Samsung Trender (Sprint)

Hi everyone. I'm Jessica Dolcourt for CNET taking a First Look today at the Samsung Trender. This is a new phone for Sprint but it isn't exactly trendy. Why is that? Because it's got a user interface right here that really takes me back, especially to the days when Samsung was really big into its proprietary user interface and that's what you've got right here. There are tabs along the bottom and then grids to select the apps and the phone features on this phone. These days, we see mostly Android as the operating system of choice for this type of phone. It's not the proprietary software on this phone that bugs me, it's some of the features. There is Webmail on this phone. The app is fine, although it's a little bit outdated, but really, it's the Twitter and Facebook apps, they are not native and so you have to reach them from the mobile web, and these days, you just have many more better options to do that than this method. There is threaded messaging on here which is nice. Other tools are driving mode and there are voice commands. The Trender has a 2.8-inch qVGA screen so it's a nice compact phone. There are hardware buttons below the screen. On the back, there is a 1.3-megapixel camera. I'm not impressed with the photo quality so far. The camera doesn't seem to focus very well. Behind the back cover, there is a micro SD card slot that takes up to 32 gigabytes of external storage. There is also the slideout QWERTY keyboard. On the keyboard itself, the spacing is good for my hands because it's kind of compact also. The problem, though, is that the keys are pretty flat so even though they're comfortable, the flatness really slowed me down in typing. Call quality on the Trender totally acceptable so there is no real issue there either. Right now, the phone costs $29.99 on Sprint's site. It's not a bad phone at all, but there are other budget phones for Sprint that cost the same or less and you get a lot more, especially if those are Android phones, and some of those are even free on promotion, so I'd say keep your eyes out for that, because there's not really a compelling reason for me to get this phone instead of one of those. I'm Jessica Dolcourt, this is the Samsung Trender. Read my full review for more details on CNET.com.