Samsung Eternity

Eternity has full Bluetooth with a stereo profile, a file manager, a voice recorder, USB mass storage, and instant messaging. That’s not a bad assortment, but Wi-Fi and voice dialing are glaring omissions. Also, the e-mail situation isn’t ideal for business users. Though AT&T’s Mobile e-mail service offers access to a variety of POP3 services, it is a Web-based application that doesn’t sync automatically. What’s more, IMAP4 is largely unavailable. The Eternity offers basic PC syncing for photos, music, and other date files, but it can’t sync with Outlook e-mail, calendars, and contacts. You can exchange contacts with third-party syncing software, but that will require an additional investment.

The full HTML browser is similar to the Behold and the Instinct. Of course, it can’t handle Flash animation, but it renders most pages well. The onscreen controls are intuitive, but, as we’ve said before, we much prefer the iphone’s multitouch interface to using a magnifying button to zoom. Scrolling through lengthy Web pages can take a lot of finger swiping, but it’s not unlike other touch-screen phones. Also, it can be difficult to select links on crowded pages, but that’s not unusual, either.