Samsung Stratosphere sports Mobile 2011

Verizon first started selling 4G LTE smartphones way back in March, but the new Samsung Stratosphere is its first offering with a slide-out keyboard. If you want 4G speeds on Verizon and a full QWERTY, this is it. This $149 device has a lot else going for it too, including a brilliant Super AMOLED screen and a sharp 5-MP camera. However, the Stratosphere does require some trade-offs versus higher-end Android phones on the carrier. Read on to find out if this slider is for you.

Design

Nearly identical to Samsung's Epic 4G on sprint, the Samsung Stratosphere sports a familiar, but attractive look with its rounded edges, glossy screen, dark silver sides, and textured gray back. In everyday use, we found the textured back easy to grip but the glossy sides a little slippery, so be careful how you hold the phone.

At 5 x 2.5 x .6 inches and 5.8 ounces, the Stratosphere is similar in size to the 4.3-inch Droid Bionic (5 x 2.6 x.4, 5.6 ounces) and the 4-inch screen Motorola Droid 3 (4.9 x 2.5 x 0.5, 5.9 ounches). The T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide (4.8 x 2.4 x 0.5, 6.5 ounces) is a little smaller but heavier. Upgrading to the extended battery adds both weight (1.1 ounces) and thickness to the device (.2 inches). It's borderline embarassing, but as you'll find out below you'll probably need this add-on.

Keyboard

The Stratosphere's 5-row QWERTY keyboard is the real star of the show. The generously-spaced, curved keys provided excellent tactile feedback whether we were typing e-mails, entering notes using the bundled memo application, or simply searching in the browser. We appreciated the keyboard's dedicated number row and its ability to enter the text ".com" when we hit Fn + . key. However, we wish that the question mark and the @ symbol had dedicated keys so we did not have to hold down Fn every time we needed these frequently-used symbols.