Gadgetory

sometimes the smartphone is just way too much phone if that's the case then you might want to check out something a little simpler like the Samsung freeform 5 I'm testing adult court for CNET here's your first one now this is a feature phone its main feature in fact is that it has a QWERTY keyboard it's in portrait mode here so you don't have to slide anything open to start texting there's a small 2.4 inch QVGA screen on here resolution is pretty low so the lettering doesn't look very fine or sharp and the image is don't either however it is easy to navigate with this d-pad right over here and the soft keys one thing that's really nice about the keyboard is that although it's compact the keys are separated fully and are also raised above the surface so it's really easy to get some traction with your finger I didn't find the spacebar quite as responsive as the other keys which sometimes messed me up while I was writing longer messages but overall I thought that it was pretty nice usability on a keyboard could be a little bit better though I noticed that there is no spellcheck and it does not insert a period when you double tap the spacebar those could be nice touches by today's standards with jumbo phones this one is very pocketable and portable so that's a nice touch too there is a micro SD card slot on the side so you can expand memory up to 32 gigabytes there's also a 3 megapixel camera on the back no flash nothing too fancy here there is a camcorder built into it the camera is alright for basic shots but colors looked pretty dull and they weren't too sharp or detailed if this phone looks familiar to you it's probably because the design hasn't really changed in at least five years and neither has the software inside of it overall it's not a bad phone especially if you're really looking for a portrait QWERTY for not too much money but I would say shop around because there are other options like it and this one just really doesn't blow me away I'm Jessica's all-court for CNN you can read my full review of the Samsung 3 4 5 at cnet.com you