Home > Reviews > Manufacturer > Samsung Beat for T-Mobile Cell Phone Review

Samsung Beat for T-Mobile Cell Phone Review

Mark Brezinski Published on February 21, 2008 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

The Samsung Beat is pretty easy to sum up: entry-level plus some music capabilities. Those who are looking for exactly that will find that the Beat does a solid job as a phone and provides decent music capabilities. In particular they'll appreciate the exterior music controls and solid battery life. Anyone looking for something more better not come crying to us when they are inevitably disappointed.

The Beat is $50 with contract, after online or mail-in rebates ($100 and $50 respectively). It's a T-Mobile exclusive.

Tour & Design - The Beat is rather plain looking. It certainly looks like a lower-end device. Fortunately, it seems to be sturdy.

Audio Quality - The Beat has average audio quality. While frequencies aren't emphasized perfectly, as an entry-level device it performs well enough.

Imaging - The Beat has a horrible camera. The Beat's tiny screen is the only medium small enough to make its pictures seem decent.

Making/Receiving Calls - The Beat manages calls well enough, and is good for quickly placing calls.

Messaging - The Beat doesn't have the best messaging software, but we were pleased to see full SMS/MMS integration.

Organizer - The organizer on the Beat is only present as a formality. It's not worth using in any serious regard.

Multimedia - The Beat has average music and below average video software.

Software - In terms of software, the Beat only provides its users with the basics and a handful of games. The games were a nice touch.

Battery Life - The Beat has average music playback time, which is actually above average for an entry-level device. Unfortunately, its call time and web browsing times weren't very good.

Connectivity - The Beat isn't the best connected phone, lacking wi-fi support and only using a GPRS data connection.

Hardware- The hardware on the Beat is basic, but it gets the job done. The biggest issue is the screen, which measures a mere 1.9".

Other Features - There aren't any additional frills on the Beat.

Value & Comparisons - The Beat isn't really a bad deal, but it's not an overly great deal either. This decision is best left up to the user.

[page title="Tour & Design"]

Front Closed

Looking at the Beat, the eye is initially drawn to the neon yellow grate around the d-pad. This is the speakerphone, which cleverly capitalizes on our instinctual fear of bees. The d-pad has media player controls printed on it: up is shuffle/repeat, down is stop, left and right are skip, and center is play/pause. Above the d-pad is the Beat's 1.08" external display. Above that is the camera lens.

Front Open

The internal speaker keeps up the "neon yellow grating" theme. The second feature on the top half is a 1.91" display. On the bottom half you'll find a fairly traditional d-pad and 12-key array. The d-pad consists of two soft keys, an internet shortcut, a custom shortcut key, the talk and end buttons, and a clear/back button. The 12-key array is standard. Below this, on the right side, is the microphone hole.

Left

Here you'll find the proprietary data/charging port as well as the volume keys.

Top

The top of the phone has a seam where it flips open, but nothing else.

Bottom
The bottom lets you see the seam between the two halves

Right

The right side has a microSD card slot covered with a panel. Above this is a camera shortcut key and a music player shortcut.

Back

The back of the phone only has a battery cover to hold your interest.

Battery Out
You'll need to take out the battery to get at the SIM card, but otherwise you should just leave it in.

In the Box (5.0)
The Beat comes with some nice extras for a simple phone. For the price of purchase, you'll get a charger, proprietary USB cable, stereo headset, a 1GB microSD card, a micro-to-miniSD adaptor, and a few manuals. We hope the Beat is ushering in a trend of included headphones and memory cards, because many music handsets released last year didn't come with either.

Handling (3.0)
The Beat is a bit small, so those with larger hands might have to employ the finger tip grip. It's also fairly light. This means it shouldn't overburden you during marathon calls, but also lends itself to the phone not feeling very substantial. The phone also has a really weak flip. While most users won't mind this, those used to a crisp snap will find the Beat's lazy flipping mechanism annoying.

Portability (9.0)
As a small phone, the Beat is very portable. There's really no reason it won't fit into a purse or bag. If it won't fit into your pocket, then perhaps you should buy some more functional pants.

Aesthetics (3.0)
As an inexpensive handset, the Beat is about average. As a general rule, aesthetic appeal is just as valuable -- sometimes more valuable -- than any given feature, which means most pretty phones have ugly prices. Therefore, entry-level handsets tend to be exempt from the general aesthetic gamut, as they usually have a unique, "I didn't pay the beauty tax" look to them. Even in this lower division, however, the Beat isn't particularly handsome. The all-black design would've worked fine, but the giant, neon yellow ring on the front is unattractive and condemns this otherwise professional-looking phone to the youth market.

Durability (4.0)
As a plastic, entry-level handset, the Beat doesn't shout durability. For one, the screen can be bent past the point it would normally extend to. While this doesn't necessarily mean it's any more breakable than a phone with a more robust flip, it certainly makes you feel as though you could easily break the phone in two. The flipping motion itself means there's moving parts, which always have greater potential for wear and tear. To its credit, however, it doesn't creak when you twist it around; regardless of the materials used, it is assembled well.

[page title="Audio Quality"]

As both a music device and a phone, audio quality is a very important aspect of the Beat. With poor audio quality, the Beat is simply an unwieldy clothespin. To determine whether or not the Beat is worth your $50, we run it through our usual audio quality tests. Our scientific testing methods use hardware and software often used by manufacturers during their own testing. The hardware is a Head and Torso Simulator (HATS), which simulates the human ear and mouth. The software we use is SoundCheck, which analyzes what happens to sound waves once they're filtered through a phone. If you want more information on our tests, read this article.

Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.12)

In these graphs, the blue line is how much emphasis the Beat puts on different frequencies in the spectrum of the human voice. The red are the limits it should fall between. As you can see, the Beat does stay within the limits, but fluctuates quite a bit within them. Typically phones will emphasize higher and lower sounds, simply because they're harder to hear, but the Beat does this to an extreme. This means sibilance or bass will be louder than normal, while normal talking will sound slightly quieter.

Cell Phone	Samsung Beat	Razr2 V8 (on T-Mobile)	Samsung Blast (on T-Mobile)
Score	8.12	9.16	8.85
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM (on AT&T)	Motorola W385 (on Verizon)	Samsung Juke (on Verizon)
Score	7.49	8.03	6.89
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Sound Send Frequency Response (7.38)


Again, the blue represents how the Beat emphasizes different frequencies, and the red lines are what it needs to stay between. This time, however, the graph depicts how the Beat handles your own voice, giving a little insight on how you sound to a caller. For most of the graph your voice will be on a fairly even keel, but towards the end it juts out beyond the limits before plummeting back down through them prematurely. This means that higher-frequency sounds, such as sibilance, that fall within this magic range will sound louder than normal.

Cell Phone	Samsung Beat	Razr2 V8 (on T-Mobile)	Samsung Blast (on T-Mobile)
Score	7.38	7.46	5.56
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM (on AT&T)	Motorola W385 (on Verizon)	Samsung Juke (on Verizon)
Score	8.68	8.29	8.37
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Handset Side Tone (7.47)


Side tone refers to how loudly your voice is played back to you through the phone's speaker. Phones do this because, when people can't hear themselves speak, they tend to speak louder. The ideal side tone will aid in subliminal volume control. For our test, the ideal side tone measurement for the sound produced should be -18 decibels. The Beat's side tone was a bit softer, at -20.53 decibels. This means you'll feel the need to speak slightly louder than you normally would.

Cell Phone	Sidetone Measurement	Score
Samsung Beat	20.53	7.47
Razr2 V8	15.42	7.42
Samsung Blast	19.56	8.44
Samsung SLM	19.75	8.25
Motorola W385	16.87	8.87
Samsung Juke	22.88	5.02

[page title="Imaging"]

Resolution (0.70)

Entry-level phones generally have very poor resolution scores, and the Beat certainly participates in this trend. Though, sadly, it isn't even the lowest-scoring phone on the table below, it is by no means a good score. We measure resolution in line widths per pixel height, or lw/ph. A good score would be between 900 and 1000 lw/ph. The Beat scored about half that if you average its horizontal and vertical scores. Even the W385 -- which comes free with contract -- received a better score in this section.

We test resolution by taking a picture of an industry standard resolution chart. We then process the resulting image captures with our Imatest software, which is essentially like an eye test. Imatest determines how many individual black lines the camera can discern -- as opposed to interpreting the area as blurry gray -- and outputs a measurement in line widths per pixel height (again, lw/ph).

Cell Phone	Samsung Beat	Razr2 V8	Samsung Blast
Score	0.70	4.29	0.68
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	414.5 / 674.9	982 / 982	392.1 / 345.6
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM	Motorola W385	Samsung Juke
Score	0.88	1.22	0.40
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	444 / 476	524.3 / 580.4	300 / 295
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (4.72)
Considering how poorly the Beat's resolution performance was, we would've expected a lower score on its color representation. The Beat, however, is actually fairly accurate with its portrayal of color. Colors will be (sometimes dramatically) undersaturated, but that's a typical flaw in lower-class cameras. We were pleased to see that colors weren't being misrepresented otherwise, such as purples appearing red, or yellows appearing green.
The graph above and on the left is the actual capture we made with the phone, plus a few overlays Imatest threw on. There are two overlays: the small, innermost rectangle is the ideal color, and the larger square is the ideal adjusted for luminance. Generally speaking, under perfect conditions, the background (the actual capture) should match with the ideal color. Since such a situation would never occur, the adjusted ideal is a much more realistic goal.

The graph above and to the right graphs the differences between the captured and ideal colors on a gamut chart. The squares are the ideal color, and are attached by a line to the color the camera actually captured. Obviously, the longer the line, the further off the color was.

Cell Phone	Samsung Beat	Razr2 V8	Samsung Blast
Score	4.72	4.41	4.48
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM	Motorola W385	Samsung Juke
Score	2.15	4.20	5.50
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (1.22)
Relatively speaking, the Beat didn't do a great job with noise. It was consistent for most lighting levels, but the drop to lower light nearly doubled the amount of noise. As you may have noticed, however, all the scores below are below a two. The reason for this is that, as of this moment, no cell phone is plagued by low noise image captures. Even a low-end digital camera will have less noise than an average cell phone camera.

Cell Phone	Score
Samsung Beat	1.22
Razr2 V8	0.91
Samsung Blast	1.44
Samsung SLM	1.48
Motorola W385	1.28
Samsung Juke	1.50

Live Preview (4.0)
The live preview on the Beat isn't the worst we've seen. It does tend to blur, and the refresh rate seems to be a little slow, but you won't run into a delay between the scene and the screen. Pixelation is minimal, though you'll notice it on diagonal lines. For the most part, color and clarity are the same as in the captured photo. You could certainly do far worse in an entry-level phone.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (4.59)
We were able to snap a picture with the Beat 4.36 seconds after first flipping it open. For a phone with a dedicated camera key, this is very slow. The entire process seems to take slightly longer than it should, from waiting for the application to open, to the shutter-to-shot time.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	4.36	4.59
Razr2 V8	4.56	4.39
Samsung Blast	3.75	5.33
Samsung SLM	3.7	5.41
Motorola W385	1.86	10.75
Samsung Juke	1.89	10.58

Shot to Shot Time (5.13)
With burst mode enabled, we were able to take a set of five pictures in 2.92 seconds. This is roughly 1.71 frames per second, which is a good score. Interestingly enough, the only phones that were faster than the beat were also made by Samsung.

