Samsung Juke Cell Phone Review
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Mark Brezinski Published on November 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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According to the Juke's marketing, it's an MP3 player that just happens to be a phone. We think this is a very accurate portrayal; It doesn't offer much in the way of software other than an above-average music player, and this is the only phone that we've seen recently that doesn't support video playback or capture, doesn't have a browser, and can't send e-mail. But what it does have is 2 GB of internal memory, so it can hold can hold more music than your typical cell phone.
Physically, the Juke is surprisingly tiny and fat. It's certainly one of the smallest phones we've come across at 2.82 ounces, 3.82 inches high and 1.18 inches wide, but it's more expansive than photos make it look, at a rather chunky 0.82 inches thick. The phone is shaped like a small candy bar, but has a new swing-open design that we haven't seen before. Though it seems a bit gimmicky, this design actually gives you faster access to the keypad, which meant it was quick at dialing and not bad at sending text messages. The Juke is currently priced at $99.99 with a two-year contract from Verizon and after a $50 online discount. It's available in Teal (shown on the right), Red and Navy.
Below is a guide to the review. Clicking on a section title will skip to that section.
Tour & Design - The Juke is certainly a quirky little phone, whose looks alone will undoubtedly score it some customers
Audio Quality - The Juke offers decent audio quality, though it tends to handle your own voice better than that of incoming callers.
Imaging - The Juke is a poor imaging device: its camera has low resolution and can't capture video.
Making/Receiving Calls - The Juke performs well with making and receiving calls thanks to its swing-open design and decent keypad.
Messaging - The Juke is by no means a messaging powerhouse. It doesn't support e-mail and its IM clients charge both your data and messaging accounts.
Organizer - The Juke is not a business device. Its organizer is very basic.
Multimedia - While the Juke is an above-average music device, its scores are hurt by its lack of video playback.
Software - Without a browser, the Juke relies mainly on its responsive OS to give it some points here.
Battery Life - Probably the worst aspect of the Juke; it scored below average on both its call and music battery tests.
Connectivity - The Juke also isn't the best connected phone out there. It supports Bluetooth but little else.
Hardware - The Juke also doesn't have very impressive hardware. Its keypad isn't suitable for fast texting, and its display is microscopic.
Other Features - The Juke has a GPS alternative, but not much else.
Value & Comparisons - Although it is well priced at $99, real budget callers may want to wait; it will probably be free with a new contract in a few months.
[page title="Tour & Design"]
Front Closed
At the top of the Juke is its speaker. Under this is the phone's incredibly tiny, 1.45-inch screen. Below this is the directional pad, the face of which is a scroll wheel. Also, keep in mind that, when closed, the Juke must be held upside-down for the display to be oriented correctly.
Front Open
Using the Juke's patented clockwise-half-circle-spin/twist-open maneuver, you will expose a lanky keypad. At the top is an array of six keys that would be around the d-pad on most other phones. On the Juke, they are located on a different half of the phone. These keys include two soft keys, a camera shortcut, the send/end keys, and a CLR (back/delete) button.
Left
The only feature of note is the volume rocker buttons, which is actually quite large compared to the tiny phone it's on.
Top
The top of the phone features a lanyard loop.
Bottom
The bottom of the phone has a little button that releases the back of the phone (the battery is built into the cover).
Right
The right side of the phone features two ports and a phone lock switch. The first port is a 2.5mm headphone jack port. The second is a proprietary USB/charger port. Both ports are covered with a little plastic panel.
Back
The back of the phone is mainly the battery pack itself. At the top is the speaker and camera lens. With the Juke in the open position, a small curved mirror shows your reflection so you can take self portraits. If you look closely, you can see us taking the photo.
Battery Out
Removing the battery won't reveal any secret compartments or bonus areas. Because this is a Verizon phone, there is no SIM slot, and there is no memory card slot either.
In the Box (2.5)
The Juke comes with a proprietary USB cable and a headset with a 2.5-mm plug. While we would've liked to see a standard port for the USB cable and a 3.5mm headphone jack, we're happy to at least see these two features included in the box.
Handling (4.0)
The Juke is so small it's actually a bit awkward to handle. We're used to phones sitting in the palm of our hand, but unless you have tiny hands, the Juke will be held by your fingertips. This, combined with the phone's virtually tractionless case, could mean the Juke will get dropped quite a few times. In regards to the Juke's ground-breaking spin-open design, we found it to be a bit awkward to close. You need a fairly big hand to consistently close it without fumbling around. Opening is easy, though.
Portability (8.0)
The Juke is a small phone, and is about as portable as a candy bar. It should easily fit into even small pockets, and all purses or bags. The Juke is a bit thicker than most phones, however, so while it will certainly fit in your pants pocket, it will also create a visible convexity. Those who prefer tight clothes might want to find an alternative method to carry their Juke, lest their sleek silhouette be ruined.
Aesthetics (8.0)
Regardless of the usability issues its size may cause, the Juke is certainly a cute little thing. People who want a somewhat different-looking handset will love this device. When it's closed it resembles a slightly bulkier version of old MP3 players, but its bright colors and rounded edges make sure it still appears modern. The only thing we could see improving in this category is its thickness; it could stand to be flattened out a little, even if thinner means a slightly wider face.
