Review: Samsung Intercept From Sprint
To say that Android has invaded and, frankly conquered, Sprint would be an understatement of epic proportions. It seems like every other day, the giant yellow carrier announces another Android based phone. Not long ago, we had an opportunity to check out their new flagship, the Android 2.1 based EVO, which was also Sprint’s first 4G phone. Today, we will be looking at Samsung’s apparent response to the EVO, the Intercept, which was recently released on Sprint’s network. Although it is missing the 4G connectivity, the Samsung Intercept appears to be a worthy addition to Sprint’s growing line of Android phones. Let’s take a closer look.
What’s In the Box: There once was a time when device manufacturers gave us something to talk about and show you when we looked in the box. Sadly, it appears that those times have now passed. No longer do we find even the most rudimentary cases or screen protectors in the box, which I find to be extremely disappointing. Once you get passed the device itself and the usual manuals, all you will find here is the sync/charge cable and AC adaptor. Even as these devices are becoming more powerful (and more expensive) manufacturers are including fewer accessories in the package. While the long ago loss of the sync cradle could be written off as a luxury, I find it to be extremely troubling that necessary forms of protection, like screen protectors and cases are not even being included with these devices.
Hardware: OK, now that we have the device out of the box, let’s go ahead and take a look at the hardware. The device itself is a bit thicker than many of the devices I have used lately. This thickness is attributable to the slide out keyboard. I have to say that the slide out keyboard feels very much three years ago to me. In this day and age of the HTC EVO and iPhone 4, with their impressive on screen keyboards, or the numerous device with front facing keyboards like Blackberries, and even the Palm Pixi; the idea of switching the view from portrait to landscape, and sliding the hardware feels like an idea which has grown a bit anachronistic. I would not be surprised at all to see this sliding keyboards phased out entirely fairly soon as on-screen options continue to improve.
That being said, I was rather impressed by the sliding keyboard on this device. It is a nice wide keyboard with large buttons. In fact, I found the spacing to be almost a bit too wide, but that is probably because my thumbs are so used to being cramped on small, tight keyboards. This one is a real treat to use, and very easy for a hunt and peck typist like me to use.
Moving around the phone, I must admit that I was quite impressed by the layout and design of this phone. When I reviewed the Samsung Moment, their previous Android-based phone on Sprint, I was critical of the clutter of buttons and controls, which seemed to have overlapping functions. Right off the bat, the Intercept offers a much cleaner look.
The top of the device has nothing except the micro-USB port which you will use for syncing (for those of you who still connect to a computer to sync) and charging the device. This seemed an odd placement to me, but that could just be because most manufacturers have not placed the sync/charge port on top like this. Otherwise, it seemed to work just fine.
The right side of the device has a hard button for the camera, which is a nice addition. On devices which do not have this button, I frequently find myself fumbling through the on-screen interface in order to activate the camera, only to have the picture taking opportunity pass. Above that is the standard 3.5mm headphone jack. This is nice, but again the placement struck me as odd. When you have the device in your pocket, it is much more convenient to have the headphone cable connection coming out of the top or bottom of the device, rather than sticking off the side.
The left side of the device has the volume rocker, which I absolutely love. Having hardware buttons to control the volume while you are listening to music or even talking on the phone is extremely convenient. I was disappointed when device manufacturers started removing these buttons, and I have been thrilled by their return. Beneath that is the microSD card slot. In this case, Samsung really pleased me with the placement. I have used too many devices which tuck the microSD card behind or around the battery, meaning you have to remove the back of the device and often pop out the battery in order to swap cards. Putting it on the side like this makes the card extremely accessible, and means that you can store media or files on multiple cards, and easily swap them whenever it is necessary.
There is nothing really to see on the bottom, so let’s go ahead and jump over to the back, where you will find the 3.2 megapixel camera. we will talk more about that later. A small slot on the bottom of the back panel allows you to pop it open, revealing the 1500 mAh battery inside.
The most improved area for me was the front panel, which has been significantly minimized and streamlined. Of course, the bulk of it is taken up by the nicely proportioned 3.0 inch touchscreen. While this screen is not as large as that of the HTC EVO, I did find it was better proportioned for every day use. As you may recall, I found the EVO to be a bit too wide for my normal usage patterns due to its enormous screen. The Intercept has a more modest screen, but that enables the phone to stay within the framework of what you would expect from a one handed device. All of that being said, I did find the screen to be crisp and vibrant. It worked extremely well for this device.
