Screen

The Renown's picture is clear and screen navigation is simple. A high-grade 240 x 320 px interior screen accents white icons with a brown, orange and mustard yellow backdrop. Icons offer easy access to email, messages, contacts, recent calls, a media center and calculator, instant messaging, a navigator and settings and tools.

Having nine icons available the second the phone is open could be a bonus for novices who aren't adept at wading through options to find what they need, but so many icons could be a deterrent for people who prefer more open space on their screen.

One benefit to the screen is that it's a difficult task to smudge its surface.

The external 96 x 96 px screen isn't as appealing as its internal colleague. The thumb-sized LCD screen makes for small print. Even if users can read the small date and time, the reflective surface of the screen makes it hard to see in sunlight. The Roman numeral clock on the outside screen is hard to read. Luckily the clock format can be changed to digital.

Both screens support 262K-colors, which puts it in the above average-range for cell phone screen quality.

The Renown is a tale of two screens. While each has decent clarity, only the internal screen is easy to read, easy to see and pleasing to the eye. The outside screen is too small to support small text and a clock that takes up too much space, especially when a digital clock would be more up-to-date.

Audio

Voice command and speakerphone are available on the Renown, as well as five volume levels or the choice to put the phone on vibrate or allow it to only make alert sounds. The phone comes with a dozen ringtone options and can play MP3 ringtones.

The Renown plays VCAST Music with Rhapsody songs, available for download on the phone, on an MP3 player. The phone also syncs with any computer so users can listen to their personal music library on the Renown (a full library of songs will require a memory card for most people). This music pipes through a headset or the phone's speakers. With the purchase of an adapter, the Renown can also pipe music through a car stereo.

Audio on the Renown is clear and static-free at any pitch. Unfortunately, with only 12 built-in tones, there's not much to hear unless downloads are made.

Messaging

The Renown is designed to keep people connected, no matter where they are in the world. That means access to text, video, voice and picture messages, plus visual voicemail.

Visual voicemail prioritizes messages so a person doesn't have to listen to each one in order before finding the message they wanted to listen to first. In the United States, Renown users also have access to the Internet and email, as well as access to AOL, Windows Live and Yahoo instant messaging programs.

Enhanced, multimedia and short text messaging are all available. All text messages are sent via a T9 multi-tap keypad.

What the Renown lacks in flashy extras it makes up for with its plethora of messaging options. Access to instant messaging, email, text messaging and visual messages make the Renown as accessible as any BlackBerry.

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