There are two thing to note with the Beat's burst mode. First, the first picture is snapped a bit slower than when burst mode isn't enabled. Secondly, there are two resolution options for burst mode. We performed the timing test with "Normal" quality, but opting for "High" should result in the same FPS.

Cell Phone	FPS	Score
Samsung Beat	1.71	5.13
Razr2 V8	0.58	1.74
Samsung Blast	2.11	6.33
Samsung SLM	2.1	6.30
Motorola W385	0.41	1.23
Samsung Juke	0.56	1.68

Shutter to Shot Time (5.13)
The length of delay between pushing the shutter key and the picture snapping was 0.39 seconds for the Beat. As you can see in the below table, this is about average, with the Razr2 V8 coming in at exactly the same time. The Juke is, by far, an overachiever, but the Beat should satisfy most quick-draw photographers.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	0.39	5.13
Razr2 V8	0.39	5.13
Samsung Blast	0.35	5.71
Samsung SLM	0.3	6.67
Motorola W385	0.4	5.00
Samsung Juke	0.09	22.22

Interface (4.0)


The Beat's interface is simple, once you figure out what the soft key symbols mean (hint: left is menu, and right is exit). The live preview uses the whole screen, which is nice, but the icons at the bottom aren't translucent and never hide, meaning they'll always be in the way. Fortunately, they're small and don't sit on a screen-obfuscating toolbar. The d-pad functions do hide, however, so you'd better commit the following to memory: up and down fiddle with the zoom, left and right adjust brightness.

The initial menu is laid out fairly well. Items like "Set default destination" could've been filed under the Camera Settings menu to reduce clutter, but otherwise it's organized well. When you highlight an option, a small box will pop down that says your current setting. There are options for burst mode, a timer, effects, or frames, as well as shortcuts to video capture and the picture album. At the bottom you'll even find a transcript of all the keypad shortcuts used by the camera app. The settings menu will let you alter the size of the picture (1280x1024, 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480, 320x240, and128x160 -- phew), throw guides and whatnot onto the live preview, or alter the sounds the camera makes. This menu is also where the scene modes and white balance hide.

One thing most users will have to change immediately is the "Shooting mode" setting. The default mode for single shot capturing is "Take and Send". This means you'll be asked where you'd like to send your picture after every capture. Unfortunately, even after you switch this, you'll need to select "Take another picture" from the post-capture menu in order to get the process rolling again. Another annoyance is the inability to set the memory card as a place you'd like to "Take and Send" the picture to.

Photo Album Software Internal (4.5)
The album's default view is a three-item list. Each entry consists of a thumbnail, the title (in a scrolling marquis), and the size of the picture. The downside is only three entries are on screen at once, but scrolling through the list scrolling through the list is also a very fast process. The other view option is thumbnail view, but the pictures take time to load.

There are also a few post-capture editing options, but none of them are for serious users. You can do things like add color effects, frames, or assemble mosaics, but there aren't any options for color correction or red-eye fix. Additionally, while there is a slideshow feature, you can only set the delay interval between slides.

Manual Control (1.0)
The Beat, like most entry-level devices, doesn't have much in the way of manual control. The only thing we'd consider a manual control is the phone's only scene mode: night. For this single nugget of manual goodness, it will receive as many points.

Zoom (1.0)
The phone has digital zoom, which we really argue against even being called a "zoom". What it does is crop and enlarge a section of the picture, which gives the illusion of a zoom at the expense of picture quality. As such, we only award digital zoom a single point.

Focus (0.0)
The Beat has a fixed-focus lens, which we don't award points for.

Flash (0.0)
There's no flash, so you're out of luck as soon as the light dims.

Metering (2.0)
The Beat does technically have a metering option: the brightness slider. There are 11 settings on the slider, but more advanced metering options are non-existent.

White Balance (2.0)
There are four white balance settings in addition to automatic: Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, and Cloudy.

Image Handling (0.0)
There are two options for image handling that we award points for: renaming the pictures, and protecting them from deletion. You won't find advanced options like color correction or red-eye fix.

Video

Overall Video Score (3.5)
Most cell phones have terrible video capturing capabilities. Entry-level phones are really the dregs of motion capture technology. This being said, the Beat manages to leap over the incredibly low bar we set for it. Its resolution isn't bad, and it will let you limit video for MMS messages. The interface is a bit annoying, however. If you view the video capture feature simply as a bonus tack-on, then you're in the correct frame of mind for enjoying what the Beat has to offer.

Video Resolution (5.52)
Considering how terrible the camera's resolution was, we expected similarly bad results from the Beat's video capture. This plucky little handset surprised us, however, offering average video quality. Its results are actually above average for a phone in its class, but they're still not anything worth watching on anything but a cell phone screen.

Cell Phone	lw/ph horizontal/vertical	Score
Samsung Beat	214.5 / 257.5	5.52
Razr2 V8	168 / 217	3.65
Samsung Blast	107.1 / 129.2	1.38
Samsung SLM	155 / 144	2.23
Motorola W385	N/A: Can't capture video.	0.0
Samsung Juke	N/A: Can't capture video.	0.0

Video Compression (2.0)
The Beat can only capture video in Mpeg-4 format.