Beneath the screen are four touch panel buttons: Menu, Home, Back, and Search. These are pretty much the same buttons that you will find on many Android devices. Though it was a bit disconcerting not to have any tactile feedback when you press these buttons. I also found that these buttons were not always as responsive as I would have liked. Sometimes i would push them repeatedly before receiving a response. Additionally, there are two large buttons for the phone controls, and a touch pad D-controller which I virtually ignored. I have just not found D-pads like this to work well with the Android interface.
Overall, despite a few oddly placed connections, I found this to be the best designed phone of any I have used from Samsung. Specifically, it offered a significant improvement over the cluttered design of its Sprint predecessor, the Moment.
Interface and Operating System: The interface on the Samsung Intercept is really the no frills version of Android 2.1. It was interesting, after using the HTC version with its Sense UI, to test this version. It really made me realize how much of what I liked about Android was actually layered on top by HTC.
For starters, instead of seven pages on the home screen, the Intercept only utilizes three pages. Additionally, although you can still add widgets to the home screen pages, many of my favorite widgets were actually part of HTC’s Sense UI, not the Android OS itself. This means there is a fairly limited number of widgets available. Finally, although I believed the live wallpapers were part of Android, I did not find an option to utilize them on the Intercept.
Otherwise, this is a standard implementation of Android 2.1, which has been discussed pretty extensively here and on a myriad of other sites, so I will not bore you by repeating my thoughts on this operating system. Just my overall impression, which remains the same as my first encounter with Android. This is a lot like what Windows Mobile could have and should have become, but it is still much more complicated to use that Palm’s WebOS or apple’s iPhone interface.
Communications: Let’s get into the heart of this phone, as in the parts that make it an actual phone. Go ahead and push the phone button on the face of the device. This is the one which is normally green. This will take you to a tabbed interface where you can switch between the dialer keypad, call log, and favorite contacts, or jump over to the full contacts list. There was really nothing special to see here. The Keypad was functional, although not particularly slick or nice to look at.
While we are talking about the keypad, let’s go ahead and mention phone calls. I found the dialing keypad to be extremely responsive. As you dial, the keypad will scan the phone will scan your contacts and pull up any suggestions which match the numbers and letters you dial. When you are in a phone call, the device will bring up an in-call menu with all of the controls you need, including speakerphone, mute, and bluetooth. On the main part of the screen, you will see the caller id section with the name and photo of the contact. Use the dialpad toggle to replace this with a keypad, which can be used to navigate through any in-call menus. Of course, the big red button the end there is the all important end call button. Perfect for hanging up on people.
Call quality was really exceptional. I found the sound to be crisp and clear, making it easy to hear or be heard. This is a critical part of any PHONE, and I have used far too many devices which simply ignore or treat this piece as an afterthought. I was pleased to find that Samsung did not ignore the basics with this one.
Although the contacts button looks like a fourth tab on this main screen, it is actually a window to your full contacts list. From here, in addition to your full contacts list, you can flip through the tabs to view any groups you may have created, history list, or activities.
This activities tab is fantastic. It ties into your social networks and gives you all of the latest updates from your contacts on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. I am really impressed by how easy this made it to keep up with your social networks. My only problem was that this was buried as a tab under the contacts app. This feature really could have easily stood out as its own app, and it was really too bad that Samsung did not allow it to do so.
Next to actually talking on the phone, written communications are becoming an increasingly important part of mobile devices. In fact, I will admit that I tend to use my mobile devices far more for email and texting than talking these days.
I have always been impressed by email on Android based phones. In addition to the Outlook style email app (above, right), you will also get the Gmail mobile app (left) (as you would imagine, a slew of Google apps are available in the app market). Both options worked great and give you quick and easy access to your email.
Text messaging did not work quite as well for me. The messaging app is really a somewhat blase interface, which looks far too minimalistic when compared with the texting interfaces on other devices. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives in the app market (many of which work great and are free).
Additionally, you will also find the Google Talk app, which allows you to engage in instant communications with any of your Gmail/Google contacts. I was disappointed that there was not a more universal app. The Talk app only allows you to tie into your Gmail account. There is no opportunity to utilize it with a Google domain or other service. That being said, for what it was, a Google Talk client, it worked extremely well.
I was really pleasantly surprised by how well this phone worked as a communication device. Phone calls were crystal clear, and the in-call menus placed all of the critical functions right on the screen where you could access them with ease. Likewise, written communication was also easy to use, with your Google contacts syncing right into your phone contact list and all of the Google apps. I was disappointed by the plain interface of the messaging app, but that is easily fixed through the app market alternatives.
