Last night was the press briefing for the launch of the SMART Netphone and now lots of units are released to the public for them to test and try the SMART Netphone at the PLDT-SMART Jump Experience Center in Cyberzone, SM Megamall. I arrived late at the press briefing and I already caught the Q and A session with the SMART team and the media. I want to test the phone myself and I'm glad that they have lots of units in store for everyone, the Jump Squad supervisor Bernie approached me and then she showed me a little walkthrough on the phone, we tested two units, one for her and one for me, I finally got the chance to test it myself and the phone is very okay and user friendly. (MORE STORY BELOW)
Now I'm starting to think if this will click to the pinoy mobile phone fans, esp. to those who want to own a touch screen android phone, I didn't have any touch screen phone so I'm a little excited about the release of SMART Netphone in all stores this Sept. 10, but I did tried and tested lots of touch screen phones of different brands and I can tell if the touch screen reacts in an accurate way.
For this SMART Netphone, the touch sensitivity of the screen is smooth and I noticed that there's no delay after clicking a button, I also tried the QWERTY keypad screen function and I saw that the buttons are so small but the worry of my big fingers are gone when I started typing and I just got two mistype letters when I composed a message "The quick brown fox..." , The keypad inputs has three kinds, the QWERTY, the ABC and I saw a third one that has the key QW, like a qwerty keypad but two letter per button, its a new keypad function for me but I didn't tried typing on it.
The home screen menu is just like those android type of phones, and I'm glad that it didn't follow the same iPhone, LG and Samsung home screen with lots of buttons, or shall I say iPhone like button home screen. The home screen looks like a Nokia and a HTC, but I love the display and it is very simple and you can add more widgets on the next desktop, I'm not sure if you can add more desktop screen, but I count it and there are around 5 desktop screens.
The home screen shows this tab with your own number flashed on the screen and the amount balance you have for your phone, the amount balance will update in real time whenever you use your phone in texting, calling and net surfing, for post paid subscribers, it will work the same display. The good perk of this phone if you will buy it today is that the phone will serve free internet connection via using the SMARTNet service, an internet free network by SMART, to its SOCIAL MEDIA STREAM app, that means that there will be free posting and reading of live Tweets and Facebook updates, and also you can chat via YM and Facebook, according to the SMART team, that this free internet service will be offered till December 2011, and I'm not even sure if they will add more app service, because checking your email and surf the net out of the social media stream will charge you with data plan rates. And I heard that maybe in the future they can add Gtalk and other social networking connection via the SMART Net.
The SMART Net also is like your automatic feed update, all updates and promo offered by SMART will be downloaded to the netphone, it will be just the content and no additional fees required, all free! And its just like updating your gadget's firmware. And there's no longer need in keying in codes if you want to avail txt or call promo offers, because at the SMART Net option, you can choose on the menu on what kind of promo offer you want to available and in one click,you can get the promo and the payment for the promo will be deducted automatically to your load, whenever a new promo comes in, SMART Net will just update the list and inform you of the live updates via the SMART Net.
You can also disable the SMART Net if you want to save battery or want to connect directly to available Wifi or 3G and HSPA network.
Phonebook storage - this is cool and new for me, (I know that this feature is also available on other phones) we no longer worry on the phone book limits of the phone, here in the SMART Netphone, all your directories will be stored securely in a cloud and it can hold a lot of directory and data for you, so space for the phone directory is unlimited, I think this service is under the SMART Net on which it connects to the cloud system and it will be available for you to check and read it anytime.
I haven't tried doing some multi tasking thing on the netphone, but I know that its processor with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600Mhz MSM7227 (S1 Class) can perform like those other touch screen phones with the same Android 2.2 Froyo OS. Its so light and small, slim and very classy look for a price at P9,900.
I'll post more updates soon if ever we can try some apps and surf the phone.
you can know more or pre order the phone here at http://smart.com.ph/netphone/tour.htm
Back of the netphone
a note when I disabled the SMART Net connection
the 3rd keypad ver
Smart center
Smart team on Q and A
