This time around, rather than concocting a totally new smartphone from the ground up, RIM is summoning up some inspiration from past memorable devices. the next evolutionary BlackBerry that actually intends on showcasing RIM’s strengths. Indeed, this is going to be their primary workhorse in the foreseeable future seeing that it packs some impressive specs for a BlackBerry device, while retaining that acclaimed design that we all know and love. Premium is yet another thing that it embodies seeing that they didn’t skimp out on high quality materials. Combining its plastic casing, it’s supplemented handsomely with its stainless steel band, soft touch accents in the rear, and solid glass like back cover. Not surprisingly, RIM delivers a handset that is solidly built to grab the attention of bystanders from afar. Moreover, we’re mesmerized by its wickedly streamlined appearance (0.41” thick) and light weight (4.59 oz) feel in the hand.

Naturally, the handset employs all of the characteristics found with the Bold family, but there are distinctive changes that make it a refreshing device – such as the chrome trimmed buttons clinging to its stainless steel bezel. Besides that change, we see all the usual ports and buttons with the handset – like its optical trackpad, microUSB port, and 3.5 mm headset jack.

As expected, the phone packs a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor that has only a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen with a 287dpi pixel density to worry about. On the back is a five megapixel camera and inside is 8GB of internal storage (with microSD expansion) and NFC circuitry. At 10.5mm it’s RIM’s thinnest handset yet, featuring a stainless steel circumference and a fiberglass back, while up front of course it makes room for a full QWERTY keyboard. The 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity to get its 4G on, while the 9930 is the world variant, adding dual-band CDMA and quad-band GSM to the mix, and both do 802.11a/b/g/n along with Bluetooth 2.1. Both, quite naturally, include the new BlackBerry 7 OS, including a faster browser and voice-activated search.

Sporting that iconic design that exhibits some noteworthy iterative improvements, it’s absolutely the thing that RIM needs to focus on in order to remain relevant in this competitive space. Not because it’s something totally new, but it goes to show that RIM’s success can be found by having them focus on legacy devices – while keenly placing attention on the required marked improvements we’d come to expect with most successive devices.

Voice over IP (VoIP) from AT&T reinvents the way you use your phone by merging it with your high speed Internet connection for your home or business. AT&T VoIP converts your voice into data and uses your high speed Internet connection to send and receive calls. Once you connect your home or business with VoIP service from AT&T, you can start enjoying the remarkable voice quality, powerful new features, and comprehensive savings that AT&T can deliver. AT&T VoIP provides Residential VoIP Services and AT&T U-verse Voice which is available in select markets. You can enjoy your favorite features that save time and provide great value only by clicking to call from your AT&T U-verse TV, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and much more. The customers subscribing to both AT&T U-verse TV and Voice are provided an added feature, Call History and Click to Call, which displays missed and answered calls on your TV screen and with a click of your remote returns a call. With U-verse Voice, you can manage call preferences, voice mails, contacts, call history and more from any PC, access landline and AT&T wireless messages in one voice mailbox that can be reached from any phone or PC, view a list of your last 500 incoming and outgoing calls on your computer, and view incoming calls from that list on your AT&T U-verse TV screens, and maintain an online address book that’s accessible from any PC.

With AT&T U-verse Voice, you can get standard installation. It is included when ordered with most AT&T U-verse TV packages. If you do not order TV, but order High Speed Internet, you can save time and money by installing U-verse Voice. The convenient, web-based call management and nationwide calling is included. There is a bundle with U-verse TV, Internet, and/or Wireless from AT&T on one convenient bill. You can also enjoy low per-minute international rates with no monthly fee. 911 Service and Battery Backup are also available in case of an emergency or power outage. It allows you to use the home phones you already have and keep your number or get a new one. It is compatible with many monitored home alarms and medical alert devices.

