Samsung Solstice II Review

Interface and Functionality:

At this point in time, the TouchWiz interface employed on the Samsung Solstice II is beginning to show its less than invigorating age. Thanks partly to its capacitive display, moving around the three homescreens are a tad bit more rewarding with its more responsive feel. Various widgets can be placed to your liking on each of the homescreens, which provides for a level of personalization, but some are clearly more useful than others. With the main menu, it's laid out in typical form like any other TouchWiz enabled device with its grid-like formation and finger friendly icons. Simple, straightforward, and responsive, there isn't that much of a learning curve in getting around the phone.



Setting up contacts for the very first time, it'll take you into AT&T's Address Book process which will sync and backup contact information so you'll have piece of mind that it's safe. Moreover, all the usual pieces of data can be associated with each person – but there is a maximum tally of 2,000 contacts with the handset.



Similarly, we're finding an improved messaging experience thanks mostly to its capacitive display that accurately registers every touch. Generally, you can rely on using the usual keypad with T9 enabled for a smooth flowing process, but switching to landscape provides the most optimal performance with its full QWERTY keyboard.



AT&T's Mobile Email app makes for a streamlined automatic process, without any hassles, by providing simply an email address and password for it to set up. However, some specific email clients will require additional pieces of data, like server addresses or ports, to properly set up completely.

Since social networking is deeply ingrained into the minds of most messaging centric users out there, AT&T's Social Net App will be more than appreciated as it aggregates a variety of services into one – such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and RSS feeds.

If emails and text messaging aren't enough for you, then using anyone of its supported instant messaging services will swiftly enable you to get in touch with friends. The supported clients include AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger.



Finally, the Samsung Solstice II is packed full to the brim with third party apps that should appease most people when first handling the phone. Some of them are YPmobile, Where, My-Cast Weather, Star Tweets, Mobile Banking, PicDial, AllSport GPS, City ID, MobiTV, MobiVJ, and Vlingo. Conversely, AT&T throws in its usual suspects like AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Music, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Radio, and AT&T Maps.