This Android phone changes personalities with a tap and features VGP-BPS13 a comfy keyboard, but is it worth the price?
A lot of phone names these days seem pretty VGP-BPS9 random, but in this case, the name actually fits the product. Thanks to the new Sprint ID feature, the Samsung Transform lets you download different packs of apps, widgets, and shortcuts to literally transform this Android phone's personality. Choices range VGP-BPS9/S from branded ID packs such as Yahoo and EA to themes including Golf Enthusiast and Entertainment. This $149 device also features a comfy slide-out VGP-BPS9A/B keyboard and a front-facing camera for video calls, perks lower-end Sprint ID-capable phones such as the LG Optimus S ($49) and the Sanyo VGP-BPS9/B Zio ($99) lack. Still, $149 is a lot to spend on a device that doesn't have 4G data capability or a high-res screen. Does the Transform have enough going for it, or would that dough be better spent on an Evo 4G or vgp-bps13b/q Epic 4G?
Design
At least with the 3.5-inch vgp-bps13a/q screen off, the Transform could easily be mistaken for the Epic 4G. They're both solidly built handsets with unassuming rounded edged and hard black plastic on the back. The Transform measures 4.6 x 2.4 x .6 inches and weighs 5.4 ounces, while the Epic is taller and slightly wider vgp-bps13/b and heavier (4.9 x 2.5 x 0.6 inches and 5.5 ounces), owing to its larger 4-inch display. This is a reasonable size and weight for a phone with vgp-bps13/q a physical keyboard, which slides out easily.
The top of the device has a 3.5mm headphone VGP-BPS13A/B jack and a microUSB port. The right side has a volume rocker, and the left side has three buttons--one for power/sleep, one for voice commands, and one for the camera.
Display
The Transform has a 3.5-inch HVGA touch screen with 480 x 320 resolution. The screen can get plenty bright if the user chooses, but pa3535u-1brs colors are muted and text looked fuzzy on some pages. The screen takes to fingerprints and smudges easily. Compared to the Epic PA3534U-1BRS 4G's 4-inch Super AMOLED screen with 800 x 480 resolution, the Transform's display looks lackluster.
Keyboards
The full QWERTY keyboard on the Transform dell studio 17 battery is the best feature the device has to offer. Gray keys and orange accents give it a hip feel. It's very comfortable overall, and there is enough spacing to type quickly and accurately. We only wish that the flat keys were raised a little more. The virtual Android keyboard works dell studio 1737 battery fine, but it doesn't have Swype pre-installed like the Epic 4G. Since the physical keyboard is available, we'd much rather use dell studio 1535 battery that anyway.
Acer Aspire One D255
One of the first netbooks with Intel's mobile dell latitude e5500 battery dual-core Atom processor offers slightly improved performance but not the best user experience.
The Acer Aspire One D255 (price not yet announced) is Acer's first dual-core netbook, and one of the first 10-inchers anywhere dell latitude e6400 battery to use Intel's new Atom N550 processor. The netbook's benchmark performance is moderately better than single-core competitors. We dell latitude e6500 battery also like how portable this design is, even when compared to other lightweight netbooks. However, is the D255 fast enough to dell latitude e4300 battery overcome some of its flaws?
Design
At 2.4 pounds and 10.1 x 7.3 x .95 inches, the D255 is smaller and lighter than competitors like the Eee PC 1215N (11.6 x 8 x 1.4 inches, 3.4 pounds), the dell vostro 1510 battery Samsung N150 Plus (10.4 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches, 2.8 pounds), and the Toshiba NB305 (10.5 x 7.6 x 1.2 inches, 2.8 pounds). dell vostro 1310 battery When carrying it around in our bag, we hardly felt its weight.
If you've seen other Aspire One netbooks, the Aspire Dell inspiron 1545 battery One D255 will look very familiar too you because it shares their slim but somewhat generic design. Its glossy black lid is emblazoned with a drab Aspire One logo and picks up finger prints, but it's so dark you will hardly notice them. On the inside, a glossy bezel Dell inspiron 1525 battery surrounds the extremely glossy screen, making it even more reflective. There's also a gap between the lid and the base of the chassis Dell latitude d630 battery that's large enough to fit a pen through. You'll also find a matte gray deck and an island-style keyboard.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The island-style keyboard on the Aspire One D255 has the same "fine tip" design as other Acer netbooks Dell studio 15 battery and notebooks. Though the keys are large and extend end-to-end across the chassis, we found the overall typing experience Dell latitude d620 battery cramped because of the narrow chassis and short palm rest that had our wrists hanging over the front lip. In addition, we noticed a little flex when we pressed down on the G and H keys. However, despite these issues, we were able to achieve our typical 80 words per Dell xps m1330 battery minute score on the ten thumbs typing test, with a slightly higher than usual 2 percent Dell inspiron 6400 battery error rate.
The 3 x 1.5-inch touchpad suffers from very serious inaccuracy problems. As we navigated around the desktop, Dell inspiron 1501 battery occasionally the pointer would suddenly jump a few pixels and other times it seemed to slow to a crawl. This inaccuracy Dell inspiron e1505 battery was more pronounced when tasks such as web page loading were occurring in the background. The pad supports multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom but isn't smooth or consistent. Though we prefer two discrete mouse buttons, the D255's single-button bar Dell latitude d820 battery offered good tactile feedback without being too stiff.
Heat
The Aspire One D255 stayed relatively cool throughout our testing. Even after streaming a video at full Dell vostro 1000 battery screen for 15 minutes, we measured the keyboard at just 84 degrees, the touchpad at 85 degrees, and the bottom at a chilly 89 Dell gd761 battery degrees Fahrenheit. We consider temperatures near 95 degrees Fahrenheit acceptable and those under 95 extremely pleasant. However, all that heat has to go somewhere. The air vent belched out 107-degree air, but not in the user's Dell latitude d830 battery direction.
Ports and Webcam
The Aspire One D255 has a standard array of netbook ports. On the right side are a memory Dell inspiron 1520 battery card reader, audio in/out jacks, a USB port, a Kensington lock slot, and an Ethernet port. On the left side are a VGA out and two more USB ports, for a total of three.
The 1.3-megapixel webcam produced good battery blurry images that were completely washed out under fluorescent light. During a Skype call from our cubicle, our face was completely covered by shadow. When we moved next to a window, the image quality improved but was still good batteries a bit grainy.
Display and Sound
The Aspire One D255's 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel screen provided battery strong viewing angles, despite its glossy surface. Even at 45 degrees to the left or right, images got a little darker but did not wash out. Intel says that the Atom batteries N550 improves high-def video playback, but when we downloaded a 720p QuickTime trailer of Saw 3D, playback was noticeably jerky. Streaming full-screen 720p Flash videos from Fox.com and another from YouTube, however, was smooth.
Audio quality from the bottom-mounted speakers was loud enough to fill a room, though somewhat tinny when we streamed dell batteries "Party Train" by the Gap Band from Napster. Unfortunately, when we moved the pointer around during audio playback, we occasionally sony battery noticed some distortion as the audio itself seemed to slow down at times.
