For the first time in a while i’ve had more negative things to say about a phone than positive. The Samsung Freeform R350/R351 is trying to step into the market as a “poor-man’s” BlackBerry, but instead seems to have just really cut a lot of corners in the quality management department that i’m usually always raving about with Samsung. Maybe they all took half days when designing it. The 1.3 megapixel camera might be tolerable if it at least functioned properly, but the poor quality combined with several errors (such as sometimes having to restart the phone to get the camera to work) and complete lack of video recording are inexcusable as far as i’m concerned so late into the mobile device game. Very minimal customization is offered and the buttons on the QWERTY keyboard are so cramped and teeny-tiny it’s simply a hassle.

Carriers: Samsung	Retail Price: $
Manufactured by:	Contact Price: $

Pros: Incredibly affordable, GPS with turn-by-turn directions, 3.5mm headset jack, e-mail and corporate e-mail support, music player, and easy access QWERTY keyboard though easy access doesn’t mean easy to use.

Cons: QWERTY keyboard is a bit cramped, 1.3 megapixel camera that has reports of several errors and bugs and has rather poor quality to begin with along with no video which I believe is simply bad-form considering how standard those features have become.

The Samsung Freeform looks like a well-wrapped package that has a lot of functionality, but it’s quite the opposite with how much is crammed onto the front of the phone. The design is a familiar one that several messaging phones utilize and it’s a fairly standard size and weight. It measures 4.4-inches long by 2.4-inches wide and 0.5-inch in depth and is composed primarily of plastic excluding the soft matte border around the edges of the phone. It weighs a rather modest 3.63 ounces so it’s actually fairly light and it has curved corners. The display is pretty much the industry standard with affordable messaging phones, coming in with a 2.2-inch display and 262,000 color support. The LED screen is actually fairly bright which is probably why some have complained about the battery life which has been reviewed as being about an hour and a half shorter than Samsung reported with about 4.5 hours of talk time on average as opposed to the 6 hours it’s supposed to have. It has the full QWERTY keyboard on the front and a rectangular D-pad in the middle of the phone with a confirmation key centered on it. Next to the d-pad are the speakerphone key, the back key, the talk and end/power buttons. The keys all have a fair resistance and ease of use excluding the QWERTY keyboard which has acceptable tactile resistance however is too cramped to effectively use. The toggle/d-pad doubles for use in applying four user-defined functions when the phone is in stand-by mode. You’ll find the 3.5mm headset jack(one of the Freeforms few good attributes) on the top, the volume rocker is on the left spine, with the camera key and charging jack are on the right, and on the back it’s external speaker and camera lens with self-portrait mirror. It does have a microSD card slot, but it requires you to remove the battery cover to access it.

Using the phone is rather self explanatory as so many of the features are so basic a first time user could likely figure them out. The turn-by-turn navigation software from Alltel is actually pretty decent and is definitely one of the Samsung Freeform’s redeeming qualities and the GPS is fairly accurate. It does have a web browser, but it’s pretty ancient in design and reminds me of 28kbps dial-up connections of the past. Blue-tooth is pretty simple to use and seems to have fair clarity, though the speaker phone has pretty poor quality on the opposite end of the line. You can customize ringtones with one of the 16 included polyphonic ringtones and the ability to apply ringtones/photos to contacts or contact groups. It has all of the basic features you’d expect and they’re all easily accessed through the menu or various shortcuts such as, vibrate mode, speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, calendar, memo pad, alarm clock, world clock, calculator, stop watch, unit converter, and a tip calculator. The phone book is capable of holding 1,000-entries, with each entry able to store up to 5 phone numbers and two e-mail addresses. The simplistic design looks appealing and minimalist, but the QWERTY keyboard is seriously one of the worst i’ve ever used unless you have miniature fingers (and my fingers by no means resemble sausage). Most of the features work as intended, but then again i’d be pretty disappointed if they didn’t considering how old most of them are excluding navigation, GPS, and blue-tooth. There simply isn’t a lot of substance to the Samsung Freeform, but hey it’s all personal preference I suppose so if you like what you see then have at it.

I can’t decide to re-iterate the boring listing of simplistic and dated features, or my initial complains as highlights. I’d say my opinion of the phone is pretty clear, but some reviews i’ve read have been positive so once again i’m going to mention there is definitely a personal preference spectrum here and take everything I say with a grain of salt. I personally do not recommend this phone to anyone as there are plenty of messaging phones that are superior for a similar price and are also on better carriers at least until the Alltel-Verizon merger is complete. The turn-by-turn direction feature is certainly a plus, as is the GPS and blue-tooth capability, but beyond those features there’s really nothing that makes the Freeform stand out from it’s competition. No video i’ll repeat as in every review for phones that don’t have it is simply unacceptable considering it’s such an easy implementation if the phone has a camera currently installed and just shows some laziness and is embarrassing in today’s flourishing mobile world. If this was being marketed as an entry-level phone some of these flaws might be acceptable, but it’s trying to pawn itself off as an alternative to BlackBerry’s and that is simply not the case. Considering this is a MESSAGING phone I literally cannot articulate how floored I am about the P.I.T.A. QWERTY keyboard being so incredibly compact and scrunched together. Take what you will from all of this, I hope i’ve been informative enough and that you have gained some sort of insight. My vote is to look elsewhere for your new messaging phone.