Hands-on preview of the Krave, Rapture, and Sway
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The Krave is Motorola's first touchscreen device for Verizon, coming almost a year after the introduction of the LG Voyager. But unlike the Dare and Voyager which use a pressure sensitive touchscreen, the Krave uses capacitive technology, similar to the Glyde and iPhone. After a day of use, we can say that the Krave's touchscreen is very accurate and does not suffer form the issues that we encountered with the Glyde. The display has a resolution of 320x240 pixels and has a unique clear plastic flip with embedded earpiece speaker. What's interesting is that certain functions can also be used with the flip closed, but you are limited in your choices. So far the call quality seems quite good, and we would rank it even higher than the V9m. Other features include Bluetooth, 2MP camera (no flash or autofocus), 8GB microSDHC support, and VCast Mobile TV (MediaFLO). Despite its plastic construction, it feels well made, but at .75"D, its thicker than the Voyager which has a real mechanical QWERTY keyboard.
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Motorola Krave ZN4 | |||
Those looking for a flip phone, sans the touchscreen, there is the Motorola Rapture. It's not a real replacement for the V9m, but it's the closest device to it. Two things we loved about the V9m was the call quality and metal construction. The Rapture also has good call quality, but uses plastic parts throughout. The internal display is the same, but the external is slightly smaller with 4 touch-sensitive corners (for music and camera control). A redesigned keypad now has small metal circles for buttons, instead of a smooth membrane. Other feature remain the same, such as a 2MP camera, Bluetooth, and microSDHC card support.
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Motorola Rapture VU30 | |
Last up is the Samsung Sway, as its a basic slider constructed out of silver colored plastic. It's the thinnest of the three devices, at .47"D. It offers a QVGA display, 2MP camera, Bluetooth, and 8GB microSDHC support. However, it does not support EVDO, which means OTA Music Downloads are not supported and the remaining data must use the slower 1x network.
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Samsung Sway | |||
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20 Comments
1. (unregistered) posted on 20 Oct 2010, 01:42 0 0
The Krave's touchscreen requires some mashing. I got one thinking it would be a formidable iPhone competitor but the touchscreen isn't sensitive enough. I'm tired of waiting for Verizon to release a decent touchscreen dumbphone. Either I'm waiting for the Samsung A867 on AT&T or *gasp* going to get the Instinct. But I really don't want to deal with Sprint again, so I guess it's the Samsung Eternity for me.
5. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:20 0 0
Verizon is going to get the Samsung Omnia. That might be worth waiting for.
2. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:04 0 0
The krave or dare were never meant to compete with the AT&T Iphone, the Iphone is a smart phone while the dare and krave are regular cell phones with this said its like comparing apples to oranges. Wait for the Blackberry Storm then make your decision.
3. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:16 0 0
Well, I've got 8 days left before I have to return the Krave, so unless suddenly it becomes more finger-friendly to me or the Storm comes out I'm switching.
4. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:17 0 0
And I should add in I don't need a smartphone, but the iPhone's OS is the best organized of any touchscreen I've seen.
7. Ceez (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:30 0 0
The Iphone is not a smart phone!!! do your research. and the Blackberry Storm will kill the iphone.
11. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 22:10 0 0
The iPhone is a smartphone, would you people please pull your heads out of your #$%@ and accept it.
13. (unregistered) posted on 22 Oct 2008, 08:45 0 0
Before you try to compare any phone with the iphone, you have to understand why there are no phone like the iphone, to be saying BS because the iphone in the market now, is a unique device and the only one that will be able to get close to it will be the Blackberry Storm, LG DARE it is not a PDA to be compared with the iphone. Instinct is TRASH compared to the iphone just like the DARE or even the HTC devices, so just wait until you have your hands on the storm
18. lol (unregistered) posted on 22 Oct 2008, 21:18 0 0
under your 30 days yuo can just return the phone... you don't need to swap it for anything. Just say you want to go back to your old phone and old contract.
6. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:26 0 0
wow putting the moto KRAVE even in the same category as the Dare or even the voyager is huge mistake. I've had a chance to use and play with the Moto Touchscreen, it's a complete disaster. It is not accurate and there is a huge delay on every press, so unless you type as slow as most grandma's then this phone is not for you. Plus the silly Plastic flip part of the phone gets in the way when you switch to QWERTY mode. Even just attempting to dial a number to make a call is horrendous. The camera is nothing special, but it lacks some camera features you'd expect on a phone like this. The Idea to be able to use the touch screen while the plastic cover is closed is a good idea, however Motorola Dropped the Ball on this and only allows the use of 4 features that most customer don't want/use anyway (Nav, Vcast Mobile TV, Vcast music, and My pics). Also the menu's there is a huge delay from press to response. The contact list is horrible to navigate in order to go directly to contacts startign with a specific letter, it takes 3 presses. The UI for the phone is Bad, i couldn't find a way to delete just 1 message in the draft section the only option was to delete all?... I find it interesting that they include the Warranty Phone number in the Contact list as default, expect to be calling them a lot. while playing with the phone for about 3 hours of the course of a few days the phone locked up at least 5 times. Well that is enough rating for now, i will not be recommending this phone to anyone, and I hope it doesn't get compared to the Dare or voyager, it need to be compared to the glyde.
8. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:34 0 0
wait for the omnia I just left the samsung rep and was playing with his VZW omnia and it is beast
9. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:48 0 0
Is omnia Smartphone? or regular feature phone?
10. (unregistered) posted on 21 Oct 2008, 21:49 0 0
just looked it up... Windows Mobile :( i'm staying away.
12. Midnight (unregistered) posted on 22 Oct 2008, 08:04 0 0
with the availability of Fennec (firefox mobile) on windows mobile phones in the very near future, and with it being rated better then all other browsers so far in rendering pages, windows mobile doesnt look as bad as it did before.
15. someone else anonymous (unregistered) posted on 22 Oct 2008, 10:28 0 0
that motorola sucks!!! putting a qwerty keyboard on it was completely useless. the stupid plastic part gets in the way. the touch screen is completely off!. if you press 3 your more than likely to press the 1 instead!! that phone all together is a useless piece of crap and verizon should come out at least with a software upgrade to!
16. (unregistered) posted on 22 Oct 2008, 11:47 0 0
i realy like the idea of the krave i would have just changed 2 things about it. 1- make it so you can change the 4 functions you can use when the phone is closed. 2- make it so you can also use the qwerty keyboard for texting when it is closed cause yes that flip does get in the way and make it not imposable but very uncomfortable to text.
17. (unregistered) posted on 22 Oct 2008, 12:16 0 0
like any new phone, it needs an update. the sluggishness can be fixed with a software patch. even great phones like the voyager needed some updating to make it better... and its sooo much better now than when it first came out. give it time. you always pay a price for being an early adopter, and one part of that price is on the software side.
19. (unregistered) posted on 23 Oct 2008, 12:39 0 0
Has anyone here used the Motorola Rapture? I got it but the reception was kind of iffy. Anyone else have that problem?
20. (unregistered) posted on 23 Oct 2008, 20:17 0 0
no realease date on the omnia but cant wait to try it out. its between the omnia and storm for me. iphone just doesnt add up plus its on att...come on people
