The Motorola Triumph should be the cream from the contract-free smartphone crop. Currently available on Virgin Mobile for any hefty up-front cost of $300, it offers features which you may not anticipate finding on the phone that carries no obligations, just like a 4.1-inch display, 1 GHz processor, 720p video capture, front-facing camera and slim design.
So can the very best of contract-free mobile phones hold its against an military of two-year agreement juggernauts Less than, but don't allow that to turn you away.
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Clad inside a black, soft-touch coating, the Triumph is hard angles and sharp edges. It type of jogs my memory of the polygonal structure from the mid-the nineteen nineties gaming, with nary a rounded edge or unnecessary design flourish found. The feeling of restraint is palpable, and that i enjoy it.
About the downside, it's sharp. Expect some mild discomfort throughout lengthy stretches of single-handed use, and expect the telephone to create its presence known when resting in your wallet.
For software, the Triumph runs a regular version of Android 2.2, having a light quantity of Virgin Mobile bloatware tossed in permanently measure. If you have spent whenever with MotoBlur, HTC Sense or the other custom connects that phone makers prefer to slap on the Android products, stock Android will appear just like a thought. About the Triumph, it's buttery smooth -- a minimum of before you start cluttering the house screen with icons -- and classy because of some fancy graphical transitions scattered throughout.
This version of Android continues to be outdated since last winter, therefore it is missing some features you will find on mobile phones running Android 2.3, for example an enhanced keyboard and much more accurate text selection. Additionally, it lacks the native video chat that Bing is building into more recent versions of Android, so you will be tied to third-party applications like Qik and Fring to be used using the Triumph's front-facing VGA camera. (Skype video chat only supports a number of Android products for the time being, and it is not obvious which Android 2.2 mobile phone models, if any, is going to be triggered board.)
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When it comes to general performance, the Triumph handled applications and also the web with lots of zip. Faster phones exist, because of dual-core processors present in several high-finish Android mobile phone models, however the Triumph was perfectly able to multitasking when i took in to music while playing graphically-demanding games. The telephone ended up getting warm to touch with all of this activity, although not unbearably hot.
I've got a couple of nitpicks using the Triumph's hardware: Some.1-inch display, while sharp at 800-by-480 resolution, includes a subtle blue-ant hue which i found odd the five-megapixel camera lacks face recognition and touch-to-focus, and it has an excellent-vibrant expensive bulb that could stun your subjects at close-to-medium range and there is only 3 GB of storage aboard -- 2 GB on the sd card, and also the relaxation built-in.
However the Triumph's greatest weakness is its battery. Though I did not perform extensive tests, I discovered the Triumph drained roughly one fourth of their battery on the nine-hour standby period. After 1 hour 30 minutes of heavy use, the telephone was lower to 25 % energy. My experience jibes with Virgin Mobile's 4-hour talk-time estimate, which is paltry in comparison to many other Android mobile phones. Again, Android 2.3 might've assisted here, because the software includes some behind-the-moments energy management not contained in Android 2.2.
The Motorola Triumph isn't a contract-free smartphone buyer's dream become a reality. Its battery and internal storage are extremely limited, its camera is missing inside a couple of areas and it is design sways a little toward style over comfort. However the Triumph is not a poor phone, and in comparison with other contract-free mobile phone models, it is a giant. The $300 cost is steep in comparison to mobile phones subsidized by lengthy-term contracts, but Virgin Mobile will reward neglect the with cheap regular bills -- plans start at $35 monthly with 300 minutes and limitless data and texts -- with no obligations. If you're able to see through the Triumph's defects, you cannot argue using the savings.
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