Interface (3.5)


We were actually quite surprised to see a full-screen live preview for video capture. Normally phones throw borders and toolbars onto the screen to shrink the size of the preview down to 30% of the total screen. The interface for video capture is actually identical to that of still capture with the exception of the tiny capture icon: it takes on the form of a camcorder instead of a camera. The menu is a bit thinner, due to the absence of burst mode and shooting mode. The interface suffers from problems similar to those we saw in stills capture, however, requiring you to choose "Take another video" from the menu on the post-capture screen.

Manual Control (1.0)
The only manual setting is the brightness slider. Typically video capture sees even fewer manual controls than still capture on cell phones.

Zoom (1.0)
Again, the only zoom you'll see here is digital zoom. Since this degrades the picture quality even further than normal, we really don't recommend using it.

Editing (0.0)
There are no video editing features.

Modes (2.0)
There is an setting which will limit your videos for MMS messages, but that's it. Many phones don't even give you this courtesy.

[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]

Dialing Speed (5.97)
Those with good phone flipping skills and dexterous thumbs should be able to establish an outgoing call in about 3.35 seconds. This is a tad slow for a non-smart flip phone; the difference is most likely due to the bad flipping mechanism. Though this might seem a bit dramatic, every time we opened the phone we felt we were fighting against the flip mechanism. A good flip should be like gently releasing a dove from your hands, and watching in awe as it takes flight. Opening the Beat is like pushing a busted Oldesmobile down the highway. We like team players here at WirelessInfo.com, and we are sorry to say the Beat's flip is more hindrance than a help on team dial.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	3.35	5.97
Razr2 V8	3.45	5.80
Samsung Blast	3.36	5.95
Samsung SLM	3.02	6.62
Motorola W385	1.97	10.15
Samsung Juke	2.64	7.58

Talk and End Buttons (4.0)
The talk and end buttons are good, but not great. The problem lies with their lack of differentiation. You'll have to rely on sight, or finger memory to find them, since the entire keypad feels like a smooth sheet. We would've liked some kind of textured surface on or near them so we could easily navigate to them by touch. The buttons do have good travel. They also have a good snap to them, which provides both tactile and aural feedback.

Call Management (6.0)
The Beat has good call management options for an entry-level handset. When in a call, the other party's phone number is displayed, along with a timer. Initially, you can turn on the speakerphone with the right soft key, or open up a deeper menu, courtesy of the left. The options menu will allow you to mute a call, put it on hold, start a new call, turn on whisper mode, mute the keys, or send DTMF. There are also shortcuts to commonly-used applications, such as the phonebook or message, as well as a shortcut to the full main menu. Conferencing is done by first establishing a new call (which will automatically put the existing call on hold), then joining the two calls with an option in the menu. At this point, both of the connected phone numbers will be displayed on screen, along with the timer.

The call log consists of four categories: all, missed, incoming, or outgoing. Once you've selected your filtration method of choice, a series of listed entries will appear. Each list item consists of an icon, the number, and the number of such calls (missed/incoming/outgoing) from/to that number. Clicking on a number will also let you check out the length of the call and the time it was made. From this menu you can also add a call to your block list.

Startup to Call (5.59)
If the Beat is off, you should be able to get a number dialed in about 17.88 seconds. This is quick; only the Juke was able to clock in with a faster time. For even more perspective, keep in mind some smart phones take over a minute to boot up.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	17.88	5.59
Razr2 V8	27.72	3.61
Samsung Blast	21.48	4.66
Samsung SLM	30.1	3.32
Motorola W385	24.53	4.08
Samsung Juke	11.9	8.40

Ring Volume (8.48)
The Beat was only capable of outputting 84.8 decibels, which isn't very loud. Though the decibel range we've found in our testing is from 80 to over 100 decibels, the spectrum is heavily weighted towards the higher end. Typically phones with relatively quiet volumes are saved somewhat by shrill or ear-catching rings; this isn't the case with the Beat.

Cell Phone	Volume (decibels)	Score
Samsung Beat	84.8	8.48
Razr2 V8	103.4	10.34
Samsung Blast	98.9	9.89
Samsung SLM	83.9	8.39
Motorola W385	98.7	9.87
Samsung Juke	101.6	10.16

Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
You can either use your music as your ringtone, or record your own with the voice note application. You can't edit your songs on the device, but such a feature is rare so it likely won't be missed. We're frankly shocked to see the ability to use your own music files as ring-tones.

Non Audio Alerts (6.0)
Since its ring volume is a bit lackluster, it's disappointing that the non-audio alerts are also weak. You could notice the vibration in your pocket if you were standing still, but while walking there's no way you would notice. One good feature, though, is that the front display will show a little animation when a call is incoming. We appreciate the movement, since most phones simply light up, display a message, and sit; if you miss the Beat's screen turning on, at least the animation has a chance of drawing your attention.

[page title="Messaging"]

Supported Email Services (0.0)
There is no email client on the Beat, which we tend to prefer to the typical entry-level alternative: web-based email clients. At least the Beat isn't lying to itself and its consumers by pretending it's a BlackBerry. Regardless, the Beat will get a few zeroes in this section for the lack of an on-board email client.

Push Email (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

HTML and Attachments (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Email Customizations (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Time to a New Message (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Email Usability (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an email client.

Supported IM Services (0.0)


The Beat does have an IM client, which supports AOL, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo! messaging services. Unfortunately, this service charges each message you send as it would a text message, and it also charges you for the data transfer. Many unlocked or higher-end phones have IM clients that will only bill you for the data transfer, which is what we believe is an appropriate charge. Since we dislike this policy of double charging for such a basic service, we award it no points.

