The bad: The Samsung Appreciate had variable call quality with low volume and occasional audio cutouts. We'd problems with the speakerphone in particular.
The bottom line: The Samsung Admire provides the accessible design and functional feature set that you'd expect from a beginner Android phone, but call quality wasn't up to our standards.
The Samsung Admire marks another part of Android's continued march onto phones from prepaid carriers. Made for MetroPCS, the actual Admire isn't long on features, but it offers more than enough to maintain you occupied for both a little play and some work. The simple design is simple to handle, though not exactly sturdy, and the display is bright without having to be completely beautiful. On the whole, we'd say that the Admire is a good device with some bonus features but variable call quality. Your experience might be different, but we'd prefer to stick with a few existing Android models within the carrier's lineup. The Admire is just $129 without a contract, but you will need to select at least a $50 per-month unlimited data and calling plan.
Style
The Admire has a fairly typical smartphone design. With its rounded ends it isn't nearly as rectangular as many of today's Android handsets and we like the way the ribbed texture around the edges gives it a comfortable feeling in the actual hand. At 4. 6 inches tall by 2. 4 inches wide through 0. 5 inch thick the Admire fits easily into a pocket. It is a tad heavier than it looks at 4. 14 ounces, but it will not weigh you down. The plastic skin doesn't feel entirely sturdy, so we'd be mindful not to drop it repeatedly on a hard surface. The Admire is available in two versions: a bright red or a more restrained gray.
The 3. 5-inch HVGA screen takes up the majority of the front of the phone. Though its resolution is pretty average, it's nevertheless bright with vivid colors and sharp graphics. You get five home displays, which you can customize in usual Android fashion with shortcut icons, widgets, as well as folders. Of course, you get the Google search bar, but we're disappointed how the Admire doesn't offer a shortcut on the home screen for turning upon features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Fortunately, the Admire runs Gingerbread (Android two. 3), which offers a number of usability upgrades. Read our Samsung Nexus S review for any full analysis of Gingerbread.
The virtual keyboard has Swype as an choice, though you don't have to use it. The design of the keyboard is comparable as on other Android phones, though it may feel a bit cramped if you are accustomed to using a phone with a larger display. Because there are just four rows of keys, each letter shares space with either a number or perhaps a punctuation mark. Alternatively, there's a second keyboard for just numbers and icons. The dialpad has a standard design as well, and both had the responsive and accurate touch interface.
Functions
The size of the Admire's phone book is limited by the obtainable internal memory. You don't get a large amount of space in which department, just 196MB, but that should be more than you need for storing the digits of the friends and colleagues. What's more, each contact entry holds multiple phone amounts, e-mail addresses, street addresses, company names, URLs, instant-message handles, nicknames, and information.
Other essentials include a calculator, a calendar that you can sync along with multiple accounts (including Google), an alarm clock, Wi-Fi, a full Web internet browser, Bluetooth, instant messaging, voice commands and voice search, a file manager, textual content and multimedia messaging, and a slate of accessibility features. E-mail is onboard too with support for Gmail, POP3 and IMAP4 accounts, and the carrier's personal Mail@Metro service.
As an Android phone, the Admire offers access to a multitude of apps through the Android Market or MetroPCS' separate app store. A few options come installed about the phone, including Loopt, a dedicated news and weather widget; Pocket Express, the Web portal of sorts for news and information; and ThinkFree Office, that provides limited word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation features with Microsoft Office compatibility. Overall it's a decent assortment and you get the usual Google Android applications like Google Books, Google Talk, Google Maps with Navigation, YouTube, Google Locations, and Google Latitude.
MetroPCS also includes its own selection of applications, which some are useful and others are redundant. Perhaps the most interesting is actually Virtual Card, which enables you to make mobile payments with your telephone. We didn't walk all the way through the process, but according towards the carrier's site, the service will turn your handset into a debit Master card. As for other MetroPCS apps, you'll find MyExtras (a Web portal), Metro411 (directory assistance), City Backup (for your contacts), and MyMetro (access to your account).
