In automobile terms, the Samsung Exhibit 4G is a crossover, integrating features of a big smartphone with the simple elements of a smaller dumbphone.
The Exhibit, sold by T-Mobile, targets the less tech-savvy who want access to some of the more advanced mobile phone features without the typical $200 price tag.
It does its job.
The Exhibit costs $80 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract and a qualifying Internet data plan.
The phone is light and fairly compact, a throwback to the days when you didn’t have to reserve the entire front pocket of your pants for your phone.
It features front- and rear-facing cameras, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, full web-browsing capabilities and access to T-Mobile’s 4G broadband network.
It has a rugged shell that withstood a waist-high drop without incurring a noticeable ding.
Like the iPhone, the Exhibit has a handy physical home button. And like most Android-based smartphones, it also features on-screen buttons. The Exhibit is powered by Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android operating system for smartphones.
With a smaller screen, web browsing and typing is more difficult than it is on popular full-fledged smartphones such as the HTC Thunderbolt. I often had to zoom in to read web pages.
The rear-facing camera is only 3-megapixel while most of the newer smartphones feature at least a 5-megapixel camera.
The Exhibit’s most annoying feature, though, is the piece of plastic that covers the charging port. The cover is simply unneeded and can sometimes be a pain to open, which you have to do daily to charge the phone.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209, avuong@denverpost.com or
