The MyShot's navigation array consists of two soft keys, a round toggle with a middle Menu/OK key, plus the Send, Clear, and End/Power keys. The toggle also doubles as shortcuts to the contacts list, MetroPCS's @metro portal, the messaging menu, and the Web browser. The navigation array plus the keypad are arranged in tiered bumps, making it easy to dial, text, and navigate. However, there's little textural difference between each key, so we still wouldn't recommend dialing by feel. Also, we would've appreciated a dedicated speakerphone key, or a dedicated voice command key, just to make it easier to access those features.
Features
The MyShot has pretty midrange features, which is to be expected from a phone in its price range. It comes with a 500-entry contacts list, with room in each entry for five numbers, and an e-mail address. You can organize them into caller groups, pair them with a photo for caller ID, as well as one of 16 polyphonic ringtones and alerts. Other features include text and multimedia messaging, a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, voice command, a calendar, a memo pad, an alarm clock, world time clock, a calculator, a stop watch, a unit converter, and a tip calculator. For the slightly more advanced, there's also Bluetooth and a wireless Web browser.
Though the phone is called the MyShot, don't expect stellar pictures from this handset. The 1.3-megapixel camera is good enough for decent quick photos, but photo quality was decidedly mediocre, with an overcast look and slight blurriness. You can take pictures in five resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120, and a Picture ID mode which will presumably be around 96x96 to fit in the external display), three quality settings, five white balance presets, 11 fun frames, and four color effects. Other camera settings include a self-timer, a night mode, a multishot option, and three shutter sounds (plus a silent option). The MyShot has an internal memory of 20MB, which isn't enough for too many images.
You have a few personalization options with the MyShot. You can customize it with a selection of wallpapers and ringtones, which you can also download from MetroPCS's @metro data services portal. The MyShot doesn't come with any games, though.
Performance
We tested the tri-mode (CDMA 850/1700/1900) Samsung MyShot in San Francisco using the MetroPCS service. Call quality was excellent--callers thought we were calling from a landline, and they too came in loud and clear with plenty of volume. Speakerphone calls were quite good, too, though callers did report more echo and noise in the background, but that's to be expected. We paired the MyShot with the Samsung WEP350 Bluetooth headset without a problem.
The MyShot has a rated battery life of 3 hours talk time and 13.5 days. We had a tested talk time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. According to the FCC radiation tests, it has a SAR rating of 0.789 watts per kilogram.
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