The Saga measures 2.4 by 4.9 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.6 ounces, which makes it a bit taller, thinner, and lighter than its Epix cousin on AT&T. Samsung finished the Saga in a rubberized electric blue housing with a black leatherette ring around the sides. The left side features a volume rocker switch and a hardware lock key. The right side contains Samsung's usual proprietary multifunction jack, a Camera button, and a recessed paper-clip-style hardware reset button. The top of the Saga houses a recessed Power button and a covered, nonstandard 2.5mm headphone jack. The only included accessories are the AC adapter and a USB sync cable.
The 2.6-inch, 320-by-320-pixel LCD displays 65k colors. It's a basic resistive touch screen; like other recent Windows Mobile smartphones, it responds to firm presses and finger swipes, but not to delicate touches or Apple's two-finger zoom trick. There's also a built-in stylus, which helps with the operating system's busy interface and tiny buttons. Samsung calls the input device on the Saga an optical mouse, but it's really a miniature, circular touchpad. It's an improvement over the one on the Epix, though, and makes controlling the on-screen cursor simple. You can also disable the mouse cursor and use the touchpad for four-way navigation, but I found it slow to respond in this mode.
Surrounding the optical mouse are six control keys: Send, End, a Windows key, an OK button, and two programmable keys. The Saga's QWERTY keyboard is a gem: It offers well-balanced resistance, clearly spaced (if small) raised plastic keys, and a comfortable typing feel. Dialing numbers wasn't a breeze, though, because the handset's processor couldn't keep up. The tone sounds cut each other off, and the OS often missed numbers entirely, meaning I had to exit, slow down, and reenter the number.
Voice calls sounded clear and punchy both in the earpiece and to other callers. The Saga's reception was poor, however. The device struggled to hold onto Verizon's EV-DO network (in an admittedly rural part of Massachusetts) and spent most of the review period in 1X mode, with just one or two bars showing. A nearby Verizon BlackBerry Curve 8330 stayed solidly in EV-DO mode (with three to four bars) in all of the same test locations. During calls, I heard the occasional dropout and static around some words, but the handset did a good job with the tiny signal it was able to pull in. The Saga paired on the first try with an original Aliph Jawbone, and its speakerphone was loud enough to use in noisy environments. Unfortunately, it lasted just 3 hours 41 minutes on a talk time battery test, which is at least an hour less than we've seen on comparable Verizon handsets.
The Saga's big sell is its global roaming capability. It's a dual-band EV-DO Rev A (800/1900-MHz) phone and a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900-MHz) GSM phone. Unlike most Verizon phones, the Saga comes with a SIM card that roams on overseas networks for voice calls and EDGE (but not 3G) data. Verizon locks the slot, so you can't pop in an AT&T or T-Mobile card here in the U.S. or a prepaid card overseas. Like many competing smartphones, the Saga includes a full complement of wireless radios, including 3G (EV-DO Rev A), Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), GPS, and Bluetooth 2.0. You can also use it as a modem for your laptop if you activate Verizon's $15 per month BroadbandAccess Connect plan.
The Saga sports a 400-MHz Qualcomm MSM7500 processor, 112MB of internal storage, 84MB of total RAM, and just 47MB free for user programs. On the home page you'll find a large digital clock and four tabs—Connection, Favorites, Contacts, and Settings—along with Windows Mobile's usual drop-down Start menu. Like other Windows Mobile handsets, the Saga doesn't quit programs when you click the Close button, with the result that the handset bogs down every 10 minutes or so as programs accumulate in the background. Fortunately, the Saga lets you customize the home page tabs; I added a Task Manager shortcut to Favorites, which made ending tasks simple.
Verizon's software bundle is sparse but includes one standout: the Opera Mobile browser. It offers solid desktop-page rendering, robust Favorites management, finger-swipe support, and a zoom box, though it still can't display Adobe Flash content. The Saga also packs in a few small utilities, including a useful Tip Calculator, the Smart Converter unit conversion utility, a World Clock, and the useless VZAppZone—a combination information aggregator and crapware depot that lets Verizon sell you more software and services. The Saga also works with Verizon's Networks-in-Motion–powered VZ Navigator service, which offers voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions for $9.99 per month or $2.99 per day. Disappointingly, the Saga lacks an instant-messaging client and doesn't work with Verizon V Cast Music or Video.
There's a microSD slot located underneath the battery cover (but not underneath the battery). According to Samsung, the slot should read cards up to 16GB in size; my 8GB SanDisk microSDHC card worked fine. The Saga's 2-megapixel camera lacks flash and autofocus. On my tests, it took very noisy indoor photos with blown-out highlights. The video recorder maxed out at 320-by-240-pixel videos, but they were legible (at least in well-lit rooms) and played back smoothly. Music tracks sounded suitably bassy but muffled over a paired set of Cardo S-2 stereo Bluetooth headphones, but the Saga can't display album art. Unfortunately, video-file playback suffered from the same jerkiness common to other Windows Mobile phones with slow CPUs. Two other gaffes: The handset didn't hide the large mouse cursor even in Full Screen mode, and the handset paused the video and dropped back to Windows Media Player whenever I adjusted the volume with the rocker switch.
The BlackBerry Curve 8330 on Verizon, our current Editors' Choice, is faster than the Saga, is easier to use, costs less, and on our tests lasted 2 hours longer on a single charge, although it lacks the Saga's touch screen and global roaming capability. The Samsung Omnia, meanwhile, was recently reduced to $199 (with a two-year contract); its 5MP camera blows away the one in the Saga, and it's a good voice phone with better reception. In short, there's not much of a story to the Saga, especially in light of the competition.
- Price as Tested: $199.00 Street
- Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
- Operating System: Windows Mobile Pocket PC
- Screen Size: 2.6 inches
- Screen Details: 320x320, TFT, 65K colors
- Camera: Yes
- Megapixels: 2 MP
- 802.11x: Yes
- Bluetooth: Yes
- Web Browser: Yes
- Network: GSM, CDMA
- Bands: 800, 850, 900, 1800, 1900
- High-Speed Data: GPRS, 1xRTT, EDGE, EVDO
- Processor Speed: 400 MHz
- Special Features: Music
- Price as Tested: $199.00 Street
- Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
- Operating System: Windows Mobile Pocket PC
- Screen Size: 2.6 inches
- Screen Details: 320x320, TFT, 65K colors
- Camera: Yes
- Megapixels: 2 MP
- 802.11x: Yes
- Bluetooth: Yes
- Web Browser: Yes
- Network: GSM, CDMA
- Bands: 800, 850, 900, 1800, 1900
- High-Speed Data: GPRS, 1xRTT, EDGE, EVDO
- Processor Speed: 400 MHz
- Special Features: Music
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