Samsung Blast for T-Mobile Cell Phone Review
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Mark Brezinski Published on August 30, 2007 Comment on this |
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The Samsung Blast is only remarkable for bad reasons. Its software lacks finesse, making it a poor media player, imaging device, and Web browser. The organizational software is better than most phones in its class, but is still lacking some important features. The phone is also very poorly constructed; the plastic case looks cheap, and it twists, creaks, and separates under even moderate pressure.
The Blast does have its good points, but even they are marred by annoying quirks. As previously mentioned, it offers slightly more organizational software than most other mid-range phones, allowing you to write and organize notes and tasks. This additional functionality is offset by a horrible alert system, however, so trusting the Blast to remind you of appointments is certainly not a good idea. The e-mail client isn't Web based, (which is a rarity in most non-business devices), but it doesn't check for mail in the background. Messaging is supposed to be the focus of the Blast, and it does a pretty decent job of that. It would handle messaging well if it weren't for the keypad's tendency to be unresponsive at times. The Blast really is a mixed bag; for every decent feature, there are two other poor ones that drag it down.
The Blast costs $100 with contract, after online or mail-in rebates, and is available exclusively from T-Mobile. It also supports the T-Mobile online store, where you can download songs for $1.99. That's a buck more than Sprint's music store.
Tour & Design - The Blast's plastic cover is eight parts cheap toy, one part phone, and one part exposed spring.
Audio Quality - The Blast has below average audio quality; both sent and received sound had problems.
Imaging - The Blast has a camera that's about on par with other phones and video capture that's a double, if not triple-bogey, at best.
Making/Receiving Calls - The Blast shows itself to be fairly speedy with making calls, though its non audio alerts could result in a missed call.
Messaging - The Blast offers some decent messaging capability, such as the ability to attach calendar entries or contacts to messages and a reasonable (if somewhat quirky) e-mail client.
Organizer - The organizational tools on the Blast are surprisingly good; there are a good selection of tools for setting up and tracking appointments.
Multimedia - The Blast has a really attractive media player, but abysmal media organizing features.
Software - The Blast has some interesting software on it, but much of it is shallow. It does many things adequately, but nothing well.
Battery Life - The Blast was on the low side of average pretty much across the board.
Connectivity - The Blast is a quad-band GSM phone with an EDGE data connection. It also supports Bluetooth 2.0.
Hardware - The Blast's hardware didn't impress us. Its buttons didn't have good play, and its keypad repeatedly failed to register quick double-taps.
Other Features - The Blast doesn't have any other interesting features.
Value & Comparisons - Here is where we list a few other phones that have the same or better functionality than the Blast but cost the same or are cheaper.
[page title="Tour & Design"]
Front Closed
The front of the Samsung Blast has the phone's directional pad, which is surrounded by no less than seven buttons. The top row consists of soft keys. The next row down has the "T-zone" (browser) button on the left, and the "shortcut" key on the right. The shortcut key allows you to switch out of an application without closing it, for easy multitasking. The bottom row has the send and end keys, separated by a cancel/clear button.
Front Open
Opening the phone reveals the SureType keypad, which is a bit different than the normal 12-key array. It's basically a more condensed version of a QWERTY keyboard, with a 4 x 4 array of keys, most of which contain two letters.
Left
The left side of the phone contains the volume rocker and the Micro SD card slot. As is typical of Samsung devices, the Micro SD slot's cover is a plastic panel tethered by a small piece of rubber.
Top
On the top is the seam where the phone slides open.
Bottom
The one feature on the Blast's bottom is the hole over the microphone.
Right
The right view of the phone has the proprietary USB/charging port and the camera shortcut key.
Back
The top two-thirds of the back of the phone is the battery cover. This shot shows it in the open position, which exposes the camera at the top. To the right of the camera is the small self-portrait mirror.
Back Open
When slid open, the 1.3-megapixel camera is exposed, along with the sliding mechanism's spring. Anyone with a source of light and a bit of curiosity can also see some of the phone's internal components, including the spring that holds the phone in either the open or closed position.
Battery Out
Once the battery cover is off, you'll find a SIM card port blocked in by the battery. There isn't anything of note underneath the battery.
In the Box (1.0)
Other than manuals, wall charger, and phone itself, you'll find a mono headset. Perhaps we're old-fashioned, but we thought a music-oriented phone could better benefit from stereo headphones, as they would allow both ears to listen to music; but Samsung got confused, thought they were an old BlackBerry, and included just a mono headset. You can buy a Samsung stereo headset for $24.99, but inexplicably, there is no adapter available that allows a standard set of 3.5mm headphones or 2.5mm headset to be used with the Blast.
