Samsung Chrono (U.S. Cellular)

It's tough to argue with a phone that costs a penny, and the Samsung Chrono certainly makes a convincing case for one. It looks nice, it sounds good on voice calls, it has Bluetooth, and it's easy to use and dial numbers on. As long as you don't need a camera or a music player, the Chrono is a decent cheap cell phone for U.S. Cellular customers. But if we were signing a two-year contract, we'd probably spend a few dollars up front and get something significantly better.

Design and Call Quality

The Samsung Chrono measures 3.7 by 1.8 by 0.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.1 ounces. It's made of an attractive, slate-colored, glossy plastic with rounded edges and a solid feel. The microUSB charger port features a small sliding door; this is vastly preferable to the usual port covers that hang off the side. The right side also features a camera shortcut button, while the left side contains a pair of raised volume buttons that are easy to press. The Chrono's light weight and decent size when unfolded makes it comfortable to hold during long conversations, although it's a little narrow for those with larger hands. The hinge mechanism opens smoothly with one hand and is reasonably sturdy, although you can get it to flex if you push the top edge hard enough.

The external 1-inch passive-matrix color display looks a little faded, but it's otherwise easy to read and informative. Inside, the 2-inch active-matrix display sports 176-by-220-pixel resolution, which seems rather low these days. Fonts looked blocky, and menu icons were blurry. Beneath the screen, five generously sized function keys surround a five-way control pad. The numeric keypad features large, grippy membrane keys that are very comfortable to dial numbers on.

The Chrono is a dual-band 1xRTT (850/1900 MHz) device with no Wi-Fi. Voice quality was solid, especially given the phone's small size. Callers sounded slightly thin through the earpiece, as if they were speaking through an AM radio, but everyone sounded clear and there was plenty of gain available. Callers said I sounded fine through the microphone, and reception was also solid. Ringtones were nice and loud. Calls sounded fine through an Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset ($99, 4 stars). The Nuance-powered voice dialing worked well over Bluetooth. The speakerphone sounded smooth, but it could have been a touch louder for use outdoors. Battery life was average at 5 hours and 11 minutes of talk time.

Apps, Camera, and Conclusions

Samsung's low-end feature phones are generally pretty simple to use. The Myriad 6.2 Web browser is okay for WAP sites, but it's sluggish, and pages took forever to load over the 2G data connection. One weird design point: the EasyEdge icon takes you to a separate grid of nine icons with some basic apps, including AccuWeather, a demo of Namco's Pac-Man, and mSpot Radio. There's also a separate Tone Room for purchasing ringtones and wallpapers. There are no e-mail and IM clients, which is no big loss given the lack of a QWERTY keyboard.

Multimedia-wise, there's virtually nothing here. There's no music player, video player, or camcorder. There's 51MB of free internal memory, but no memory card slot; you can only send photos as picture messages or save them as wallpaper. It doesn't matter, since the VGA camera is essentially useless, as any photos you take with it will only fill up about one fourth of the average laptop screen. I know the Chrono costs one cent, but plenty of free phones have 1.3 and 2-megapixel sensors that are at least good enough for casual shots, so there's really no excuse. Samsung throws in what appears to be a set of wired stereo earbuds, but they're actually for hands-free use only. Don't lose these, since the microUSB headphone jack will make finding replacements a pain.

If you want a free flip phone, the Samsung Chrono will do the job nicely. But given how even the cheapest monthly plan can add up to almost $1,000 over the course of a two-year contract, we can't help but think that an extra few bucks are worth it up front. The LG Wine II UN430 ($39.99, 3.5 stars) is our current Editors' Choice; it looks sleek, has a larger and sharper screen, faster 3G data speeds, a music player, a memory card slot, and sounds great on voice calls. If you're the texting type, the Samsung Messager Touch SCH-R630 ($29.99, 3 stars) and the Motorola Grasp (Free, 3.5 stars) offer quality QWERTY keyboards, and the Messager Touch has a 2.6-inch touch screen, though the Chrono edges them both out on voice quality.

Benchmarks

Continuous talk time: 5 hours 11 minutes

PCMag

US Cellular to launch LTE-based 4G in 2011

US Cellular on Friday leapt on 4G with its own plans for an LTE network. The carrier planned to have at least 25 percent of its network covered by the end of 2011 and would focus on cities that haven't been priorities for Verizon. Some of the first cities would include Madison, Milwaukee, and Racine in Wisconsin; Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Des Moines in Iowa; Greenville in North Carolina; and both Bangor and Portland in Maine.

Multiple 4G devices would be paired up with the launch, though what these would be wasn't given out. LTE would continue to expand through the course of 2012.

The addition of LTE would make US Cellular one of the earlier adopters of the much faster cellular Internet access in the US. Verizon already has an established network and hopes to be largely done by sometime in 2013. AT&T is due for its first commercial service before the end of 2011. Sprint hasn't given more than minor hints of a 4G switch so far, and T-Mobile is now mostly depending on a buyout by AT&T to get a fast track.

