Messaging, Internet & Connectivity
Messaging is Blast's calling card, and if you like the handset's keyboard you should appreciate its messaging capabilities in general. T-Mobile built a nice software package into this handset, including the aforementioned support for multiple email protocols. Direct access to popular email services like Yahoo! and AOL mail is nice, and connecting to other POP or IMAP accounts was pretty painless, as well.
Texting and IMing are also easier on Blast than on your standard slider phone, but bear in mind that this is a messaging device and not a full-on smartphone. If you need to view or create email attachments or deal with HTML email, Blast probably isn't the phone for you. Beyond the lack of smartphone-level email support, the combination of a low-res display and no 3G data support means Blast is best for SMS and casual email. Power users will do better to step up to one of T-Mobile's smartphones like
Shadow or
Wing, or a
BlackBerry device.
Web Browsing on the Blast is hampered by both a bare bones WAP-only browser and T-Mobile's EDGE network. While EDGE is fine for messaging and low-bandwidth information retrieval, it can't compete with 3G for full-on Web browsing. As such, you'll want to use Blast for messaging and Email, or maybe to download images and ringtones from T-Mobile's on deck offerings, but not as a Web browsing device.
When I did venture out into the wacky world of the WAP Web, Blast's screen sometimes made things worse by way of blocky rendering of graphics and photos. At the risk of turning this into an impromptu comparative review, it's worth mentioning that for the cost of a few extra dollars and a little more size, T-Mobile's Shadow offers a better display, better browser, and built-in WiFi in a very similar SureType slider device. If you're interested in Blast but want mobile Web access, you'd do well to check out
Shadow before you make any buying decisions.
The Samsung Blast T729 is a quad-band GSM phone suitable for use around the world but locked to the T-Mobile network. The phone is capable of EDGE data transfer, but not higher speed 3G cellular or 802.11 WiFi connections.
Samsung built Bluetooth v2.0 into the 8800, including the A2DP profile for stereo audio support. File transfer and voice dialing over Bluetooth are supported, and the accessory port can be used with an optional data cable to connect the handset to a computer for USB-based synching, file transfer, and charging. Blast also features 11MB of internal memory and supports microSD removable memory cards.
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