Samsung Blast Review

Design:

The Blast is a slider which opens up very easily thanks to a spring mechanism. There was no play in the mechanism whether it was closed or open. It offers a SureType keyboard, a QWERTY keyboard where each button has two letters assigned to it, which helps retain a small size, 106 x 52 x 12.7 mm (4.16 x 2.0 x 0.5 inches), and weight, 79.5g (2.8oz). The smallest slider in Samsung’s lineup is the U600 and the Blast is not much bigger surprisingly. Unfortunately, this phone feels cheaply made but at least has a solid feel to it and manages to look stylish.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
Samsung Blast	4.16" x 2.04" x 0.50"	106 x 52 x 12.7	2.80	79.5
Samsung SGH-T719	3.78" x 2.05" x 0.72"	96 x 52 x 18	3.53	100
Samsung SGH-U600	4.06" x 1.94" x 0.42"	103.2 x 49.3 x 10.9	2.85	81

The Blast’s 2 inch TFT display appears to be much smaller than it really is. Colors are very realistic and the picture is pleasing. In very bright environments, it was a little difficult to read that screen. It’s a shame that Samsung didn’t include a mode to raise the brightness even higher as some of the other models offer this feature.

When including a keyboard, one of two things has to suffer; either the phone has to gain a few inches or the buttons have to shrink in size. Well, since the Blast is a small phone, it means that the buttons had to shrink. It takes a while to get used to the keypad but it’s comfortable once you do. You can feel the feedback given by each button as it’s pressed so that you know that it was pressed. The entire keypad is just one rubber piece with each button being raised and separated from each other. Texting can be easily done with either one hand or two. The upper half of each button in the center three rows is red to attract you but it tends to do its job a little too well.

Home screen	Main menu	Contact list

Menu:

The menu is common to that used in other Samsungs. It is laid out in a 3x3 style grid with animated icons. Navigating can be done through either the directional pad or by using the keypad.

Phonebook:

The phonebook is also the standard for Samsung. All contacts are listed alphabetically. A search field is located at the top to help you sift through all the contacts. A total of 1000 contacts can be stored on the phone.

Camera:

Picture quality is mediocre at best. Even though the Blast is supplied with an antiquated 1.3MP camera, it could be better. They come out blurry and overexposed in bright environments on light objects. Darker objects come out better but the camera is very lacking. The one found on an old Samsung D500 was much better.

Indoor pictures came out better but only under medium light. Still the pictures were a little hazy but this is to be expected.

Media player:

As with other phones in its class, the Blast is supplied with a media player to help you get through those boring moments. Playlist can be created but they are limited to 30 tracks only. Media can be stored either one the phone or on a memory card. Sound from the loudspeaker is nothing ground breaking but it gets the job done.