Camera

The Surge is a meat and potatoes shooter, offering a midrange 2.0-megapixel lens with 4x digital zoom that takes decent snapshots to Facebook and send over multimedia messages -- but not necessarily of printing.

Its camera doesn't have a built-in flash, so photos in low-lighting come out dim and grainy.

Held in a horizontal position for a more camera-like feel, the lens is activated by pressing a dedicated button. A "Smart Key" pulls up menu options such as settings for image quality, resolution, naming and storage.

The Surge shoots photos in two resolutions -- 1600 x 1200 px and 640 x 480 px -- and three image qualities -- High, Normal and Basic. It also comes with a self-timer and "Night Mode" that uses image processing to attempt to enhance the photo -- a poor substitute the lack of a flash.

Users can do simple photo editing directly on the display -- cropping, resizing, adjusting contrast or sharpness, fixing red-eye or applying effects such as "Negative" or adding text.

Its camcorder shares the same settings as the camera but shoots in 320 x 240 px and the message-friendly 176 x 144 px resolutions.

For video messages, the handset has a setting for "short" video length as well as a "maximum" length. Options are limited to Night or Day Mode with no tools for editing videos.

While its no-frills camcorder won't win any awards, it does offer "Video Share" -- an AT&T service that lets users to share real-time or recorded video during phone calls with other Video Share-enabled phones. This service costs an extra $5 a month.

The Surge's camera runs in the middle of the pack. High-end devices such as the Casio Exilim specialize in photography -- integrating a 5.1-megapixel lens -- while low-cost devices still put in 1.3-megapixel lenses that are good for nothing more than fuzzy photos. For a handset that's focused on social networking sites, the Surge does a great job offering simple shoot and upload access to Facebook. But for users who want to print high-quality images, a 3.0-megapixel camera with flash would be better.

Basic Features

When the Surge starts up for the first time a handy "setup wizard" runs users through a program that personalizes basic settings such as ringtones and themes, as well as configuring email and connections.

The phone comes with standard tools such as calendar, notepad, alarm clock and personal organizer, plus extras such as a currency converter, Adobe PDF reader, QuickOffice documents and audio recorder.

The handset really shines when it comes to multimedia options. It offers a music player with access to AT&T's Mobile Music to download songs, MobiTV for videos, a built-in FM radio and online streaming radio service, a Web browser and Juicecaster -- an application that connects users to social networking sites.

Users can get turn-by-turn directions with maps and traffic updates through AT&T Navigator.

One tip for users who don't want to bother to unlock the keypad every time they open the slider it is to turn off the auto-lock in the phone's "Settings" menu. The menu itself is colorful and easy to navigate, and includes adjustments for the RealTime player and FM radio.

< Prev Next >

This article is Copyright 2002-2012 Mobiledia Corp. and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from Mobiledia. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact us.