Samsung Reclaim M560 Review

Introduction:

Green is in, there’s no doubt about that.  Everything from cars to computers and even water is marked as green and eco-friendly these days, but oftentimes it is just that - marketing.  The Samsung Reclaim M560 is not.  Its bio-plastic housing is made from corn, the highly efficient Energy Star charger uses 12 times less energy than the Energy Star standard and its packaging is made from 70% recycled material and printed with soy ink.  Sprint is putting their money where their mouth is as well, for every Reclaim sold $2 will be donated to The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program.  Of course, none of this matters if the product doesn’t deliver, read on to find out!

Included in the box you’ll find:

•    Li-Ion battery
•    Energy Star AC adapter
•    Quick Start Guide (the user manual is now online to save paper)
•    512MB microSD card


Design:

The Samsung Reclaim M560 has nearly identical dimensions as AT&T’s Propel, but looks much pudgier due to rounder lines.  It’s short and squat, but feels comfortable in the hand.  Like the LG Lotus it’s a bit awkward at first, but it’s narrower which makes it easier to hold.  It comes in two very eco-hip colors: Earth Green and Ocean Blue.



You can compare the Samsung Reclaim M560 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Sliding the phone open reveals a full portrait QWERTY keyboard.  The keys are small and flat, but we didn’t have too many issues typing accurately.  Our biggest gripe is the small spacebar.  To either side are four keys, and we feel it would do well to lose one on each.  We found ourselves inserting random periods and zeros, which flank the spacebar.  The device is rather small though, and overall Samsung did well with the space they had but could have improved it with some shape to the keys.





The 2.6” QVGA landscape display is crisp, but we’ve come to expect that from Samsung.  We had little trouble reading it, even in direct light.  Below it sits the same 5-way d-pad and 6 navigational keys we’ve seen on past models like the m520 and Exclaim, but they are much larger than what we’ve seen before.

On the left side of the phone is the 3.5mm headphone jack something we very much appreciate seeing and the volume rocker.  The right side has the microSD slot, microUSB charging port and camera key.  The camera is revealed only when the slider is slid up, much like the m520.  The back simply houses the Reclaim’s single speaker.



We were pleasantly surprised with the Reclaim’s design.  It looked awkward in pictures, but works in real life.  The keypad probably isn’t for larger hands, but we didn’t have issues with it beyond the tiny spacebar.   The build quality was top notch, as always, and the slide mechanism is very solid.  The display is as good as it gets for a mid-tier phone and the quirky design grew on us once we got it in our hands.