Samsung Moment Hands-On

By Dieter Bohn
last updated

We managed to snag some hands-on time with the just-announced Samsung Moment for Sprint. What do you need to know? Well, let's say it's a standard, straightforward Android slider - the only custom stuff here is Sprint's various custom apps like Sprint TV and NFL. In other words, this ain't no Hero.

Still and all, build quality is sufficient, if a little plasticky. It's a step up from the G1 on T-Mobile, but that's about the best you can say.  You'd have to be a pretty finicky person to dwell on that, though, given that it's wrapped around a gorgeous AMOLED screen. The colors pop on this device something wonderful, although we were in a fairly dimly-lit room when we tested. 

The optical joystick isn't quite as nice as jogball to our fingers, but then again it won't fall prey to the gunk and accidental presses you find with balls. The keyboard does the job - and to be honest that's pretty much the only reason we could imagine anybody choosing this device over the Hero on Sprint - if they just gotta have them buttons.

More photos after the break!

Dieter Bohn
Dieter Bohn
48 Comments
  • Not too shabby!
  • Laughing so hard I got tears
  • "but then again it won't fall prey to the gunk and accidental presses you find with balls." Taken out of context this is an excellent quote.
  • I'm so glad I read that because I'm planning on getting the Hero tomorrow and was afraid I'd regret it because the Samsung Moment turned out to be amazing. Now I can get my Hero with no worries except for possibly missing BlackBerry Messenger (I've been a BlackBerry user for many years now).
  • This is a terrible review and I think that you will regret buying the hero if you play with the samsung moment. It is super fast, has a great screen, great hardware keyboard, very very good camera (that has autofocus, will take great macro shots, and the flash is awesome). And there is so much more. I played with the hero too and it sucks in comparison.
  • what about mentioning that its the only android phone with an 800Mghtz processor and might appeal to those who root there phone because it would run the hero rom and any other android rom and app much more smoother and faster than the hero could. plus the qwerty. so just imagine now the android with the power of maybe iphone or pre? just my thoughts,lookin at the brighter side.
  • Ok I'm clearly know nothing about the capabilities of Android. I could basically reformat the device (like I would with my computer) with Android and put the Hero's Sense UI on to it? Is that something that's more or less easy to do? This is funny, but I'm actually looking forward to the Sprint Navigation and NFL Live Mobile app. Yeah, I know.. carrier apps..
  • Whoa.... slow down there a minute. Before you get too excited about rooting it (which is a good idea, especially with the much talked about Cyanogen ROM), read this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442480
  • These are the instructions straight from Cyanogen if you want to use his. Check out what he's done with Android. Quite impressive. If one is on the fence btwn Android & iPhone, this will end that debate. http://www.cyanogenmod.com/help/tutorials
  • Specs? Is that a 3.5mm jack? What's the storage? Can we put a 32GB card in it? Is it faster than Hero?
  • specs are on the web (awesome might I add!), it IS a 3.5mm jack (you can use your own headphones), it does support cards up to 32gb (when they are available), and i'm almost sure its faster than the Hero considering it is running a stock cupcake build! (Although in the hero's defense, its 524mhz processor has to push the HTC Sense UI also!)
  • It has been said that it will SHIP with 1.6 on it... the Hero did, I would think that Samsung will do the same.??
  • I got mine a month ago and it came with the 1.5. Great phone, however. You also have to download apps in order to stretch the battery life on it. I downlaoded advanced task killer and my battery lasts a day and a half with mainly phone use and a day if I use the browser
  • Please can someone tell me if it's 1.6 or 1.5. I know if it's 1.5 it will upgrade to 1.6, but Sprint is not to be trusted, 2010 could be Christmas next year.
  • this is more open and therefore sounds better than the hero.
  • Don't forget, the Hero also has a 5Mp camera.
  • 5 MP camera sounds great but the auto focus is bad and there is NO FLASH! We all know how important a flash is for dim areas or even at those "get togethers" with friends. I tried the hero at a sprint store, kept freezing up, kind of embarrasing for the sales girl. Touch screen too sensative...
