At CTIA this year, ZTE showed its AT&T Avail, an entry-level Android smartphone for its prepaid service.
While its bulky build, ordinary design, and 3.5-inch display won't impress any of your friends, this handset has all the basics covered: it supports 3G data, has a 5-megapixel camera, and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
As a prepaid AT&T GoPhone, the Avail also comes commitment-free. Alone, it goes for $119, and unlimited texting and calling will cost $50 a month. In addition, data will be extra, with the highest payment option right now being $25 for 500MB. Though some might be put off by its low specs, the Avail is reliable and operates smoothly. It's a no-muss, no-fuss device that should do well for anyone who wants something simple but solidly built.
Design
I was initially struck by how bulky the Avail felt in my hand. It's not the sleekest thing around, measuring 4.57 inches tall, 2.46 inches wide, and a half an inch thick and weighing 4.48 ounces. Though it can fit in front or back jeans pockets, it is a snug fit.
Size does have its benefits, however: the Avail is sturdy. I dropped it a couple of times on soft carpet and threw it around in my bag and it held up with no noticeable scratches or dents. The handset's made out of a coated matte plastic that I like. This material keeps fingerprints off, and gives the whole product a slightly more luxurious feel than smooth, glossy plastic.
The AT&T Avail's matte coating keeps fingerprints off.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
On the left side is a Micro-USB port and up top are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a sleep/power button. To the right are a volume rocker and a small slit for the output speaker.
At the back left corner is a 5-megapixel camera. Using your fingernail and a small indentation on the bottom right corner, you can pry off the back plate. Inside are a 1,500mAh battery, a GoPhone SIM card slot, and a microSD slot that is expandable up to 32GB.
Above the 3.5-inch TFT display is an in-ear speaker and below it are three physical buttons for menu, home, and back. The screen has a 320x480-pixel resolution and is responsive; it was sensitive to my touch when I swiped through the app drawer, unlocked the screen, and texted using XT9, which the phone is equipped with.
Unfortunately, the resolution wasn't so stellar. Menu icons had aliasing around the edges, text didn't look smooth, and default wallpaper images were grainy. Colors looked bright, however, and YouTube videos in HQ were passable.
Features
The AT&T Avail is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which can execute basic tasks -- like transitioning back to the six home screen pages, or switching from landscape to portrait mode -- without any hiccups. More complicated actions, like playing games and operating the camera, also ran smoothly, but the device did take a few seconds to open this type of larger app.
The handset runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is stocked with some of your standard Google apps. These include: Google Books, Gmail, Search, Latitude, Maps with Navigation, Places, Talk, Play Store, and YouTube. There are also four AT&T-branded apps, too. One is a bar code scanner, another is AT&T's native map app, the third is AT&T Social Net (which consolidates all your social networking updates into one feed), and finally there is A&T's Mobile Care app.
Additional features include an app to check your data intake; Docs to Go, which lets you view and access Microsoft Office files; Facebook; a native music player and music store; two games (NFS Shift and Uno); a video player; a live TV portal; Twitter; and the Yellow Pages app. There are also several basic task-managing apps like an alarm clock, Bluetooth, a Web browser, a calculator, a calendar, an e-mail client, a new and weather app, a sound recorder, a stopwatch, and voice search.
The camera features a few photo options. In addition to a 2.5x digital zoom, an autofocus, and geotagging capabilities, it has an exposure meter (ranging from +2 to -2); four picture sizes (from 1 to 5 megapixels); three picture qualities (super fine, fine, and normal); four color effects (none, mono, sepia, and negative); five ISO options (auto, and then a range from 100 to 800 ISO); five white balances (auto, incandescent, daylight, fluorescent, and cloudy); an antibanding feature; and five different levels of saturation, contrast, and sharpness.
The AT&T Avail features a 5-megapixel camera.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
If you want to record video, you can choose from the same four color effects and white-balance options. You can also choose between four video qualities (VGA, CIF, QVGA, or QCIF), three types of video encoding (MPEG4, H263, H264), two types of audio encoding (AMRNB or AAC), and three recording lengths (up to 40 seconds, 10 minutes, or 30 minutes). If you're not sure about any of these options, you can choose from four video quality presets (High, Low, MMS, and YouTube) that'll automatically adjust all these options for you.
Performance
I tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) AT&T Avail in San Francisco using AT&T's network. Signal quality was solid. There was no extraneous buzzing or static, no dropped calls, and no audio clipping in and out. Sound quality, however, was average. Though voices were audible and I could understand what my friends on the other end of the line were saying, the sound was really muffled. They spoke as if they had a thin piece of cloth over the receiver, and I asked them a couple of times to repeat themselves. Though increasing the volume helped a bit, they still sounded muffled. I was told that I sounded similar -- I was easily understandable, but my voice was damped.
Output audio quality was great, however. Perhaps because the speaker is on the side of the phone, and therefore sound doesn't reverberate off the back plate, sound was surprisingly rich when playing music and talking to my friends. Aside from the tingy bass, audio was loud and detailed. Sounds like water running and fire crackling from YouTube videos sounded nuanced and clear.
