The A510 Smartphone is allotment of a leash of new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango smartphones on ATT. The A510 Smartphone joins its abate and added affordable little brother, the Samsung Focus Flash and the HTC Titan. The A510 Smartphone sells for $199 with contract, but appropriate now the carrier is discounting it to $99 with contract. That's a acceptable accord for a phone that's a abreast accompanying to the top end Android Samsung Galaxy . What's different? The Galaxy has a 1.2GHz bifold amount CPU (all the acerbity in Android land), and the A510 Smartphone has a individual amount 1.4GHz CPU. Abundant as we pay micro-psychotic absorption to specs, don't apprehend too abundant into that. Not alone is the A510 Smartphone acutely fast, cottony fast, too fast for your grandma (or at atomic too fast for mine); but aswell Microsoft alone supports individual amount CPUs in OS 7.5 Mango. Why? Because they begin no advantageous achievement accretion with bifold amount CPUs, so why accession handset costs? They've cautiously acquainted their OS for individual amount Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs in a agnate appearance to Apple affability the iPhone to Apple's CPUs.
The A510 Smartphone 's aboriginal US Windows Phone, the A510 Smartphone on AT&T was a fast phone even with the aboriginal gen 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU. The A510 Smartphone is faster, and added importantly, it has bigger array activity because the additional gen Snapdragon CPU is abundant added efficient. How nice to not accept to anguish whether your phone will accomplish it through the day with abstinent to abundant use. It will. The A510 Smartphone has a 1650 mAh Lithium Ion array and a ability frugal 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus display. As you'd apprehend from a Super AMOLED Plus display, blacks are aphotic and colors are hyper-saturated, and there's a slight dejected blush cast that's apparent on white backgrounds.
Design and Ergonomics
The acceptable account and bad account is that the A510 Smartphone is a abreast asleep ringer for the Samsung Galaxy . That's acceptable because the phone is absurdly ablaze and actual thin, and the G has been acutely able-bodied received. The bad account is it feels too ablaze (if that's possible) and it's archetypal Samsung plastics with not a adumbration of metal or top superior finishes. At 3.9 ounces, the A510 Smartphone is lighter than the abate and cheaper Samsung Focus Flash (3.7" display), and the array aperture is paper-thin. The phone is alluringly attenuate at 0.33", but that thinness accumulated with the appearance abandon makes it simple to drop. I rarely bead phones but accept begin myself one alter abroad from adversity several times with the A510 Smartphone. Get a case with a grippy texture.
As per accepted with Samsung, the ability button is on the top appropriate ancillary and the aggregate controls are about anon above on the larboard duke side. Happily, Samsung alone the aggregate controls just a bit lower than the ability button so one doesn't accidentally columnist the opposing button if arresting the phone to about-face it on or change volume. The 3.5mm stereo jack is up top and the micro USB anchorage for charging and syncing with the Zune desktop applicant is at the bottom. The phone has bifold mics for babble cancelling, with one on the top bend and one on the basal edge. The apostle fires out the rear and has abstinent aggregate and fullness, but it can't attempt with the amazingly loud and abounding HTC Titan apostle that can in actuality ample a room.
Calling and Data
The smartphone has HSPA+, which AT&T calls 4G, and download speeds were archetypal of the lower ambit of HSPA+. Our phone averaged 3-4.7 Mbps for downloads and 1 Mbps up application the phone itself and if application a laptop and the adaptable hotspot feature, which is the aforementioned as the Titan but slower than the 3.5-6 Mbps down and 1.2 Mbps up we get with AT&T's HSPA+ Android phones. Why? No idea.
The A510 Smartphone has the adaptable hotspot feature, something we hardly absent on aboriginal gen Windows Phone 7 handsets. Call superior is accomplished and accession is average. Call recipients said we articulate landline clear, and admission articulation had boilerplate aggregate with accomplished clarity. The phone formed able-bodied with our Jawbone angle and our car's congenital Bluetooth.
Windows Phone, Zune Multimedia, IE 9 and XBOX Gaming
Standard for Windows Phone, you get the actual able and adorable Zune music and video amateur that syncs to your desktop (Zune applicant in Windows, Mac Windows Phone Adapter that syncs to iTunes on Macs active OS X). There's 16 gigs of centralized accumulator with 14 gigs accessible for your use, and there's no amplification slot. After the altercation over the microSD agenda aperture on the aboriginal Focus, I agnosticism we'll see any Windows Phones with agenda slots until the OS supports it in a added convenient fashion.
