Samsung Solstice II SGH-A817 (AT&T)

Hi, this is Jessica Dolcourt for CNET.com. I'm taking a first look at the Samsung Solstice 2 for AT&T. This is another quick messaging phone. It's a sequel to the original Solstice. Looks-wise, it's pretty decent looking. It's got a black face and back. It looks fairly similar to the previous version except it's got a smoother backing instead of the leatherette backing that the original Solstice had. There is a 3-inch touchscreen that looks pretty nice and it does have Samsung's TouchWiz 2 interface. They're not really customizable. It's really only the widgets that Samsung offers and you also have three home screens here. It comes with a digital QWERTY keyboard on screen that's pretty comfortable and easy to use. Externally, you do have, as an extra, a shortcut button. There is a 2-megapixel camera on the back that actually produces pretty good photos. On the inside, apps include e-mail, instant messaging, AT&T Music, AT&T Navigator, and sundry of others. Call quality on this phone was variable. It was a little bit on our side and our callers actually enjoyed much better call quality. This phone costs $29.99 with a new two-year service agreement. I'm Jessica Dolcourt looking at the Samsung Solstice 2 for AT&T.