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While its bulky build, ordinary design, and 3.5-inch display won't impress any of your friends, this handset has all the basics covered: it supports 3G data, has a 5-megapixel camera, and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
As a prepaid AT&T GoPhone, the Avail also comes commitment-free. Alone, it goes for $119, and unlimited texting and calling will cost $50 a month. In addition, data will be extra, with the highest payment option right now being $25 for 500MB. Though some might be put off by its low specs, the Avail is reliable and operates smoothly. It's a no-muss, no-fuss device that should do well for anyone who wants something simple but solidly built.
Design
I was initially struck by how bulky the Avail felt in my hand. It's not the sleekest thing around, measuring 4.57 inches tall, 2.46 inches wide, and a half an inch thick and weighing 4.48 ounces. Though it can fit in front or back jeans pockets, it is a snug fit.
Size does have its benefits, however: the Avail is sturdy. I dropped it a couple of times on soft carpet and threw it around in my bag and it held up with no noticeable scratches or dents. The handset's made out of a coated matte plastic that I like. This material keeps fingerprints off, and gives the whole product a slightly more luxurious feel than smooth, glossy plastic.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
On the left side is a Micro-USB port and up top are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a sleep/power button. To the right are a volume rocker and a small slit for the output speaker.
At the back left corner is a 5-megapixel camera. Using your fingernail and a small indentation on the bottom right corner, you can pry off the back plate. Inside are a 1,500mAh battery, a GoPhone SIM card slot, and a microSD slot that is expandable up to 32GB.
Above the 3.5-inch TFT display is an in-ear speaker and below it are three physical buttons for menu, home, and back. The screen has a 320x480-pixel resolution and is responsive; it was sensitive to my touch when I swiped through the app drawer, unlocked the screen, and texted using XT9, which the phone is equipped with.
Unfortunately, the resolution wasn't so stellar. Menu icons had aliasing around the edges, text didn't look smooth, and default wallpaper images were grainy. Colors looked bright, however, and YouTube videos in HQ were passable.
Features
The AT&T Avail is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which can execute basic tasks -- like transitioning back to the six home screen pages, or switching from landscape to portrait mode -- without any hiccups. More complicated actions, like playing games and operating the camera, also ran smoothly, but the device did take a few seconds to open this type of larger app.
The handset runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is stocked with some of your standard Google apps. These include: Google Books, Gmail, Search, Latitude, Maps with Navigation, Places, Talk, Play Store, and YouTube. There are also four AT&T-branded apps, too. One is a bar code scanner, another is AT&T's native map app, the third is AT&T Social Net (which consolidates all your social networking updates into one feed), and finally there is A&T's Mobile Care app.
Additional features include an app to check your data intake; Docs to Go, which lets you view and access Microsoft Office files; Facebook; a native music player and music store; two games (NFS Shift and Uno); a video player; a live TV portal; Twitter; and the Yellow Pages app. There are also several basic task-managing apps like an alarm clock, Bluetooth, a Web browser, a calculator, a calendar, an e-mail client, a new and weather app, a sound recorder, a stopwatch, and voice search.
The camera features a few photo options. In addition to a 2.5x digital zoom, an autofocus, and geotagging capabilities, it has an exposure meter (ranging from +2 to -2); four picture sizes (from 1 to 5 megapixels); three picture qualities (super fine, fine, and normal); four color effects (none, mono, sepia, and negative); five ISO options (auto, and then a range from 100 to 800 ISO); five white balances (auto, incandescent, daylight, fluorescent, and cloudy); an antibanding feature; and five different levels of saturation, contrast, and sharpness.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
If you want to record video, you can choose from the same four color effects and white-balance options. You can also choose between four video qualities (VGA, CIF, QVGA, or QCIF), three types of video encoding (MPEG4, H263, H264), two types of audio encoding (AMRNB or AAC), and three recording lengths (up to 40 seconds, 10 minutes, or 30 minutes). If you're not sure about any of these options, you can choose from four video quality presets (High, Low, MMS, and YouTube) that'll automatically adjust all these options for you.
Performance
I tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) AT&T Avail in San Francisco using AT&T's network. Signal quality was solid. There was no extraneous buzzing or static, no dropped calls, and no audio clipping in and out. Sound quality, however, was average. Though voices were audible and I could understand what my friends on the other end of the line were saying, the sound was really muffled. They spoke as if they had a thin piece of cloth over the receiver, and I asked them a couple of times to repeat themselves. Though increasing the volume helped a bit, they still sounded muffled. I was told that I sounded similar -- I was easily understandable, but my voice was damped.
Output audio quality was great, however. Perhaps because the speaker is on the side of the phone, and therefore sound doesn't reverberate off the back plate, sound was surprisingly rich when playing music and talking to my friends. Aside from the tingy bass, audio was loud and detailed. Sounds like water running and fire crackling from YouTube videos sounded nuanced and clear.
View the original article here
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