Durability (8.0)
Of course, any phone with a flip, slide, or twist has moving parts, and moving parts break down faster than non-moving parts. In spite of this, the Juke's spin-open motion is robust enough. The phone itself is also solid, and twisting it around doesn't elicit any creaks at all. Given its compact size, we could see the Juke surviving quite a few (inevitable) trips down to the sidewalk. The external screen is a bit of a worry, however, since it's so exposed.
[page title="Audio Quality"]
Sound Receive Frequency Response (6.89)
This test analyzes how the phone handles incoming sound frequencies. As you can see from the chart, the Juke is outside the limits fairly consistently, then plummets down a little too early. But there are no huge peaks or troughs in the curve, so most voices will sound fine, albeit a little bit clipped at the higher frequencies.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Juke | LG Chocolate Vx8550 (on Sprint) | Sony Ericsson W580i (on AT&T) |
| Score | 6.89 | 8.27 | 7.65 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Razr2 V9m (on Verizon) | Samsung Blast (on T-Mobile) | Apple iPhone (on AT&T) |
| Score | 8.28 | 8.85 | 7.58 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (8.37)
The Juke actually does much better with handling your own voice. As you can see in the graph, the Juke stays within the limits for the entire stretch. It drops off a bit early, so higher frequencies might be slightly clipped, although this is not likely to affect your voice much.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Juke | LG Chocolate Vx8550 (on Verizon) | Sony Ericsson W580i (on AT&T) |
| Score | 8.37 | 8.06 | 6.17 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Razr2 V9m (on Verizon) | Samsung Blast (on T-Mobile) | Apple iPhone (on AT&T) |
| Score | 7.34 | 5.56 | 7.58 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Handset Side Tone (5.02)
Side tone refers to how much of your own voice the phone plays back to you while you talk. We use side tone to measure how loudly we're speaking; if it's too quiet, we tend to raise our voices, too loud and we feel like we should whisper. The Juke measured 22.88 decibels, which really isn't far off from the ideal measurement, 18 decibels. You might feel a bit loud on the Juke, but not so much that you'll feel the need to drop your voice considerably.
| Cell Phone | Side Tone Measurement | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 22.88 | 5.02 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 17.85 | 9.85 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 18.77 | 9.23 |
| Razr2 V9m | 17.78 | 9.78 |
| Samsung Blast | 19.56 | 8.44 |
| Apple iPhone | 8.80 | 0.80 |
[page title="Imaging"]
Resolution (0.4)
To test resolution we take several captures of an industry standard resolution chart, which is essentially comprised of alternating black and white lines of different widths. We then run the resulting images through our Imatest software. Imatest analyzes the pictures to determine how many individual alternating lines it can see before it starts interpreting them as a swath of gray. This point is measured by line widths per pixel height (lw/ph).
The Juke only managed to score 300 lw/ph horizontally and 295 lw/ph vertically on this test. This is really bad, as evidenced by its incredibly low score. Given the phone's size and class, this didn't come as much of a shock. We really doubt consumers who've played around with this phone, perhaps even checked out the live preview, would think they were investing in an image capturing powerhouse with the Juke.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Juke | LG Chocolate Vx8550 | Sony Ericsson W580i |
| Score | 0.4 | 1.69 | 6.35 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 300/295 | 616.8/569.5 | 1195/960 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Razr2 V9m | Samsung Blast | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 4.34 | 0.68 | 4.18 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 988/958 | 392.1/345.6 | 970/879 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (5.5)
Here we again take pictures of an industry standard chart, this one with different color swatches on it. We again run the captures through Imatest, but this time it analyzes how far off the color representation is. The following charts are graphical representations of the phone's range of error.
The Juke actually doesn't do a bad job rendering color. While not above average, we would've expected lower given its resolution. Colors tend to be undersaturated, but this is the case on virtually all cell phone cameras. Some blues are skewed toward the red end of the spectrum, but again, you probably won't notice the difference on the Juke's little screen.
| Cell Phone | Samsung Juke | LG Chocolate Vx8550 | Sony Ericsson W580i |
| Score | 5.5 | 4.69 | 5.61 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Razr2 V9m | Samsung Blast | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 5.71 | 4.48 | 5.22 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (1.5)
Typically phones with poor resolution do well on this test, simply because they don't capture as much information. The Juke certainly doesn't disprove this. While its score seems very low, it's actually relatively good for phones; all noise scores have been low so far simply because current phones are notoriously bad at handling noise. Even though it's slightly higher than other phones, the difference doesn't mean you'll be receiving crystal-clear pictures in lower lux; it just means your pictures will have slightly less heavy noise.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 1.5 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 1.27 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 0.36 |
| Razr2 V9m | 0.84 |
| Samsung Blast | 1.44 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.20 |
Live Preview (1.0)
The Juke's live preview is so tiny it could almost be considered adorable. Unfortunately, this is one of its only redeemable qualities; the Juke's live preview suffers from a litany of problems. First and foremost, you'll want to enable the full screen option, as otherwise the live preview will only take up about one-third of the already tiny screen. Even with this mode enabled, there still isn't much screen for the live preview to fill. Of course, the smaller the picture, the less detail you can see, although the full screen size should suffice for most users. What's more, even close objects appear far away, which means they'll appear even tinier than they normally should. By far, however, the biggest problem we encountered was how the live preview handles movement. Any sort of movement turns the preview into a blurry mess; even in medium light panning looks terrible.
