Conclusion
Blast is a slim, stylish slider phone that offers a smaller, lower cost alternative to T-Mobile's Sidekicks for messaging hungry users. While I found Blast's SureType keypad difficult to use, users with smaller and/or nimbler thumbs (or perhaps just better thumb typing technique) may love the QWERTY layout packed into a compact body.
Blast lacks the advanced Web browsing and multimedia features found in message-centric handsets offered by Verizon, and that's largely due to T-Mobile still not having a 3G data network. You just can't do music downloads or streaming video over EDGE. Blast also pales in comparison to T-Mobile's own
Sidekick LX/Slide and
Shadow when it comes to features, connectivity, and display quality.
But Blast is small, stylish, and fairly low priced. And for what it's missing in terms of advanced functionality and display resolution, it makes up for with integrated messaging functionality that's easy and quick even on an EDGE network. Blast isn't the phone for me, but if you want a small T-Mobile handset that's built for messaging, get a hold of Blast and see how it feels to your own hands - and thumbs.
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