MMS Support (8.0)
MMS messages receive excellent support on the Beat: they're fully integrated into SMS messages. If you want to write either a text or picture message, you use the same "Create Message" application. You can also send an MMS from either camera application or album. Just about the only criticism we have is the "Create message" application is a bit confusing. It has three options: message, share picture, and voice note. Just glancing at these options, it's easy to assume these three refer to SMS, MMS, and voice-embedded texts respectively. "Share picture" simply lets you take a picture, go to your album, set your myFaves icons, or check out your downloaded images. In spite of this confusion, MMS messages are still supported well on the Beat.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (5.0)


The Beat is one of the few phones that gives a nod to everyone's favorite yellow face. The nod, however, is a bit half-hearted. While it does have a wide array of graphical representations you can insert into your text messages, it has trouble replacing your text with the appropriate graphic. For starters, you'll need to put noses on all your smiley faces: a colon-parenthesis combo won't cut it. Also, some of the smiley faces don't parse correctly. For example, :-) for some inexplicable reason will come out as a sad, profoundly defeated face.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)


The Beat is a great little messaging device. SMS and MMS messages are one in the same: all you have to do 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 (3.76)
It took us about 2.66 seconds to get a new text message up. As you can see in the table below, this is slow. The Beat doesn't have a default messaging shortcut, and it takes four button presses to navigate to a new message. If you're a frequent texter, we'd recommend setting this application to the shortcut button, since we can definitely see the navigation getting on your nerves after a while.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	2.66	3.76
Razr2 V8	1.99	5.03
Samsung Blast	1.35	7.41
Samsung SLM	0.74	13.51
Motorola W385	2.78	3.60
Samsung Juke	0.75	13.30

[page title="Organizer"]

Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Beat doesn't come with any synchronization software.

Alerts (1.0)
If the Beat is closed, the external screen will light up with a small bell graphic, and the alarm sound will play once. This display didn't have any animation, and is so dark you could easily not notice the screen lighting up with your peripheral vision. Making matters worse, after three seconds the Beat will grow weary of displaying the poorly-lit bell graphic and shut off its external screen. When we tested this, we simply guessed the external display had a quick default timer. This would be the last time we gave the Beat's alert system the benefit of the doubt: there are no display timer settings.

To be fair, when the phone is open, you have a much better chance of catching your alert. On the home screen, a small splash screen will pop up and remain there until dismissed. If you're not at the home screen -- and chances are you won't be -- you're far less likely to catch a glimpse of your reminder. The best case scenario is that the phone will ring its bell (unless the phone is on silent), and a tiny clock icon will appear towards the top of the screen. Unless you return to the home screen, the tiny clock will be the extent of your reminder.

In summary, the Beat's alert functionality is almost comically bad. We'd recommend you avoid using its alert functionality with any appointment of any importance.

Over the Air PIM Sync (1.0)
The Beat can synchronize your contacts with a T-Mobile server. Since this is fairly limited in its application, we only award such functionality one point.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (6.23)
We were able to enter in a contact in a little over 16 seconds, which is an average time. The fastest method is to simply type in the number, then save it as a contact via the menu option. Typically, once you've input the number, a phone will let you save it easily via a soft key option. On the Beat, you'll first have to open an options menu, opt to save, then choose "New contact". A word of warning: selecting save, then "Existing contact" will overwrite that contact's number. You can't add more than one number to a contact.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	16.06	6.23
Razr2 V8	13.33	7.50
Samsung Blast	19.45	5.14
Samsung SLM	19.02	5.26
Motorola W385	17.66	5.66
Samsung Juke	14.57	6.86

Looking/Sorting/Search (1.5)


Phone numbers are sorted by the name field. While there aren't any other sorting options, you can search with multitap. This is very basic functionality.

Fields (0.4)
This is the lowest score we've yet to award for this particular section. The Beat only offers two fields for entering in contacts: name and number. This means you'll need to store multiple numbers for any given contact, but there aren't even small icons to denote a mobile, work, or home number; you'll have to add a note in the name field. This functionality might be fine for some users, but we should remind those users that the Beat has significantly worse contact management software than the free phones we've reviewed.


An interesting little quirk on the Beat is that its phonebook menu has two greyed-out options: Groups and Block List. We tried everything we could think of to get those options to show up, but not even GameFaqs.com could help unlock this bonus material. Not even adding a phone number to the block list would let us access the latter option. We're guessing another phone with this OS had these features enabled, and a lazy programmer was in charge of nerfing the OS for the Beat. Poor show, sir.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (4.67)


You can assign numbers to 2-9 on the keypad. This gives you eight speed dial options, which is significantly less than the 90+ speed dial slots many phones offer. Fortunately, the phone does seem to have some good voice command software; it was able to recognize all five of our sample names. The voice command software is a bit hard to get to, requiring a bit of a menu trudge. If you tend to use voice command a lot, we'd recommend setting it to the shortcut key.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (5.40)
Entering in an appointment is a bit of a cumbersome task on the Beat. The calendar isn't as buried on the Beat as it is on some phones: the organizer menu gets a slot in the main menu, as opposed to being buried in a tools or "other apps" menu. Once you crack open the calendar, you're immediately shown a menu where you can choose the view/filter to start in: month, week, day, or schedule. In this test we chose day view, but it actually would've been just as fast to choose any other view (we didn't lose time navigating down the list since we just used keypad shortcuts). Once you've picked the view, you'll have to open the menu, click create, then pick either schedule, anniversary, or miscellaneous. We would've preferred this choice be simplified as a series of checkboxes in the list of fields, as it would save on navigation time. Once in, navigating around is a slow process since every little detail has a new line. Want to change from AM to PM? You'll need to hit the down arrow another time.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	18.51	5.40
Razr2 V8	15.28	6.54
Samsung Blast	26.46	3.78
Samsung SLM	21.9	4.57
Motorola W385	11.28	8.87
Samsung Juke	13.72	7.29

Calendar Views (3.67)


There are four views: day, week, month, and schedule.