Handling (2.5)
The Blast felt really light in our hands, and the plastic felt like it looked: cheap. We didn't test this, but it felt like it would break if we dropped it. On the plus side, it didn't feel slick at all, so it isn't likely to slip out of the hand. It has rounded edges that won't irritate your palms. We found that our middle finger fell comfortably on the volume rocker when we held it for a call. We also found the sliding mechanism to work really well, and opened and closed the phone sharply and crisply. The exposed spring seems as though it could snag hair easily, however, so users with long locks should be careful.
Portability (9.0)
The Blast is extremely portable. It's very thin (at just over 0.5 inches thick) and light (at just 0.80 grams), and we could see conversations lasting for hours without your arm feeling bogged down. Its size also means it will fit easily into any pocket, purse, or bag.
Aesthetics (3.0)
The Blast's case looks as if it was made from melted down plastic Easter eggs. It looks more like a toy than an actual phone, which we found detracted from our user experience. Also, when opened up, peering down below the camera offers an eyeful of the spring that holds the front in place. Though it will only peek its head out slightly from a perpendicular view of the open back, it's just not something that screams quality or even finished product. All in all, while we're sure the design knocked consumer cost down considerably, it doesn't fill us with confidence.
Durability (2.0)
The Blast is one of the most poorly constructed phones we've reviewed to date. The problems begin with the plastic used for its case. It certainly doesn't look or feel as though it could survive many trips to the ground without cracking. It also creaked a lot when we gave it a stress test; we really got the sense we could break the phone without much effort if we wanted to. Of course, moving parts, such as those involved in sliding the phone open and shut, are more susceptible to wear and tear. The Blast's sliding parts have bonus durability detriments, however, since opening the Blast exposes the interior of the phone. The gaping chasm revealed in the open position will undoubtedly allow dirt, sand, keys, and all manner of other things to wind up in the Blast's belly. We were able to get a dime stuck inside fairly easily. It was a pain to get out, requiring us to remove the sliding mechanism's spring. The exposed spring itself is also cause for concern, as it can be easily removed, bent, or otherwise broken.
[page title="Audio Quality"]
Samsung is mainly marketing the Blast as a texting device, but that still doesn't stop it from being a phone. As a phone, audio quality should be paramount. To test the audio quality we use our Head and Torso Simulator (HATS), to simulate a human ear and mouth. We also rely on a professional audio analysis program, SoundCheck. We test the quality of the sound the Blast sends, receives, and its sidetone, which is the amount of your own voice the phone plays back to you. If you want more information on our testing procedure, this article will help you out.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (5.56)
The Blast goes a bit outside the limits near the center of the graph, meaning it will slightly exaggerate the middle frequencies of those calling you. It also drops off at the ends, which means it will underemphasize lower and higher frequencies in voices. This could make them more difficult to understand, as the human voice spans a wide frequency range and most of this range needs to be accurately represented to be understood. The Blast was one of the lowest scoring phones we have tested for received sound; only the N73 was worse.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Blast | Apple iPhone(on AT&T) | Sanyo Katana DLX (on Sprint) |
| Score | 5.56 | 9.17 | 5.46 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia N73(Unlocked) | Sprint Upstage(on Sprint) | Motorola Razr (on Sprint) |
| Score | 4.47 | 8.34 | 8.12 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (4.86)
The Blast has the opposite problem when it comes to the sound it sends (such as you speaking into the phone); in this case, the standard we test against calls for the lower frequencies to have a lower response than the higher ones, but the Blast's sound is pretty flat across the spectrum. This means the Blast will put greater emphasis on low and mid-range tones and less on the higher pitches. This will make your voice sound slightly tinny or muted, depending on where your voice falls in the spectrum. Again, the Blast scored very low in this test.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Blast | Apple iPhone(on AT&T) | Sanyo Katana DLX (on Sprint) |
| Score | 4.86 | 7.58 | 7.80 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia N73(Unlocked) | Sprint Upstage(on Sprint) | Motorola Razr (on Sprint) |
| Score | 6.22 | 7.36 | 7.88 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Handset Side Tone (8.44)
Side tone refers to how loudly the phone plays back your own voice. Side tone is supposed to keep you from yelling or whispering, as we naturally do these things depending on how loud you interpret your own voice. The ideal is -18 decibels. The Blast measured -19.56 decibels, which is pretty close. You won't feel the need to speak overly quietly or yell in your conversations, unless you want to.
