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Text Messaging
As with any device I get for review it is used as my main phone for a few days before I get into the nitty gritty of a review. However, as I am probably among the youngest 10% of Kitguru’s readership I am not sure how many of you are interested in texting these days.
Upon opening the messaging application, from either the homescreen or the application drawer you’re presented with the option to compose a new message or browse through existing threads.
Composing a text was a straight forward and easy; ignoring the fact that sending texts are generally easy to send. Just start typing in a name or number and you’ll be shown a list of possible contacts.
Going into a conversation you will find the standard threaded view, which alone is worth buying a smartphone over a featurephone these days. You’ll find your own sent messages in a pale blue and any you recieve in a yellow.
Up the top of the screen there is nothing, save for the name of the other person and their number. If you wish to view their contact card, insert a smiley or add a subject it will require you to bring up the menu bar.
Keyboard
There are two keyboards installed by default on the xCover, the standard Samsung one and Swype. I didn’t find myself as a big fan of Swype so I used Samsung’s QWERTY keypad the majority of the time I had my unit. There is also handwriting recognition support which is just plain horrible.
Straight off the bat many people will notice the lack of readily accessible smilies. You will either have to long press ‘.’ which gives a small option of smilies and some commonly used punctuation or go to the alternate keyboard and flip through to the third page.
Typing on the 3.65 inch screen was easy enough, both in portrait and landscape modes. Input lag was not noticeable at all except when entering forms on script heavy websites.
Samsung’s predictive system works well; if a little aggressive through transforming words automatically as you type. Entering caps lock required a long press of shift rather than a quick double tap.
Call Quality
I admit I am not a big user of phones for what they were originally designed for but the calls that I did make the sound quality was good and the speaker was satisfying loud, loud enough for a quick call in a shopping mall.
Whoever was on the other end of the line never had any problems understanding me, an impressive feat considering I live in somewhat of a dead zone for mobile coverage on my particular carrier.