Month view is the typical six week-long list of dates, except there's a column on the left side that keeps tracks of what week in the year each particular row is. The current day will show up blue, and days with scheduled events will get a red dog-ear. Highlighting a busy day will list the number of events, anniversaries, or miscellaneous events scheduled on that day at the bottom of the screen. To check out the day in more detail, you can just click it to zoom to day view.


Week view will show the familiar grid of days and times. A day with a scheduled event will again get the red tag on its top left corner. Busy time is represented by vertical red lines that stretch the duration of the event. Clicking any square will zoom to that day's view; you can't directly opt to check out an event's details.


Day view is a list of abbreviated entries for all scheduled items that day. Each list item consists of the title and duration, though chances are the end time will be interrupted by an ellipses. Clicking on an item will finally let you check out all its fields.

Schedule view is functionally and aesthetically identical to day view. The only exception is it encompasses all scheduled events, regardless of what day they were scheduled for. Since categories aren't supported, you can't filter your appointments by them. Scheduled items, anniversaries, and miscellaneous entries are kept separate, however.

Fields (7.0)
The Beat has decent fields for an entry-level device. You can input a subject, start/end time, location, and some details about the entry. The reminder will let you input two digits and set them as the number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks beforehand you'd like the reminder to pop up. The reminder can be set to daily, weekly, or monthly. Though these are all fairly basic fields, we were impressed by the reminder's depth. Hopefully these options help compensate for the Beat's subpar alert system.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (4.67)
Tasks receive very basic treatment on the Beat, but since tasks are an uncommon feature (still waiting on you, iPhone), we were impressed they were included at all. It took us 21.41 seconds on average to get a new task added, which is slow. Like most timing tests with the Beat, its performance suffered due to a poor menu system. For example, instead of simply letting the left soft key create a new menu item without further navigation -- as is common on many phones -- you have to choose the option from a two-item list. The other option, memory status, should've been filed into a memory settings folder somewhere. Again, however, though the entry process is a bit awkward, we were just happy to see tasks implemented.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	21.41	4.67
Razr2 V8	14.74	6.78
Samsung Blast	14.53	6.88
Samsung SLM	20.70	4.83
Motorola W385	N/A	0.0
Samsung Juke	N/A	0.0

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (2.0)


Tasks are sorted by their due dates, but there aren't any further options for sorting. You can give your tasks a priority, but this will only result in an different icon towards the right of the entry.

Fields (3.0)
You can enter in a subject, start date, due date, and priority. While we understand this is an entry-level handset, there really should have been some kind of reminder included. As it is, you're better off just entering in your tasks as schedule or miscellaneous items in the calendar application.

Notes

Adding Notes (0.0)
The Beat doesn't have any note-taking software, so it gets zeroes for this section. If you're really in need of jotting something down, you'll have to settle for voice notes, or saving it as a text message draft.

Note Interface (0.0)
N/A: Can't create notes.

Note Formatting (0.0)
N/A: Can't create notes.

Voice Memo (3.0)


You can create voice notes. The interface for doing so resembles the media player, and it even displays a visualization while you record. There aren't any options for managing your voice notes outside of renaming them, and they're limited to 60-second clips. All in all, more basic functionality from the Beat.

[page title="Multimedia"]

Accessing Music Software (5.54)
The Beat takes 3.61 seconds to get a song playing. Considering it has a shortcut key, and you can boot the player while the phone is closed, the Beat is slow. First of all, the shortcut operates like a secondary function, meaning you'll have to press the button for a few seconds before the player pops up. The player pops up quickly after the phone recognizes the input, but it'll be another second or so before you can actually get a song to play. While the Beat has a few time-saving features, its inefficient aspects ultimately negate them.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	3.61	5.54
Razr2 V8	5.86	3.41
Samsung Blast	2.61	7.66
Samsung SLM	2.7	7.41
Motorola W385	N/A	0.0
Samsung Juke	2.72	7.35

Dedicated Music Controls (14.0)
The Beat has quite a few media control keys. Its external, bee-themed d-pad has five: the center key is play/pause, left and right skip the track, down stops, and up lets you fool around with shuffle and repeat settings. On the left is the volume rocker, which will control playback volume. On the right side of the phone is a dedicated music shortcut key, but it only works as a secondary function.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (4.0)


Judging from its external media controls, name, and marketing, the Beat is a music-oriented handset. The software isn't bad for an entry-level device, but it isn't anything special either. Using the shortcut key will open up the media player, as opposed to the music library. The player itself is overwhelmingly lavender, but otherwise typical. The picture of a CD at the top would seem to indicate album art is supported, but we couldn't get it to recognize any of ours. The right soft key will bring up the library, and the left will open a very short options list. In the menu you can set a song as your ringtone or alarm sound, rate the song (which is a very rare feature), add it to a playlist, or edit its tags.

The settings menu has a few interesting option we don't normally see. Though the initial list of folders only includes artist, album, and playlists, you can opt to turn on additional sorting options such as composer, year, recently played, and most played. We definitely like the option to tidy up our sorting options, but we're not sure why the default view is so abbreviated. The options menu also contains a few equalizer presets (normal, classical, jazz, and rock) as well as an option to enable "3D sound".

The phone does support playlists, but only if they're made on the phone. Another somewhat annoying quirk was that the tags on our AAC files weren't recognized. Again, however, you can edit tags on the phone.

There were a few annoying facets around music playback as well. First, you'll need to dump the files into specific folders on the card, and the phone won't read into nested folders. Also, if you let the music player sit on pause for a half minute or so, it'll turn off automatically.