| Cell Phone | Sidetone Measurement | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 19.56 | 8.44 |
| Apple iPhone | 8.80 | 0.80 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 20.23 | 7.77 |
| Nokia N73 | 21.66 | 6.33 |
| Sprint Upstage | 21.90 | 6.10 |
| Motorola Razr | 17.69 | 9.25 |
[page title="Imaging"]
Resolution (0.68)
To test resolution, we aim the cell phone's camera at an industry standard resolution chart. We then process the captured stills with Imatest, our image analysis software, which analyzes the image and produces a number of results. Resolution is measured in line width per pixel height (lw/ph), both vertically and horizontally, which describes the point at which the Blast starts interpreting alternating black and white lines as just gray. The resolution on the Samsung Blast is really quite bad. It could discern 392.1 lw/ph horizontally, and 345.6 lw/ph vertically. This isn't the worst we've seen, but it's certainly toward the bottom of the barrel. The photos are good for viewing on the Blast's screen, and sending via MMS or e-mail, but they wouldn't be good for printing out or enlarging in any way; in such a case, you'd really be better off relying on memory, or perhaps taking a quick sketch instead.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Blast | Apple iPhone | Sanyo Katana DLX |
| Score | 0.68 | 4.18 | 0.45 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 392.1/345.6 | 970/879 | 316.6/249.4 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia N73 | Sprint Upstage | Motorola Razr |
| Score | 3.98 | 1.94 | 1.13 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 859.9/773.4 | 660.8/549.2 | 521.7/242.2 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (4.48)
To test color, we take a few pictures of an industry standard color chart, then analyze them with our Imatest software. The results show how far off the phone's color interpretation is.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Blast | Apple iPhone | Sanyo Katana DLX |
| Score | 4.48 | 5.22 | 6.54 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia N73 | Sprint Upstage | Motorola Razr |
| Score | 5.88 | 3.85 | 3.26 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (1.44)
The Blast actually receives a good noise score, which isn't particularly surprising. Cameras with low resolution tend to have less noise, since they can't pick up as much detail. What this means is that, even in poor light, the Blast will still offer relatively similar performance. What this doesn't mean is that the Blast's performance will be in any way good.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 1.44 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.20 |
| S anyo Katana DLX | 0.83 |
| Nokia N73 | 1.17 |
| Sprint Upstage | 1.45 |
| Motorola Razr | 1.05 |
Live Preview (4.0)
The live preview on the Blast is decent. The image kept up with our movement really well, even when we panned around quickly. The picture was subjected to vertically-scrolling gradiation, though. The color and resolution shown on screen seemed to be pretty close to what was displayed in the captured image.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (5.3)
Here we start with the phone in unlocked standby mode. We then start a timer and see how long it takes to open the camera and snap a picture. The time displayed on the resulting capture is what we use. At our fastest, we were able to complete this test in 3.75 seconds. This is slow for a phone with a dedicated camera key. Most of the time was spent hammering said key while waiting for the program to load. This is most likely fast enough to snap a portrait, but not anything that moves fast, such as small children or animals. You might be fine photographing, perhaps, your pet tortoise.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 3.75 | 5.33 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.43 | 8.23 |
| S anyo Katana DLX | 3.10 | 6.45 |
| Nokia N73 | 5.30 | 3.77 |
| Sprint Upstage | 2.70 | 7.41 |
| Motorola Razr | 3.50 | 5.71 |
Shot to Shot Time (6.33)
This tests how long it takes to take consecutive pictures. Fortunately for the Blast, it has a Burst mode, which allowed it to take five pictures in 2.37 seconds. This works out to 2.11 fps. This is pretty fast. Usually using Burst mode means forfeiting quality, but the difference in quality on the Blast isn't really noticeable. Of course, the pictures aren't great to begin with, but it is nice to see the ability to snap images fairly quickly at the maximum resolution the camera can work at.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 2.11 | 6.33 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 1.20 |
| S anyo Katana DLX | 2.10 | 6.30 |
| Nokia N73 | 0.52 | 1.56 |
| Sprint Upstage | 0.20 | 0.60 |
| Motorola Razr | 0.20 | 0.60 |
Shutter to Shot Time (5.71)
Here we test how long it takes the phone to capture your picture after you've hit the shutter key. We do five trials and average the times. The Blast was capable of snapping a photo 0.35 seconds after the button was pressed. This is on the fast side, with most phones taking closer to 0.4 seconds. Some phones that use auto focus lenses have glacial times that exceed three seconds.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 0.35 | 5.71 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 5.00 |
| S anyo Katana DLX | 0.38 | 5.26 |
| Nokia N73 | 3.10 | 0.65 |
| Sprint Upstage | 0.30 | 6.67 |
| Motorola Razr | 0.43 | 4.65 |
Interface (4.0)
The camera interface is mostly straightforward, and offers quite a few options. In the live preview, the layout is standard: left/right is your white balance, and up/down zooms. There are a few indicators, like resolution and other settings, which will auto-hide if you're in the full screen viewfinder mode. The select button takes the picture.
