu options the swipe open. If you time it wrong, you might end up is initiating a command that you don’t want to initiate.
On the bright side, however, Samsung has given this phone a 5 MP camera on the rear of the phone and there’s a triple LED flash that really helps to bring out crisper images in the dark. It’s equipped with an 800 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM, so starting the camera application can sometimes take a while, especially if you have other apps or widgets that are active. When the app is active, the shooting modes are really nice and the shots look like they have come from a professional camera.
There is Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS support for the phone and these all work reasonably well. Download speeds are limited to 3.6 Mbps, so data access is a bit slower than other smart devices, but the Samsung B7610 is able to keep up in other ways. Call quality is pretty good and most users are going to find that a single battery charge will give them a full day and possibly more of talk time.
There are certainly plenty of features on the Samsung B7610 and that makes it attempting investment. This particular model stands out with its sliding feature to access the QWERTY keyboard and some users are going to find that to be useful. Others might find that design to be a little too difficult to manage. For users who need a mobile device to provide effective data input, the Samsung B7610 definitely has a lot to offer.