US Cellular is certainly carving out a name for themselves in the Android world, and the release of the Samsung Mesmerize brings one of the best Android handsets currently on the market to their network. It’s a Galaxy S phone, and like its cousins on the big four networks, it’s a powerhouse with an incredible Super AMOLED screen. Hit the break to see my impressions of the Mesmerize, available at US Cellular for $199.99 on a two-year agreement. Samsung has been very aggressive about getting the devices into as many hands as possible, with releases for all four major carriers and several regional providers, including the Samsung Mesmerize for U.S. Cellular. The hardware is well laid out, even if it’s a little plasticky. You really only notice this when you have the battery door off assembled the Mesmerize feels fine in the hand. Speaking of the battery door, once open, the microSD card can be removed without shutting down the phone or removing the battery. The smooth lines of the exterior are carried through with the ports and buttons. You have the 3.5 mm headset jack, and a microUSB port covered by a protective sliding door to keep dirt and debris out. On the bottom, you have the mic hole, surrounded by the curves of the phone. It’s very sleek. The left side of the phone has the volume rocker switch, and the right side presents the power button.
Samsung Mesmerize offers a speakerphone, speed dialing, voice commands, conference calling, and text and multimedia messaging with threaded chat view. Bluetooth, 3G, GPS, and integrated Wi-Fi are also all onboard, and as a bonus, the Mesmerize can be used a mobile hot spot for up to five devices. U.S. Cellular’s mobile hot-spot plans start at $25 per month with a 5GB data cap. Samsung Mesmerize ships with Android 2.1 and Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 interface and will be upgradable to Android 2.2, which, according to Samsung, will start rolling out over the next few weeks to U.S. Galaxy S phones. Still, it brings strong support for Google services, and the smartphone plays nice with various e-mail accounts and social networks, including Gmail, POP3 and IMAP, Microsoft Exchange, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. We easily set up our Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter accounts on our review unit, and received messages and notifications with no problem.
Otherwise, the Mesmerize runs more than 100,000 apps, and it does so brilliantly. The Galaxy S’s 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU is faster than the processors in the HTC Desire and Motorola Droid X, and is at par with T-Mobile’s latest HTC myTouch HD. In any case, it’s first rate.
The Mesmerize has a very good 5-megapixel camera—at least very good for a camera phone. Both outdoor and indoor images were sharp, with good color balance. I had occasional problems with blur in low-light conditions. The phone records 720p HD video at 30 frames per second, although video recorded in low-light areas gets noisy.
The Mesmerize outpaces both Verizon’s Fascinate and U.S. Cellular’s HTC Desire, though your choice between the three will be a matter of taste. U.S. Cellular’s friendly service plans and less carrier interference in the software make the Mesmerize more appealing than the Fascinate. However, your decision between the Mesmerize and Desire will depend on whether you like Samsung’s TouchWiz or HTC’s Sense UI. But you can’t deny that the Mesmerize has a better camera, a faster processor, and a larger screen than the Desire, which make this excellent Android phone our Editors’ Choice for U.S. Cellular.
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