The left soft key opens the Options menu. Here you can fiddle with a plethora of settings, from simple things like setting a timer to more advanced options like Shooting mode. You can also find the timer and options for various effects. Each option on the menu has a keypad shortcut, which is always a good addition. The keypad is also mapped to shortcuts in Live Preview mode as well, and there's a shortcut map under the Options menu. The map displays each shortcut's function as a symbol, most of which aren't very intuitive.
In an annoying default choice, the Blast is set to "take and send," meaning after each picture you take it will automatically save it locally, then ask you where you want to send the picture, either in an e-mail or MMS, or to your online T-zone album. You'll most likely want to visit the Shooting mode menu each time you boot up the camera. While this is an good option to include, it is an annoying default, especially when the camera's defaults reset on exit. Also, noticeably absent from the list of places you can send the picture to is the memory card.
Photo Album Software Internal (5.0)
The Blast's default view is "Line View," which shows three pictures at a time. Each picture entry contains a thumbnail, the picture's name, and how much memory it takes up. This view makes it easy to scroll through pictures, with virtually no loading time. Thumbnail view displays nine at a time, and again loads rather quickly.
The Blast also has some entertaining photo editing software, but nothing serious editors could use.
Under the Shooting mode menu lies the mosaic option, which also allows for some rudimentary photo editing. You can choose from one of 15 different templates, which divide the screen up into segments. Each segment represents a different frame you can fill with an image capture.
Some of the options can be put in place before or after you take the picture. Frames are such an option, but if you want the majority of them to work correctly, you'll want to include them beforehand. Frames basically stick graphical cutouts on top of your picture. These overlays include an underwater scene with a floating scuba mask, a clown, piles of money, and a bunny face with glasses. There are 29 in all. The overlays, which function like carnival cut-outs, are nearly impossible to line up correctly. The more scene-based overlays, like the underwater scene, or objects like the Groucho Marx glasses, take up such a huge portion of the screen it's hard to make out anything besides the graphic. In fact, the frames are so hilariously useless, you'll have a blast with them initially. Unfortunately, the novelty wears off fast.
The different effects you can add are fairly basic, such as sepia, black & white, and negative. There are two more advanced options, called emboss and sketch. Sketch is the more interesting of the two, making pictures seem like a comic book interpretation of the scene. You can add these before or after you take the picture.
Once you've taken a picture, you can add small emoticons or "clip art" pictures to your photo, a la stamps from Mario Paint. They are certainly similar in quality, although there are only 39 to choose from. They are also incredibly random, including plants, emoticon-like faces, animals, and a bloody nose. Adding the pictures will decrease the original image's quality, making it look oversharpened.
There is also a slide show feature, but it's incredibly basic. All you can do is set it to one or three seconds, and it will march through your album at those intervals.
Manual Control (3.0)
There are quite a few manual controls, which you can find by hitting the left soft key to bring up the Options menu, then clicking on photo settings. Here you can change the capture resolution, white balance, metering, ISO, and toggle on Scene mode, among other options. Metering and ISO aren't features commonly found on phones. You can set the metering to matrix, spot or center-weighted. ISO can be set to automatic, 100, 200, or 400.
Zoom (1.0)
The Blast supports 12x digital zoom. We only give one point to digital zoom, since it isn't a true zoom; it just crops and enlarges sections of the photo.
Focus (0.0)
The Blast has a fixed focus lens, which we do not award points for.
Flash (0.0)
The Blast doesn't have any flash capabilities.
Metering (8.0)
The Blast supports three different options for metering: Matrix, Center-Weighted, and Spot. You can also control brightness, either via the slider in viewfinder mode which has seven notches, or with the ISO settings. You can set ISO to auto, 100, 200, or 400.
White Balance (2.0)
The Blast has five presets for white balance: Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, and Cloudy.
Image Handling (0.0)
This section scores things like white balance correction, color correction, red-eye reduction, cropping, or resizing. Therefore, although there's some image editing software here, as discussed in the photo album section, we don't award it any points, as none of the features are really useful.
