Samsung SCH U650 Cell Phone

       
After my two-year contract was up with Verizion Wireless it was time for another phone. I was dazzled by all of the shiny touch-screens and lovely Blackberries. But something caught my eye, it was the Samsung Sway.
The Samsung sway is a what you would call a slider phone. This means that it does not flip open to revel the keypad but instead you “slide” it open to revel the Keypad. (not too sure why they called it the Sway, the Samsung Slide might have fit better)
What Caught my eye is how the sway looks. It has a brush aluminum finish to it (like the new macbook's and imac's It is very thin and has a very nice form factor. It fits great in the palm of your hand. It also has a ridged back for better gripping and it makes the phone appear more “tough” but all the while retaining its sleek look. The screen is crisp and bright, the images , animated icons and text message animations really pop on the Sway's screen.
The sway certainly does slide very nicely. The sway features a nice clean slide up and down, being completely smooth and silent when sliding it open. When you slide the Sway open to revel the keypad you are greeted with a very nice and large keypad. The Keypad is a joy to text on. My fingers glide right across the silky keys but the numbers are slightly raised so there is a tactile feeling. Opening the sway unlocks the sway so you can browse through the large and colorful menus with ease. The D-pad is used for navigating the menus its bigger and much more in a shape of “D” than other phones which I find a huge advantage over the oval D-pad on my old phone. There are two soft keys and a talk and end/power button, which illuminate green and red respectively when you open the sway.
The menus on the sway are organized in the standard “Grid” fashion (although you can change it to a Tab or List Layout, I find the grid to be the easiest). There are many different style of menus you can choose from, Some make the icons bounce and appear colorful, while another setting can make them fade in and fade out: Very Cool. Of course you have your standard cell phone tools such as Tip Calculator, Calendar Alarm Clock, World Clock and your not so standard cell phone tool: Voice Commands (which are powered by Nuance and they work very well.) You can tell it to call somebody, or to start playing a song you have loaded onto your play list. (Its particularly handy for when your driving and do not want to scroll through a list of contacts, just say “Call: then the name of your contact here and the phone will automatically dial it for you!)
The Sway has a built in 2.0 mega pixel camera which is revealed when you open the sway. There is a dedicated camera button to easily open the camera application. The Camera is great in the Samsung sway. Colors are crisp and bright and have many different modes such as Night mode and Panorama shot all of which work wonderfully. The Sway also has a built in camcorder, there are two modes; one for taking 30 seconds clips so you can send to your buddies or one with an infinite cap (until you on board memory is full) for as long as you please. Camcorder quality is good, and it picks up the sound relatively well. Just keep in mind this is no 300 dollar camcorder.
Call Quality is excellent on the sway. People can hear me very well since the sways mouth piece is actually near my mouth when I am talking (another advantage of slider phones). Incoming calls are loud and clear on the sway. The battery on the sway is rated for about 13 days in stand-by mode. I can get about a week out of it ( I text a lot more than I talk). You should be fine just plug it in to charge every-other night and you will be good to go. The sway also has a micro SD card slot so you can load up your SD Card with your tunes and listen them on your Sway.
All in all the Samsung Sway is a very good choice for anyone looking for a sleek and stylish slider phone that not everyone has. It has a very nice price point (Only $18.00 at Wal-Mart) and for all of the features you cannot go wrong. The sway is a solid phone packed with great call-quality and a awesome camera. Go for the Sway, you will not be disappointed.