Samsung Gravity SMART review: Smarter direction

Conclusion

After spending significant time with the Samsung Gravity SMART, we came fairly impressed with it. Obviously, it wasn’t the spec sheet or the mind-blowing performance of the device which got to us. It was the fact that it got the job done on most occasions without breaking any sweat.

As a successor of a family of feature phones, the Gravity SMART is clearly aimed at the people who are about to make the jump to smartphones. Even on a seriously developed market such as the one in the United States, there are still plenty of people who are not familiar with the concept of having a device, which does more than calling and texting. As far as this audience is concerned, the Gravity SMART is bound to succeed.

As of this moment, the Samsung Gravity SMART is free on a two-year contract and costs $249.99 without commitment. Interestingly enough, there are no alternatives with the sliding keyboard form factor in the same price range in the US. We did however, manage to find a few other viable options.

Samsung Dart is another alternative from within the T-Mobile droid offerings. It is also free on a two-year contract, and costs the same as the Gravity without one. It does have less powerful hardware than the Gravity SMART, along with a missing QWERTY keyboard and a camera flash though.

Samsung Dart

LG Optimus T for T-mobile is another alternative. It is running on a less powerful 600MHz CPU, and lacks the hardware QWERTY, but will still have you covered as far as the rest of the specs go. The Froyo packing budget droid can be yours for free on a contract as well. Without one, it costs the highly acceptable $189.99.

LG Optimus T

In case GSM networks are not your cup of tea, you can check out Samsung Replenish for Sprint Wireless. This eco-droid is powered by a 600MHz CPU and runs Android Froyo as well. Its full QWERTY keyboard has dropped the slide-out form factor and is not as comfortable to work with. You do however, have the option of getting a solar charging battery panel, along with eco-friendly apps to feed your environmental conscience.

Samsung Replenish

The latest arrival to this party is the HTC Status – the U.S. version of the HTC Chacha. Having just been released, it can give the Samsung Gravity SMART a serious run for its money. The Status runs on the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread, dressed in HTC Sense, and has a serious knack for social networking. Its screen has the same resolution as the unit in the Gravity SMART but, due to its smaller size and higher pixel density, is more of a pleasure to look on. The Status does also have a better 5MP camera unit, along with a front facing one for video calls. It can be yours for $49.99 on a two year contract with AT&T.

HTC Status

As you can see, there are quite a few options out there but none of them has quite the same form factor as the Samsung Gravity SMART. The slide-out QWERTY messenger from Samsung shows us clearly that the feature phones are on their way out of the U.S. market. In this aspect, we can clearly look at it as a game changer.