Samsung Beat for T-Mobile Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Mark Brezinski Published on February 21, 2008 Comment on this |
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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.
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.
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