Calendar: Aside from using the phone as, well a phone (or other communication tool), the most important part of any device for me is the calendar. I have to say, though, that I was not terribly impressed by the calendar functions on this one. First and foremost, there is no widget for the calendar. I was truly disappointed by the lack of a widget, because I am the kind of user who likes to have my schedule beating me over the head.
Let’s go ahead and get into the calendar itself. As you would expect, there are four viewing modes: month, week, day, and list. Starting with the month view, I just thought the whole thing felt a bit too cramped. The main part of the display is a full month calendar. You can scroll from one month to the next using the arrows on top. In each calendar box, the lower right corner will show whether there are any items or activities scheduled for the day. If there are any items scheduled that day, they will be listed under the calendar portion of the screen. This just felt cluttered and confusing to me. It requires you to divide your attention between two portions of the screen, and is just not convenient to utilize easily.
Sadly, week view, which is generally my preferred calendar view, really did not far much better. Here, the entire week will be displayed at once. Oddly, there were no lines dividing one day from the next, though there were lines showing the times of day. So, almost a grid view, but not quite. The grid will be colored in the appropriate space if you have something scheduled at that time. These colored blocks were not consistently labeled or colored. This means all you are going to see if a bunch of random colors with almost no context or information. Tap any block to open the individual agenda item.
Day view fared a bit better, showing an hour by hour view of your day, with information about each event in the appropriate spaces. Full day events appear on top of the screen. Finally, list view will show a running list of all of your calendar events and agenda items. Inexplicably, on this screen, the background switched from white to black. I really did not understand this random change in the background color, especially since it is considerably easier to read these items against a white screen than black.
Overall, I was simply underwhelmed by the calendar application on this one. I have been reviewing calendar and scheduling apps on pretty much every mobile operating system since Windows Mobile 2003, and this one hardly held a candle even to the most rudimentary variations. Mostly, it felt like something which was slapped together just to be able to say that a calendar had been included.
Other included Software: In addition to the sub-par calendar, let’s take a look at some of the other apps available on the Intercept. But really, there is not a lot in there. I know a number of people who complain about what is affectionately known as “bloatware." Bloatware refers to the unwanted apps which come preloaded on a mobile device or computer…and you will not find much of it here.
Of course, there is the standard mix of Sprint apps. You will get Sprint Zone, which brings you all of the latest news from Sprint (hey, I did not say we were completely free of bloatware). Additionally, there is Sprint Nascar, Sprint Football, and Sprint TV. Not a bad mix, though I was surprised not to find Sprint Navigator (powered by Telenav) in there at all. In fact, the only mapping app to be found at all was Google Maps, which really shocked me.
In addition, you will find the Amazon MP3 app, which is a fantastic app, allowing you to find digital music and purchase it directly from Amazon. Along those lines, there is also the now standard YouTube app. Hey, you cannot get Flash on your phone (yet) so you will need this if you want to watch any media on the popular video sharing site. Additionally, you will find Where, which is a location-based app, which helps you locate restaurants, businesses, and other services in your area.
Finally, you will find ThinkOffice for Android. This is a MS Office compatible suite, which allows you to create, edit, or view documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. In addition, you can sync your ThinkOffice docs with Word, Excel, or Powerpoint on your computer. If you have an online account with Thinkoffice.com, you can also access your cloud-stored documents from your mobile device. I have to be honest and say that I rarely read, edit, or create documents like these from my phone. I have always found the screen and/or keyboard to be far too small for these functions to be effective. That being said, I know many of you disagree. For those of you who do like to access your documents from your phone, this is an extremely well rounded and easy to use solution.
I have to admit that I was surprised by the tiny number of apps which came preloaded on this device. That being said, there is always the Android Market, which gives you access to hundreds of apps for this Android-based phone.
Camera: I really liked the camera on this phone…which is something I do not say often in reference to cell phone cameras. It was not so much the quality of the pictures which impressed me, but the ease of use. Often, in my experience, these cameras can be extremely inaccessible, with options and menus hidden all over the place.
First, the camera is easy to find. From pretty much anywhere, no matter what you are doing, just push and hold the camera button on the side of the device. That’s it. I really appreciated a hardware option which allowed me to access the camera without hunting around for a camera app.
The main camera screen is predominantly taken up by the viewfinder screen, which displays exactly what is seen by the lens (obviously). On the right is the shutter button, which will obviously snap a photo (this will become the record button in video mode). If you prefer, you can also use that hardware camera button to snap the photo. I found this felt a little more like actually snapping a picture with a camera.
Additionally, above the shutter button on the screen, there is a toggle which allows you to switch between photos and video recording. This was absolutely fantastic, as this is often among the most difficult options to locate on many mobile device cameras. Finally, at the top is the last image you shot. Tap it to enter the appropriate gallery of images or videos.
