>> Ken: Hi, I'm Kent German, Senior Editor here at CNET.com. Today we're gonna take a first look at the Samsung Messenger II; this is a new phone from MetroPCS and for Cricket Service. We have the MetroPCS version here but the phone's are pretty much the same, same features, same design so it just depends on the carrier. This is an update to the original Samsung Messenger, which MetroPCS carried. A little bit of a different design, redesigned keys, just a little taller, keyboard's a little more spacious as well, but basic design but still very functional. You have a simple candy bar, nice display. Not the most high resolution screen we've seen, of course, but very typical for this type of phone. Navigation control, this is a scroll wheel so it moves all the way around. Below you'll see a numeric keypad, almost flat surface of the phone but pretty spacious still didn't have any problems dialing or texting. Camera lens is on the back of the phone next to the sole speaker. To get to that keyboard tip the phone on its side, slide it up; see that the screen actually changes orientation automatically. It doesn't have an accelerometer so you can't tip the phone and it will change but it does change when you open it. Pretty spacious keyboard it is flat but that's very typical with a slider phone. Nice layout overall though, could text pretty quickly, the top row of keys isn't too close to the slider, the Space Bar is pretty big it's also located down on the middle of the bottom row which is a nice place for it, very intuitive. The 2 soft keys here on either end, we'd sort of prefer them if they were up on the top row 'cause it's just a lot of distance for your fingers to travel when you're corresponding to the commands at the bottom of the display, but they are different colors so that's nice. I have a few shortcut keys, dedicated messaging key, so things like that. So a very useable keyboard overall. Feature set is geared towards messaging you'll find text and multimedia messaging, Bluetooth and music player, organized replications and a speaker phone so pretty low to mid range feature set but definitely geared toward that messaging set. I'm Kent German and this is Samsung Messenger II.
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