Samsung Sunburst
Key specs
Critic consensus
“We rarely witness a cell phone design that is truly different from our general understanding of how such a device should look. Over the years, we have come to think that Samsung is among these few companies that have affinity to experiment to a certain extent with the design of their handsets. The Samsung BEAT DJ immediately comes to mind here. Now, we are seeing just that happening in the U.S., with the new Samsung Sunburst that has recently made its appearance with AT&T. The Sunburst is one of those cell phones, which look truly unique, when placed next to the other offerings of the same class. Let's see if there's something more to it than meets the eye.”
“At first glance, the Samsung Sunburst for AT&T looks like a compelling feature phone: it's small, pocketable, and has a chic, youthful look to it. While I appreciated the phone's industrial design and good call quality, its quirky touchscreen keyboard, and mediocre multimedia performance left me feeling a bit sour. Best for kids and teens, the Sunburst shouldn't be picked up by anyone that wants to surf the web or use their phone for serious texting.”
“The Samsung Sunburst has a pretty face and great design for a simple tablet phone, but I'd have a hard time recommending it. The unresponsive touchscreen caused problems in almost every application and made the phone much less fun to use. I have almost nothing good to say about the TouchWIZ interface, except that it offers a large number of widgets. Still, placing the widgets onscreen and managing all those functions can be annoying since TouchWIZ seems so poorly designed for the small screen. Even in basic tasks, the Sunburst comes up short. Call quality was just okay, and getting contacts onto the phone can be a nightmare without any sync options. Messaging features are as basic as they come, the Sunburst doesn't even get AT&T's most recent text messaging application, let alone a good, diverse IM client or a free email option.”
Watch before you decide
In Depth
Samsung has long been a prolific producer of cell phones, and somehow manages to make each device special in its own right. Most of the time they nail it, and the Sunburst is one such occasion.
The Samsung Sunburst is a GSM candy bar phone with a unique, soft-looking form factor. Unlike its rectangular counterparts, the Sunburst has a curved, almost oval shape, that appears to taper slightly toward the bottom, an illusion resulting from a thoughtful two-tone paint job.
The Sunburst boasts a 3-inch touch screen. If you need a bigger screen you’ll have to consider a netbook. Add a 3MP camera, video record, expandable memory, stereo Bluetooth, MP3 player and a moderate-sized rocket launcher (okay I made up the rocket launcher), and you have a sexy, fun and definitely competent cell phone.
Samsung is very careful to make each device it produces subscribe to a well-articulated target group. In this case, the demographic is rather large, ranging from teens who want to text and customize their phone to young professionals, who need access to email, turn by turn directions and additional downloadable content.
But Samsung did pull back on the horsepower of the Sunburst, and that is what keeps it from being a full-blown smartphone. It’s 200 MHz processor is far below what you’ll find in an iPhone or BlackBerry, however, more than enough to allow you to drive through all the features that it has to offer.
If you want a touch screen backed by a solid manufacturer that allows you to text, MMS, listen to music, take a picture, video record and event, provide directions, and more, the Sunburst is one phone to consider.
One word of caution. Lacking a full, real QWERTY keypad, you will want to test the virtual keypad to be sure it is to your liking. Keep in mind you’ll probably have this phone for some time and want to be sure the touch screen is responsive enough to meet your needs.
That said, the Samsung Sunburst is a solid device worth a serious look.
What people actually want to know
When was the Samsung Sunburst released?
The Samsung Sunburst was released on March 15, 2010.
How long does the battery last on the Samsung Sunburst?
The Samsung Sunburst has a 1,000 mAh battery.
Where can I get support for the Samsung Sunburst?
Visit Samsung's official support page for warranty info, repairs, and troubleshooting.
Where can I download the Samsung Sunburst manual?
You can view and download the Samsung Sunburst manual on our dedicated manual page.
Questions & answers
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