Overall, the Beat offers an average music player for an entry-level device. Given this, it's unfortunate it's being touted as a media handset, since this is hardly a feature worthy of the spotlight.

Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The Beat doesn't have a client for online song downloading.

Streaming (0.0)
The Beat doesn't support any kind of streaming audio.

Podcast Support (0.0)
The Beat has no included podcast software.

Music Sync with PC (7.0)
Synchronization with the Beat can be done via Windows Media Player. All you have to do is connect the Beat to your PC via the included USB cable and wait for the drivers to install. Drag-and-droppers will be pleased to see both the Beat's on-board memory and memory card will show up as two different drives. Such users should dump their songs directly into the Music folder, since the Beat won't peek into nested folders.

Music Formats and DRM (3.0)
The Beat will support MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ files. It won't support any DRM-encoded music.

Music Interruption (4.0)
When a call comes in, the Beat will automatically pause the call. If you choose to reject the incoming call, your music will resume automatically. If you take the call, however, when you hang up a dialogue box will appear asking if you want to resume your music. Most phones begin playback automatically regardless, which is what we award the most points for.

Video

Video Software Access (3.12)
The Beat took 6.42 seconds before it could get a video file up and running. Compared to similar phones, this time doesn't seem to be bad; relative to all cell phones, the Beat is about three seconds slower than it should be. The process necessary to get a video playing is really complicated. From a keystroke perspective, you have to open the menu, then dial 6142. From a menu-navigation perspective, you'll have to go through Fun & Apps, Files, Videos, then Videos again (or Memory Card if that's where they're saved) to get to the album. At this point you'll have to wait for the video thumbnails to load before you can select a clip. The good news is that we didn't really encounter any lag between the video player opening and the clip playing. We would've preferred integrated music and video players, but the Beat insists they keep to themselves.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung Beat	6.42	3.12
Razr2 V8	7.3	2.74
Samsung Blast	2.69	7.43
Samsung SLM	5.6	3.57
Motorola W385	N/A	0.0
Samsung Juke	N/A	0.0

Video Controls (6.0)
The only basic function the video player doesn't provide is a full-screen mode. The player has controls for play/pause/stop, both skipping and rewinding/fast-forwarding, and volume.

Video Software & Organization (3.5)


The video player is essentially a slightly more confusing version of the music player. At first things seem typical: select will play/pause, left and right skip, and down will stop the clip. Then you see up, which has an icon that resembles a piece of paper with lines of text on it. We guessed it was the menu since, while the right soft key is assigned to "Back", there was left soft key option. In a surprising twist, it brought us back to the album.

Further investigation showed that, in order to access the menu, you first have to hit Back (which doesn't back you out to the album on the first press). Once you do, you'll unlock the super-secret "Options" menu for the left soft key. Unlike most hidden content, however, this menu doesn't have many items you'd actually want to access. In fact, there are no options in this bonus menu that aren't available through the album's menu. This means there aren't any full-screen options, or any controls above and beyond the d-pad functions.

Video Sync with PC (7.0)
Video can be synchronized with Windows Media Player. All you have to do is plug the device in: the drivers will install automatically and the device will show up as a viable sync target in WMP.

Video Formats (3.0)
The phone will play 3GPP or MP4 files encoded with either H263 or MP4 audio, but not encoded with H264. You also won't be able to play any Flash, Real Time, or Windows Media Videos.

Video DRM (0.0)
The Beat does not support any video DRM.

Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
Surprisingly, this entry-level device could handle all our test video files, which have bitrates ranging up to 768 Kbps. You should have no problems playing back ultra-smooth videos on the Beat.

Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The Beat doesn't support any online video downloading services, such as iTunes.

Video Streaming unscored
The Beat also doesn't support streaming video. As there is no set standard, however, we don't score this section. Going to YouTube.com, ZooVision.com, or WindowsMedia.com, however, will only result in error messages.

[page title="Software"]

OS (3.0)


The Beat runs T-Mobile's proprietary operating system, specifically the one they use on their lower-range handsets. As such, you can expect a responsive, fairly stable operating system. Unfortunately, as seems to be a trend with this class of T-Mobile handsets, the menu structure is just bad. Menus contain superfluous items and are poorly organized. There were several instances of menus with two or three items, only one of which was pertinent (at which point it should really be a soft key shortcut and not a menu). This disorganization applies to applications as well: voice commands and voice notes are in the Fun & Apps folder, while the stopwatch and tip calculator somehow landed in the Organizer folder.

Again, as an entry-level handset, many of these issues can be merely classified as annoyances as opposed to real problems. In spite of the Beat's poor layout, it's still very easy to pick up and use.

Home Screen Score (4.0)


Since the Beat is a T-Mobile phone, the home screen is dedicated to the "Fav Five" interface. While the "Fav Five" is an interesting feature for a carrier to offer, it doesn't help the home screen much. The carousel of contacts marches around slowly, so it's probably more efficient to simply assign these people to a speed dial. Also, since left and right shuffle through your Five, they can't be assigned as a shortcut key -- a standard feature on entry-level phones. Up and down will still open up valuable programs, however: call records and the contact list specifically.

Extensibility (3.0)
The extensibility of the Beat is about as good as other entry-level handsets. You can install basic Java applications -- such as Opera Mini, which we strongly suggest getting -- but that's the extent of the Beat's flexibility.

Customizability (3.0)
The Beat does allow you to spruce it up somewhat. Basic options, like wallpaper and ringtone changes are a plus. There are also two themes. We liked that you could preview the themes by highlighting them; many phones take a while to load and implement the theme, so if you don't like it you'll have to wait again while the phone reverts to its old setting. Though not free, you can download additional themes and wallpapers from the T-Mobile store. Other than these options, however, the Beat doesn't offer anything. One feature we really would've liked to see was a global font setting.

