Microsoft KIN Two for Verizon Wireless Review
Saturday, May 29th, 2010The KIN devices have been out for a little while now, and we know that there’s many reviews out there already. In fact, SlashGear’s got a review from Chaim Gartenberg who, for all intents and purposes, fits right into Microsoft’s targeted demographic for these particular devices. But, here at SlashPhone, we wanted to bring you our own review, so that way you can make a more informed decision about the new handsets from Redmond. Are these the devices that teenagers the world over (or maybe just here in the States) have been waiting for? Or are they duds that pale in comparison to the smartphones they’re up against? Find out below.
The Body
The hardware of the KIN Two is both the device’s weakest link, and strong point, all rolled up into one confusing piece of gadgetry. We’ll start off with the bad news. While the main part of the device has a nice brushed plastic feel, it’s when you get to the touchscreen portion that things get pretty hairy. The KIN Two, like the KIN One, is a slider. It’s landscape format makes it easier for those that like to text to have access to a physical, full QWERTY keyboard, but in our tests, the slider is way too loose for its own good. Not that it’s going to fall off its rails in your pocket, but just trying to use the device in one hand makes it feel like it’ll squirm right out of your grip as you try to do anything.
Much like every other touchscreen-centric device on the market, the KIN Two’s 3.4-inch capacitive display takes up the most part of the handset’s front. Below the screen there’s a single button, which acts as the “back” button, and above the screen you can see where the embedded LED sits nicely next to the earpiece. Truth be told, while many believe the iPhone, and other touchscreen devices are attractive in their minimalist approach, the KIN Two does not gain from this lack of defining features. In fact, it looks similar to an iPhone and Nokia, if they were to combine. Unfortunately, we can’t say that the KIN Two is all that attractive.
While we’re talking about the screen, we’ll talk about its resolution. At 320×480 we weren’t expecting groundbreaking colors, but we have to admit that the KIN Two’s screen underwhelms. And that could very well be because of the colors, and the fact that Microsoft managed to tone them all way down. You’ll see a lot of uninteresting greens and blacks, and that’s about it. They did a good job of making sure that the color scheme made it throughout the entire User Interface, but we got bored real fast as we navigated through the phone. There’s just nothing all that interesting to look at. Also worth mentioning, though, is that the device has an accelerometer and proximity sensor as well.
Along the sides, you’ll find the microUSB port at the bottom, absolutely nothing along the left side, and a 3.5mm audio jack installed right at the center-top of the handset. Along the top-right is the power/lock button. What’s odd about this button, is that while it’s not necessarily flush with the handset itself, it’s right along the edge, and therefore it has a gentle curve. This makes it very, very hard to activate if you’re in a hurry. And each time we held the device in one hand and tried to activate the device, the screen would try to slide outward. It made for some very precarious situations where we thought we might lose the phone forever to a drop. And finally, along the right side of the KIN Two, you’ll find the protruding volume rockers which actually have really good travel and feedback (something else the power/lock button doesn’t have), and the physical camera button.
We have to take an aside for this last button, because Microsoft made it maddeningly difficult to use it. It’s some kind of strange mixture between flush and not, with the majority of the button hidden along the edge of the device, but one edge not. This doesn’t make it easy to use, and actually this is one time where we really, really weren’t happy with having a physical camera button.
The sliding function isn’t bad at all. There’s a spring assist, and it makes the device slide open quite easily. There’s no grinding of the plastic, thankfully, and no matter how many times we slid it open and closed, it didn’t seem to be getting worse in any way. And we’ve got to say, that’s a good thing, because what’s lying behind the touchscreen is well worth sliding the KIN Two open.
The physical keyboard is, simply put, surprising. We weren’t expecting to even remotely enjoy it, but right off the bat we found ourselves acclimated to its very unique presentation. Each key is a single, well-spaced round chicklet of a key. It’s honestly a remarkably featureless keyboard, but that works to the KIN’s advantage. There’s a dedicated period key, but you’ll have to hit the alternate key function (which is just a green button), to get to the comma. It’s a four-row keyboard, but the numbers do not have a row for themselves. There is also a dedicated key for smiley faces, search, and even the phone. We’re not sure why that phone key’s there, and we never once even thought about using it, but it’s there. The keyboard’s keys have very good feedback and travel, and typing on the KIN Two is fun and easy.
