T-Mobile Prism

The T-Mobile Prism ?could've been a contender?if it was still the beginning of 2011, that is. Aside from a mediocre camera, there isn't anything terribly wrong with the Prism. It has pretty good call quality and a nice design that feels comfortable to hold. But its specs are better suited to an entry-level smartphone?released well over a year ago. You can do much better than the Prism now, for not a lot more money.

Design and Call Quality
Made by Huawei (though you'd only know that by peeking under the battery cover), the Prism measures 4.6 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.4 ounces. It's comfortable to hold and a very good size if you don't like huge phones. The back panel is made entirely of dark gray rubberized plastic, with a shiny gray plastic ring surrounding the all-glass display on the front. The 3.5-inch capacitive touch LCD sports a standard 480-by-320-pixel resolution. It's not going to wow you, but it looks fine and gets the job done. The on-screen keyboard is large enough and I was able to type on it without an issue.

The Prism is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band HSPA 7.2 (1700/2100 MHz) device with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. It also supports T-Mobile's UMA-based Wi-Fi calling, which is a good way to save some money on your phone plan and a nice fallback in areas where network coverage is lacking. The Prism can be used as a mobile hotspot with the appropriate data plan.

Reception is average, and voice quality is pretty good. Voices sound nice and full in the phone's earpiece, though maximum volume is still a bit low. Calls made with the phone sound clear, if a touch computerized, with good noise cancellation. Calls also sounded fine through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked well over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone sounds fine, but is far too low to use outdoors. Wi-Fi-based calls sounded good as well. Battery life was average, at 6 hours and 1 minute of talk time.

Android and Apps
The Prism runs Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) with some very minor customizations from Huawei. There's no word on an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but it isn't likely. There are five customizable home screens you can swipe between that come preloaded with a number of apps and widgets. There's also some non-deletable bloatware, about on par with that you'll find on most other Android devices nowadays. You get free Google Maps Navigation for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions, along with a built-in FM radio. The phone should also work with many of the 400,000+ third-party apps in the Google Play store.

Unfortunately, all of this is powered by a thoroughly out-of-date 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7627 processor. The Prism turned in some of the lowest benchmark scores we've seen in quite some time, and you can really feel that while using the phone. Even paging between home screens or scrolling through the app menu can feel stilted. You can count this phone out for gaming, since even basic tasks can be slow.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The Prism comes with 149MB of free internal memory along with a preinstalled 2GB microSD card; my 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine as well. There's a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack on top of the phone, and music sounded fine through both wired earbuds as well as?Altec Lansing Backbeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). The phone was able to play AAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV test files, but not FLAC or WMA. Video support wasn't as strong. The phone was only able to play back H.264 and MP4 test files at resolutions up to 800-by-480, but at that resolution, they were somewhat stuttered.

The 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera lacks a flash or autofocus. Shutter speeds are slow at 1.2 seconds. Photos snapped lack detail, and colors look a bit muddy. The camera also records 800-by-480-pixel video at a shaky 19 frames per second outdoors and 16 frames per second inside.

The T-Mobile Prism isn't a terrible phone; there just isn't much of a reason to buy it. For only $10 more, the Samsung Exhibit II 4G?($29.99, 3.5 stars) gets you a faster 1GHz processor, and a nicer 3.7-inch 800-by-480-pixel display. It also runs on T-Mobile's much faster HSPA+ 21 network. Meanwhile, $50 will get you either the T-Mobile myTouch?($49.99, 3.5 stars) or the T-Mobile myTouch Q?($49.99, 3.5 stars). The myTouch features a nice 3.8-inch AMOLED display and a 1GHz processor, while the myTouch Q sports the same 1GHz processor and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Each of those phones will offer a much smoother experience than the Prism. Or for something completely different, the Nokia Lumia 710?($39.99, 3.5 stars) is running the easy-to-use Windows 7.5 "Mango" operating system, is powered by a fast 1.4GHz processor, and runs on T-Mobile's faster HSPA+ 14.4 network.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 6 hours 1 minute

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