A Solid Phone for the Price

After over four years of using the same cell phone, I finally got around to upgrading in May of 2008.

With the recent concern over cell phone radiation, I decided to play it safe and try to find a phone with a lower radiation emission. Emissions are measured in SAR, and Cnet has a ranking of the lowest U.S. models (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6602_7-5020355-1.html). While none of the "bottom ten" proved practical for me, the Samsung Alias, with an SAR of 0.68 (many models skirt 1.5, the highest legal SAR), rose to the top of my short list.

I wanted a phone for around $100 with a decent camera and a sexy design. The Alias eventually won out.

The QWERTY keyboard is a great improvement over numeric keypad texting. Typing is much more natural and faster. However, even though I hardly have big hands, the keys still feel a bit small. This probably can't be avoided because of the phone's size, but it still means occasionally hitting two keys at one. Also, the thicker section of the bottom of the handset makes it difficult to hit the left function keys when the phone is in landscape mode.

I was also a bit frustrated that headset's max volume is a bit low. I live in Chicago, and I often have to jam the headset right into my ear or else switch on speaker phone to be able to hear the person on the other end.