  • It may not be a Hero, but there is nothing in the original post to indicate WHY the Hero is a better choice. Beyond Sense UI, all Moment specs appear to be equal to or greater than those of the Hero. I don't see any compelling reasons in the post to suggest that the Hero is a no-brainer choice.
  • i suggest that the hero are very improtannt to everybody. it never fail us to do the great things to learn and give us more knowledge.i will keep on considering that doing good to others is the way to achieve the goal.
  • Will this get Donut?
  • i won't be getting a hero. i'm going to wait for this baby!!
  • The Sense UI is so overrated! I would get this phone over the Hero any day. The only thing I'm not liking is that Sprint won't be getting donut out sooner. That means there will be new and updated apps that won't work on Sprint's Android phones until the update comes out.
  • I hate to say it, but this one kinda looks like my ancient SideKick 3.. can't complain about another Android QWERTY on the market though :) But design wise, meh..
  • well i was just about to buy the hero (literally was on the site about to order it) when i saw the ad for the moment. most people seems to forget about the home replacement apps android has like OpenHome, aHome, and many others. so while yeah its stock android you could easily install your own custom home setup. here's the site here if you want to check out some of the community created home screens http://betterandroid.wordpress.com/ with these home replacement screens i don't care if it has stock android and yeah you could easily port over the hero's UI and then what can you say? because the only reason ppl say to get the hero over this is because Sense UI, but if you just port it on the moment then you basically have a hero anyways with a more powerful processor, a physical keyboard, and a camera with a flash!
  • A 3.2 Mp camera w/ flash vs 5Mp camera...And if anyone would look past the "800Mhz" processor, you would realize that the processor is hardly superior. Think Celeron vs Pentium. Megahertz isn't everything. Moment has 256 MB RAM vs 288 MB RAM on the Hero as well. Also, from my experience, the more moving parts, the worse. As a Sprint Technician, I have been able to spend a lot of time with both phones (currently own a Hero) and I do not see ANY lag difference at all. The Hero also has a superior speaker system and feels very quality with its rubberized shell and lithophobic screen vs the Samsung's squirt gun plastic, LG Rant feel. The HTC Hero screen is also multi-touch, while the AMOLED Samsung Moment screen is not...so, w/e is more important to you. I choose functionality over brightness. That being said, I do think that the hardware of the Samsung is fairly solid, but not as beefy as it is being hyped to be.
  • This is ARM-11 v. ARM-11, no celeron or pentiums involved :P Now there is another CDMA phone coming out on another carrier that has a TI OMAP 3430 chip which does use a different ARM core and is faster at the same or lower clock speed (Cortex a8 core if you were wondering). The Verison (Motorola) Droid really looks impressive on paper. Less moving parts? Then you must love the Moment's pointing devise! The Samsung touch screen is capacitance based and is capable of multi touch given the software support.
  • Bad Technician is bad. "A 3.2 Mp camera w/ flash vs 5Mp camera" = "Camera you can use in the dark Vs. Camera you can't" "Think Celeron vs Pentium. Megahertz isn't everything"
    "This is ARM-11 v. ARM-11, no celeron or pentiums involved :P"
    Not so much "Moment has 256 MB RAM vs 288 MB RAM on the Hero as well." Only matters if you're running multiple apps, and even then it's less than 10% difference. And with no Sense UI running the Moment comes darn close to a tie. "Also, from my experience, the more moving parts, the worse." And as a Sprint Tech you should know that the more HTC the worse. Samsung's typical issues are software based, hardware is NORMALLY a strong point from them. (M520 is the exception, not the rule). "As a Sprint Technician, I have been able to spend a lot of time with both phones (currently own a Hero) and I do not see ANY lag difference at all." Cause ONE week is soooooo long. Unless you where the HTC Advocate, which gave you the extra month, and even then you couldn't have seen the Moment for more than a few minutes since Samsung isn't putting out an Advocate program. "The Hero also has a superior speaker system and feels very quality with its rubberized shell and lithophobic screen vs the Samsung's squirt gun plastic," I'll give you this one, and it makes me very sad too. "LG Rant feel." Man, gotta hate those Samsung Rumors. (For those who don't know lesser models, LG makes Rumors, Samsung makes Rants) "The HTC Hero screen is also multi-touch, while the AMOLED Samsung Moment screen is not...so, w/e is more important to you. I choose functionality over brightness." Actually, the HTC Sense UI is Multi-touch, the Android 1.6 build is not. Meaning later builds will be, and the Moment will support this feature. I'll take brightness and functionality. "That being said, I do think that the hardware of the Samsung is fairly solid, but not as beefy as it is being hyped to be." I too would've liked a more solid feel, but for the specs I'll trade a little feel for a little power. And a physical Keyboard. -Another Sprint Tech
