Gadgetory

hi I'm Kent Sherman senior managing editor here at seen it today I'm going to give you a first look at the samsung chrono to now I know what you're probably saying you probably think this is 2004-2005 and you know you've been transported back to the past which it's not true it's actually 2012 and this phone just looks really old but I promise you it is new it is with US cellular and it's actually the second chrono as I said it's the chrono the original chrono came out in April yeah this design looks really old a blast from the past but you know what this design works and Samsung is used it for years and years I haven't owned a flip phone a reviewed 1 and I can't even tell you it like before 2010 maybe but you know I one soon as I picked this up it just brought back a little bit of feeling a nostalgia you can open it with one hand flip it close there's that familiar clacking sound of course to use t9 to text that's not like riding a bicycle I really had to remember how to use it after using keyboards for so long punching out punching out those words and making sure the predicted was right that did take a long time to get used to again but you know it is a phone that does make all's well the call quality is good and it does what a phone should do just course it's not very exciting so as I said it is a very simple flip phone design you have the rounded corners on the end smooth line to the plastic casing the hinge is sturdy I didn't feel it was too loose or too stiff you can't open it with one hand outside there is one point three memos a camera lens you can use the external displays of self-portrait mere also shows the date time and battery life all the information you need the only thing I like didn't like about the mostly when they backlighting is off the external display disappears completely and you can't push any of these buttons to light it back up again you have to actually open the phone shut it so that's kind of annoying you just want to see the time you're not wearing a watch you have to fiddle with the phone quite a bit just to see the time just have a textured cover on the back here on the side there's a camera shutter a 3.5 millimeter headset jack over here there's a volume rocker and a micro USB charger port inside there's the main display of course not a great resolution great graphics are not going to blow you away but you know they're really not supposed to on a phone like this inside the user interface is easy to use there's just a grid for icons and the main menu and the familiar list is you get into the submenus Keaton keypad and navigation array they are flat so you can't really use them by feel there are a lot of spate there's space though especially for that navigation array there's a toggle okay but in the middle to soft keys the talk and and power key and then a clear button and then the alphanumeric keypad Keys have it a little bit of a rubbery feel which is nice but again it is flush so using it I feel is a little difficult but overall very easy to use and simple feature set is very very basic does have Bluetooth it does have voice dialing it does have USB mass storage otherwise you'll find the basic set of organizer options like calculator a calendar courses text and multimedia messaging so said call quality is pretty decent I could hear people fine little distortion on the voice some voices sound like they had a higher pitch than they usually do but not a big deal on the other end caller said that I had to be pretty close to the phone especially the speakerphone I want to be heard they did report some background and wind noise but overall this phone does exactly what a phone should do I have to admit I did feel a little weird using this phone on the street I did see a couple people staring when I was taking photos with it of course that could have been for some other reasons but you need to phone just to make calls he wanted me to keep in your glove compartment you want to keep for emergencies and you want to use it just only when you need to this phone definitely does the trick it is only twenty nine dollars if you buy prepaid so that means just one ten dollars without a contract and of course it is free with a contract and this is the samsung chrono two from US Cellular you