Samsung Rant M540

The Rant is "nearly a dead ringer for the LG Rumor," says Laptop Magazine. Both are inexpensive texting phones with great multimedia functionality, but reviewers agree that the Rant outdoes the Rumor on most counts and at a better price. For starters, the Rant has a slightly bigger and better slide-out full QWERTY keyboard that has four versus three rows of keys. The keys are more sensitive, with a rubbery feel that prevents slippage. This makes for fast and accurate typing, although the navigation keys are a bit awkward. On the multimedia front, the Rant has a similar 2.1-inch display of 176 by 220 pixels, a basic MP3 player, a 2.5-mm (nonstandard) earphone jack, and a 2-megapixel camera with a camcorder that is better than the Rumor's 1.3-megapixel unit. While reviewers say these features are an upgrade from the Rumor, the Rant is still no match for premium smartphones like the Apple iPhone 3G or BlackBerry Curve that have full-fledged VGA screens and more formidable hardware.

The biggest difference between the Rant and Rumor lies inside: the Rant has greater expandable memory -- up to 16 GB via microSD slot versus 4 GB -- as well as GPS, Bluetooth and EVDO network speed. The Rant's GPS keeps pace with the iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1, but with less-stellar maps. Sprint's EVDO network supports high data-transfer rates for corporate and personal email, text and picture messaging, instant messaging with AOL, MSN and Yahoo, plus Sprint TV, movies, radio and music. The Rant is also one of the first devices with Sprint's One Click interface, which displays icons to popular web sites so they are just a click away. Unfortunately, the Rant does not have Wi-Fi, and its web browser does not do EVDO justice. The browser frequently locks up or displays partial page content, making for a "painful" browsing experience by PCMag.com standards.

CNET users agree and are likewise disappointed with the Rant's short battery life. Choppy video downloads and weak call reception are common, although the jury is out on whether these are due to the device or Sprint's network, which ranks lowest in major user surveys of cell-phone carriers conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, PCMag and Consumer Reports. Still, the experts enthusiastically recommend the Rant for its impressive functionality at a bargain price.