One thing to keep in mind when taking pictures is that you can hit the camera shortcut key to take the picture. If you attempt to use the select key you'll notice the grip puts your fingers squarely over the lens. In fact, keeping your fingers out of the frame would mean adopting an awkward hand position. Using the camera key is much more comfortable, though you still should be wary of where your fingers fall.
On the positive side, the image shown does appear to be true to the image captured. Regardless, the live preview is one of the worst we've seen.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (10.58)
This timing test starts with the phone unlocked and closed. We then open it up and snap a picture of the timer. The resulting image shows the total time necessary to complete this task. The Juke and its spin-open form factor were able to take a picture in 1.89 seconds. This is incredibly fast. The Juke's time was, again, thanks in part to its form factor, which allows access to its keypad more quickly than with a flip phone, and with a more stable grip, as well. The other factor was an impressive load time for the camera application. If you need to take quick pictures, the Juke is more than happy to oblige.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 1.89 | 10.58 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 2.36 | 8.47 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 2.70 | 7.41 |
| Razr2 V9m | 2.85 | 7.02 |
| Samsung Blast | 3.75 | 5.33 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.43 | 8.23 |
Shot to Shot Time (1.68)
For shot to shot time, we start with the camera application open, aim the camera at a timer, and press the shutter key and start the timer simultaneously. We then take a series of five pictures in a row, using the image captured in the final picture as the total time. We enable Burst mode if it's available, which it wasn't on the Juke.
The Juke is able to take about 0.56 frames per second (fps), which isn't bad for a phone without a Burst mode. Phones with Burst mode can typically capture 1 to 2 fps.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 0.56 | 1.68 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 0.38 | 1.14 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 2.70 | 8.10 |
| Razr2 V9m | 0.29 | 0.86 |
| Samsung Blast | 2.11 | 6.33 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 1.20 |
Shutter to Shot Time (22.22)
Taking quick pictures is by far the Juke's strongest imaging feature. We timed the Juke at slightly less than 0.09 seconds, which is a testament to the speed of simplicity. If you want to sneak out pictures before your subject can blink, the Juke will be happy to lend its services.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 0.09 | 22.22 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 0.22 | 9.09 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 0.12 | 16.67 |
| Razr2 V9m | 0.34 | 5.88 |
| Samsung Blast | 0.35 | 5.71 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 5.00 |
Interface (7.0)
The camera interface is very simple. The top of the screen holds pertinent info such as resolution and mode. The middle third of the screen is the viewfinder. The bottom half reminds you that left and right will zoom, though only at lower-than-max resolutions, and that up and down toggle brightness. The very bottom contains soft key and select button reminders. The Options menu contains all the areas you can customize, such as setting resolution and quality, toggling night shot on and off, adding a timer, and adjusting white balance. Overall, a very simple setup for a very basic array of options.
Photo Album Software Internal (2.0)
The Juke does not have good album software. Again, the Juke's screen steps all over its functionality. Only four thumbnails are displayed at a time, which means a faster loading time, but also a lot more scrolling. Viewing pictures in full screen is also somewhat unintuitive. You have to start a slide show first, then view that in full screen. As for slide shows themselves, we're pleased to see their inclusion, but they aren't very good. They simply cycle through all your pictures. The only control you have is pause and, as previously mentioned, full screen.
The Juke doesn't allow you to organize pictures. You can rename them, but they're still only sorted in the order they're taken. You can't create folders or even rearrange pictures. This is very limited, even compared to other entry-level phones.
A final bewildering aspect of the phone is that you can only get your pictures off the phone by sending them via MMS or uploading to PIX Place. Given how reliant the phone already is on a USB connection, we think it's strange to not be able to pull pictures onto your PC via the connection as well. Granted, most entry-level users won't think about pulling pictures off their phone, but it seems like an odd feature to dump.
Manual Control (0.0)
The Juke doesn't provide any sort of manual control.
Zoom (0.0)
The Juke allows for digital zoom. Digital zoom essentially crops and enlarges the image, which results in a lower resolution overall. We would normally still award a point for this, but in the Juke's case, it won't allow you to zoom at the highest resolution. Given the max resolution is already so low, lessening the resolution just to use a zoom that further degrades resolution simply isn't worth it.
Focus (0.0)
The Juke has a fixed focus lens.
Flash (0.0)
The Juke doesn't have a flash.
Metering (0.0)
The Juke doesn't provide you with metering options.
White Balance (2.5)
The Juke has four preset options for white balance in addition to an Automatic setting. Also, while scrolling through the presets, it keeps the live preview up so you can judge how the setting will affect the picture. This is a rare feature in phones, and one we're very happy to see included.
Image Handling (2.0)
Surprisingly, the Juke actually has some image editing software. Once you've taken a picture, you can view it, select the edit option from the menu, and then click on "Revision." This gives you four options for correction, which includes brightness, saturation, and sharpness. Each option gives you a slider bar where you can either increase or reduce the levels of each. Though they're very limited in their use, we're impressed they are even included.
Also included, but not worthy of points, are options for frames and to insert small graphics into pictures, very similar to the Samsung Blast. We discussed how the cut-out-face frames on the Blast aren't very functional, as we found it incredibly difficult to get our subjects to line up properly. You can also add them in after the fact, but then there was absolutely no chance of getting the picture to line up. On the Juke, you can only add them after the fact, unfortunately, which essentially writes off all the cut-out-face overlays.
