Samsung Gusto Review

Interface and Features:

It comes as no surprise that the main menu on the Samsung Gusto U360 is laid out just like most other Verizon phones, with categories for accessing the media center, messaging, contacts, recent calls, and settings & tools. User customization includes a selection of three themes (white, hexagon, and diagonal), the ability to show the main menu in tab, list, and grid view, two font sizes, clock formats, and wallpapers. This is all pretty standard fair with phones today.


The phonebook on the Gusto is also basic and allows you to store up to 1000 contacts, each with their name, multiple numbers, email addresses, IM screen name, picture, ringtone, and physical street address. Once a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 999 speed-dial locations.


One area that hasn’t been improved upon since the previous models is the 0.3MP camera, as the Samsung Gusto only comes with a VGA shooter capable of a maximum resolution of 640x480 pixels. Images taken outside are pretty useless, as they look blurry and have poor color accuracy and white balance. Naturally, indoor images are lacking too; even more so in low-light conditions.




Additional software features on the Samsung Gusto include the ability to send and receive text and picture messages, VZ Navigator for GPS guided directions, Mobile Web 2.0 browser, voice commands, calculator, appointment calendar for saving alerts, alarm clock, stop watch, world clock, and a notepad. You can also download other games and programs through the media center menu. Unfortunately, the Gusto still lacks a music player and memory card slot. It also doesn’t allow for VCast video streaming, as data is limited to the slower 1X network. Internal memory is lacking as it only comes with 32MB, of which 23MB available to the user.