The hardware has a lot of little nagging features that degrade the overall score, but what it does right, it does really well. The slider, the keyboard, and the touchscreen itself are all features that we could honestly suggest to people, but unfortunately, it’s not all about the hardware. So, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at the software.
The Software
The KIN Two’s software isn’t Windows Phone 7. And it’s not a featurephone simple User Interface, either. It’s caught somewhere in the middle. A strange no-man’s-land, where the same block overlay that became so famous at the announcement of Windows Phone 7 months back is featured here on the KIN device, and yet is not nearly as intuitive or interesting as the software that’s not even officially released.
We will give the software one big check mark in the win column, though. They’ve got a great unlock screen. While many other manufacturers out there just focus on sliding something out of the way, or dragging your lock screen away, Microsoft made some strange, interactive page that you “turn” to unlock your phone. It’s strange at first, especially considering you don’t simply have to flick it up to the opposite corner to unlock. No, you can pull it up, at your own pace, or just move it all over the place. Basically, if you’re really, really bored, you can play with your lock screen. Nothing all that groundbreaking, sure, but it’s a little extra bonus that we started enjoying before too long.
Once you do get the KIN Two unlocked, you’ll be greeted with your initial homescreen, called Apps. This is where everything is segregated into its own block. You’ll find Email here, along with the Phone, Messaging, and your RSS Reader. If anything, this is perhaps not the most attractive or interesting homescreen out there, but we will say that it’s clean enough, and not too busy (graphically speaking) that we couldn’t ever find what we were looking for. And when you compare that to your next homescreen, The Loop, it looks downright fantastic.
First, we’ll say that The Loop is a great idea. In theory, at least. And while we’ve seen other manufacturers out there, like HTC for example, create dynamic and constantly updated feeds for Twitter and Facebook in the past, it would seem to us that Microsoft’s desire to be different and bold just backfired on them. It may just be going over our heads, but in our tests of the device, The Loop was just way too complicated. There’s honestly a lot going on. You’ve got background images of profiles from Facebook, Twitter, as well as KIN-supported sites like KIN Support and KIN Scoop. It’s just a hot mess that made us wish we could have a far more simple, well defined, and clean User Interface to get our social networking updates.
Part of that social networking theme is the KIN’s “The Spot.” It’s just this little dot at the bottom of your screen at all times, and it’s this dot that allows you to hold, drag and drop stuff that interests you into it. From there, it will automatically upload things to your KIN Studio (more on that in a moment). We have to give Microsoft credit for this part, because while you’re not able to upload images to Twitter directly, this is a great way to showcase your pictures, and whatever else you want to show off right from a desktop client. And, we do have to say that it’s really, really simple to do. All because the KIN does it for you, right after you drag and drop your item into that little spot.
Now, for the KIN Studio. As we just said, this is a cool feature. It’s a site that you access from a particular URL. Once there, you’ll sign into it with the same Microsoft account (like hotmail, for example) that you used to sign into the KIN Two, and it will automatically pull everything down from the cloud that you’ve uploaded from your phone. Not only that, but it will also pull all your contacts, text messages, and The Loop as well. The interface in the Studio is really nice, too. You’ve got a timeline right in the middle, showing you when you’re most active throughout the months, while right above that is your images cache. You’ll see live previews of them, until you click them and see close-ups. You’ll store your text messages, call logs, and photos right here, in the Studio. We like the fact that it’s all cloud-based, and while some people may not like the fact that their text messages can end up somewhere other than their phone, keep in mind that you pick and choose which messages to send to the Studio. It’s not all stored there automatically.
Probably the biggest part of the KIN Two is the fact that it has a Zune player inside, and can sync to the Zune Software. Basically, this means you’ve got one of the best personal music players you can have, right on your phone. To make it better, once you sync it up with the Zune Software, you’ll be able to sign up for a Zune Pass, which will give you unlimited access to as much music as you want, all for $14.99 per month. You’ll not only get unlimited downloads, but you’ll also get 10 DRM-free downloads each month, which you can keep all for youself.
The Browser is the other piece of the software we wanted to touch on, before we move on. We really didn’t care for it at all. It’s a full HTML browser, and it does have some interesting features, but for the most part we were just unimpressed with it. You can access all your favorite websites from the browser, that won’t be a problem, but don’t expect to see any Flash playing anywhere. The interesting aspect of the browser, though, is what happens after you put in a URL and make your way towards it. While other mobile browsers might hide the address bar, the KIN hide’s barely a quarter of it. So the web address is slightly cut off, as is the “favorite” and “refresh” options. You can still access them just fine, but it’s just a strange design feature that bothered us more than interested us.
