Samsung Alias 2 (SCH-U750) Review June 17th, 2009 | by Stewart Wolpin

Samsung Alias 2 (SCH-U750) Image
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The Alias 2's E Ink keyboard is the cleverest input solution we've seen in quite some time.


Highs: E Ink keyboard; dual-hinge clamshell design; large, bright 2.6-inch screen; long talk time and battery life

Lows: Clunky Web browser; no threaded messaging; soft focus photos, poor QCIF videos; low ringtone volume

Introduction

Brilliant. Genius. Great idea. It's a wonder no one thought of using the E Ink electrophoretic display technology found on Amazon's Kindle to create a multi-use keypad for a cellphone. But that’s exactly what Samsung has done with its second-gen Alias 2.

Using E Ink, the icons on the 42-square keyboard appear as a dialpad-concentric arrangement when the dual hinge clamshell is flipped up vertically and as a QWERTY-centric array when the lid is flipped horizontally. In addition, you can also toggle through multiple arrays showing different sets of keys in each position. These changeling keys enable Samsung to eliminate the dual keypad on phones such as the LG enV3 or Samsung Rant, and create an amazingly flexible keyboard that seems to be reading your mind.

But does the rest of Alias 2 match up to its magic keypad? Click onward to see…




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