AT&T Business in a Box offers small locations voice and data services over a single network connection and device. Whether you are a small business or a larger business with satellite locations, this service will deliver Voice over IP via AT&T Voice DNA, a network hosted solution or via AT&T IP Flexible Reach, an IP trunking solution. AT&T Business in a Box has features to manage device equipped with data ports and connectors. Additionally, the service offers Internet access routing with built-in firewall protection, virtual private network and even Wi-Fi data access.

By selecting AT&T as your VoIP provider, you will be getting your voice service and secure Internet access through one provider, one connection, and a cost-effective and easy to deploy solution. An option like this is important to help you better focus on your customers and grow your core business. Whether you are a smaller, medium or larger organization; you have one or multiple locations; or you have mobile or remote employees, let AT&T VoIP help you choose the calling service solution that is right for you.

The Samsung Galaxy Fit will be ready and set well before the thought of upgrading ever crosses your mind. The times are long gone when smartphones were scary and complicated. Little green men were a hoax, the little green robots are the real deal. And Samsung are busy carrying out their plan. Match every touchscreen feature phone every Corby and every Star with a droid smartphone. The Galaxy Fit doesn’t have the features to be considered as a business tool. It’s a bottom of the food chain kind of smartphone and it knows it. The friendly little gadget is on the cheap side of smartphones, but keen to deliver complete connectivity and above average imaging. The Galaxy Fit has a 3.31-inch TFT LCD with QVGA (320×240) pixel dimensions. With a pixel density of just 121 ppi, the picture quality was never going to be good. The pixels are just too large and everything appears like 8-bit video games. Samsung should have ideally opted for a higher pixel dimensions display or a smaller display size but they chose neither. It’s not just the pixel dimensions that’s low. The panel quality isn’t great either. The display looks bit dull and images appear washed out. Sunlight legibility too isn’t great and even at maximum brightness it’s not easy to read the display.

The touch response on our review sample was way too sensitive. For example, even when we would want to scroll, the display would sometimes take it as a gesture to select. This behaviour is not uncommon for Android devices, which still have a hard time distinguishing between a scroll and a select gesture but we found the case to be a lot worse on the Galaxy Fit. The Galaxy Fit runs Anrdoid 2.2.1 Froyo out of the box. It will, however, eventually get updated to Gingerbread. As usual Samsung has thrown its TouchWiz UI overlay, which not only makes the icons look pretty, but also improves general usability. There are four buttons docked at the bottom of the homescreen, which stay there even when you open the app drawer.

The Galaxy Fit is a quad band GSM 3G handset. It supports HSPA, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and A-GPS connectivity. The call quality and network reception was good and voices on either side were heard clearly. The Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and A-GPS too worked well. The device we received for review had an issue where if it was connected to the PC, it would automatically go to the USB debugging mode, even if it was disabled. This meant that every time we connected it to the PC, we had to go to settings and disable debugging mode after which the phone would ask us if we wanted to connect it in mass storage mode.

Galaxy Fit has a 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus but no flash. The image quality is decent for the price range the phone belongs to, but we have seen better image quality from 5 Megapixel sensors. The lack of a flash does hurt a lot in the dark and even the video recording quality is abysmal.

The music player supports all major formats except for FLAC, which is found in Samsung’s more expensive smartphones. It also has a 5.1-channel mode and several equalizer presets but no manual equalizer. Audio quality through the headphones was pretty good, although we wished it were a bit louder. Loudspeaker quality was decent as well with adequate volume levels.

The Galaxy Fit has 1350 mAh Li-Ion battery. Even though the phone has a relatively small display and a slower processor to run, the battery life is still mediocre and on par with other Android phones. With all the Google services active in the background and with regular calls, messages, few hours of web browsing, music playback and application usage, the battery went down in a day, that too on a 2G network.

The Samsung Galaxy Fit is yet another attempt by the Android army to storm the lower-end smartphone market. Placed right between the Galaxy Mini and the Galaxy Ace, the fit tries to deliver a solid smartphone performance at a very reasonable price.

