Digital Trends

Samsung Alias SCH-u740 April 25th, 2007 | by Stewart Wolpin

Testing and Use

All these frustrations aside, the u740 is actually an excellent phone. Reception is steady on Verizon's EV-DO network, and call quality is crisp and clean. You can hear the interior speakers even with the flap closed and speakers seemingly flush with the keypad. Ringtones are loud and the vibrate mode is adequate.

Wireless Web access is speedy, with boot up in around 10 seconds and pages usually loading in less than five seconds. Music downloads are among the speediest we've experienced.

Pictures taken with the 1.3 MP camera/camcorder are superior, even when compared to shots snapped with 2 MP models. Colors are bright and true, images are crisp, and black levels are high with deep contrast. Under the "Options" menu are a variety of picture settings, such as color effects, white balance, and metering, along with a self-timer. There are multiple flash settings, even if the flash itself is weak. Indoor shots in medium or low light are blurry and predictably grainy. After snapping a shot, there are convenient soft menu options for saving or erasing.

But while image quality is high, accessibility is low. We couldn't figure out how — or if it’s even possible — to transmit photos via Bluetooth, even though we had no trouble establishing a connection between the u740 and a PC. We ended up hot-swapping the card and using a card reader to move our shots out of the phone.

As noted, the music player is only available in horizontal mode, which becomes more annoying each time you forget and have to turn the phone around. This is not the only annoyance. There is no direct access to the player. You have to drill through the menus to get to the player. Once you get into the player, you have to hit "shuffle" to get your songs to start playing in a new sequence; otherwise, you get the same sequence of songs as the last time. In total, you have to click through six screens before music starts playing. There are no EQ settings. Entering the "Options" menu pauses the music for no discernable reason. Like most music phones, you can't perform other functions with the music playing. The track, artist, and progress bar appear in the external screen.

When a call comes in and the lid is closed, you don't get an option to answer or ignore. As soon as you flip the flap up, an "ignore" soft key choice flashes for a nanosecond, then the call is automatically answered. When you end the call, the music doesn't resume. You have to close the vertical lid and reopen the phone in horizontal mode, drill through the menus to reboot the player, and start all over again (which means, of course, you won't hear the rest of the song that was interrupted by the call).

Rated talk time is 3.5 hours, and standby time is 8.3 days, both average.


Conclusion

Mirroring its dual-hinge lid, the u740 is a dichotomy. It does so many things well — great little camera, great reception and voice quality, speedy wireless Web service — but then makes them frustrating and difficult to use. Great ideas, but they’re poorly executed. Disappointing.


Pros:

• Dual-hinge design
• Large, bright, 2.25-inch screen
• Speedy EV-DO network compatibility
• QWERTY keyboard
• Excellent 1.3 MP camera
• Touch-sensitive external music controls


Cons:

• Confusing keypad
• Confusing application access
• No 2.5mm headphone jack
• No direct music player access/poor music application
• No AAC compatibility