Video
Overall Video Score (0.0)
The Juke can't capture video. This makes sense given the size of the screen, but it unfortunately brings the score for this section down considerably. Many people won't miss the video feature, but it would have been nice to be able to have the option of capturing candid videos of family events.
Video Resolution (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
Video Compression (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
Interface (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
Manual Control (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
Zoom (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
Editing (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
Modes (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.
[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]
Dialing Speed (7.58)
In our dialing speed test, we begin with the phone in a closed, unlocked position, and end when the send button is hit. We perform a group of trials using different numbers in order to better approximate a user's experience.
The Juke is able to establish an outgoing call in an average of 2.64 seconds. This is quite fast. The spin-open form factor, while a bit gimmicky, is slightly quicker than a traditional flip phone. Also, we like the keypad. The buttons are big enough to ensure accuracy, but not so big that the travel time between them negatively affects dialing time. Also, while the keys didn't have much travel, they provided a good amount of tactile response, so we definitely knew when we were hitting a key. Calling with the Juke should be relatively easy.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 2.64 | 7.58 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 2.96 | 6.76 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 3.66 | 5.46 |
| Razr2 V9m | 3.48 | 5.75 |
| Samsung Blast | 3.36 | 5.95 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.96 | 5.05 |
Talk and End Buttons (6.0)
The talk and end buttons on the Juke are located in the bottom corners of their small array. The raised lip below them makes them very easy to identify by touch; all you have to do is run your finger along the outcrop until it ends. These keys don't have the best travel, but they do have a nice snap when you've pressed them.
Call Management (5.0)
The Juke keeps a folder for recent calls, which contains subsections for missed, received, and dialed calls, as well as a log of all calls. Additionally, you can choose to view various call and data timers that can be reset. Calls are sorted by time, and each list entry contains the call's number and date, as well as a small icon for incoming/outgoing/missed. Clicking on a list entry essentially states the same information, along with the total length of the call.
When the incoming call dialogue appears, there are two initial soft key options: quiet and ignore. If the phone is closed, the previous two items appear in a list followed by a third, "answer(speaker)," which answers the call and turns on speaker phone. If you want to pick up the call, you'll need to hit the send key; end is a shortcut for ignore. If the phone is closed, you have one additional option: answer with speaker phone.
In a call, the soft keys reset to mute and options. The Options menu gives you access to the Main menu, but also shortcuts for commonly used applications such as messaging, your contact list, recent calls, the notepad, and voice recording. There is also a Whisper mode, which boosts the sensitivity of the microphone so you can whisper and still be heard. The Juke can't perform three-way calling or conferencing. Call waiting is a bit unintuitive, as there are no on-screen reminders for how to switch between calls, or even who you're currently talking to. We would've liked on-screen confirmation of who we were currently speaking to, just to avoid potentially awkward mix-ups.
Startup to Call (8.40)
Our startup to call test is basically the same as our dialing speed test, only we start with the phone closed and turned completely off. We again use multiple numbers and average our results. The Juke is able to complete this test in about 11.9 seconds. Again, a fast time. This is mostly due to the phone's incredibly fast boot up time.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 11.90 | 8.40 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 22.37 | 4.47 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 19.42 | 5.15 |
| Razr2 V9m | 22.82 | 4.38 |
| Samsung Blast | 21.48 | 4.66 |
| Apple iPhone | 26.12 | 3.83 |
Ring Volume (8.58)
We test ring volume by holding the phone two inches away from a sound pressure meter and cycling through all its ringtones. At its loudest, the Juke measures 85.8 decibels. This is about average. It should be loud enough for you to hear in most circumstances, but you might want to keep an eye on it on a loud train ride.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 85.8 | 8.58 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 85.5 | 8.55 |
| Razr2 V9m | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Samsung Blast | 85.5 | 8.55 |
| Apple iPhone | 84.9 | 8.49 |
Ringtone Customizability (0.0)
The Juke doesn't allow you to use your own music as ringtones. While this is not uncommon in entry-level phones, as a media-oriented device we would've liked to see this capability included.
Non-Audio Alerts (8.0)
The Juke's vibrate is on the weaker side of decent. We did feel it in our pockets, but it wasn't the most obvious sensation. In most scenarios, however, you should be fine. If it's in your bag or purse, you'll miss it, but that's the case with most phones, especially small ones; there jsut isn't enough weight to vibrate. When you have a call incoming, the entire screen is filled up with the notification, but it isn't particularly eye-catching. Granted, virtually nothing on the Juke's tiny screen could be considered eye-catching.
[page title="Messaging"]
Supported E-mail Services (0.0)
The Juke doesn't have an e-mail client.
Push E-mail (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an e-mail client.
Multiple E-mail Accounts (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an e-mail client.
HTML and Attachments (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an e-mail client.
E-mail Customizations (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an e-mail client.
Time to a New Message (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an e-mail client.
E-mail Usability (0.0)
N/A: doesn't have an e-mail client.
Supported IM Services (0.0)
The Juke contains versions of AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. Unfortunately, each message is charged to your account as an SMS text message. We don't see why this has to be this way, so we only award points if the IM services are billed as data transfers.
