One of the versatile smartphones ever
Build quality (9/10) This phone is built very well and have survived countless drops from me. Some of the paint is chipping off the sides now, but this phone is around 3years old. Everything still works fine and is great. The battery life is not bad. It will usually last around 2 days of normal use before it has to charge again. The screen might not be the best quality compared to all the new phones out now though. I really love the d pad in this phone. Why can't phone manufacturers put d pads on phones today? I am guessing because everyone wants to copy the iphone design. Software (10/10) Okay, the OS that this phone comes with really sucks first of all, but if you know what you are doing, you can install a newer version of windows mobile or install android on this phone! Just go to the xda developers website and you will find countless numbers of ROMs that can be flashed on this phone. Right now, my phone is running Cyanogenmod 7 which is a Android build of gingerbread (Android 2.3). I'm pretty sure the only 2 phones out right now that officially supports gingerbread is the Nexus s and Nexus 1. My phone is more up to date on Android than most Android phones and this phone was originally a windows mobile phone. I found that somewhat amusing. Thanks to all the developers on xda. Android runs extremely smooth on this phone, especially when you look at the hardware inside of it. This was the last smartphone on Verizon that they did not force you to have a data plan which is the reason I bought it in the first place. Not many phones can claim that they can runs the newest versions of both windows mobile and android. Hardware (7/10) At the time when this phone was released, the hardware was not bad. Of course, now the hardware is very outdated and is slow compared to all the new phones out now. But everything still runs extremely smooth for me. I have used other people's android phones and the iphone and overall, it is almost as smooth as them. Things open faster on the new smartphones though. One thing I really wish this smartphone had was wifi. Especially since I do not have a data plan. Luckily though, in windows mobile I could get internet though Bluetooth, and pn android, I can sideload apps with my sd card. The screen resolution is pretty low, but was standard at the time whnen this phone was released. The resolution is qvga and the screen itself is 3.2 inches. There is a mirco sd card slot hidden on the side of the phone. Right now I have a 16 gb micro sd card in there and it works very well. I love that it has a d pad. It is great for playing games on it. I find myself playing SNES emulators or GBA emulators when I am bored waiting for something. SNES and GBA emulators run full speed in windows mobile and android by the way. Service (9/10) I pretty much always get service anywhere I go. I would say Verizon has some of the best coverage of any cell phone company. I had Sprint before Verizon beats them by far. With Sprint I would have dropped calls every now and then and the signal strength was not always the best, best Verizon pretty much has good signal strength everywhere I go. The phone also does not have any antenna issues where if you touch the side of the phone, you lose signal... like the iphone 4. Signal strength has never been a problem for me on Verizon or with this phone. Conclusion (9/10) Sure this phone is extremely old now, but it still has some life to it. It can pretty much do anything the new phones coming out today can do. Would I recommend this phone now to a friend? No, since that hardware in tis phone is so old now and that there are so many smartphones out now. There are smartphones everywhere you look now. Everyone's mother sister and grandpa has one. This phone came out before it was "cool" to have a smartphone. This is probably one of the best smartphones made and it will always have a place in my heart.
damaph
Saint Louis, MO