We’ve been playing around with the newest green device to hit the Canadian market for about a week now. It was only fair that we took this much time to review the Samsung Reclaim as it does have some great features.
The Reclaim – by far is the best eco-device we have available to us. If you are looking to do some good for our planet and also looking for a nice looking device, this should be one to consider. Even without its green features the Reclaim stands proud with all the other messaging devices out there today.
It looks similar to the Motorola Hint, or even a chunkier Samsung Cleo. What makes the Reclaim a desired device is that it’s that you can recycle 80% of it with 40% of the outer case being made from bio-plastics from corn. The innovation worked well here. Another eco-feature of the Reclaim is the charger, this is Energy Star approved and supposed to use 12 times less energy and tells you when it’s completed. We got about 4 hours of talk time.
What sets the Reclaim apart from the Motorola Renew (the other green device available in Canada) is the fact that the Reclaim has a full 4-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Again, you’ll long forget the Reclaim is good for the environment as it looks like something that already exists on the market. Samsung didn’t compromise on the design. For the QWERTY keyboard the keys are spaced out nice and at first they were a little tight together but after some use I got familiar. Quick access to your e-mail, text and emoticons are provided and you’ll notice the keys have a white back light that make it easier when typing in the dark.
The Reclaim has a 2.4 inch screen (resolution of 320×240). Although some videos did come up pixelated sometimes, watching videos or streaming TV was actually a nice experience. It takes up the entire screen and the sound quality is great (speakers are located at the back of the device). When it came to review the 2 megapixel camera we should you some pics previously and we pleasantly surprised with the quality of images, but again, the video quality could have room for improvements.
Since this is a messaging device, the text message can handle up to 140 characters and very easy to correct your mistakes if you mistype. All you will have to do is press the “back” key to where you want to go. This also has the ability to get all your e-mail (Sympatico, Yahoo!, GMail, POP, Windows Live Hotmail) and shows up nice and incredibly easy to use. There are a couple IM Clients: MSN and Yahoo.
The browser was another story. It does render full HTML pages quickly. As you’ll see in the video the only downside to the web experience is that you will have to use the directional pad to scroll to the story or section on the mobile website… this could take a bit of time to get used to.
Other features of the Reclaim are the Music Player (great speaker quality), GPS (Telenav), can hold up to 600 contacts and uses Bell’s interface so you can somewhat customize your home screen and user experience.
The Reclaim is available through Bell in either “Earth Green” or “Ocean Blue” on the following price plans:
3-year contract: $49.95
2-year contract: $99.95
1-year contract: $199.95
30-day/Prepaid: $219.95
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