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Samsung FlipShot SCH-U900 |
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 Verizon launched a barrage of new phones for the 2008 holiday shopping season and the LG Venus, the Voyager and the Samsung Juke grabbed the headlines. The Samsung FlipShot with its 3 megapixel camera and autofocus lens got a bit lost in the shuffle, despite the relative rarity of high megapixel autofocus camera phones in the US.
The FlipShot SCH-U900 is the follow-up to the Samsung a990 on Verizon. It keeps the same feature set with updated looks and the usual size and weight reduction. As a strong camera phone, the FlipShot takes great photos by 3 megapixel camera phone standards, has good looks and full set of multimedia features including stereo speakers, an excellent Bluetooth stereo headset experience and support for wide range of multimedia content on V CAST.
Add a microSD card slot, built-in GPS and a full set of Bluetooth profiles, you’ve got a solid feature phone on top of that killer camera. The Samsung comes in two colors: black and red.
The Samsung FlipShot has a clean modern design that's slim and very attractive. It has defined straight edges on the sides with curves on the top and bottom. The external display and touch music controls live under a shiny dark plastic cover on the front. Lift the display up and you can rotate it 180 degrees to turn on the camera and use the larger main display as viewfinder.
The side ports and buttons include two speakers (one on each side), charging port, camera options key, volume up/down (zoom in/out in the camera app) and a shutter button. The auto-focus lens lives on the back of the phone along with the flash. Unlock the back cover and you’ll see the battery and the microSD card slot. You don’t need to take the battery out to access the microSD card slot.
The Samsung FlipShot has a 2.2” main (inner) display and a spacious number keypad. You will find a dedicated camera/camcorder key and a dedicated speakerphone key next to a good-sized d-pad. The call Send and End buttons and Clr keys along with two shoulder menu keys flank the d-pad. The flip phone has a good weight and feels comfy in hand.
Phone Features and Reception
The Samsung FlipShot is a digital dual band 1x CDMA phone that operates on Verizon’s network with for EV-DO for fast data.
The phone didn’t have the best reception here in the Dallas metroplex: it gets a full signal only when near cell towers. In spotty coverage areas where other Verizon phones gets 2 bars of EV-DO and 1x, the FlipShot gets 1 bar out of 4 and might even lose EV-DO coverage though it didn’t drop voice calls.
When the EV-DO signal dropped out, we couldn’t access V CAST content though we could use the slower 1x for VZ Navigator. In weak reception areas, it’s helpful if you don’t cover the phone’s antenna (the antenna area is marked with a clear plastic instruction decal).
In-call voice quality is good when in good coverage areas and the volume is plenty loud. When we made calls in spotty coverage areas we heard some audio distortion and drop-outs, though we could still hold a conversation.
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