Samsung Finesse is a Metro PCS phone, We’ll admit we don’t usually associate  MetroPCS with high-end phones–most of the carrier’s lineup tends to consist of low-end devices like the ZTE C78 and the Kyocera Mako S4000. The Samsung Finesse, however, bucks the trend. It is MetroPCS’s first and only touch-screen phone, and is the second highest handheld in its stable next to the BlackBerry 8330.

Samsung Finesse has a design and interface very similar to that of Alltel’s Samsung Delve and T-Mobile’s Samsung Behold, but it’s not exactly the same. It is stylish and sleek and it offers decent multimedia features. It certainly adds flair and, dare we say, finesse to MetroPCS’s otherwise dull lineup. The Samsung Finesse is one of the most expensive MetroPCS devices at $350, but bear in mind that the company doesn’t require any contracts.

Design
Like most touch-screen phones, the Finesse is one big slab of a phone with a large touch-screen display dominating its entire front surface. Measuring 4.6 inches long by 2.3 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick, the Finesse is almost a dead ringer for the Delve, with its silver and black color scheme, rounded corners, and mirror finish on the front. It does have a few differences however–the three physical keys underneath the display are not as flat, and the power button, which also doubles as the screen lock key, is on the top. Those three keys under the display correspond to the Talk, Back, and End keys respectively.

We rather like the Finesse’s 3.2-inch display. Though it’s not as wide as the 3.5-incher on the Apple iPhone, it’s marginally bigger than the 3-inch one on the Delve. The 262,000-color screen is bright and vibrant, and we like the colorful animated icons. You can change the brightness, the backlight time, the banner on the home screen, and the main menu style. The touch-screen interface has a vibration feedback, but if you don’t like it, you can turn it off. You can also adjust the vibration’s intensity.

The menu interface is very similar to the Delve’s. It features Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, which has an extendable tray of 10 drag-and-drop widgets that you can place on the home screen. The widgets range from clocks and calendars to a music player interface from which you can control your tunes without digging into the player. On the top of the home screen display is a collapsible shortcut bar for messaging, the Web browser, the music player, and the Bluetooth menu. Along the bottom of the display are shortcuts for the phone dialer, the contacts menu, the messaging menu, and the main menu.

samsung-finesse

This stylish, advanced touchscreen gives you complete access to the internet, your email and social networking applications. You’ll always be connected with the latest news, whether it’s about the world or your friends. Plus, the virtual QWERTY keyboard makes responding to texts and emails a snap. You can’t imagine anything better.

“I imagine some day this phone could turn into something very satisfying. But if it is to be considered among the likes of an iPhone, it has a ways to go.

The Pros:

1.) The plan. No other carrier, and I tried to put in a fair amount of research, offers a plan similar in price point to metro pcs. If you have a need to make international calls, nothing comes close to the plan offered. This reason alone makes it worth sacrificing some bells and whistles you might find on an iphone or blackberry.

2.) Battery life so far has been good. I’m not using it often to browse the web and such (see below for why) so I don’t know how much that will affect the length of time the battery lasts.

3.) Voice command for calls and such… recognized any commands without a hitch; convenient for safe driving.

4.) the GPS is a nice feature

5.) contrary to what someone else had written, I set up my home (verizon) and web (yahoo) email accounts seamlessly and they work great.

The Cons:

1.) Web Browser: Slow, tedious, difficult to use, lack of a zoom feature, many pages have problems loading, and you must wait (and wait and wait) for pages to complete loading before you can even consider clicking on a hyperlink on the page. Unless you -need- to look something up, it’s almost not worth using.

2.) Instant messaging app: Poorly designed. No way to see a keyboard/type message while viewing the chat log at the same time. No alternatives that I’m aware of. Like the web browser, it’s almost not worth using as it is. It’s convenient for a one or two sentence conversation, anything beyond that is grating.

3.) the “keyboard”… I’m not a huge fan of it. I have an iPod touch as well, so thats my only thing to compare it to. The samsung touchscreen isn’t quite as responsive and there’s no autocorrect/autofill feature so typing sms and ims can be a laborious process.

4.) Lack of apps – the few apps I did see were ridiculously priced and not all that useful. I suppose this will change in time, but for now it would be a stretch to even call the selection “meager”. It’s basically nothing right now.

Other things:

Call quality is decent. Coverage seems comparable to every other phone I’ve had with other carriers, at least in my area. I’ve not travelled outside the Philly metropolitan area yet. Pairing bluetooth is a breeze. The media player is better than average for a phone (thats not an iphone). The camera is pretty nice also for a phone camera.

Summary:

I’m content with this phone. If you are expecting an iPhone equivalent, you will be disappointed. Get this phone for the metro pcs plan offered. The money you spend for the phone (no contract = pay full price), you’ll make back in a matter of months.”

CharlesXIV from Philadelphia

Samsung Finesse Discussions