Samsung Exclaim hands-on
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jul 6th 2009 12:15PM
posted Jul 6th 2009 12:15PM
The Samsung Exclaim doesn't fall into that category. At $79.99 on contract, it's cheap, but it's not that cheap -- in the QWERTY category, the Rant, Lotus, and Rumor 2 all cost less and we're pretty sure we'd rather have any of them, particularly the Lotus. Sprint Navigation works well (as it usually does -- though we didn't like how the portrait softkeys were still functional in landscape mode, so the bottom key confusingly corresponded to the left function) and the Exclaim has one of the loudest, best speakerphones we've heard, but it's doomed by its whopping 17.8mm of girth, its cheap, bendy plastics, and the fact that it lacks a rudimentary touchscreen for entering digits -- something that the similar LG Neon has (for $50 less) and the Rant overcomes with a dedicated, fixed numeric keypad. Yes, the Exclaim slides down to provide the functionality, but it's an unnecessary mechanical burden that adds more thickness than it's worth -- put simply, there are better ways of doing this.
For what it's worth, the slide-out keyboard works quite well -- teens and twentysomethings will appreciate the dedicated text and emoticon buttons, and the duplicated softkeys and directional keys are helpful -- and 3G is a plus, but in the face of hot, cheap competition from other models in Sprint's lineup (including some of Samsung's own, ironically), the Exclaim is a definite pass.
you DO realize that this phone slides up for a dedicated numeric keypad right? I didn't see any mention of it in your story nor did I see any pics of it
Yep, meant to make mention of that -- updated!
I DO however agree that they should've done away with the keypad, and added a touch screen to this device. That would've made it an AWESOME device in my opinion. I like the way it looks and feels in my hand. lightweight and smooth, with a really crisp and clear screen, but it doesn't feel like i'll break it if I hold it too hard(no homo lol). But I notice every time I use the phone(my buddy has one), I'm always trying to touch the screen(I own a g1 and a touch pro). That's alright though...there's always the Samsung i7500 :-) lol
I personally like this phone better than the rant... and better than other dual sliders (including the pantech) . IMO the bigger screen is a good advantage over the rant too.
Seems like a moot point when there's a full qwerty, but I do like to have the option of T9 text entry too, which the Rival does not have and I'm not sure about the Neon.
i just got my phone about 3 days ago and im like obsessed with it.
pros: i love: texting, one click interface, the fun frames, the 2mp camera
cons: the picture id to a contact is so pointless b/c u can barely see the pic, its a little bit slow,
overall it get the job down and its a awesome phone i would give it 4 out of 5 stars
Mom decided that she needed a new phone, as hers was dying, and she wanted a text keyboard to keep up with my nephew.
She played with a bunch of phones, and as much as I tried, I couldn't sell her on a single Crackberry or other smartphone, so it was the feature phones. She really liked the Verizon Samsung Alias2 and the LG Envy3, but got upset at Verizon's predatory tactics and switched to Sprint, thus ending 15 years or service.
The Exclaim was the only Sprint phone we could find that she could use. Featuring a display that her Senior eyes could read, dialing keypad she could see and press, and a qwerty keyboard large enough for her to use.
The only drawback is the size, but for an older person, the large phone keypad may be worth it. The social features on the my make it possible for her to track my college bound nephew thru his MySpace page, we will see.
Did I mention she only paid $29.99 for the Exclaim?