Video
Overall Video Score (4.0)
The Blast can capture video at three different resolution levels, but none of them produce particularly good video captures. Even moderate movement results in a pixelated, choppy, artifact-filled mess. The color is undersaturated, The videos you can take with the Blast are good for sending via MMS, but that's about it.
Video Resolution (1.38)
Video capture can be set to one of three resolutions: 176 x 144, 160 x 120, and 128 x 96. Even at the highest setting, the Blast offers hideous quality. The video resolution test is the same as that for stills; we take five sample frames from random locations in our 30 second test video. The Blast managed 107.1 lw/ph horizontally and 129.2 vertically. This is pretty bad, though somehow better than still capturing. Again, these videos already look pretty bad on the small screen of the phone, so enlarging them on a computer screen or TV will only make a giant, pixelated mess.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 107.1/129.2 | 1.38 |
| Apple iPhone | N/A: can't capture video | 0.0 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 200.5/181.2 | 3.63 |
| Nokia N73 | 272.4/224.8 | 6.13 |
| Sprint Upstage | 77.11/109.5 | 0.84 |
| Motorola Razr | 174.3/170 | 3.46 |
Video Compression (2.0)
The Blast captures video in MP4 format at 135 Kbps. This means most phones will be able to watch your terribly pixelated videos.
Interface (5.0)
The video interface is similar to that of the camera, only without as many options. The effects make the transition to video capture, as does the timer, but that's it. Fewer options allow the eponymous menu to fit on one screen, however, which makes navigating it much easier. The camcorder settings allow you to change the white balance, toggle audio record, change recording mode (for MMS/e-mail optimization), or change the resolution. Given how bad the max resolution is, we can see no reason why you'd want to lower it any. All in all though, the menus are reasonably well laid out, and having fewer options means it is much easier to browse around the menus, hence a slightly better score.
Manual Control (1.0)
The only manual control for your Blast's little camcorder is the brightness slider, which has seven different positions.
Zoom (1.0)
Like capturing stills, the Blast supports 12x digital zoom. Again, digital zoom only crops and resizes images, so we only award it one point.
Editing (0.0)
There isn't anything you can do with the Blast to edit videos.
Modes (4.0)
The Blast has an MMS mode and E-mail mode for video capture, which are more options than some phones offer.
[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]
Dialing Speed (5.95)
To test how easy it is to make a call, we time how long it takes to dial each of five different test numbers, then average the results. We use a pool of numbers to better approximate an actual user's experience -- a user is most likely not going to dial just one phone number all day. The Blast was able to get a call out in an average of 3.36 seconds, which is toward the quick end of the spectrum, especially for a flip phone. We probably could have gotten calls out even faster, but the keypad has an annoying tendency to ignore two consecutive number inputs when entered quickly. As all our test numbers begin with 555 (so we don't call you accidentally), we found we had to start out dialing slowly, or else the middle five wouldn't register. At times only one five registered. This problem will most likely be only a minor inconvenience, but it could be a problem if you're trying to dial a cool phone number, such as the White House switchboard at (202) 456-1111.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 3.36 | 5.95 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.96 | 5.05 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 3.76 | 5.32 |
| Nokia N73 | 3.26 | 6.13 |
| Sprint Upstage | 3.38 | 5.92 |
| Motorola Razr | 4.90 | 4.08 |
Talk and End Buttons (3.0)
The talk and end buttons are found on either side of the clear key, underneath the directional pad. They really don't offer much tactile feedback, as the finger can easily glide over the little chasm separating them from surrounding buttons without registering it. The raised edge of the d-pad would provide some help, but it's round, so navigating by a sliver of its circumference isn't much to go on. They are located in the bottom left and right of the key array, which should make them easy hit blind They share their respective corners with other buttons, however, making quick location difficult. We can see a few people hitting the t-zone button instead of send, or the shortcut key instead of end.
Call Management (5.0)
The Blast's call history is labeled "Call records," and is available in the phone's Main menu. This allows you to sort your view by missed, incoming, outgoing, or all calls. There is also a call timer that displays the last call's length, as well as running totals for outgoing, incoming, and both combined. Calls are listed by their number, along with an incoming/outgoing symbol and a parenthetical number that refers to the number of times that number has been contacted. Clicking on a call displays the name and number at the top, while underneath is a list of each call's dates and lengths. The list can only display two calls at a time, which makes navigating a bit difficult.
During a call you have access to the standard options, plus a few rarities. The select key mutes, the right soft key toggles speaker phone, and the left soft key brings up the Options menu. The menu lets you make a new call, open up the phone book, create a message, open your inbox, enable Whisper mode, or send DTMF tones. Whisper mode amplifies the microphone so you can talk discreetly in a library or similar place. Send DTMF is an option you most likely will never use, unless you have some fancy system rigged up to let you dial your house to open the garage.