Moving to LTE will eventually let customers on AT&T switch to US Cellular without necessarily having to switch devices, and those on Verizon and other US LTE networks switch without the difficult and sometimes impossible device reactivation process on CDMA. It could eventually allow a

Electronista

US Cellular to launch LTE-based 4G in 2011

US Cellular on Friday leapt on 4G with its own plans for an LTE network. The carrier planned to have at least 25 percent of its network covered by the end of 2011 and would focus on cities that haven't been priorities for Verizon. Some of the first cities would include Madison, Milwaukee, and Racine in Wisconsin; Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Des Moines in Iowa; Greenville in North Carolina; and both Bangor and Portland in Maine.

Multiple 4G devices would be paired up with the launch, though what these would be wasn't given out. LTE would continue to expand through the course of 2012.

The addition of LTE would make US Cellular one of the earlier adopters of the much faster cellular Internet access in the US. Verizon already has an established network and hopes to be largely done by sometime in 2013. AT&T is due for its first commercial service before the end of 2011. Sprint hasn't given more than minor hints of a 4G switch so far, and T-Mobile is now mostly depending on a buyout by AT&T to get a fast track.

Moving to LTE will eventually let customers on AT&T switch to US Cellular without necessarily having to switch devices, and those on Verizon and other US LTE networks switch without the difficult and sometimes impossible device reactivation process on CDMA. It could eventually allow a

Electronista

Samsung Stride SCH-R330 (U.S. Cellular)

The Samsung Stride is a no-frills flip phone. We like no-frills flip phones. Many offer great ways to save money on your monthly bills, especially when used in conjunction with a separate music player. If it's on a budget-priced regional carrier like U.S. Cellular and you live in the appropriate coverage area, so much the better. But the Stride is too lazy; it feels like a three-year-old cell phone that's still on sale, instead of something new. There are better choices at the U.S. Cellular retail counter.

Design and Call Quality

The Samsung Stride measures 3.7 by 1.9 by 0.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.1 ounces. It's made entirely of plastic, though Samsung adds a little flair with its textured, translucent front cover and metal-look red accents. The 1.1-inch, passive-matrix external display offers a retro-looking, 8-bit style LED clock. I like it, but your mileage may vary. The internal 1.9-inch LCD offers 176-by-220-pixel resolution, and looks sharp and bright for a low-end phone. The numeric keypad features large, soft-touch keys that are extremely comfortable to use, despite their somewhat flat look. Five function keys surrounded a hard plastic, rounded, five-way control pad. Dialing numbers and navigating the device were a cinch.

The Stride is a dual-band 1xRTT (850/1900 MHz) device with no Wi-Fi. Voice calls sounded good overall, with a clear, balanced tone in the earpiece, plenty of gain, and no background hiss. Callers had few complaints as well, and reception was good. Calls sounded clear through an Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset ($99, 4 stars). The Nuance-powered voice dialing worked perfectly over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone sounded clear and went loud enough for outdoor use; always a good thing. Battery life was fine at five hours of talk time.

Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions

Samsung designed what it calls Touchwiz Lite, a stripped-down version of the company's proprietary UI layer, for the Stride. The main menu features twelve small icons arranged in a grid pattern. You get the usual compliment of basic phone tools, like a stopwatch, voice recorder, and a 500-entry phone book. The Novarra Web browser requires several key presses and sluggish page loads before letting you enter a URL. It's fine for displaying WAP pages once you put up with that nonsense. The mobile e-mail client connects to all the major Web portals, but it's sluggish, and this isn't a texting phone anyway.

The Stride's Bluetooth situation is confusing. Samsung and U.S. Cellular stamp "stereo Bluetooth" all over the Stride's marketing materials, but the Stride has no music player, GPS, or other app that could possibly take advantage of this. The 1.3-megapixel camera has no flash or auto-focus. Test photos looked soft and grainy both indoors and out, even in bright sunlight; they'll do in a pinch, but don't buy this phone for its camera. There is 49MB of free internal storage, but no memory card slot; you can only share photos via picture message or Bluetooth.

U.S. Cellular has a pretty diverse lineup these days, though few devices are as inexpensive as the Stride. The LG Wine II UN430 ($39.99, 3.5 stars) remains our Editors' Choice for its sleek styling, larger LCD displays, faster EV-DO data, built-in music player, memory card slot, and excellent voice quality; it's easily worth the extra $30 up front. The Samsung Messager Touch SCH-R630 ($29.99, 3 stars) and the Motorola Grasp (Free, 3.5 stars) are two good choices for heavy texters, with full QWERTY keyboards and (in the case of the Messager Touch) a 2.6-inch touch screen, although neither is as quite as well rounded as the LG Wine II in other respects. Finally, if you can swing a few more bucks per month, the LG Optimus U ($29.99, 4 stars) is a killer budget Android smartphone that lets you run thousands of third-party apps, as well as browse the Web on a higher-resolution, 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen.

Benchmarks

Continuous talk time: 5 hours 0 minutes

PCmag