Samsung Reality Review
The Samsung Reality is the successor to the Samsung Rogue from Verizon Wireless; however, it’s actually a step down from the Rogue. The Reality features EVDO Rev. 0 (vs. Rev. A on the Rogue) and features a less attractive screen. The Reality is still a great mid-range slider phone, just not as great as the phone it’s replacing. The Samsung Reality is available from Verizon Wireless, in red or black, for $79.99 with a two-year agreement.
Design
The Samsung Reality is very close to the Samsung Rogue. It features a similar design with the rounded edges and curved corners. It weighs in a little less than the Rogue (by .94 oz.).
The Reality features a 3-inch WQVGA display. There is a noticeably difference in quality when comparing it to the Samsung Rogue, which features a 3.1-inch AMOLED display. The Reality’s screen just doesn’t compare to the Rogue’s. Don’t get me wrong, the display is still vivid and sharp, and the resistive touchscreen is very responsive compared to other resistive screens. The phone is very intuitive and easy to use, allowing you customize your home screens with various shortcut icons, adjusting the backlight time, and even customizing the transition effect while switching between menus.
There are also physical keys on the Reality as well. There is a Send key, Power/End key, and a Clear/Back key on the front. On the right side are the camera/camcorder key, speakerphone key, and voice command key. On the left, there is screen lock key and volume rocker. Also on the left side are the micro-USB charging/data port. Finally, on the top, there is the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Reality also sports a nice QWERTY keyboard when slid open. The keys are slightly raised and are spacious for fast typing. There is a dedicated number row for easy typing and a dedicated navigation pad for easy and precise navigation when in landscape mode.
Software and Features
The Reality features Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. TouchWiz offers three home screens you can customize, allowing you to drag-n-drop different shortcuts and widgets on each screen. You have quick access to the phone dialer, contacts, messages, and main menu at the bottom. The phone dialer has a large dialer and shortcuts for contacts, groups, and favorites. You are also presented with a virtual keypad with T9 to type out messages in portrait mode on the touchscreen (if you don’t want to use the physical keyboard for some reason).
Along with the widgets seen with previous TouchWiz devices, the Reality includes a new “Communities” widget that gives quick access to FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, PhotoBucket, and Friendster.
The Samsung Reality features a phonebook capable of handling up to 1000 contacts, allowing for five numbers, two email addresses, two street addresses, a company name, a photo, one IM name, and a memo, for each contact. You can create and manage contact groups as well. Each can be paired with various ringtones and alerts.
The Reality features all the essential features, including a stopwatch/timer, unit converter, world clock, calendar, speakerphone, calculator, vibrate mode, alarm clock, memo pad, scheduler, and VZ Navigator support. The Reality also has higher end features, including a good implementation of voice command, threaded text and multimedia messaging, voice messaging, IM support, Mobile and Corporate Email, and Visual Voicemail (at an additional $2.99/m fee).
The Reality also has an HTML Web Browser which features easy scrolling, zooming capabilities, full page view, search, and copy and send (to email links to you and your friends). There is also RSS capabilities to have your own customized newsfeeds.
The music player’s interface is simple and convenient to use. It has all the usual player controls as well as options for repeat or shuffle, and you have the option of editing and managing playlists. It also features built-in equalizer that boosts the sound immensely. The equalizer provides the 9 preset settings. It also has a music-only mode that shuts off the phone’s wireless signal so you can enjoy music and conserves the battery life (great for listening to music while in an airplane). The music player also has a background feature, so that you can perform some other tasks while listening to songs. It also features FM Radio, and it accepts up to a 16GB microSD memory card.
The Samsung Reality is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera takes the pictures in eight resolutions from 2,048×1536 pixels to 320×240 pixels. The camera interface is simple and other settings include three quality settings, auto-shot mode, a self-timer, a night shot mode, five color effects, five white balance presets, five shooting modes, adjustable ISO, three metering options, and different options for brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness. You can also customize shutter sounds with silent option. You can also record videos in three different resolutions with similar settings as the still camera available. The image quality is good, but not the greatest.
Performance
The call quality was top notch compared to other Verizon Wireless devices. My callers sounded clear and loud without any static or distortion. The reported no issues on their side as well. The speakerphone was mediocre.
Music playback was decent when utilizing my own headset. The phone’s speaker was not a great experience for listening to music.
The Samsung Reality has the rated battery life of 12.5 days of standby time and 5 hours of talk time. It has the digital SAR of 0.99 watts per kilogram.