Tap the menu button to open the advanced camera settings menu from the top of the screen.
I tested both the still photos with the 3.2 megapixel lens, as well as the videos. As you can see, both worked very well. I still could not see replacing my regular Canon camera or my DXG video camera with this camera on a regular basis. In a pinch, though, this one will do just fine.
Multimedia: Like most phones these days, the Samsung Intercept can handle all of your music and video files. Let’s go ahead and start by taking a look at how the Intercept handled music. For starters, the interface was not much to look at. There are your basic four tabs across the top: artist, album, song, and playlist.
Obviously, each tab will list your music sorted appropriately (album art appears in the album tab only). From the artist tab, just select the artist and all of their albums will be displayed. Select an album and then select the song you wish to hear. The album tab starts one level down, tap the album you wish to play and the list of songs will be displayed. Finally, from the song or playlist tabs,simply tap the song to start playing.
One thing I thought was pretty cool was that when you select the album you wish to hear, you a blown up image of the album art will be shown in the background. I thought this was a nice touch.
You can also use the menu button to play or pause the music, as well as access the shuffle settings.
The app did a good job of providing you all of the information you will need as the music plays. This screen displays the album art, along with the artist name, album name, and song title. The three buttons on the right allow you to toggle the shuffle settings, shuffle the repeat settings, and switch the view to the playlist. Beneath all that are your play controls. You will find three buttons here: reverse, forward, and play/pause. Along with that is the track timer, which shows the elapsed time remaining in the current song.
Additional options found under the menu button allow you to return to the library, add the song to a playlist, or set it as a ringtone.
I have to admit that I ended up much more impressed by this app than I expected. My first impression was that the app was a bit plain, but what it lacked in luster, it more than compensated with functionality. The controls are simple, well arranged, and intuitive.
Of course, the most important part of the music player is…music. It really does not matter how well the menus work if the music sounds terrible. I have to say, I was pretty impressed on this front. I do not typically expect much when I am listening to music on my phone. But this one held its own quite well. The sound quality was crisp and clear, and translated extremely well. It really sounded on par with many of the mid-level portable media players I have tested here at JAMM. The only problem I had here was that the speaker is located on the back of the phone. As such, if you are using the internal speaker, and you set the phone down on your desk, the immediate effect is to muffle the sound. This was disappointing as it practically requires you use an external speaker or headphone.
In addition to your music, of course, the Intercept can also handle video playback. Now, I have to admit that I am just not a fan of watching video on a tiny 2 or 3 inch screen. After all, watching video was one of the primary reasons I purchased the iPad. So, this is not a feature I would choose to use often. The other reason I would not use it much is that it is almost impossible to find. For reasons which I can only partially understand, Android devices do not have a separate video app. Instead, video is hidden under the gallery app. Not exactly the the first place I would look.
Once you find the videos, the Intercept does a nice job of making them accessible, displaying a thumbnail view of each video. It would have been nice if the title had been displayed, but I still had no trouble finding my videos. What I did have trouble with was identifying compatible video formats. Ultimately, some of my Zune formatted videos worked fine, though others did not. I found this to be quite perplexing.
Just tap the video you wish to watch to start the playback. I thought video looked good enough on this screen, to the extent I could see it. It is not HD, but at that size, it really does not need to be. Like the music playback screen, the video controls will appear at the bottom of the screen (just tap the screen to reveal them).
Other than the size of the video on the screen, which could only be changed with a larger screen, I was pretty impressed by the quality of the media on this device. I do not normally like to use my phone for media because of the small screen and the effect it typically has on the battery. If I was going to use my phone for media playback, the Intercept made it extremely easy to do so, with intuitive menus and options. Playback of both video and music was at least on par with a mid-level media player, which is far more than I can say for many phones I have tested in the past.
Conclusion: I have to say that I was much more impressed by this phone that I expected to be. I have reviewed Samsung phones in the past, and not always been thrilled by what I found. I really think Samsung has come into its own with this one, correcting many of the flaws with the hardware I have found in the past. Still, I was disappointed by the interface. Without the enhancements of HTC’s SenseUI, the Android interface is really pretty bare bones and not particularly intuitive. At the end of the day, I would not recommend this one as an alternative to the HTC Evo, which features an enormous screen and 4G connectivity. That being said, if the Evo is too far beyond your price range, the Intercept does appear to be a good entry-level Android device.
The Samsung Intercept is available from www.sprintpcs.com for $99, with a two year service agreement.
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