OS Responsivness (7.5)
The Beat seems to be a pretty responsive OS, though we did somehow manage to crash it once. That instance aside the Beat will respond very quickly to input. The only times we felt as though the Beat was bogging us down was when dealing with video files. This is a common bottleneck for phones, however. Overall, the Beat was quick.

Browser Features (4.0)
The Beat doesn't have much in the way of features; those it does have are offset by strange omissions elsewhere. WAP pages display appropriately. HTML pages will become ugly columns of shrunken graphics and weird spacing. Changing the view won't help with HTML either; it just turns them into vast landscapes, many screens wide, that are too bothersome to traverse. Java and Flash applications won't work, but you can enable JavaScript. RSS feeds aren't supported and neither are tables. You will be able to view encrypted pages, however, which is nice. Also, while you can change the text size, there is only one notch smaller than the default setting, and the larger sizes will only let a few words fit on screen at a time.

Browsing Interface (3.0)
The browser interface on the Beat is simple, mainly because the user isn't privy to many options. The right soft key will bring up the home page. Select will click. The left soft key will open up a short list of menu items. Most of these items will initially appear to do the same thing, since they're all derivitives of "Go". You are allowed to save a web page, and there are a few further options, though none of them are terribly important.

There is one view option, though it's virtually useless. Desktop view on the Beat is much like trying to read through a keyhole six inches away from you. Perhaps this view would increase the viewability of HTML pages -- which the Beat does not handle particularly well -- but the screen is so tiny that you'll have to scroll four to eight times to get through a single line. We'd recommend this view only as a last resort.

Besides the back button, there is no way to recount your internet adventure. We searched, but there was no history folder, and there was no way to check out your cookies. There are Cache and Cookie options, but you can only dictate a few basic rules for what's allowed, or to empty/delete. You can't actually check out what you've accumulated before blindly destroying it.


You can add bookmarks either from the appropriate item in the options list or via the Go to URL screen.

Due to the sluggish speeds, we really can't recommend the Beat for heavy browsers. It has a few annoying quirks, such as necessitating a press of the select key before entering text into a field. If you must use the internet, we'd recommend installing Opera Mini, preferrably on a phone with a faster data connection.

Browser Access (8.00)
It takes five steps to browse to a web page, which is a step faster than what we normally see. First you have to hit the T-Zones shortcut, which will open up the browser. Once everything is loaded and "Options" shows up in the lower left, hit the left soft key to open up that menu. Next you should hit 3, which will automatically choose "Go to URL". Finally, type in the address of the site and hit the left soft key once more to aim the browser in the right direction.

We use steps instead of time for our browser access test because browser access speed is dependent on many variables. We could get vastly different results from arbitrary things such as geography or even the current weather. We therefore use the number of steps, as it's a much more accurate portrayal of the complexity of the process.

Cell Phone	Steps	Score
Samsung Beat	5	8.00
Razr2 V8	6	6.67
Samsung Blast	6	6.67
Samsung SLM	6	6.67
Motorola W385	12	3.33
Samsung Juke	N/A	0.0

Gaming (7.0)
The Beat actually has quite a selection of built-in, Java-based games. In total, you'll find three full-version games and one demo -- a library whose size is unrivaled amongst other entry-level devices. Beyond this, most of these games are at least mediocre, if not outright good. As a basic, non-gaming-oriented handset, the Beat controls well enough. Overall, the Beat was a much better gaming device than we would've initially would've pegged it.


The first game is Bobby Carrot. This is essentially a mobile version of Chip's Challenge white-washed with a bunny theme. Given its cutesy appearance, we were surprised when stage 2 introduced spikes that shot out of the floor.

Next on down is AirShip Racing. ASR is basically what Balloon Kid would've been if all the graphics were replaced by incomprehensible shapes. Another difference is that your AirShip requires fuel, but there's so many shapes flying at you it's hard to tell what pixel-blobs are beneficial and which ones kill. As an added bonus, whenever you touch an obstacle your character screams in terror as he plummets to the ground.

Third up is Arch Angel. The mysterious, titular, "land-sea-air-space" vehicle has quite the history behind it: "Due to the fact that this unit looks like a fire-spitting angel its code name is 'Arch Angel'." Wonderful. Once you wrap your head around the backstory, you'll be left with a crappy Top Gun knockoff. Hitting enemy planes is virtually impossible due to the stiff controls.

The final game offered is a demo of Bubble Bash. This is another needless storyline game. In the beginning you can choose between Kale and Malia, but it doesn't matter since you technically drag both characters around with you. According to the demo, "you've decided to go on a quest to bubble island to find the treasure you've heard about. But beware, bubble island is full of puzzles and dangerous creatures! You'll have to do your best to find the treasure. Good luck!" With this intro you'd expect a variety puzzler. What you get instead is a crappy Bust-a-Move ripoff, or, for the unschooled, an slightly-less-crappy Snood rip-off. If you're only familiar with the latter, then Bubble Bash is really just one of the many later generations in a family tree of uninspired knock-offs.

Calculator (5.0)


The Beat's calculators come in three flavors: plain, tip, and currency. The plain calculator is very basic. You can perform the four basic operations with the d-pad, and you can also insert parenthesis. Exponents or other advanced functions were absent. The tip and currency calculators perform their namesake duties, and are very simple to use thanks to their basic capabilities.

Alarm (6.5)


The Beat has good alarm software. You can essentially set three different alarms at once; they're labeled wake-up alarm, alarm 1, and alarm 2, but their customization options are the same. There is a fourth item on the main menu, "Auto power-up," but this just affects the amount of fuss the phone makes while booting up.

Though the limit