T-Mobile Pulse Mobile Phone Review - An Android Budget Phone With Definite Promise

The T-Mobile Pulse is one of the latest in affordable Android phones. Cute, small, and decently equipped, it blows a lot of similarly priced phones out of the water in terms of features. However, is it truly well designed enough satisfy?

Appearance-wise, the Pulse certainly doesn't look like a budget phone. Encased in classy black plastic with a high gloss, it definitely looks much more expensive than it is. At 106g, it's fairly tiny without feeling fragile. We like its finger friendly trackpad as well as the two simple, pressable buttons on its front.

Alas, its 2.8 inch resistive touchscreen may be a bit irritating for some. Along with being difficult to navigate, its resolution is also depressingly low. While it's not impossible to use, you'll likely need a stylus in order to do anything quickly.

It runs on the 2.1 Android operating system. While not the most modern version of this OS, it is nevertheless pretty well developed for a phone of its price. One of its biggest advantages is its fifteen different homesceens. Considering its small screen, this gives you an advantage if you're someone who needs a lot of widgets in an confined space. Alas, the phone simply wasn't designed with speed in mind—run more than a few programs and you'll find it's quite sluggish.

When it comes to staying connected online, the phone is fairly well equipped, with Bluetooth, wi-fi, 3G, HDSPA, and many others. This might not seem like much to those accustomed to high end phones, but anyone who's gone searching for a quality budget phone will tell you that finding one with wi-fi and 3G is a godsend. Alas, its screen doesn't make texting or typing very easy, however. Having Android means you get a wealth of Google related goodies, such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, and more. Its dated software means that it's not compatible with a lot of the newer apps in the Android Market, but there are still plenty available for consideration. Other goodies include GPS, which allows you to navigate through unfamiliar areas, as well as a decent email client and a variety of downloadable games.

Its media related goodies are pretty basic. You do get a 3.5 mm headphone jack, which lets you use your own headphones for listening to music, and its overall sound quality is good. However, its 3.2 megapixel camera is quite shoddy. Along with producing hitchy, jerky videos, its photos come out looking grainy and washed out regardless of the lighting. Alternatives for the T-mobile Pulse are Vodafone Smart, HTC Wildfire S and more for mobile phone comparison.

When you consider its smallish screen and lack of complicated, battery draining features, you would think that its battery life would be longer. Unfortunately, we found ourselves charging quite a bit, especially when we used the phone heavily. Turning off wi-fi or disabling widgets that you're not using can help stretch your battery life, however.

Conclusion:

The T-Mobile Pulse isn't the best budget phone on the market, but it's certainly not the worst either. Its attractive, tiny shape, handy trackpad, reliable internet, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and 2.1 Android OS all make it worth considering. However, its mediocre camera, resistive screen, and other botch ups may be too much for some users to be able to ignore. This Android Phone is a great all in all, it's worth consideration, but keep in mind that there are better equipped phones at similar prices.