  • To your comment about multitouch. Samsung Moment is currently not multitouch but the Screen is certainly capable. And it will be available as multitouch with the upgrade to Adroid 1.6 Donut
  • So I currently own a Hero and have had it since it was released on the 11th of October. I've had tons of time playing around with it and customizing it to what I want, and overall I think it is one of the funnest phones I've ever owned. However, when I saw the Samsung Moment was announced, I thought about checking it out since I am still under the 30 day period of trying the phone out. I agree with the Wil the Sprint Technician who posted on here saying the difference in processing speed is not significant, but the RAM difference is not that significant either. I am definitely going to check out the Moment when it's released because of a few things that I wasn't happy about with the Hero. -The 5 megapixel camera is nice if you keep it absolutely still. You can have no movement what-so-ever in your pictures, otherwise it comes up blurry.
    -No flash on the camera.
    -The video camera allows for decent resolution, but it lags so much that your videos turn out to be quite blurry. I tried shooting a video to make fun of my friend of how he plays pinball, and it turned out quite terribly. Check it out at http://s803.photobucket.com/albums/yy318/jfresh119/?action=view&current=...
    -The battery life is ok, but without the app tasKiller, all of your apps are running all the time. In a 12 hour time span, with limited time actually talking on the phone, it would have around 10% battery left. Personally, since I like to catch random things on my phone camera and video camera when something is as funny as my friend's pinball methods, I'll probably trade the Hero in for the Moment, since it's only a 35 dollar restocking fee, which will be well worth the happiness of having a great phone for the 2 year contract I just renewed. -Jonny
    jonnybsay@gmail.com
  • I have the Moment for 3 hours now - traded in the horrible Touch Pro. Thank you to Sprint for allowing me to get rid of that clunky cheap crap. The Moment is the best mobile phone I have had. Feels solid, and while I am no expert by any stretch in regards to Android, gotta say it is a nice switch from the flimsy Windows Mobile 6. A couple things I probably need to figure out; display battery percentage instead of a static icon, show the date AND time on the 'desktop', and sync my Outlook 2007 contact and calendar. If I can get this few things working I will be the happiest person in my house :)
  • "and to be honest that's pretty much the only reason we could imagine anybody choosing this device over the Hero on Sprint - if they just gotta have them buttons." One more reason: The moment works on the SERO plan, while the hero does not.
  • "and to be honest that's pretty much the only reason we could imagine anybody choosing this device over the Hero on Sprint - if they just gotta have them buttons." One more reason: The moment works on the SERO plan, while the hero does not.
  • You guys are nuts if you don't think there is a big difference between the original 528 megahertz processor and the 800 one. I've owned and used two Android phones (the original G1 and the MyTouch 3G) and as nice as those phones are they are laggy as hell when you have alot going on. I always wished the processor was a little faster and this is about 50% faster so yea can just imagine the difference. I currently own the Motorola Droid and trust be it is a world of difference. And this one is only 550 megahertz (albiet a better core though.)
  • The 528 Mhz Qualcomm chipset is proven to be a slow piece of shit. The Moment has a clear advantage in CPU power.
  • The Samsung "Moment" is the worst phone I've ever owned. I regret giving up my Sanyo Katana Eclipse.
    It does a bunch of things, but none well. The very thing it is (A PHONE) is PITA to use.
    Constant issues with bluetooth paring, Battery life sucks at best (yes all the vampire apps are off)
    Will not initialize voice dial from blue tooth, you have to screw around wiping and poking on screen to dial out, then (if your lucky, and the BT is still paired) you can talk.
    Looks like Google / Samsung took a page out of Microsoft's page: Rush it, leave important features off it, but sell it.
    It's going back tomorrow!