As we know, today’s businesses demand greater bandwidth and enhanced performance to meet their ever-increasing communications needs. That is why the companies must be able to efficiently and cost-effectively communicate with geographically disbursed employees, remote workers, business partners and suppliers. However, the companies do not have to worry. With AT&T’s Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) portfolio, remote workers and road warriors have the same functionality as their co-workers in the company’s headquarters or branch-based co-workers through a single infrastructure which is the VPN network. They also have seamless access to Web and audio conferencing so that they can collaborate and communicate as if they were in the same location. An IP VPN is defined as a platform on which your communications are built. Enterprises can now converge multiple network types into a MPLS-enabled IP VPN and allow them to use a single network to support their voice, data and other business applications. IP VPNs will provide the foundation for a highly secure, reliable network that can connect your corporate headquarters, data centers, branch offices, and remote and mobile workers to each other, and to the applications they need to be productive.

The IP VPNs deliver the attributes of a private data network within a shared network infrastructure. They also offer enterprise-class scalability and reach across multiple IP-based infrastructures, along with many of the performance and security characteristics traditionally found only in dedicated private environments. IP VPNs usually play an important role in today’s enterprises by providing the ability to deploy a cost-effective networking solution. IP VPNs provide flexible architectural options that harness the strength and reach of IP networks and provide simplified, secure and scalable connectivity. In addition, businesses can leverage their existing IP network infrastructure, thereby maximizing the return on investment and minimizing the total cost of ownership. AT&T also provides Enhanced VPN Service. It provides a managed IP VPN solution with globally consistent features and functionality, reaching over 60 countries, and minimizes your need to build and provide ongoing operational support for your regional and global networks.

AT&T offers a continuum of interoperable transport, access and security options. All with management capabilities offer varying levels of strategic control from “do-it-yourself” to fully out-sourced. Whether AT&T is called upon to fully manage your IP VPN solution, or you prefer to take more management responsibility for your network, AT&T dedicates itself to provide a solution designed to meet your individual networking requirements. AT&T also offers multiple ways to implement an IP VPN (Virtual Private Networks): Network Based, Premises Based, and integrated – combination of a Premise and Network Based IP VPN. Moreover, AT&T utilizes a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based IP enabled network backbone. AT&T Enhanced VPN will evolve your network to IP-enabled, designs the network, project manages the deployment and proactively manages the lifecycle of your network.

To be effective, employees usually need access to the mission critical applications while working from home, from the office and while on the road. Then, an IP VPN helps you stay connected using an access method you choose, while delivering the performance your applications need. AT&T provides you the best one.

Nextel subscribers looking for a Direct Connect compatible smartphone finally have a real BlackBerry option: the Curve 8350i. This phone is packed with features. It has 802.11g wifi built in so when you need to watch youtube or download something pretty quick, you can do it. The phone features OS 4.6 which supports better web browsing, html email, and of course MMS. The phone comes with a theme similar to the bold and as of now, custom themes can be made with Plazmic 4.7 if you prefer. Last but least, it carries what Nextel is known for which is the Direct Connect walkie talkie. The BlackBerry Curve 8350i looks a lot like other 8300-series Curves. The 320-by-240-pixel, 2.4-inch light-sensing LCD is bright and easy to read. The QWERTY keyboard has raised plastic keys with a pleasant, clicky resistance, so typing on the 8350i is a pleasure. The trackball and four flanking control keys are exactly the same as those on other Curves. One gaffe: The 8350i substitutes the Curve line’s standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack with a nonstandard 2.5mm port on the left-hand side. This is a major step backward that makes it difficult to upgrade the included wired earbuds, which are passable, but not outstanding. They are about on a par with the bundled earbuds of iPods. Also on the left-hand side you’ll find a mini USB jack and a large push-to-talk button. The right-hand side, meanwhile, contains a programmable shortcut button that defaults to activating the camera, along with volume controls further up.

