Samsung Magnet SGH-A257 (AT&T)
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>> Bonnie Cha: Hi I'm Bonnie Cha Senior Editor at CNET.com and today we're taking a first look at the Samsung Magnet. The Magnet is a basic messaging phone that first debuted at CTIA 2009, but it's finally out with AT&T now. Magnet is a nice break from the slider messaging phones we've seen recently. It has a nice slim candy bar design and solid construction. The orange color is pretty bright so it might be a bit of a turn off for some but I don't think it's too bad. On front there's a 2.2 inch TFT display and being a lower end phone it's not the sharpest looking screen so pictures and text aren't quite as crisp but you can still see everything. Below the display you have your standard navigation controls and for the most part the layout is pretty good but the inside center button is somewhat small and cramped so sometimes I hit the end key when trying to press the back button or I'd accidentally press some of the letter keys when trying to press them on the directional key pad. The Magnet's QWERTY keyboard is pretty nice. The buttons are a good size and they have a slight bump so it's easier to press. I think my only complaint was that the keys are a little stiff so it slowed me down a bit. But otherwise it's a pretty good keyboard. The Magnet comes with plenty of messaging options. There's a mobile mail app where you can connect to various accounts including Yahoo, AOL, Windows live, EarthLink and other providers. It also comes with Yahoo, AIM and Windows live instant messaging clients and supports texts and multimedia messaging. The rest of the phones features are pretty basic. The Magnet does support Bluetooth but it only has a VGA camera was a little disappointing. Other than that my complaints were pretty little. [Background music]The Magnet offers great call quality and it's only 19.99 with a 2 year contract. So I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a basic easy to use messaging phone. I'm Bonnie Cha and this has been your first look at the Samsung Magnet for AT&T
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