MMS Support (5.0)
MMS receives adequate support on the Juke. First of all, when creating text messages, you need to indicate whether you're making an SMS or MMS before you even start. They do share an inbox, however. You can create an MMS from the Messaging menu, the camera application, or the photo album. A fair integration, but we'd really like to see Verizon update its BREW interface to allow total integration of SMS and MMS messages.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
The Juke does not support smiley faces.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
Here's where the Juke's size stops being quite so cute. Messaging actually gets off easy, as it really only has two pertinent fields. The first thing you'll see when you begin a new text is a list of recipients five entries long that takes up the whole screen. Scrolling down highlights the body of the message. Despite its size, the body can hold a decent amount of characters per line. The type is tiny, however, but that really isn't different from any text on the Juke. You can tack on bundled-in graphics, animations, or sounds to your messages. You can't attach a voice note to a SMS, however.
The Juke has quite a few options for editing text. Text is available in small, medium, and large. You can choose alignment (left, center, or right), and also style (bold, italic, underlined, or strikethrough). You can even choose the text and background color. Messages can be assigned a priority level, either high or normal, and you can include a call back number. Surprisingly deep functionality here.
Time to a New SMS Message (13.3)
This is an area where the Juke's spin-open design allows for some ridiculously fast scores. Though, on average, it takes about the same or longer for the Juke to fully swing open, once it's open about 30 degrees the home screen appears, allowing you to start navigating sooner than you'd normally be able to. Given this, we were able to get a new SMS dialogue open in an average of 0.752 seconds. As seen by the huge score, this is a very fast time. We were able to achieve it via the default shortcut of pressing up on the d-pad while in the home screen. Unless there are some drastic hardware advancements, we don't see this time being improved by a relatively significant margin.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 0.752 | 13.3 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 2.61 | 3.83 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 1.54 | 6.49 |
| Razr2 V9m | 2.66 | 3.76 |
| Samsung Blast | 1.35 | 7.41 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.62 | 3.82 |
[page title="Organizer"]
Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Juke doesn't support PIM synchronization.
Alerts (7.0)
The Juke is certainly a persistent little phone. When an appointment notification sounds off, it rings or vibrates for a solid minute before stopping. It then snoozes for two minutes before it tries again. Though the on-screen alert isn't eye catching, you can't miss it when you pick the phone back up. Regardless, its diligent vibrating or ringing is sure to catch your attention.
Over-the-Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Juke doesn't support over-the-air PIM synchronization.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (6.86)
Our adding contacts time test determines how much of a hassle its namesake action is. It stands to reason that time is a good measurement for this, as it indicates either a complicated series of inputs or waiting for the phone to respond, neither of which are optimal. We begin the timer with the phone in a closed, unlocked standby position, and stop the timer as we save each test contact. We pull our test contacts from a pool of many examples, as testing a wide variety of sample contacts gives a better, more representative average time.
Adding contacts on the Juke is the standard BREW affair. You first type in the number, hit the soft key assigned to "Save," and then multi-tap in the name. The Juke is able to perform these tasks in an average of 14.57 seconds. This isn't the fastest time, most likely because of the "multi-tap in their name" step; multi-tap is incredibly slow, especially with names that feature two consecutive letters that use the same key. The only way to get a significantly faster time would be with a phone that has a full QWERTY, or maybe a SureType keypad. The Juke is also slowed down by its unfamiliar d-pad setup. We actually had to retest several times because when the time came to hit a soft key, we always reached up to the d-pad.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 14.57 | 6.86 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 20.50 | 4.88 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 22.74 | 4.40 |
| Razr2 V9m | 19.26 | 5.19 |
| Samsung Blast | 19.45 | 5.14 |
| Apple iPhone | 20.86 | 4.79 |
Looking/Sorting/Search (1.5)
Much like other BREW phones before it, the Juke doesn't score very well in this category. Contacts are organized by name, specifically the first letter of whichever name you insert first into the single name field. You can therefore have your contacts sorted by last name if you input every contact as "last, first." This isn't good functionality. You also can't sort by any other criteria; they're organized by name and name alone. The phone does have groups, but they're only used for sending out mass MMS messages.
As for searching, there is a small "Go To" search bar at the bottom, but searching treats the entire name field as one item. This means regardless of the order you entered the first and last name, you can only sort by the foremost entry: searching for "Smith" will turn up "Smithy Brown" but not "John Smith."
Fields (2.6)
The Juke has 13 fields for creating a contact. The Juke allows you to store multiple addresses and numbers for each contact, as well as a picture and ringtone. You can also add a few contacts to a list of emergency contacts, called ICE (in case of emergency). This puts them on a special short list you can access by using the left soft key on the home screen. You can just use this list as a shortcut for commonly dialed numbers if you want; either way it's a nice addition.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.33)
The Juke can hold almost 1,000 speed dial entries. The list extends to 999, but a handful (about five) are set to things like voice mail and checking on billing information. Some would say 1,000 speed dial entries is excessive, but we appreciate excess when it comes to features, in spite of our inability to fathom a scenario when said features could be used to the fullest.
The Juke also has decent voice recognition software. It was able to recognize four out of our five test names. The fifth name it couldn't pick out specifically, so it returned a list of possible contacts and proceeded to read those off. Since our fifth name was consistently included in those lists, we decided to give it partial points as opposed to none at all.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (7.29)
For this timing test we begin with the phone closed and unlocked, and end as we save our test calendar item. Again, we do these timing tests as a means of judging how taxing the process is. This could involve trudging through menus or waiting for the phone to catch up with you; if the phone is responsive and keeps its applications within easy reach, it gets a lower time and better score.