Startup to Call (4.66)
In this section we score based on how fast a phone can boot up and call. We begin with the phone closed and off, and stop the timer as we hit the send key. The Blast was able to power up and complete a call in an average of 21.48 seconds, which is a good time. Most of this time was booting up the phone, which is where the Blast's simplicity may have helped it. Phones with complex operating systems like Windows Mobile often take longer to boot up, simply because they need to launch more programs at startup. Then again, phones with similar functionality also dominate the other end of the spectrum, like BlackBerry devices or the Helio Ocean, all of which clock in at less than ten seconds.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 21.48 | 4.66 |
| Apple iPhone | 26.12 | 3.83 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 24.26 | 4.12 |
| Nokia N73 | 36.70 | 2.72 |
| Sprint Upstage | 28.90 | 3.46 |
| Motorola Razr | 35.70 | 2.80 |
Ring Volume (8.55)
For this test we play the phone's ringtones four inches away from a sound meter and register the maximum output in decibels. The Blast was able to score 85.5 decibels, which isn't the loudest we've registered. It is, however, pretty firmly wedged in the midst of the majority of most phones we've reviewed. Ringtones at 85.5 decibels are likely catch your ear, especially the more shrill ones. If you're in a loud environment, however, it might not be enough.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 85.5 | 8.55 |
| Apple iPhone | 84.9 | 8.49 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Nokia N73 | 85.3 | 8.53 |
| Sprint Upstage | 81.0 | 8.10 |
| Motorola Razr | 88.0 | 8.80 |
Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
The Blast offers quite a bit of freedom with ringtone customization. You can set an MP3 file or voice recording as your ringtone. The phone also does the brunt of the work for you, as it'll allow you to set a file as a ringtone right from the memory card.
Non Audio Alerts (4.0)
Non audio alerts were pretty weak. We couldn't feel the phone vibrate if it was in our pants pocked and we were standing. We also missed it a few times when we were sitting. If your phone is in your bag or a purse, you don't have a chance at catching a call. We did appreciate the animation that took up the screen when a call was coming in, but it wasn't particularly eye-catching.
[page title="Messaging"]
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 |
[page title="Organizer"]
Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Blast can't sync data with a PC or Mac out of the box, since it doesn't come with a USB cable. A USB cable is available for an additional $24.99, and you'll have to use this: the port on the Blast is a proprietary one that doesn't work with standard USB cables.
Alerts (1.0)
Alerts for calendar items are horrible. They initially seem to be fairly flexible. You are provided with an integer field and a field for how long said integer field should reflect, from minutes up to weeks. Anniversary items can only be given notice a matter of weeks or days before the event.
It's not until you actually witness an alert that you realize how bad they are. After sounding its alarm one time, it will stop. If you're in a menu, you won't receive the reminder dialogue until you go back to the home screen. It won't remind you again in a few minutes, either. One time is all you get. This is worse than the BlackBerry Curve's alert functionality -- which was the worse we'd seen until now -- since you can't set the number of rings/vibrations to a number higher than one. If you have a menu open, but miss the alarm, a small clock icon will be displayed somewhere near the top of the screen, but it's so tiny you'll miss it every time.
Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Blast doesn't support over the air PIM sync.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (5.14)
For this test we time how long it takes to add a simple contact consisting of just a name and a phone number. We input five different names and numbers, to better approximate real life use, and then average the time for each set. The Blast could add contacts in an average of 19.45 seconds, which is a relatively fast time. It is, however, nowhere near as fast as it could have been had the keypad not been so prone to errors. It seems the Blast has a huge problem with double-tapping a key too quickly, which led to many of our letter inputs being incorrect. We must note, though, that entering in a new contact through the menu involves more navigation than simply keying in the number and choosing to save it as a contact from there.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 19.45 | 5.14 |
| App le iPhone | 20.86 | 4.79 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 23.36 | 4.28 |
| Nokia N73 | 23.10 | 4.33 |
| Sprint Upstage | 21.30 | 4.69 |
| Motorola Razr | 27.90 | 3.58 |
Looking/Sorting/Search (3.0)
You can opt to sort contacts by either their first or last name In the Settings menu. There is also an active search function where you can use multi-tap to input fragments that occur within your contact's name, such as keying in "Bert" to search out "Albert".
