Samsung Blast for T-Mobile Cell Phone Review - Hardware
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Mark Brezinski Published on August 30, 2007 Comment on this |
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Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (7.51)
For this test, we time how long it takes to key in our test paragraph as a means of measuring how easy it is to type on the phone's keypad. We then use this information to figure out how many words per minute a user could expect to average. The Blast took 25.57 seconds to finish the test paragraph, resulting in a words per minute score of 37.54. This is pretty good, but not the blazing fast speed its marketing would have us believe. We actually like the keypad's layout, but found the Blast repeatedly failed to register keys. It appears when you double-tap a key quickly, only one input will register. This means you'll need to slow yourself down for some words, and it always makes you a bit uneasy that maybe you weren't slow enough. If it weren't for this one flaw, we'd have really liked the Blast's keypad. This problem isn't crippling, but it is pretty serious for a phone marketed as a texting-focused handset. It is important to note that all our timing tests that require us to input some sentence or phrase has predictive text enabled. This cuts down on the frequency of double-tapping. If you choose to disable predictive text, you'll run into this problem much more frequently.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 37.54 | 7.51 |
| Apple iPhone | 39.6 | 7.92 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 39.1 | 7.82 |
| Nokia N73 | 34.9 | 6.98 |
| Sprint Upstage | 37.5 | 7.50 |
| Motorola Razr | 29.4 | 5.88 |
T9 and Auto Complete (10.0)
The Blast has XT9, which is roughly the same as regular T9. It also has word prediction, meaning you can type in part of a word and it'll show a word bank at the bottom full of guesses as to what words you're trying to type. This sounds like it's a time saver in theory, but we found it was much faster to just type out the entire word rather than shift our grip and navigate through the word bank. Overall, though, there is solid functionality in this department.
One Hand Usability (5.85)
This test is the same as the previous typing test, except we're only allowed to use one hand. This time it took us 32.84 seconds to type the paragraph with the Blast. This is approximately 29.23 words per minute, which is a bit on the slow side. The slow time is most likely due to the distance the one thumb has to travel to hit some sets of keys, and the relatively low position of the space key made us feel like we were going to drop the phone if we shifted our grip too suddenly. We find that multi-tap usually benefits from the transition to one-handed typing, since none of us routinely text with one hand and therefore need to look to check where our thumb will be off to next. Multiple taps on a given key give your brain a few extra tenths of a second to puzzle out what letters are where.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 29.23 | 5.85 |
| Apple iPhone | 32.10 | 6.42 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 38.24 | 7.65 |
| Nokia N73 | 32.85 | 6.57 |
| Sprint Upstage | 32.70 | 6.54 |
| Motorola Razr | 26.10 | 5.22 |
Keypad Backlighting (4.0)
The keypad backlight is simply tied into the screen's backlight; there aren't any options to change its duration or brightness. It is, however, lit very evenly, and is bright enough to make the numbers and letters clear.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (5.0)
The d-pad on the Blast is fairly standard. It has raised edges and an oval design, so you'll always know which direction you're hitting. The edges also prevent you from accidentally hitting one of the surrounding keys. It is easy to reach from the keypad, so entering in multiple fields won't be hindered by any awkward stretching. They don't have the best tactile feedback, however; we would've liked a bit more snap to them.
Touch Screen (0.0)
The Blast doesn't have a touch screen.
Jog Dial (1.0)
The Blast has a bit of jog dial functionality in its volume rocker. Each button functions as a page up and page down respectively, even in menus. It would be more handy if the Blast had lengthier menus, but should prove its worth when browsing down through the ridiculously long Blast-rendered Web pages.
Soft Buttons (7.0)
The soft keys are place to the left and right of the d-pad, which is exactly where they belong. They do have good play and tactile feedback; you'll definitely know when you're hitting them, and directly above them is a tiny wall-like protrusion that should make finding them easy.
Volume Control (6.0)
The Volume rocker is on the left side of the phone. The keys are actually joined with a divot in the middle. Toward their top and bottom they raise up considerably, which makes differentiating the key from the rest of the phone easy to do. They don't have the best play, so like the d-pad we would've liked a crisper response.
Power and Standby (3.0)
Powering down your phone is a secondary function of the end key. You have to hold it in for a few seconds, so you won't be accidentally shutting off your phone every time you end a call. You can't make the phone go into Standby mode, but it will automatically do so ab out five seconds after you close it. You can't change this time, unfortunately.