Adding calendar items seems to have a good score, but it's definitely an area where the Juke's bite-sized software lets the phone down a bit. The process is as easy as using the d-pad down shortcut on the home screen, then entering in a simple appointment: lunch at 12 p.m. tomorrow, reminder 15 minutes before. Given the shortcut, the Juke should be able to do this faster. As it is, navigating around fields is difficult, given only three can fit on the screen at a time. We couldn't set the phone's T9 to a default, so we had to multi-tap out "Lunch" (we tried to activate T9 during the trial, but doing that cost as much time as it saved). The 15-minute reminder is a default, but we had to scroll down to actually switch the reminder on. We thought the entire process was cumbersome, except for the initial shortcut, which obviated substantial menu crawling.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 13.72 | 7.29 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 6.48 | 15.43 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 14.04 | 7.12 |
| Razr2 V9m | 14.48 | 6.91 |
| Samsung Blast | 26.46 | 3.78 |
| Apple iPhone | 18.92 | 5.29 |
Calendar Views (3.17)
The Juke only has two different calendar views: day and month. Neither are particularly well laid out. The month view is the typical checkerboard of days and numbers. Days that have events scheduled on them get a different colored dog ear in each corner. Highlighting a day with events scheduled tells you how many events there are for that day, but doesn't give any information about those events. Day view is simply a list of all the scheduled appointments for that day, listed chronologically. Each item in the main list includes the item's title and start time. Viewing the item displays the rest of its information. This is fairly basic software, which is understandable given the Juke's focus on music.
Fields (6.0)
The Juke only has six fields, all of which are basic. The most advanced field it has is recurrence, which can be set to daily, monthly, weekly, or yearly. Some phones don't feature recurrence, but most modern phones are starting to, regardless of their focus. Two fields we would have liked to see are location and a free-form notes category.
ToDo/Tasks
Adding To Do/Task (0.0)
The Juke can't add tasks, and therefore gets a zero for this section.
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
N/A: can't create tasks.
Fields (0.0)
N/A: can't create tasks.
Notes
Adding Notes (3.13)
This test requires the phone to start in a closed, unlocked position, involves typing in a short sample note, and ends when this note is saved. Again, we use time as a means of representing how much of a bother the process is, as both endless menus and lag are annoying.
It takes the Juke slightly less than 16 seconds to type out a note. Again, the inability to set T9 as a default meant we had to set it during the trial. The note is simply, "Lunch 12pm tomorrow," but it required multiple text entry mode switches. The fastest combination was a combination of T9 and multi-type. We could've used T9 the whole way, but it took a long time to input numbers this way.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 16.00 | 3.13 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 13.73 | 3.64 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 12.00 | 4.17 |
| Razr2 V9m | 13.96 | 3.58 |
| Samsung Blast | 11.69 | 4.28 |
| Apple iPhone | 12.66 | 3.95 |
Note Interface (2.0)
Notes rarely have complex interfaces, but even so, the Juke's note interface is noticeably simple. Other than the text body itself, the only options you have when writing a note is the type of text entry. There are no options for font editing or even giving notes a title. Notes are displayed in the order they were created, from newest to oldest. No information other than the body of the text itself is stored. This is as bare-bones as a notes application can get.
Note Formatting (0.0)
You can't format notes in any way.
Voice Memo (0.0)
Strangely, while the phone can record calls, it doesn't have a voice memo application.
[page title="Multimedia"]
Accessing Music Software (7.35)
Accessing music software is fairly easy on the Juke. In fact, you don't even need to open it. All you have to do is hold down the select key for a second or two and it'll launch the phone's media player. The long press on the select key plus menu navigation takes an average of 2.72 seconds. This isn't necessarily a slow time, but given the focus of the phone, we would've preferred the music player to be a main function of the select key when the phone is closed, as opposed to a secondary function. We don't like waiting. Even so, getting into the music player is relatively painless, as reflected by the score.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 2.72 | 7.35 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 2.04 | 9.80 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 1.56 | 12.82 |
| Razr2 V9m | 4.96 | 4.03 |
| Samsung Blast | 2.61 | 7.66 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.10 | 6.45 |
Dedicated Music Controls (0.0)
The Juke has no dedicated music controls. When we look for dedicated music controls, we're looking for keys that solely perform media player functionality, or keys that are remapped to a media player function when there's a song playing and you're not currently in the media player application. While the Juke supports background playback, none of its controls affect the song volume at the home screen. The volume rocker changes the phone volume, which is independent from music volume. The scroll wheel, which normally doesn't perform any functions, still refuses to do anything. This is disappointing from a music-oriented device; it would make it more flexible if there were some buttons that could control the music.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (7.3)
The Juke has above-average music software, which makes sense considering how heavily it's being marketed as a music handset. You can sort songs by four categories: title, album, artist, and genre. It doesn't let you assign ratings, and there is no active search. There is also no automatic library update, since it doesn't accept memory cards. It does support playlists, but these are a little limited; It only supports playlists that have been made either with the VCast Music Manager or Windows Media Player. You can create and edit playlists on the device, however, but doing so is a bit of a pain. Thankfully, we had no problems viewing tags (Idv3, iTunes, and Windows Media Player), so all of the song and album names on our test files were correctly transferred. .
