Why You Can Trust CNET Samsung Tint (MetroPCS) review: Samsung Tint (MetroPCS)
Samsung Tint (MetroPCS)
Samsung Tint (MetroPCS)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Though Samsung makes plenty of high-end phones, many of its handsets in the United States are basic to midrange models. For example, take Metro PCS's new Samsung Tint. Inside its basic flip design you won't find much beyond a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and voice commands. The replaceable covers are unique, but the Tint is best suited for occasional callers. Audio quality was just average and the plastic controls won't please rapid texters. The Tint should cost about $100 with MetroPCS's no-contract service.
Design
Straight out of the box, the slate gray Tint isn't particularly unique. Its flip-phone shape is similar to many other Samsungs before it, and it has an average size (3.74 inches by 1.88 inches by 0.74 inch; 3.35 ounces). But dig a little closer in the box and you'll find replaceable pink covers for the front and rear faces. The front cover has a floral design for even more personalization, or you can order more colors from Samsung.
The postage stamp external display supports 65,000 colors (96x96 pixels). It shows the date, time, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID. You can also view photo caller ID and you can use it as a viewfinder for the camera lens. The backlighting timer is rather short, however, and it's worth noting that the display is completely dark when the backlighting is off. Other exterior features include a volume rocker on the left spine and a 2.5 millimeter headset jack, charger port, and a speakerphone control/camera shutter on the right spine.
The 1.9-inch internal display also supports 65,000 colors (160x128 pixels). It's relatively bright, but colors are muted, and graphics aren't terribly sharp. You can change the clock style, the backlighting time, and the dialing font size. The menus are easy to use in both the list and icon styles. Five shortcut icons also sit directly on the display.
The navigation array consists of a square toggle, two soft keys, a clear button, and the Talk and End/power controls. Though you get a lot of room, they keys are flat and pretty slippery. We didn't have any huge problems, but you should try them for yourself. The backlit keypad buttons are similar--spacious, but also flush and slippery. They shouldn't bother occasional cell phone users; however, frequent texters may find that the keys feel pretty cheap after a while.
Features
The Tint has a 500-contact phone book with room in each entry for four phone numbers and an e-mail address. You can assign callers a photo, organize them into groups, and pair them with one of 13 polyphonic ringtones. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a speakerphone, a calendar, a memo pad, an alarm clock, a world clock, a tip calculator, a unit and currency converter, a stopwatch, and a calculator. You'll also find Bluetooth, voice commands, an airplane mode, and a voice recorder.
The VGA camera takes pictures in four resolutions (from 640x480 down to a special size for photo caller ID). Editing options include a self-timer, adjustable white balance, five color tones, three quality settings, series and mosaic shot modes, 10 fun frames, a night mode and five shutter sounds, plus a silent option. The Tint does not record video. Photo quality was pretty good from a VGA shooter--colors were crisp, and there was little image noise. Shots in the dark will be tricky without a flash, and there's no self-portrait mirror, but it's a decent camera all around. The Tint offers 20MB of internal memory.
MetroPCS isn't long on additional services, but the Tint comes with a fair number of options. It offers instant messaging, Web-based e-mail, the carrier's metroWeb Internet service, ChatLINK for (what else?) chatting, @Metro for application downloads, Pocket Express, metro411 and Loopt. The Tint doesn't offer any games, but you can buy titles from MetroPCS. You can personalize the phone with a variety of banners, color themes, and wallpaper.
Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; AWS 1700/2100) Samsung Tint in San Francisco using MetroPCS service. Call quality was about average. Though the signal was strong and we had enough volume, voice quality was uneven. Some of our callers sounded rather breathy, and the audio overall had a tinny feel. If you're only using the phone occasionally, you probably won't mind, but frequent callers may be disappointed. We suggest giving the phone a test run before buying.
Callers had equally mixed reports. Some said we sounded fine, while others reported the same tinny audio quality that we heard. A few also had some trouble hearing us when we were talking outside. All could tell we were using a cell phone. Speakerphone calls were about the same--the audio was clear most of the time, and we had enough volume.
The Tint has a rated battery life of three hours talk time and 10.4 days standby time. According to our tests, the Tint had a talk time of 3 hours and 2 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Tint has a digital SAR of 1.17 watts per kilogram.