Fields (2.4)
There are 12 fields on the Blast you can use to enter contacts. These include various numbers, a fax line, custom photo/ring, a group, and room for notes. This is a good number of fields for a basic phone, but nothing compared to most smart phones, which contain upward of 40 fields, some of which you can customize.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.0)
The Blast allows you to assign keys two through nine to a speed dial. It doesn't allow you to add a voice tag to your contacts, which means the paltry eight speed dial options are it. Most phones allow for more complex, multi-digit speed dialing. Also, the voice recognition software only recognized four out of our five test contact names, meaning it might have some problems with less common names.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (3.78)
For this test we try to add a simple calendar item: lunch, 12 p.m. tomorrow, reminder 15 minutes beforehand. We time how long it takes to enter this, starting at the home screen. The Blast took an incredibly lengthy 26.04 seconds to enter this in. The reason for this is the complex calendar system; you have to navigate through far more menus than most phones. Once you start to edit, you need to alter both the start and end time, and even change the a.m. to p.m., all of which take up time. Lastly, you need to activate the alarm before you can key in the 15 minute reminder. Quickness is not something the calendar is equipped to handle.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 26.04 | 3.78 |
| Apple iPhone | 18.92 | 5.29 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 15.22 | 6.57 |
| Nokia N73 | 18.96 | 5.27 |
| Sprint Upstage | 26.46 | 3.78 |
| Motorola Razr | 22.60 | 4.42 |
Calendar Views (6.33)
The Blast supports the typical month, week, and day views. The month view displays events as a small notch on the corner of a day. Highlighting said day shows a tally of the events at the bottom, next to an icon of their type: schedule, anniversary, miscellaneous, or task. This is about as detailed as it gets, but this is more than most month views will show you. Week mode shows the typical grid, with times on the left and days across the top. As with most week views, it highlights chunks of time you have things scheduled. We would've liked to see some sort of detail upon highlighting scheduled time, though. Day view is where you can view a list of all your daily events in list form. Each item in the list displays the title, time, and icons describing if it is a repeat event or if there was an alarm. Entering the item itself displays all filled-in fields.
There are also three different agenda-esque views, where you can see all your scheduled items, anniversaries, and miscellaneous items in a list.
Fields (7.5)
There are basically seven fields to edit for a calendar entry item. We use the word "basically" because the Blast has a nasty tendency to split its start/end time into three fields; one for date, one for time, and one for AM/PM. The Blast does something similar with its alarm functionality. Apparently Samsung thought we score based on the quantity of fields, and thought it could beat our system. You can technically make an event be an all day event, but to do so requires you make an anniversary entry as opposed to checking a box in a field.
To Do/Tasks
Adding To Do/Task (6.88)
For this test we time how long it takes to enter in a simple task if you start with the phone closed and unlocked. We do five trials and average the scores. The Blast was able to enter in a simple task in 19.45 seconds, which is slightly better than average. Again, the Blast has a slightly convoluted menu system; you need to intermittently hit menu while using the keypad shortcuts, which slows down the phone's time. Also, tasks have a start date and a due date that must be set, as opposed to most phones which simply have a due date.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 19.45 | 6.88 |
| Apple iPhone | N/A: unable to create tasks. | 0.0 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 17.96 | 5.57 |
| Nokia N73 | 13.16 | 7.60 |
| Sprint Upstage | 28.28 | 3.54 |
| Motorola Razr | N/A: unable to create tasks. | 0.0 |
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
Tasks are sorted by due date. You can't sort them any other way. You can opt to give them a priority, but all that does is provide each one with a graphic depicting concentric circles; if you have all your concentric circles filled in, you're dealing with a high priority item. We really would have liked to see some sort of organizational functionality here.
Fields (5.0)
The task's fields are fairly sparse. All you can enter is a description of the task, a start/end date, a priority, and an alarm. The start and end dates can only handle days, not times. All in all, this is really limited task functionality, but for a phone not focusing on organizational software, that it has any at all is notable.
Notes
Adding Notes (4.28)
For this test we time how long it takes to open up the note application and jot down a simple entry: "Lunch 12 p.m. tomorrow". We begin with the phone in the closed, unlocked position, and end the timer as we save the note. The Blast completed this test in 11.69 seconds. This is actually fairly quick, mainly because there was a bit less menu navigation necessary to get to the note application than in other phones: it's right in the Organizer menu. Also, the word completion feature allowed us to only type in the first half of the last word. We were pleased with the Blast in this category.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 11.69 | 4.28 |
| App le iPhone | 12.66 | 3.95 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | N/A: Unable to create notes. | 0.0 |
| Nokia N73 | 15.12 | 3.31 |
| Sprint Upstage | 29.72 | 1.68 |
| Motorola Razr | N/A: Unable to create notes. | 0.0 |
Note Interface (2.0)
Note Formatting (0.0)
You can't format your notes.
