Lift off with the Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II (pictures)
Currently sporting a $129.99 price tag, the Stratosphere II is a messaging phone from Verizon with a 5-megapixel camera, a dual-core processor, and 4G LTE.
Lynn La
Lynn La covers mobile reviews and news. She previously wrote for The Sacramento Bee, Macworld and The Global Post.
The 4-inch Super AMOLED display has a 800x480-pixel resolution. Though the screen is bright and responsive, colors can appear oversaturated, especially for blue and green hues.
The handset is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a 1,800mAh battery, which has a reported talk time of 17 hours when 3G is enabled and 15 hours with 4G.
The 5-megapixel camera includes photo features like a 4x digital zoom, four shooting modes (which include panorama and cartoon), four photo effects, and 14 scene modes.
The five-row keyboard is generously sized and the buttons are easy to press. The keyboard has four navigational arrows, and shortcuts for opening up messages, search, and Web browsing.
The handset measures 4.97 inches tall and 2.58 inches wide, and due to its sliding keyboard underneath, has a thick 0.53-inch profile. At 5.43 ounces, it's on the heavy side, with a dense, solid construction.
