Samsung Blast Review

Finally, we arrive at the section that you’ve been waiting for. The Blast is targeted as a messaging phone but how well does it perform its job? You have the ability to send text, picture, and voice messages, as well as e-mails and IM.


Loaded by default, you can setup an AOL, Yahoo! account, two custom accounts (comcoast.net, Verizon.net, juno.com, mac.com, cs.com, and other address). Emails are checked either manually or by one of the present intervals. The list is displayed in the same fashion that text messages are. We did have trouble when signing on and were told the connection was refused and that it had been locked out but when signing in through the computer, no issue was seen.



Four IM accounts, AIM, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo!, are on the phone. We tested an AIM account but the others work the same way. When setting logging in for the first time, you have to key in your screen name and password, which can be saved for later use. Once signed in, just select the person you want to talk to and chat away.


Multiple conversations can be easily carried out by going back and forth between each conversation. Unfortunately, there is only a small indication of which conversation received a new IM. The icon has a sharp black border when there is a new IM while the others have a blurry grey. This is not enough to differentiate them easily and it would be nice to see the icon turn to a different color, say yellow for example, instead. To make matters worse, the conversation that you accessed last, regardless of whether an IM was sent or not, gets sent to the top of the list.

Well, incase you don’t use e-mail or IM, then this part is for you. Text messaging is very basic. There is a 160 character limit per page and 12 pages max. Even though the Blast has a SureType keyboard, there is the option to have t9 predictive text enabled.

Picture messages are arranged just a little bit differently. Once you type in the subject and body of the text, you can add a picture, video, or sound to your message. The layout of the body is the same as if you were typing out a regular text message.

Lastly, there is the voice note. Incase you’re tired of texting, you can simply just record a message and then send it out.

When sending a message, you have three ways to add contacts: recent recipients, phonebook, or new number. Regardless of which you choose, there is a limit of 20 recipients that can be added into the message.