RIM outfitted the 8350i with a Bold-style menu system, which features improved icon design with a wire-frame look and smooth highlight fades as you pass the trackball over each icon. As is typical for Sprint and Nextel phones, the Curve comes with a solid software bundle that contains Handmark’s Pocket Express information aggregator for news, weather, sports scores, and more; instant-messaging clients for AIM, Google Talk (a rarity), and Yahoo Messenger; support for NFL Mobile and NASCAR Mobile; and four games, one being Texas Hold ‘Em King 2.

The Curve 8350i has the usual push e-mail support for up to ten accounts using BlackBerry Internet Solution (BIS). It also works with BlackBerry Enterprise Solution (BES) for mailbox integration with Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise, and Lotus Domino. RIM’s latest Web browser includes a mouse cursor and zoom feature, which is welcome given our “blah” feelings toward RIM’s browser in the past. It rendered WAP pages well on my tests, but iDEN’s slow data speed means you’ll want to kick in the Wi-Fi radio whenever possible.

RIM does compress data on the back end, which helps, but not enough; hooking into a nearby WPA2 hot spot sped up the proceedings considerably. Unlike other Curves, the 8350i doesn’t work as a tethered laptop modem, either. For multimedia, the 8350i has 128MB of onboard storage, which is a modest upgrade from the 96MB in the 8330 and the 64MB in the rest of the Curve line. (Sprint also throws in a 1GB microSD card for good measure.) The microSD slot is beneath the battery—never a good thing—but it read and wrote to a 8GB SanDisk microSDHC card without a problem. The 8350i played video files smoothly, even in full-screen mode.

The 8350i is equipped with the same 2-megapixel camera (with video recording) that graces other Curves. There’s a small portrait mirror on the rear panel along with a bright LED flash. Photos were detailed but quite noisy in low-light, indoor environments.

Overall, I would give this phone an 8.5. Its got a sleek exterior, all black with yellow accents to add to sex appeal. I took out a half of a point for it not being a hybird phone like the ic902, i.e. Sprint voice service and Nextel Direct connect. I also took off a point for it taking so long for the issues to be resolved. In other words, if you need a Blackberry and you need a Nextel phone for direct connect and can live with low data speeds, this is the phone for you.

AT&T has launched its latest cell phone. It is LG Thrill 4G. It is a pleasant surprise: a well-rounded dual-core Android phone which comes with a bunch of 3D games, a 3D camera, and the ability to pipe 3D out to big-screen TVs. It is not perfect, but if its unique strengths appeal to you. Actually, it is an entertaining phone. The LG Thrill 4G is a slab-style phone which looks a heck of a lot like every other black slab on the market, until you turn it over and see the two lenses for the 3D camera. At 5.0 by 2.7 by .5 inches (HWD) and 5.9 ounces it does not sound very heavy on paper, but for some reason the phone felt very dense. The phone’s HDMI and USB ports are right next to each other on the left side and are covered by swinging plastic doors. The Power button is on the top panel a bit mushy. The LG Thrill also has a 3D button where the camera button should be. Over and over again, you have to click the button thinking it would either activate the camera or shoot a picture while in the camera app, and instead it activated the 3D mode. It has a very good voice phone reception on AT&T’s 3G network which was unusually strong in many tests. Sound through the earpiece was also loud, and a bit muddy but not too bad. The earpiece did not distort at high volumes and there was no side tone.

There is one thing the Thrill is not though: 4G. You are getting HSPA 14.4 here, which is a 3G technology. The internet speeds were fast thanks to the dual-core processor and good signal strength. There are 3.5Mbps down and about 650Kbps up on several speed tests with the Ookla Speedtest app. The phone also works as a tethered modem or Wi-Fi hotspot with the appropriate plan, and integrates 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. Its GPS locked in quickly in midtown Manhattan. Moreover, LG makes it easier to find and use 3D content than HTC does.

Right at the bottom of the home screen, there is an icon marked “3D Space.” It launches a carousel of 3D content: the 3D camera mode, the gallery, games, and YouTube. However, the Thrill’s screen just is not ideal. With its lower 800-by-480 resolution as compared with the EVO 3D’s 960-by-540, photos and videos look noticeably grainy, and there are a lot of trouble locking in 3D planes. Also, just like the EVO 3D, the Thrill does not have a 3D viewing angle. It has a viewing point, and if you do not hold the phone in exactly the right place, you get double vision.

