Samsung Blast for T-Mobile Cell Phone Review - Messaging
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Mark Brezinski Published on August 30, 2007 Comment on this |
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Supported E-mail Services (3.0)
Push E-mail (0.0)
The Blast doesn't support push e-mail services, such as Microsoft's Exchange or BlackBerry, that allows you to get e-mail immediately. Instead, you have to go into the account, where the Blast will log on and download your e-mail.
Multiple E-mail Accounts (6.0)
The Blast can hold up to four e-mail accounts; one AOL account, one Yahoo! account, and two miscellaneous accounts. This is very limiting for those who don't have AOL or Yahoo.
HTML and Attachements (0.0)
The Blast can't handle HTML within emails.
E-mail Customizations (0.0)
Strangely, while you can edit the style and size of your MMS/SMS messages, the same customization is not available for e-mail. This omission is confusing.
Time to a New Message (11.11)
This test times how long it takes to go from a closed, unlocked phone to a new e-mail dialogue. The Blast managed to shoot through this process in 1.8 seconds. It could've been faster, too, if the phone didn't lag for a tiny bit when the phone was first opened.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 1.80 | 11.11 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.90 | 10.53 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 3.88 | 5.15 |
| Nokia N73 | 5.20 | 3.85 |
| Sprint Upstage | N/A: unable to create an email message | 0.0 |
| Motorola Razr | N/A: unable to create an email message | 0.0 |
E-mail Usability (5.0)
The e-mail program is really simple. You have your three standard fields; addressee, title, and body, and not much else. Clicking in the addressee field allows you to use one of your recent contacts or pull an entry from your contacts list. The Options menu allows you to add a CC or BCC. You can also attach all sorts of things, including contacts, tasks, and calendar items. Everything is easy to navigate and do with the d-pad and select button.
Supported IM Services (0.0)
The Blast supports AIM, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo! IM services. You unfortunately can only have one open at a time. Also, each IM message counts as an SMS, so we don't award the Blast any points in this category because if you are on a plan that doesn't include unlimited SMS messaging, sending IMs through an SMS gateway like this can quickly get very expensive. If you're a frequent IMer, then it might be worth considering adding T-Mobile's $14.99 per month unlimited SMS plan.
MMS Support (5.0)
The Blast lets you send an MMS from just about every menu that pertains to visual capturing. As previously mentioned, the camera's most annoying default is to take and send. MMS and SMS use the same inbox, though when creating your own message, you must specify MMS or SMS from the onset.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
The Blast doesn't support converting smiley faces into their graphics equivalents. :(
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (5.0)
The Blast does messaging about the same as most phones. It separates SMS and MMS messages, although you can attach calendar items, contacts, and other organizational material on either. It does give you an option to include some simple pictures or a melody in your SMS, but no photos like MMS is capable of handling. A nice bonus is you have some control over the font. You can set the text to small, medium, or large, bold or italicize text, or add a strikethrough. There is also an option to control the timing at which the video or message load, but unless you're aiming to surprise or scare your recipient, this doesn't have any real use. Though it falls short in some categories, the Blast makes up for its deficits in other areas, bringing you solidly average messaging capabilities.
Time to a New SMS Message (7.41)
This test is meant to show how easy it is to create a SMS message. To do it, we begin with the phone in unlocked Standby mode and end when we open up the new SMS entry form. We do five trials and average their times. The Blast received an average time of 1.35 seconds.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 1.35 | 7.41 |
| App le iPhone | 2.62 | 3.82 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 0.94 | 10.64 |
| Nokia N73 | 4.28 | 2.34 |
| Sprint Upstage | 1.70 | 5.88 |
| Motorola Razr | 4.58 | 2.18 |
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