Video: Samsung Juke for Verizon Wireless

Tips & tricks: Standard Samsung Juke Tips

All of the direction keys are also shortcut keys when you open the phone.  When you press the up direction key it automatically creates a new text message. Press the bottom direction key and you get sent to your calendar.  Left direction key you get sent to the pictures menu.  And on the right direction key and you get sent to the Get It Now menu. You can personalize just about everything on the Display Settings menu, and while...

Samsung SCH-U470-Juke Red in-depth review - Introduction & Design

The Samsung Juke for Verizon is a cool little phone that makes calls, plays music, and tucks away almost unnoticed in a pocket or purse.  Featuring two gigabytes of built-in storage, a front-mounted scroll wheel for navigating through your music library and contacts list, and a unique switchblade design, Juke is small, slick, and easy to use. Samsung and Verizon left a lot out of Juke in order to make it tiny and inexpensive. ...

Samsung SCH-U470-Juke Red in-depth review - Features

Juke is being marketed as a music phone and it does feature a very intuitive, easy to use music player.  However, it doesn't work with Verizon's VCast Music store (or the company's other VCast services).  While I can understand that Verizon wanted to leave 3G off the Juke in order to reduce its size and cost while maximize battery life, I can't understand them launching a new music phone that doesn't let customers purchase and download...

Samsung SCH-U470-Juke Red in-depth review - Display & Audio

Juke's display is tiny but bright and easy to read, so relative to the overall goal of making a small handset with a trick design and good music player, I think Samsung did a good job here.  Just 1.45" across, the display's resolution is only 128 x 220 pixels, but it does support 262,000 colors.  As such, fonts, menus and images all rendered quite well on the LCD screen.  Customization options include adjustable font sizes and...

Samsung SCH-U470-Juke Red in-depth review - Messaging, Internet & Connectivity

Juke supports SMS and MMS messaging, but it's tiny display and somewhat small keypad make it a poor choice for heavy-duty texters.  That being said, Samsung's T9 predictive text implementation is solid and the optional Get it Now mobile IM application supports AIM, Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger.  Email is not supported on Juke. Internet on Juke is limited to Verizon's Get it Now options for purchasing ringtones and wallpapers,...

Samsung SCH-U470-Juke Red in-depth review - Conclusion

It's nice to see companies pushing the design envelope at both the low and high ends of the mobile phone spectrum.  While expensive smartphones and feature phones are gaining full frontal touchscreens and easier-to-use user interfaces, some lower end models are also getting design overhauls, often based around a single advanced feature.  T-Mobile's Blast (also a Samsung phone), for instance, is a mid-range slider built for messaging...