Samsung Eternity

The Eternity has all the hallmarks of a touch screen phone. It has a rectangular candy bar shape with a slim profile (4.3 inches by 2.2 inches by 0.5 inch) and a large display. The Eternity is 3.88 ounces, a bit lighter than some of its counterparts, but it retains a sturdy feel in the hand. The black color scheme is simple but attractive we like the glossy material that surrounds the display and the shiny metal spines.

Our only gripe concerns the plastic battery cover a metal cover is preferable. At 3.2 inches the Eternity's display falls between the Instinct and the Behold in size. It should make it adequate for most users, whether you're browsing menus or typing on the virtual keyboard. It's also bright and vibrant with support for 262.000 colors (400x240 pixels). Photos and graphics were sharp and the text is readable.

You can change the brightness, the back lighting time, and the font type. Below the display sit three physical keys. Talk and End buttons and a back key. They're a tad slick, but it's a minor issue. The touch interface is responsive and easy to use, though you can adjust the calibration if you have problems. We had no issues selecting items and scrolling through long menus. The vibrating feedback is helpful, and you can adjust its intensity.

Like the other Samsung phones in its class, the Eternity shows Samsung's unique and accessible TouchWiz interface.

AT&T added some of its own widgets including a shortcut for the Mobile TV application. Check out our Behold review for a full description of TouchWiz.

There's a second shortcut bar at the bottom of the display that gives one touch access to the phone dialer, your contacts list, and the main menu.

And speaking of which, the menu comes in an icon or list design. Both are intuitive with a variety of easily accessible features. The phone dialer has large alphanumeric buttons. You can access your contacts list and send a message with the touch of one shortcut. When on a call, it's just as easy to activate the speaker phone. The virtual QWERTY keyboard is similar to those on the other Samsung touch screen handsets.

It offers separate keyboards for letters and number or symbols but the Eternity adds a third keyboard for emoticons. Though all keyboards take full advantage of the display, here again the allotted space for typing your message is rather small. But on the upside, the dedicated punctuation keys are handy, and we like how easy it is to deactivate the predictive text and to change to French and Spanish menus.

And thanks to the Eternity's accelerometer, you can change to the standard alphanumeric keypad or a graffiti application simply by rotating the phone. Though on the whole it's a user friendly experience, we didn't like how you're restricted to using the alphanumeric keypad when entering message recipients. That keypad has dedicated shift and space keys, but we don't think you should use a multitap interface unless you absolutely have to do so.