One interesting aspect of the Juke is that it supports a few extra features, but not all at once. For example, under the skins option (which, by the way, doesn't actually allow you to change skins) you can choose to turn on album art, a visualizer, or lyrics. We like the inclusion of the lyrics option, though we assume it's only for VCast songs. We also were happy to see the visualizer is actually a visualizer, as opposed to the static animation some phones try to pass off as a visualizer (Samsung's Blast comes to mind). In the same vein, the Juke has an actual equalizer. In addition to 15 presets, it also lets you fiddle around with a few unmarked switches yourself. While the DIY equalizer only has 13 positions per slider, we appreciate its inclusion. There are also a few options for "3-D" effects, but none of them really do much.
While the software itself is decent, it does have a very unintuitive downside. While the phone supports background music playback, you always need to shut the phone in order to open up the music player. Therefore, if you're jotting down some notes and feel like hearing a song, you'll need to save your work, close the phone, start it up, then reopen the phone and continue. There's really no reason you shouldn't be able to open the media player when the phone's open.
Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The Juke doesn't support online song downloading; only ringtones can be downloaded. Given the media focus of this device, this seems like an odd omission.
Streaming (0.0)
The Juke doesn't support streaming audio since it lacks both an Internet browser and VCast.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The Juke doesn't have any software support for podcasts.
Music Sync with PC (9.0)
Music Sync with the PC is done via Windows Media Player. While examining if the Juke has any special synchronization software or settings, we noticed there is an option under the Music menu called "Sync Music." We were surprised to see this, since we were under the impression the phone has no built-in sync software. As it turns out, we were right. Sync Music does one of two things: if the phone is connected to a computer via USB, it displays "READY TO SYNC MUSIC," if not, "CONNECT CABLE TO PC." That's all it does. You can also just use a file manager to drop music files into the appropriate folder on the phone, but keep in mind it won't let you do this with unsupported files.
There is also a proprietary sync program Verizon offers for free. If you want to sync up VCast songs, you'll first have to buy them off your PC, then sync with this program. It's virtually identical to Windows Media Player, so if you don't have VCast songs, it might not be worth the download.
Music Formats and DRM (3.0)
The Juke supports MP3 and WMA files. The documentation claims the phone will play AAC files, but we couldn't get it to recognize our test file, which was created in iTunes and has a .m4a extension. Keep this in mind when you're attempting to fill up your Juke. As for DRM, the Juke can only play Verizon's own VCast songs. As mentioned previously, getting VCast songs onto the phone is a bit of a pain, since it requires you to download software.
Music Interruption (10.0)
When you receive a call while music is playing, the Juke performs exactly how it should: it pauses the music for the duration of the call, and resumes playback when the call ends. It even added a bit of a pause after playback, so it didn't abruptly resume. The only aspect we feel could have been better is if the music faded in gradually, as it can be a bit jarring going straight from a whispered phone conversation with your significant other to the thrash metal you were listening to before.
Video
Video Software Access (0.0)
The Juke doesn't support video playback, so it will get 0 scores in most of this section.
Video Controls (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Video Software & Organization (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Video Sync with PC (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Video Formats (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Video DRM (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Video Playback Smoothness (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
Video Streaming unscored
N/A: doesn't support video playback.
[page title="Software"]
OS (3.0)
The Juke's OS is typical of Verizon's BREW interfaces. They are responsive, but the downside to this is the size of everything. The tiny screen makes navigation a pain, especially when filling in fields. Little features are left out as well, including a way to set the sensitivity of the scroll wheel, which just makes navigation even harder. Navigation on the BREW interface has always hinged on keypad shortcuts for efficient navigation, and the Juke is no exception. The calendar is buried three menus deep, so if you've don't know the keypad path, scrolling around with a low-sensitivity scroll wheel is annoying. Regardless of the annoyances, the menus are still intelligently laid out, if a bit layered, and you aren't left waiting for the screen to update as often happens with Windows Mobile phones. If you can get past the tiny layout, you should be fine.
Home Screen Score (5.0)
Again, it's Verizon and BREW, so the home screen will look familiar, if really, really cramped. The top of the screen is still where battery life and signal strength call home. Toward the bottom is the time and date, and at the very bottom are the soft key shortcuts, as well as a reminder that the select key opens up the Main menu. Though there's no visible clue, the four d-pad direction shortcuts are intact. These are fairly important, as the Juke tends to bury things beneath menus. We would've liked an on-screen reminder of what they were, however, but we understand screen real estate is premium on the Juke. If you don't like the shortcuts, you can always change them in the Settings menu. Overall, the home screen is clean and well laid out, if slightly claustrophobic.
Extensibility (0.0)
While there are a surprising number of menus that contain prompts for Verizon-provided BREW applications, the actual selection of BREW applications is far less expansive. As third-party software isn't allowed, we would've liked Verizon to provide a bit more so we didn't notice. The lack of extensibility is an unfortunate standard among the less-advanced phones.
Customizability (3.0)
]The Juke allows for basic customization. You can change the wallpaper, the banner, or one of two themes. Neither theme changes the interface significantly. As mentioned earlier, you can reassign the four d-pad shortcuts. You can alter the dial font size and style, but there aren't very many options. An analog clock can also be added to the home screen. One area we would've liked to see was some sort of sensitivity adjuster for the scroll wheel.