If you do want to favorite a particular website, you’ll hit the star, and you’ll be provided two options: pin to apps (which is your initial homescreen), or to favorite it. If you choose the latter, it will make a weird LEGO shape, and put it up above the URL in a separate “shade” that will drop down once you access the address bar. Under the long part of the LEGO shape, will be the name of your favorite web site. We liked this feature at first, and thought it was a great way to add favorites, but it just melded into the strange design element that we don’t care for.
The software isn’t Windows Phone 7’s software, but it’s not just a featurephone’s, either. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing quite yet, even after plenty of time with the handset. While the initial homescreen is good in of itself, and provides easy access to your most used applications, it’s The Loop and the fact that it’s supposed to play such an integral part of the device’s function that really throws us for . . . Well, for a loop. The combination of ease-of-use and random messiness isn’t a welcomed interface.
Under the Hood
The KIN Two has a NVIDIA Tegra processor under the hood. Right there should be enough to tell you that the processor powering the handset is well equipped for whatever this device throws at it. Or, at least, that’s what it should tell you. We thought the same thing, and were pleasantly satisfied with that thought process, but only for a couple of days. And, truth be told, the phone runs just fine if you keep it to one orientation. Once you start switching from landscape to portrait, or portrait to landscape, the phone starts to lag just a bit. It’s nothing that completely breaks down the system or anything, but it’s enough that we noticed it more than a few times.
We were happy with Microsoft’s decision to include Tegra into the KIN Two, even before we got to use the device, and we’re still pleasantly pleased with that path. We have to admit to you that we saw some lag, but we’ll amend that to say, again, that it wasn’t nearly enough to ruin the experience, or make us tell you that this isn’t the phone you should get based on its innards. The KIN Two does very well for itself, and powers the handset on quite well.
The Camera
One of the stronger highlights of the KIN Two, the camera on the back of the device is of the 8MP variety. Furthermore, it features an LED flash, autofocus, and image stabilization. Sure, that may not be enough to top the best cameraphones out there, but the KIN Two has one feature that many, if not almost all of them, do not: 720p video recording. And it really is as every bit as good as it should be. Of course, you’re still recording the video from a cellphone camera, and that’s more than obvious while you’re recording, but it’s much, much better than not having the ability.
Taking still shots is good enough, and it’s probably one of the better cameraphones out there. The LED flash does admirably, but we would suggest not to completely depend on it if you need to take some snapshots in the dark. The autofocus is quick and accurate, and the zoom is good enough. Basically, while it’s rocking the 8MP, the camera really is just “good enough.” In all honesty, we wouldn’t have minded a little harder work on the camera from Microsoft, considering the social nature of the device itself, but it could be worse, so we’ll take what we can, when we can.
The Battery
The battery life on the KIN Two is the best feature of the phone. Hands down. With some medium text message usage, email pulling down from the cloud on a regular basis, pulling updates from Facebook and Twitter on a constant basis, as well as uploading things from The Spot to the Studio from time to time, as well as listening to music from the embedded Zune, the battery lasted well into the night hours of two days. We tested the device with just playing music, after giving it a full charge, and after a handful of hours listening to music, and not charging the battery at night, the KIN Two lasted three days. And pulling email, updating social networks, and uploading to the Studio, the battery managed to pull a full week for us.
As we’ve said in the past, battery usage and life expectancy is one of the hardest things to judge or review. It’s completely based on your usage, along with how you charge the device on a regular basis. You probably won’t get the same battery life that we did, or you might even get better. It all depends on how you use your phone.
In the End
The KIN prevails due to very exact things: the battery, Zune, the keyboard, and we’ll even include the KIN Studio. However, there’s enough issues with the aesthetics of the User Interface, and the fact that it’s caught somewhere between a featurephone and smartphone that detract from the overall appeal of the handset. Furthermore, it’s the prices that matter, too. Both the KIN One and KIN Two are available right now from Verizon Wireless. You’ll pay $49.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate; and the KIN Two will cost you $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. Additionally, you’ll need to pay Verizon Wireless’ smartphone data plan, every month, to take advantage of your KIN (meaning, it’s mandatory). That price is an extra $30 per month. We’re like everyone else and think that’s simply too steep for these devices.
