We have been playing around with the Samsung Vice for the past few days and find it to be a solid – just above entry level – device. The best quality about the Vice is it’s price point at $49.95 on a 3-year contract. This is currently exclusively available at Bell and is a North American first.
At first when we saw pics surface that this was coming to Canada, I thought it was going to be another basic device that feels cheap in the hand. Rest assured when you hold this it feels solid and you feel you get more than you pay for. The Vice only weight 134 grams and has overall dimensions of 114.1 x 48.3 x 17.9 mm. The reason I say you feel like you get more than you pay for is because of its slide out full QWERTY keyboard. For the size of device this is one of the more spacious designs I have seen. Your fingers/thumbs will not get in the way of each other… even if you have a slightly larger digits you’ll find the keys are just the right size. Texting, e-mails and IM are a dream on this as this comes with threaded text messaging so you’ll be able to follow your conversations.
With the ease of typing, comes the quality of screen. This has a 2.2 inch screen with a resolution of 240 x 320. The max number of characters for a text is 140 and I found that the screen could have been improved, possibly made just a bit bigger. The resolution was somewhat pixelated with viewing TV or videos but the speakers were great quality. In regards to surfing the web, the screen size made it a bit of a challenge as some sites we viewed were simply text links, even when we switched to the full HTML browser option the screen did not do justice.
Apart from the standard features such as contacts, speakerphone, voice memo, alarm clock, calendar, other key features of the Vice include its GPS, MP3 player, 3.5mm headphone jack and can expand up to another 8GB with a MicroSD. With this said, I was pleasantly surprised with the 2.0 megapixel camera. I like how many options you have with this feature (picture and video messaging) and can take video as well. When viewing pics you can simply use the scrolling directional pad to work your way through your albums and view them either in portrait or landscape.
This is available in Blue (and White May 20th) on the following price plans
3-year: $49.95
2-year: $99.95
1-year: $199.95
Prepaid: $249.95
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