    A side note, a friend has the HTC hero, and (surprise) IT IS WORSE!
    SAMSUNG MOMENT = JUNK !!!!!!!!!!
  • WTF???? You got an agenda with Samsung? Or Sprint??????
    ASS HOLE
  • No, DB, read the review, the phone just plain sucks! It's just that simple.
    I know your sad, if mommy and daddy read this review they wont buy you one of your very own.
    Sorry you don't like my review, sucks to be you.
    THE PHONE STILL SUCKS IT IS THE LARGEST POS ON THE MARKET !!!! BAR NONE!
  • IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT GETTING A NEW SAMSUNG MOMENT DROID "ANDROID" KEEP YOUR OLD PHONE !!!!!!
    The phone looks great, and build quality is good, BUT it is a total pain to use, very cumbersome!
    Blue tooth keeps disconnecting, and to use it driving is a nightmare!!!!!
    Called Sprint, they were nice,but unable to help, "They (Samsung) are working on a firmware update" but time frame unknown.
    I know a time frame though: THE 30 DAYS I HAVE TO RETURN THIS JUNK PHONE!!!!!
  • maybe it's the user that is junk and not the phone itself.
  • i have the moment and besides the battery life which i think i need to get the extended one or have it replaced the phone is awsome!! i WAS an avid iphone userer intill i got this phone in my hands i LOVE my keyboard unlike the DROID from verizon my phone has a FULLY cetered QWERTY keyboard and it is very easy to text e-mail and everything else. It also has the new touch trackball that the new blackberry has which makes it SOOOOO easy to move around the screen and web pages! the trackball is old it's 2010 people come on!! hands down i love my moment and wouldnt change it to go back to all touch for nothing now this is just my personal review plus i also work in a cell phone store and see which phones have problems everyday. Im hoping that they can swap my phone were i bought it from and my battery will be better maybe it was just the first set of phones that had this because i see other posts about the battery being fine so i hope in my case it happens to!! and the phone is sick and FAST if you dont know how to work smart phones dont get it!!! you must be a smart phone user!!! if your not and you want it just to text get the incognito you will be better off! you can do sooo much on this phone i love it and if you have a bad review its because like other people said its probably the user that sucks haha!
  • it looks very cool
    anxiety attacks steam cleaners
  • I have this Samsung moment. It is GREAT! The new update that just came out kinda sucks. But other than that, I LOVE THIS PHONE!! This is a great touch phone with TONS of applications and most of them are free. If you don't have what you need on it basically, just go to the market and it probably has an application for it! I would rather have this phone than have a phone that does not have a slide out keyboard!
  • I got a moment about a week or two ago. I use cell phones alot. This is the best phone/pda I have ever used. Hardware is solid and feels good, screen is bright, found an app for everything I want to do, and the keyboard is awesome once you adjust to the layout.Highly recommended. Oh and 2.1 is coming for it in a couple months.
  • I HATE the Moment, honestly i want to throw it at the wall. It started out as a great phone but now it sucks. It is so laggy my browser barely works and i have to shut it down 15 times a day just to make it work again. It constantly freezes or lags my text and then sends them like 4 times. Pardon my french but its a piece of crap and i have tried absolutley everything, i deleted every app that i didnt need and deleted almost everyone of my texts but its still terrible. Anyone have any ideas how to make it better?
  • get a new phone! i got a samsung epic 4g after being stuck with that pos crap of android that doesn't deserve to run android after a year!
  • Some time ago, I did need to buy a car for my corporation but I did not have enough cash and could not order something. Thank goodness my friend adviced to try to take the loan at creditors. Thence, I acted that and was satisfied with my auto loan.
  • I have a strange request. I hope someone will read this because I really need help. My daughter passed away in Dec 2010 and she has a wonderful diary of texts on her Samsung Moment. I want to print it all out and put with her memory box I have created. I have gone to the store level and someone suggested this site. There is no service to the phone, but I do have all the cords to connect to my PC, I just can't figure out how to move them from the phone to my PC (windows XP). Some one PLEASE HELP!! Thanks
    ~D~
  • 1. You might want to post this in the forums, they are very active
    2. If it's saved on her sd card, then you can just use a usb cord and just transfer the data to your computer.