OS Responsiveness (6.0)
The Juke is a responsive phone. We never felt as though we had to wait for menus to open, and even large applications like the camera load quickly. Judging how quickly the music player boots up is a bit difficult to do, since the phone must be closed in order for it to open, which could mask load time. In any case, when closed, the player pops up immediately. Overall, we're impressed with how responsive the Juke is.
Browser Features (0.0)
The Juke doesn't have a browser, which is an odd exclusion on a modern cell phone. It is understandable, however, given the size of the screen; browsing the web on this screen would be a real pain.
Browsing Interface (0.0)
N/A: Doesn't have a browser.
Browser Access (0.0)
N/A: Doesn't have a browser.
Gaming (1.0)
Though the Juke has a folder for games, it doesn't come with any preloaded, not even demos. The folder's only item is a "Get Applications" link for downloading Verizon-offered BREW games. If you do decide to get games, the Juke seems like it would offer average controls with one exception: using the d-pad in tandem with any other button. The depth difference between the d-pad and the keypad is enough to throw us off normally, and having soft keys far below the d-pad is hard to get used to.
Calculator (6.0)
The Juke has a simple BREW calculator. The four basic operations are assigned to the d-pad. The right soft key allows you to insert parenthesis and exponents. It was able to perform all our basic calculations, but as it had no square root button we had to use fractional exponents. Its interface is simple and clean.
Alarm (4.0)
Basic functionality here. You are limited to three alarms, and they can only be set by time, not date. Recurrence options include daily, during the business week, or on weekends. You can set their ringtone.
Document Software (0.0)
We weren't able to check if the Juke could view PDFs, spreadsheets, Word documents, or PowerPoint presentations because we were unable to get them onto the phone. Normally we attach our test files in an e-mail, but as the Juke has no e-mail client or browser we weren't able to test this.
Other Software (0.0)
The Juke has no other software of note. We're actually a bit disappointed that the Juke's tip calculator doesn't contain the garish startup animation we saw on the LG Chocolate Vx8550. We like our tip calculators to be flashy.
[page title="Battery Life"]
Call Time (4.20)
We test call time by connecting to the phone via Skype. We then play back audio tracks over both ends in order to simulate a conversation. We then let these tracks loop until the battery dies. The Juke only put up with this for about 3 hours and 30 minutes, which is below average. As you can see on the chart, most phones tend to last about five hours. If you tend to get into long conversations, or you're planning on taking a trip with the Juke, you'll need to have a charger on hand constantly.
We actually tested call time quite a few times for the Juke, as Verizon claims it can last nine hours. The 3 hours and 30 minutes result we went with was actually the maximum time we were able to squeeze out of it, though all our results were in this area. We're not sure how Verizon arrived at this number.
| Cell Phone | Talk Time | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 3 hours, 30 minutes | 4.20 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 4 hours, 43 minutes | 5.66 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 4 hours, 25 minutes | 5.30 |
| Razr2 V9m | 4 hours, 45 minutes | 5.70 |
| Samsung Blast | 4 hours, 3 minutes | 4.86 |
| Apple iPhone | 7 hours, 4 minutes | 8.48 |
Music Playback (7.75)
Music playback testing is simple: we put a playlist to loop and leave it playing. The Juke sang for about 7 hours and 45 minutes before calling it a night. This is on the underside of average, as most phones typically last between eight and nine hours, with a fair chunk lasting longer. We understand it's small, but given how the Juke is supposed to be a music device, we would've liked a bit more from its battery here.
| Cell Phone | Music Playback Time | Score |
| Samsung Juke | 7 hours, 45 minutes | 5.58 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 13 hours, 55 minutes | 10.02 |
| Sony Ericsson W580i | 5 hours, 35 minutes | 4.02 |
| Razr2 V9m | 8 hours, 55 minutes | 6.42 |
| Samsung Blast | 9 hours, 37 minutes | 6.92 |
| Apple iPhone | 10 hours, 46 minutes | 7.75 |
Web Browsing (0.0)
We normally test Web browsing by visiting a series of pages that redirect to each other every 10 seconds. As the Juke has no browser, we found we couldn't do this. So, it gets a zero in this section.
Idle Time unscored
We don't test idle time since it would take months to get a good set of numbers. Verizon claims the Juke can last 250 hours, which is about 11 days.
[page title="Connectivity"]
Cellular Bands (4.0)
The Juke runs on CDMA 800 MHz and 1900 MHz bands. CDMA isn't used in many other countries, so if you're planning on going overseas, don't bring your Juke with you unless you need a music player.
Data Support Score (1.0)
You most likely won't be using the data transfer much, since the Juke doesn't have a browser, but if you do, you'll be using the 1x RTT connection. This is just about the slowest connection available on phones. Again, however, without a browser fast data transfers really aren't necessary.
Bluetooth (6.0)
The Juke runs Bluetooth 1.2. It supports the following profiles: headset, hands-free, stereo, phonebook access, object push, and serial port. This means it will work with Bluetooth headsets and headphones, but can't be used as a modem to allow a laptop to access the Internet.
Wi-Fi (0.0)
The Juke doesn't support Wi-Fi.
Infrared (0.0)
It also doesn't support infrared.
[page title="Hardware"]
Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (7.34)
We test a phone's keypad by timing how long it takes to type out a sample paragraph. In the case of phones without a QWERTY keypad, we turn on T9 if it's available. The Juke was able to type out our sample paragraph in 26.16 seconds, which comes out to 36.7 words per minute (WPM)