Add to that list the LG Thrill 4G, also an all-around good phone; it is just that this one is a bit thick and heavy. Unfortunately, 3D is not a gimmick for everyone. The Apple IPhone 4 remains the top mainstream choice on AT&T, with its high-res screen, tons of apps, and instantaneous camera response. In conclusion, if you like 3D or want to use your phone to pipe videos to HDMI-equipped TVs, though, the LG Thrill 4G will be one of the best choices for you.

Did you ever leave it in your pocket and run it through the washer? Did you ever swim with your cell phone in your pocket? Ever have it fall into the pet’s water bowl? Getting your cell phone wet usually means you have to replace it, but sometimes if you’re fast enough, you might be able to save the phone. A longer period of immersion, such as being in the washing machine cycle, will be cause for more alarm but it is still worth trying the following steps before giving up completely.

Before you give in to frustration, consider taking the following steps to help you save a wet cell phone and the expense of purchasing a new one. Follow the steps outlined in this article to try and save your wet cell phone.

1. Remove The Phone From The Water

The first step is to remove the phone from the water as soon as possible. The less time the phone spends submerged, the greater chance it has of being saved. The plastic covers that come with cell phones do provide some protection, but it takes a mere twenty seconds or less for water to get through these barriers and start causing damage to your phone. Once you pull the phone from the water, remove the battery immediately. Cutting power is a crucial step when attempting to save a wet cell phone. There are many circuits inside cell phones that can survive getting wet, but only if they are not attached to a power source. If your cell phone comes with a SIM card, remove it promptly.

2. Let Your Phone Dry

The next step you must take to save a wet cell phone is to allow the phone to dry. A great method in providing an optimum drying environment is to set the phone on the vent found on the back of a television set or cable box. The low heat emitted will gently dry your cell phone. Another trick to help speed drying is to place the phone in a bowl of dry rice. This will help draw out the moisture. You can also try placing the phone in a plastic baggie with a few silica packs that come in purchases such as shoes and electronics. Silica, like rice, absorbs moisture. The important part of the drying process is to place the phone uncovered, in a warm, dry place and allow the moisture to evaporate completely.

3. Alternative Drying Methods

There is an alternative way to save a wet cell phone that includes an alcohol soak. Alcohol is hygroscopic which means that it attracts water. Soaking your phone in denatured alcohol, or a 95% alcohol solution (regular rubbing alcohol is about 75%), soaks up all the water in the phone. When the liquid is dumped out, only alcohol, which will evaporate, remains. Make sure that the alcohol you use is denatured with only methanol as the chemicals found in other types can be damaging.

4. Battery Caution

When attempting to save a wet cell phone, make sure you do not heat the battery as it could leak or even explode. Lithium-ion batteries are especially sensitive. In addition, many cell phones have plastic parts that can melt. Above all, do not try to save a wet cell phone by placing it in a microwave. You will destroy the electronic components and possibly the microwave in the process.

You can be as careful as you can, but you still might not be able to avoid spillage or leakage that can come near this device. Moreover, protect your phone with a durable and water-resistant cell phone case. Cell phone cases, along with other cool cell phone accessories, are widely available in many online stores.

