+phonecomputerreviews1.jpg "Samsung Mesmerize (U.S. Cellular)")
U.S. Cellular, the nation's sixth-largest carrier, covers elements of twenty six states and frequently gets high marks in our Readers' selection awards. The carrier recently launched the "Belief Project," a collection of recent customer-service standards and bonuses together with a loyalty reward program, overage protection, free battery swaps, and different goodies.
Hardware and Phone Performance
The Mesmerize is basically an equivalent hardware because the Samsung Fascinate ($199, four stars) on Verizon Wireless, however the software builds and U.S. Cellular's service plans are completely different enough to draw shoppers aloof from Verizon's model. To recap, this is often a slim, black-slab phone at four.9 by 2.5 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and four.1 ounces, with a 4-inch, 800-by-480 super AMOLED touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera on the rear. The phone's black plastic body is straightforward to carry, and if you have never seen the colours on one among Samsung's Super AMOLED screens before, then they will extremely knock your socks off.
Like the Fascinate, the Mesmerize could be a excellent voice phone. It's nice and loud, and voices sound clear. The speakerphone is of a good volume. Transmissions sound good; there is a little bit of background noise, however voices come back through clearly. You get a large amount of facet tone, that is that the echo of your own voice in your ear that forestalls you from yelling into the phone. The handset conjointly paired simply with our Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset. The Nuance voice dialing works over Bluetooth, that is nice, however I found it horribly inaccurate. Battery life was completely spectacular with nearly eight hours of speak time in my tests.
The Mesmerize connects to the net using U.S. Cellular's EV-DO Rev A network and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. I had no issues hooking up to our WPA2-protected company network. The Mesmerize conjointly works as a 3G hotspot on U.S. Cellular's network, therefore you ought to expect speeds around 1Mbps. the extra service set up prices $25 per month. in step with Samsung, the phone will meet up with the company's Kies computer software eventually. that is a neat Samsung app that helps you to sync contacts and calendars domestically with Outlook—a rare feature on Android phones.
The Mesmerize, just like the Fascinate, runs Android a pair of.1. An upgrade to version a pair of.2 is returning soon, Samsung says. Like all the Galaxy S phones, Samsung has laid its TouchWiz UI layer over Android. that provides the phone a somewhat completely different look than different Android devices, along side a far better phone book, a far better Microsoft Exchange shopper, deeper connections to social networking services, and a number of custom apps.
However, the Fascinate became controversial as a result of Verizon replaced Google search on the phone with Bing. that won't the case here—and, of course, Verizon's different bloatware is not on the Mesmerize either. U.S. Cellular did add a number of apps, however they are comparatively low-key. for instance, there is a Telenav-based GPS navigation app (which found my location quickly and accurately) and a contact book backup.
Otherwise, the Mesmerize runs over one hundred,000 apps, and it will therefore brilliantly. The Galaxy S's 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU is quicker than the processors within the HTC want and Motorola Droid X, and is at par with T-Mobile's latest HTC myTouch HD. In any case, it's 1st rate.
Media and Conclusions
Like all Galaxy S phones, the Mesmerize is a wonderful media player. Samsung's music app shows album art, and it played all of my unprotected music files (including OGG format) flawlessly—both over wired and Bluetooth headphones. Video files of up to 720p resolution played smoothly, with virtual surround-sound in wired headphones. YouTube streamed HQ videos over Wi-Fi that were razor-sharp and butter-smooth in my tests. The phone has one.5GB of free internal memory and comes with a 16GB microSD card, which inserts into a slot underneath the rear cowl.
The Mesmerize encompasses a excellent 5-megapixel camera—at least excellent for a camera phone. each out of doors and indoor pictures were sharp, with smart color balance. I had occasional issues with blur in low-light conditions. The phone records 720p HD video at thirty frames per second, though video recorded in low-light areas gets noisy.
The Mesmerize outpaces each Verizon's Fascinate and U.S. Cellular's HTC want, though your selection between the 3 are going to be a matter of style. U.S. Cellular's friendly service plans and fewer carrier interference within the software create the Mesmerize a lot of appealing than the Fascinate. However, your call between the Mesmerize and want can depend upon whether or not you wish Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense UI. however you cannot deny that the Mesmerize encompasses a higher camera, a faster processor, and a bigger screen than the will, that create this wonderful Android phone our Editors' selection for U.S. Cellular.
Service supplier US Cellular
Operating System Android OS
Screen Size four inches
Screen Details 800-by-480 Super AMOLED glass capacitive bit screen
Camera Yes
Megapixels five MP
Camera Flash Yes
802.11x Yes
Bluetooth Yes
Web Browser Yes
Form issue Candy Bar
Network CDMA
Bands 850, 1900
High-Speed information 1xRTT, EVDO Rev 0, EVDO Rev A
Storage capability (as Tested) one.4 GB
Processor Speed one GHz
Keyboard No
Continuous speak Time seven hours fifty five minutes
