Samsung Propel Pro

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Samsung Propel Pro was the upgrade version of Samsung Propel that released at end of last year. Again, this new Samsung Propel Pro was teams up with AT&T to launch this handset. The significant changes of this new handset is the Pro now running on WinMo OS, which make it get into the smartphone line. From it design and features, apparently the Pro is targeting the business users.

Design

The Pro is similar it predecessor,  both have a slider form factor and full QWERTY keyboard. Measuring 100mm x 61mm x 17.5mm, and weighs of 137g, The Propel Pro is neither a compact nor a lightweight smartphone. At the front, there is a 320 x 320 resolution display. It is poor under sun legibility, but in indoor is great. Since the screen is not touch-sensitive, the handset provide a navigation array that located below. There are including two soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a Home shortcut, a back button, and a navigation joystick. It offers very good control without having to move your thumb all over the place.

Slide opened, you will see the Qwerty keypad. The keyboard is different from the one you find on Samsung Propel. The buttons are rectangular instead of oval shaped.No spacing between the keys, making it slightly cramped and troublesome for users with larger thumbs.  However, sliding mechanism is smooth.

Overall the design of Pro is better then it predecessor but it still look bulky. However in terms of mechanism and ergonomics, it’s still a good design.

WinMo and Application

Like mention before, the Samsung Propel Pro is running Windows Mobile OS in 6.1 Standard Edition. Fortunately, this phone is generally responsive, at least no any albeit noticeable at times. The handset is come with plenty of pre-installed software.  Besides the standard Windows Mobile apps (including Exchange e-mail/contacts/events and mobile versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player), In additionally the Propel Pro also comes with preinstalled AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo instant messenger clients and RSS reader.

AT&T Exclusive

AT&T has includes some extras on this handset, including MobiTV, My-Cast Weather, eBay, Mobile Banking, ,WikiMobile, streaming Cellular Video clips ,Napster-powered music download store, along with a streaming XM radio app , and AT&T’s Navigator service (which is built by Telenav). Of course, you have to pay extra charges to AT&T in order to get these services.

Music And Video

Music is not a focus on this handset. You can use this handset as your mp3 player though you can still play most of the music files in this phone. The quality of music is at moderate level and the power plug and headphone jack share the same port, so it is pretty unconventional for you to listen to music and charging your phone at the same time.

For video, there is a MPEG4 player allows you to watch the video clips or recorded video that store at your phone. Video quality was good, with minimal blurriness or pixilation. But if you wish to watch streamed video, you can still uses AT&T’s Cellular Video service, which is mostly a collection of streaming clips with a few full episodes sprinkled in. Unfortunately the quality wasn’t pretty. It causing by the interrupting network speeds, and we don’t know why.

Camera

3MP camera on this phones is not something have to comment about. Although The Propel Pro features video-recording capabilities and autofocus but there is no flash built-in, so taking picture at night is not recommended. However,the picture quality was quite impressive at the bright place.

Last Words

Frankly, we don’t like the look of Samsung Propel Pro very much. Overall the handset is average in its range. You can still give it a try, if you want have a WinMo phone with a vertical slide out Qwerty keypad. It’s totally different than the numeric slider keypad you used before.