As the largest provider, AT&T launched its wireless cell phones. One of them is BlackBerry Torch 9800. BlackBerry is a popular brand which inspires intense emotion for almost everyone who owns a smartphone. For its users, “BlackBerry” brings to mind words like functional, dependable, workhorse, indispensable. For its detractors, the words are more like ugly, old, and out-of-date. One of its types, Torch is Research in Motion’s attempt at silencing its critics. A whole new operating system, BlackBerry OS 6.0, is combined with a whole new sliding form. It is like BlackBerry’s answer to Google’s Android and Apple’s near-ubiquitous iPhone. The BlackBerry Torch is, simply, a thing of beauty. Then, it is almost completely black, with dark gray metal on the front edges. The back of the Torch is rubberized. So, it makes for a very easy yet strong grip. With the front touch screen off, the phone looks almost like a smooth river stone and this is a good thing. The new device also represents a departure for RIM from form factor. It also features a slide-up screen that reveals a hardware keyboard beneath. In the past, BlackBerry has been either standard “candy bar” style — keyboard right on the front of the phone, with a screen above or “touch” style, with no physical keyboard at all, and a large touch screen to serve as the keyboard. The latter style is more like an iPhone, while the former style which was pioneered by RIM.

It has slide mechanism. It is well-crafted, solid, and fluid. There do not seem to be any springs or moving parts involved, and there is not a “catch” or latch. This design also makes the users feel like the Torch’s screen slides on air. The slider is great. Hope that RIM expands this feature to other phones. As far as phone input goes, the Torch allows the best of both worlds: a physical keyboard when you need it and a sizeable touch screen when you do not.

Then, how about that physical keyboard? It looks and acts exactly like its relatives on other BlackBerry phones, such as the Bold and Curve. Its keys are easily distinguishable from one another, and they are big enough for a standard-sized thumb to press. However, larger thumbs will probably have issues here. The top of the phone has a sophisticated and well-designed feature. It acts as a large smooth metal rocker with the left side serving as a screen-lock button and the right side as a mute button. The effect here is also impressive. It is because RIM has managed to squeeze quite a few physical keys onto a relatively small phone without sacrificing build quality. This is a stark contrast to Apple’s approach where physical buttons are eschewed for aesthetic reasons.

RIM also gets high marks here for originality. It is completed with the standard micro-USB port. It is the only opening on the left spine, while a headphone port, volume rocker and “convenience” button round out the right spine. Out of the box, the RIM BlackBerry Torch comes with some features: a standard battery, AC adapter, USB cable, 3.5mm stereo headset, 4-gigabyte microSD card and a polishing cloth.

A prepaid mobile phone (also commonly referred to as pay-as-you-go, pay-as-you-talk, “pay and go”, or prepaid wireless) is a mobile phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is used to pay for mobile phone services at the point the service is accessed or consumed. If there is no available credit then access to the requested service is denied by the mobile phone network. Users are able to top up their credit at any time using a variety of payment mechanisms. The alternative billing method (and what is commonly referred to as a mobile phone contract) is the post-paid mobile phone, where a user enters into a long-term billing arrangement with a mobile network operator or carriage service provider (CSP).

However, most prepaid phones now offer roaming using one of the following methods:

* The prepaid mobile phone user dials a “trigger” number from the foreign location using a USSD message which is not charged for whilst roaming. Upon receipt of the USSD, the customer’s operator will then return the call. When the service calls back, the user is being charged for the cost of the service from the credit available in the home network. The service will then prompt the user to enter the dialled number of the party to be called. The disadvantage of this method of roaming is that the user will not be able to dial numbers directly from the handset. The advantage is that it works in almost all locations around the world since USSD is ubiquitous and free.

* The user can direct dial from their handset if the network they are roaming in supports CAMEL (Customised Applications for Mobile networks Enhanced Logic). This allows real time billing by the home operator without having to dial the customer back. The advantage is that it is more natural and works seamlessly. The disadvantage is that not all networks support CAMEL so the list of countries where a prepaid customer can use their phone abroad is smaller than for postpaid mobile phones.

Verizon Wireless offers three prepaid daily plans. The first is basic pay as you go for 25 cents per minute. The second costs 99 cents per day, only on days the phone is used, and has minutes for 10 cents each. This plan also includes unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. The third costs $1.99 per day and provides unlimited minutes. There is actually a fourth plan, Unleashed, which includes unlimited talk, text, and mobile web (not smartphone data) for 50 dollars per month. Unleashed is available only in select markets, though.

