The Samsung Alias 2 – recently launched by Verizon Wireless — doesn’t look all that remarkable at first glance. It’s a flip phone with a full physical keyboard, a two megapixel camera, GPS navigation, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
Look a little closer though, and you’ll find an innovative e-ink keyboard that changes to suit your needs, all contained in a small, lightweight package that won’t weigh you down.
BUILD AND DESIGN
From the outside, the Alias 2 looks much like any other mobile phone, with a flip-style design, a hinge and camera at the top, with buttons and a microSD slot on the sides. The exterior is made of dark gray plastic, with metallic branding accents. The overall look isn’t bargain basement, but there isn’t anything particularly pretty or sexy about it.
The hinge works both ways, meaning that you can use it as a traditional flip phone, but also as a more messaging-centric landscape device. Right now the action is very tight, and requires two hands to manipulate; only time will tell if it will loosen up. When the phone is open, it is not possible to flip the display to the other orientation without first closing the device.
The device is just about the same size as other flip phones, and feels very nice in the hand due to the patterned back plate, which helps to increase grip and prevent the phone from slipping. It also feels amazingly light — about the same as most other phones do before their batteries are installed. I was very surprised by the lightweight feel of the Alias 2. So many other phones weigh down your pockets, but not this one.
Keyboard
Verizon calls the keyboard on the Alias 2 a “Magic Keypad” and they’re exactly right — it’s one of the outstanding features of this device. E-ink technology is utilized to make the keyboard match how you want to use the phone at any given moment.
Open it up like a regular flip phone, and you’ll find a more traditional keypad layout, with two soft keys on the top row, directional and OK buttons below, send/clear/end, and then a numeric keypad. The buttons on the left and right serve as shortcut buttons that allow you to access the camera/camcorder function, use voice-activated dialing, turn the ringer on and off, or start a new text message. The buttons on the right control the Bluetooth function, the alarm clock, or take you to the games and applications menu.
Open up the device in landscape messaging mode, and the layout shifts automatically to a design more logical for that setup: a column of shortcut keys, then the numeric keypad, with send/clear/end on the bottom and directional buttons to the right. The text on the keys remains the same until you do something to change them, such as starting a new text message. In landscape mode that brings up a four-row full QWERTY keyboard that is absolutely a joy to use. In portrait mode, the numbers instantly transform into the three letter groupings you would expect for a T9 setup.
The keys are illuminated for use in low light settings, and have a unique feel to them. They are made of a slightly softer kind of plastic that feels slightly “tacky” or “gummy” to your finger. They have a very minimal convex curve and are rather close together, but I had no problems with hitting the wrong key at any time.
Of course one drawback to this keyboard is that until you become intimately familiar with all of the various layouts, you will spend a bit more time looking at your fingers than you would otherwise expect. In my mind, however, this is a reasonable tradeoff to make considering the benefits of having a phone that molds itself to they way you do business.
Display
The screen is a 2.6-inch QVGA display, and it is especially bright and vibrant. So much so, in fact, that I can easily read it outside in direct sunlight, where most phones wash out so badly that they can be very hard to use. The text is very sharp, and when you dial the phone the numbers you press are giant, which is great — most feature phones don’t tend to use all of the display. The other icons such as signal strength and battery level, are also larger than normal.
The small exterior display shows the time and date, and music playback controls are located underneath.
Ports
A headphone jack is located on the left side of the hinge, but it’s not a standard-size jack. All of the ports have hinged covers, so you don’t have to worry about losing a tiny little part.
PERFORMANCE
Since this device isn’t running a heavy-duty smartphone operating system, I expect snappy performance and instant reaction to button presses, and the Alias 2 certainly delivers. The menu system is straightforward and easy to understand, and there are even a few extras that I didn’t expect.
One of the highlights is the Easy Set-Up wizard located in the sound settings menu. It asks a series of simple questions and configures your ring tones and alerts to match. It works flawlessly, and is a big plus for this reviewer; I’m tired of slogging through menu after menu to set things up exactly the way I want them. Other folks I showed this to agreed, and I would like to see this sort of thing on other devices in the future, so I hope the user interface designers are listening.
Call Quality
Call quality is good with this Samsung model, but not exceptional. Voices on the other end sounded a bit “flat” and they could hear some background noise on my end. Most folks would be perfectly happy with the quality, and I know that I’m being nitpicky here, but that’s my job as a reviewer. In this case, I’m not sure I really would have noticed anything if I weren’t looking for negatives.
Entertainment
This phone offers the full suite of entertainment services provided by Verizon Wireless, namely V-Cast Music with Rhapsody and V-Cast Video. The music playback works well, and like most phones the sound quality through the external speaker is good, but not fabulous. I tried it out with the latest single from the Black Eyed Peas, and while the song sounded pretty good, there really wasn’t any bass. In other words, “Boom Boom Pow” didn’t have quite the same impact as it would have if listening through headphones, but the speaker is good enough to share a few tunes with your friends.
Camera
The camera takes fairly good shots, but not great. I was slightly disappointed with the camera as compared to other mobile phones I’ve reviewed recently. The details are good, but there was some over-exposure on some of the shots, especially those with widely varying levels of shade and brightness that were taken on a sunny day. The expected options are included, such as six different color effects, white balance, self timer, etc.
It can also function as a camcorder, though any videos you take are limited to just 30 seconds in length unless you have a memory expansion card installed.
Productivity
This isn’t a smartphone, so you won’t be editing any spreadsheets, but the Alias 2 does include the basics, such as a calendar, contacts, calculator, alarm clock, stop watch, world clock, notepad, and one of my favorites, USB mass storage.
Mobile Web, a basic web browser and the excellent VZ Navigator service are also included, so you can browse the Internet on a mobile broadband connection and also never worry about getting lost.
Additional applications and games are available for download from Verizon Wireless, including Visual Voice Mail. The application has some handy features, most notably the ability to respond via voice call or SMS and a message archive feature that lets you move important messages to a memory card for permanent storage. The application requires 821K of storage space and is free to download, with a $2.99 per month service fee.
Battery Life
Battery life is exceptional–I used the phone heavily for several days before the battery meter went down to half charge. The battery charger that comes with the phone is very small and light, but unfortunately does not feature folding prongs.
CONCLUSION
This is the first phone I’ve reviewed in a long while that I didn’t want to send back after the loan period. The Samsung Alias 2 is slim, light, and fully featured, though of course it can’t directly compete with its smartphone cousins.
The keyboard is just as innovative as Samsung says it is, and most importantly, this is the first phone I’ve used that molds itself to the way I want to use it, instead of forcing me into a particular mode at the time of the initial purchase.
It isn’t for everyone, but if you find yourself needing an excellent phone, and you don’t require Wi-Fi or the ability to sync with Outlook, take a closer look. The Samsung Alias 2 may be exactly what you’re looking for.
Pros
- Magic Keypad gives you access to the dial pad and quick launch functions but instantly switches to a four row
- QWERTY keypad with large buttons when you enter the messaging application
- Dual flip for use as portrait or landscape device
- Bright, easy-to-read screen
- Thin and incredibly light
Cons
- Voice quality is good, but not stellar
- Relatively underpowered camera compared to the competition
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