Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
While it's conceivable that Samsung Array owners might journey onto the internet now and again, it's pretty clear the handset was designed with talking and texting in mind.
Thankfully, the Array is particularly adept at the first half of that equation, serving up a strong signal from Sprint's CDMA network with decent call quality. The earpiece is plenty loud enough to hear, although we found it a tad on the tinny side.
Callers we spoke with confirmed that outgoing voice was about the same, although the Array does fall a bit short on the speakerphone, which doesn't quite muster up enough volume to be usable where ambient noise is loud.
If you're planning to use the Samsung Array in noisier settings, you might consider a Bluetooth headset – there doesn't seem to be much in the way of noise reduction or cancellation going on with this budget device.
Dialing is as simple as punching numbers on the keypad, but the sluggish single-core 480MHz processor bogs down even this basic task. Instead of a familiar touch dial tone, each press of the keypad confirms input with melodic bleeps, which doesn't help when you're attempting to dial out quickly.
The Array also offers email, which requires an internet connection to set up your Windows Live/Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or AOL account. There are also shortcuts for Comcast or AIM Mail and we had no trouble setting up other IMAP and POP accounts, including Apple's iCloud.
Once set up, the Array's fetched our email at a snail's pace, and really took a hatchet to any HTML-based missives. The handset does a commendable job considering its tiny screen, but it's really only worthwhile if you send or receive a lot of text-only emails in the first place.