Verizon also has three prepaid monthly plans. The first includes 450 minutes and costs $44.99 per month. Additional minutes are 45 cents each. The second includes 900 minutes and costs $64.99 per month. Additional minutes are 40 cents each. The unlimited minutes plan costs $74.99 per month.

The SGH-A737 from Samsung is now available with AT&T. This lightweight phone comes in four-color combinations: black/orange, black/blue, black/red and black/lime. Samsung seems to have a knack for slider phones, and their SGH-A737 reflects this. This slicker than Teflon slider also happens to be one of the latest low cost 3G offerings from AT&T. Physically, Samsung’s SGH-A737 is a typical slider in a fairly slim presentation. It weighs in at a svelte 90g (3.16oz.) and is also reasonably thin at 15.2mm (0.6in.) You might think Samsung was beginning to copy Boeing’s method of naming its products. The A737 follows its predecessors in offering a brilliant display. Measuring two inches and supporting 262,000 colors, it’s bright and vibrant with sharp graphics and animations. As with many Samsung displays, it’s difficult to see in direct light, but that’s not a huge problem. You can change the brightness and the backlight time, as well as the font size, color, and type. The menu system comes in two simple styles and you can activate nifty pop-up menus to save clicks when scrolling.

The A737 features a keypad that’s completely flush. That means the keys aren’t ideal for dialing by feel, so you’ll need to pay attention when texting. On the upside, the individual buttons are large and backlit, while the top row of keys isn’t squashed up against the bottom of the slider. Completing the exterior of the phone are a volume rocker and a microSD card slot on the left spine and a shortcut menu control and the headset/charger jack on the right spine.

The phone’s contact system is fairly detailed, providing separate fields for first name, last name, display name, mobile number, landline, email address, and instant messaging IDs for the supported Yahoo!, Windows live, and AIM instant messaging services. The contact system also allows for the grouping of contacts and a field for notes in each contact entry.

Samsung has included a profiles system with settings for normal, silent, driving, outdoor, as well as an airplane mode for in-flight music playback. These profiles can be edited, however there are no additional user defined or nameable profiles.

The SGH-A737 is a 3G phone and as such supports a number of AT&T’s high-speed features. For instance, one way live video can be shared, provided both the sender and the receiver have access to AT&T’s 3G network. It seems a shame that this feature can only be utilized from phone to phone. The ability to send video to one of the live streaming video services like ustream.tv or stickam.com would be a fun application to include on a phone like this.

Email support is provided for a number of webmail services, as well as a handful of Internet Service Providers. There is no IMAP or POP3 support. If you find your email service missing from the list, then your best bet is to set up a forwarding service to one of the supported webmail services. Like many Samsung phones these days, the SGH-A737 is a capable digital music player. Headphone connection is supported through A2DP Bluetooth stereo connectivity and thoughtfully, a 1/8″ headphone adapter for conventional headphones is included in the package. We were able to test the music playback with both conventional headphones and a Plantronics Bluetooth stereo headset. With both, the Samsung came up aces.

The camera seems to be where money is saved on these lower priced phones and the 1.3 Megapixel camera in the SGH ? A737 performed as expected for a camera of this type. Essentially this means it was passable for outdoor daytime photos, but slightly worse for well lit indoor shots. This, however, is forgivable for a phone in this price range.

The A737 has a rated battery life of three hours talk time and 10.4 days standby time. The tested talk time was a little better, at 3 hours, 21 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Samsung SGH-A737 has a digital digital SAR rating of 0.65 watt per kilogram.

The SGH-A737 handles media well, especially music, thanks to its A2DP stereo Bluetooth connectivity. Like so many of Samsung’s other sliders, the mechanism is top notch, conveying the feel of a quality device. Sound quality is rather good as well. At the time of writing, AT&T is offering the phone for $25 with rebate and a two year contract. At this price the camera hardly seems a major complaint when so much else is done so well, and is concealed in such a tidy, compact exterior. With only the few mentioned caveats, this phone earns my rating of “Recommended.”