Voice Memo (5.0)
There is a voice note function, curiously given the number one as a shortcut key on the Main menu. The voice memo is really very standard. The interface is that of the media player, and gives you one minute to complete your note. While you record, the visualization in the background pulsates and morphs wildly, which is rather distracting. The left soft key is again the Options menu, and allows you to save, rerecord, or set your note as a ringtone or alarm. So, if the only way to wake you is to have yourself yelling "wake up!" you can do it with the Blast.
[page title="Multimedia"]
Accessing Music Software (7.66)
This test attempts to showcase how easy it is to get a song playing on your phone. We begin a timer with the phone in the closed, unlocked position, and stop as soon as our test song begins playing. The Blast was able to do this in 2.61 seconds. This is a quick time for a slider without a dedicated music shortcut button. The truth is, though, many mid-range handsets do have such a button. Still, navigating to the music player on the Blast is by no means a marathon if you know the keypad shortcuts.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 2.61 | 7.66 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.10 | 6.45 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 11.86 | 1.69 |
| Nokia N73 | 4.34 | 4.61 |
| Sprint Upstage | 6.54 | 3.06 |
| Motorola Razr | 12.10 | 1.65 |
Dedicated Music Controls (0.0)
For this section, we score based on how many different buttons are dedicated to controlling the media player. We define a dedicated music control as a button that either only performs music functions, or buttons that, while a song is playing in the background, will perform music functions instead of their normal functions. This would, of course, require a song to be playing in the background in the home screen. The Blast stops music playback as soon as you leave the media player, unfortunately, which is a serious oversight for a modern phone.
The d-pad and select key control the play/pause/stop/skip functions, but they aren't dedicated controls. Also, although the volume rocker controls the media player volume while in the application, this is separate from the phone volume, so even it can't be considered a dedicated music control.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (3.8)
The Blast provides users with a flashy interface over subpar functionality. The interface looks good, and displays the controls you need to control your tunes. The Blast is technically capable of displaying two different visualizations, but they're just short animations that don't appear to be affected by the music in any way. You can do most of the standard operations: play/pause/stop, forward skip, reverse skip, and repeat (current track or all), but no rewinding or fast-forwarding. It does let you create and edit playlists, which is a great feature a lot of phones don't include. Making playlists is a bit difficult, however, since all your music is dumped into one folder and organized by title. There's no way to sort by album or even artist, so you'd better know the names of all your songs.
Online Song Downloading (7.5)
The Blast allows you to download music via the default T-Mobile homepage. The store is a bit more convoluted than other carriers' stores, and we'd recommend using the search functionality rather than attempting to traverse the menus. Songs cost $1.99, or you can purchase a subscription that allows for a six-pack of downloads for $9.99 per month. That's rather expensive: Sprint charges just 99 cents for a song.
Streaming (0.0)
The Blast does not support streaming audio.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The Blast does not support podcasts.
Music Sync with PC (0.0)
If you purchase a USB cable, you can get your Blast to sync up with Window Media Player. As the Blast doesn't come with a USB cable as standard (it'll cost you an extra $24.99), we don't award it points for this functionality.
Music Formats and DRM (2.0)
The Blast was able to play our test AAC and MP3 files, but nothing else. This means you won't be able to play any WMA files or songs that include copy protection on the Blast, so your iTunes and Napster downloads won't play on the Blast. This is a rather disappointing file support roster.
Music Interruption (0.0)
The Blast likes to pretend it has music interruption, but it didn't fool us. When you're playing music and get a call, regardless of whether or not you answer it, your song will restart. The Blast will give you a prompt asking whether or not you want to resume playback. The Blast's definition of "resume playback" means "restart the song," unfortunately. Therefore, if your friend knows you're listening to a song, they can just be a jerk and keep calling to restart your music. Or perhaps that's just our friends. Anyway, a phone with good music interruption functionality would simply fade the music back in from where it was paused so as to not startle you.
Video
Video Software Access (7.43)
This test is meant to approximate how easy it would be to get a video playing on the device. Again, we start with the phone closed and unlocked and end the timer when the video is playing. The Blast was able to do this in 2.69 seconds. This is, again, fast. It's tests like these where the Blast's OS really shines; there was no lag at all, and menus kept up with fast keypad shortcut navigation.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Blast | 2.69 | 7.43 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.20 | 6.25 |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 8.54 | 2.34 |
| Nokia N73 | 9.74< |