Other Buttons (4.0)
There are a few buttons on the Blast which aren't covered above. The first is the T-zones button, which is a shortcut to the browser. The second is the shortcut key, which you can set to any application on the phone. Last is the camera shortcut button, which brings up its namesake function.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (4.0)
The Blast's screen resolution is 176 x 200 pixels. This is pretty much the lowest resolution you'll see on a cell phone nowadays. You certainly shouldn't expect great graphics from the Blast in any case. Our scores for resolution are standardized.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 176 x 200 | 4.0 |
| Apple iPhone | 320 x 480 | 9.0 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 320 x 240 | 8.0 |
| Nokia N73 | 320 x 240 | 8.0 |
| Sprint Upstage | 176 x 200 | 4.0 |
| Motorola Razr | 176 x 200 | 4.0 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (6.35)
This measurement describes how many pixels the Blast can squeeze into every inch. We measured 127 PPI, which is standard pixel density. The Blast won't show you anything amazing in terms of what it displays, but its graphics also won't be pixellated.
| Cell Phone | Pixels Per Inch | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 127 | 6.35 |
| Appl e iPhone | 164.8 | 8.24 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 200 | 10.00 |
| Nokia N73 | 168.4 | 8.42 |
| Sprint Upstage | 137.5 | 6.88 |
| Motorola Razr | 125 | 6.25 |
Screen Physical Size (5.25)
The Blast's screen measured 2.1 inches diagonally, which is the smallest standard size you'll see in modern cell phones. The iPhone measures 3.5 inches diagonally, which is huge by comparison. The Blast's screen is adequate enough, though; it's not so tiny that it'd cause readability issues.
| Cell Phone | Size Diagonal (inches) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 2.1 | 5.25 |
| Appl e iPhone | 3.5 | 8.75 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 2.0 | 5.00 |
| Nokia N73 | 2.4 | 6.00 |
| Sprint Upstage | 2.07 | 5.18 |
| Motorola Razr | 2.1 | 5.25 |
Screen Brightness (5.85)
For this test we set the phone to its highest brightness setting, browse to a blank white Web page, hold the screen exactly two inches away from a light meter, and see how bright it is in lux. At its highest brightness setting out of five, the Blast managed 92 lux. This isn't the brightest reading we've ever gotten, but it is better than most. We were impressed that there were brightness settings, since most phones don't include them. There isn't any light sensor or automatic dimming, though.
| Cell Phone | Brightness (lux) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 92 | 5.85 |
| Appl e iPhone | 168 | 15.40 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 72 | 4.85 |
| Nokia N73 | 95 | 6.00 |
| Sprint Upstage | 44 | 2.2 |
| Motorola Razr | 46 | 2.3 |
Screen Bright Light Performance (7.0)
For this test we shined a 3000 lux light at the Blast and tried to navigate with it. This is supposed to approximate the experience of using the phone on a sunny day. While there was a lot of glare on the Blast, it didn't inhibit our navigation much. You might want to switch to the black skin as opposed to the white one in order to avoid things looking too washed out. Overall, though, the Blast should be OK, even on bright days.
Color Depth (8.0)
The Blast can display 262,000 colors on it's smallish screen, which is 2,000 more colors than the standard display on modern phones. These additional colors make up less than a 1 percent increase, and therefore doesn't garner the phone any additional points.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 262 | 8.0 |
| Appl e iPhone | 65 | 6.0 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 260 | 8.0 |
| Nokia N73 | 260 | 8.0 |
| Sprint Upstage | 260 | 8.0 |
| Motorola Razr | 65 | 6.0 |
Secondary Screen (0.0)
The Blast doesn't have a secondary screen.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (2.0)
The Blast has a proprietary power/data port, which means you'll need to buy a $24.99 T-Mobile USB cable for your phone. What we would've liked to see here is a mini or micro USB port, since they're standard ports.
Headphone & Jack Compatibility (4.0)
The Blast only contains a proprietary port for you to plug a set of headphones into. We don't award points for this, as it won't work with your standard headphones or the many third-party headsets out there, and there is no adapter available to allow you to conenct 3.5mm headphones or 2.5mm headsets. The Blast does supports Bluetooth headphones, which we do award points for.
Internal Storage (1.0) The Blast has 5 MB internal storage, which is not a lot at all. In fact, if you're getting a Blast and listen to more than a few songs, getting a micro SD card is just about mandatory.
Expansion Slot & Format (6.5)
The Blast has a MicroSD port on its left hand side. This port is easy to access, but getting the card to click into place requires fingernails, a pen, or some other poking device. It is spring-loaded, which is nice, but also requires you to push it in even further to get it to come out.
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