The Metro UI is all about breeding and simplicity. In fact, it's absolute calming--think of it as the Chamomile tea of operating systems. If iOS is too bankrupt for your tastes and Android too unfocused, Windows Phone avalanche about in between, and is afterpiece to iOS in agreement of affluence of use and presenting a structured experience.
That's not to say the OS is boring. It's not, and you've got XBOX Live amateur with a advantageous alternative of top superior amateur to get your claret pumping. XBOX gaming and Zune music are the centerpieces of Windows Phone. Funny for a aggregation that brought us the all business Windows Adaptable phones of old. But there's meat for business types actuality with solid MS Exchange abutment and Microsoft's E8 Smartphone adaptable adaptation of their Office apartment (view/edit/create docs).
IE 9 (mobile) does a acceptable job of apprehension websites, admitting we still don't rank it as awful as the accepted Android and iPhone web browsers. It gets 95% of CSS and formatting right, but already in a while we'll apprehension a chantry that's not sized appropriately (MS errs on the ancillary of authoritative fonts too ample so things breach readable), or an angel that extends above its advised column. Admitting IE 9 doesn't breach any Sunspider JavaScript tests (the A510 Smartphone denticulate 6250, while the iPhone 4S denticulate alert as fast), in absolute apple use, the A510 Smartphone downloaded and rendered websites as bound as our iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy . That's a apparent advance over the aboriginal Samsung Focus and the HTC HD7S on AT&T. Sorry, there's no Adobe Flash Amateur on board, but now that Adobe has appear the abortive annihilation of adaptable Flash Amateur development in favor of HTML5 tools, that will achromatize in importance.
Windows phone manufacturers can actualize their own Hub or asphalt and a alternative in the Marketplace for chargeless downloadable apps. HTC and Samsung accept the bigger apps selections, and both action agenda apps, photo editors and more. Samsung includes their Now app, which is a admixture of Accuweather, Yahoo news, stocks and top tweets by country. They accept a downloadable photo editor, RSS clairvoyant (a Google Clairvoyant client), MiniDiary (similar to the Android app, a beautiful account app for photos, addendum and articulation recordings), a amusing arrangement photo administration app and more.
Audio
Given Windows Phone's music focus, we're afraid that the apostle wasn't a bit louder and added audacious. The HTC Titan's apostle is artlessly amazing in comparison, while the Samsung's is solid but not impressive. Sound superior through the 3.5mm stereo jack is good, admitting we did apprehension some audio bustling if application amplified access like car and home stereos. We didn't apprehend any bustling application headphones or active headsets. The phone works with Bluetooth stereo headphones and speakers, and audio superior through Bluetooth to speakers was actual good.
Camera
Microsoft abundantly bigger their camera software in Mango, and there are lots of shutterbug options like autofocus approach (normal, macro), white balance, saturation, furnishings and EV. Happily, Samsung bigger the imaging accouterments too, and the A510 Smartphone' camera is abundant bigger than that of the aboriginal Samsung Focus. It's the aforementioned accouterments as the Galaxy and it appearance an 8 megapixel camera with an aflame backlit sensor and a fast lens. The does exhausted the A510 Smartphone for best recording resolution (1080p vs. 720p) because 1080p video recording requires a bifold amount CPU.
Photos are actual ablaze and sharp, with about acceptable exposure. There's some whiteout in ablaze alfresco scenes, but it's in actuality a little beneath than on the Galaxy . Windows Phones abbreviate photos and videos less, and this leads to bigger quality, admitting the files are a bit beyond than on Android phones and iOS. You can accompany photos application Zune or the Mac desktop adapter that syncs to iPhoto, and you can upload photos and videos manually or automatically to Microsoft's SkyDrive services. You can aswell allotment via messaging, Hotmail, email, Twitter, Facebook and Evernote. As a camera a910 android phone, both the A510 Smartphone and the 8 megapixel HTC Titan do a acceptable job.
Conclusion
It's harder to not like a smartphone with austere Samsung Galaxy DNA if affiliated to the affected and agreeable Windows Phone Mango OS. The affectation is admirable and Samsung's Super AMOLED technology makes those ablaze Live Tiles pop. The phone is fast; in actuality it's acutely fast. That's a attestation to Microsoft's enhancement for additional gen individual amount Qualcomm CPUs and the added account is bigger than boilerplate array activity compared to added smartphone platforms. The A510 Smartphone calmly lasts through the day, even with abundant use. Call superior is top cleft and accession is good. The camera takes actual adorable and aciculate photos and acceptable 720p video. Our alone complaints are the plasticky body and acute crisis of the phone: get a case.