Microsoft Kin Two Review

 
DESIGN & BUILD

The Kin Two is a sleekly built phone that sports a 3.4-inch touch screen display and a comfortable slide-down QWERTY keyboard that tucks away when not in use. It fits comfortably in the hand and the build is well-done: The surfaces are smooth and scratch resistant, the buttons sturdy and responsive to the touch.

The case itself only comes in a dark grey color called carbon.

While the phone feels sturdy overall, the keyboard does slide out very easily, giving the phone a slightly wobbly feel in hand.

Display
The screen 320 x 480 pixel screen capacitive touch screen is vivid and holds up well at even wide angles. While the colors wash out in direct sunlight, the fonts are still legible enough for basic operation.

The screen was also responsive and accurate when it came to input: Even with a lot of buttons on the screen, precisely picking out the right point was easy, and many functions support multitouch gestures well, from zooming in on a webpage or picture to quickly rearranging icons or deleting e-mails en masse.

Alongside all the praise, I also need to note the presence of one bright red "dead" pixel that flawed the otherwise solid picture. While distracting and a poor indicator of quality control, I imagine Verizon customers could exchange similarly marred phones under warranty.

Keyboard
They keyboard was spacious and comfortable, with plenty of room between the individually raised keys to avoid typos and excessive button fumbling. There are also dedicated keys to make a call, perform a search and quickly insert an emoticon, the character-based smiley faces that dot youth conversations.

The keyboard sports distinct and responsive buttons, which is a good thing because the phone doesn't support even basic autocorrect or autosuggest. The only other minor quibble with the keyboard is that more dedicated buttons could have been included with all the space; Including dedicated buttons for punctuation or digits, for example, would have eliminated some common frustrations.

There is no onscreen virtual keyboard.

Aside from the slide-down keyboard, the phone also has a few dedicated buttons, including a volume rocker that intelligently switches between media and the phone ringer; a camera button that lets you quickly capture a photo or video; and a lock screen button.