Verizon Wireless Blitz (Verizon Wireless)

Calls: We found call quality on the Blitz to be a bit of a mixed bag. Overall, we found call quality to be slightly fuzzy on our end, we understood what callers were saying it just wasn’t as clear as the experience we’ve had on other cell phones. Callers said we sounded OK. Another interesting feature is sliding open or closing the cell phone during a call has no effect on the call; meaning that the call does not end until the “end” button is manually pushed. When we placed a call using the speakerphone: call quality for both parties was loud and crystal clear. Callers didn’t know we were using a speakerphone let alone placing the call using a cell phone. We particularly like how easy it is to turn on and off the speakerphone via the dedicated key next to the four-way navi-key.

Audio playback: We found playback of songs sounded clear through the cell phone’s built-in speaker. Note: Since the speaker is on the back of the cell phone, we recommend laying the Blitz screen side down to get the best playback experience. The Blitz does support the stereo Bluetooth profile, so you can listen to music in stereo via a stereo Bluetooth headset.

Menu/Phone book: At the heart of the cell phone is the typical Verizon Wireless user interface, just a bit slimmed down. You can still tab over to different menus once viewing a specific menu’s options. You can use the cell phone’s four-way navi-key to select different menu options. We particularly appreciate how easy it is to use the phone book. You can store five phone numbers and two e-mail addresses for each contact, along with a picture and dedicated ringtone – sorry, no slots for address info.

Camera: The 1.3-megapixel camera in this cell phone is decent. The cell phone lacks a flash, but it has adjustment options for brightness, white balance, capture mode (landscape or portrait), and color effects. There’s also a self-timer, which comes in handy when you use the tiny mirror (it’s an odd shape, and when you look into it, you may get the sensation that you’re looking at a mirror in a funhouse) next to the camera lens for snapping self-portraits. Overall, image quality is acceptable; images appear a bit washed out, but are OK for viewing on small screens. This cell phone doesn’t have a video recorder.

Music: As noted, listening to songs played through the cell phone’s speaker is pretty good. This cell phone lacks audio-centric controls such as bass and treble; however, it does have other MP3 player features such as shuffle, repeat, and playlists that you can create on-the-fly. The Blitz will support an optional 4GB MicroSD card – you can store approximately 99 music albums on a card with that much storage capacity – that’s a lot of tunes. If you plan on listening to more than just a few songs, you’ll want to get an external MicroSD card. The Blitz will play back Window Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 files only – sorry, no Apple AAC music files. The easiest way to get your own music onto the cell phone is by synching them from your computer to your cell phone via the included USB synching cable. Other options for getting music onto the cell phone can be done by either dragging and dropping songs onto the MicroSD card (as long as you have a MicroSD card adapter that works with your computer). Note: It is likely that you will not be able to listen to songs you purchased online at a music store on this cell phone.

Connectivity/Bluetooth: We were able to easily pair the cell phone with a Plantronics 925 headset and call quality was not adversely affected.

Look and Feel: At first glance, with its bright blue casing, rounded edges and plastic buttons the Blitz looks more like a toy than a cell phone. The majority of the closed cell phone is a display and the bottom part looks more like the keys found on a portable gaming device. Although it does have a rather large screen, it’s definitely not the sharpest we’ve seen. That said; it’s big, bright, and readable – just not exactly what we’d call crisp. As is the case with many screens these days, the display is prone to attracting fingerprints. The cell phone’s spine is littered with buttons: volume keys, a 2.5mm headset jack, a proprietary charging cable, dedicated music launch key, dedicated camera launch key, and a MicroSD slot.

Keypad: When taking a closer look at the QWERTY keyboard on the Blitz it’s immediately evident that this cell phone is meant for those with smaller fingers. The keys are small and close together so typing on it is no easy task for those with larger hands or those with long fingernails. That said, the keys are slightly raised, which gives them enough delineation from each other. Another plus is that the white and lavender backlit letters and numbers are easy to read in just about any lighting.

When it comes to battery life, the Blitz is no slacker. We particularly appreciated that we could use the cell phone to play music for a few of hours before needing to recharge. Heavy cell phone users who make a ton of calls, send/receive loads of text messages daily, and listen to tunes stored on the cell phone regularly will need to recharge it every three days. More moderate users will be able to make the cell phone last about five days before needing to recharge. If you are a light user, making just two to three 10-minute calls a day along with light texting and listening to the occasional song, the Blitz cell phone will last about a week on a single charge.

• PhoneDog review of Verizon Wireless Blitz