I really like the on-screen keyboards for texting. There are two, one when holding the phone in the vertical position and another in the horizontal position. The keys on one keyboard are set up alphabetically and the other is set up like a standard computer keyboard. Switching from one to another is as simple as rotating the phone back and forth. The built-in speaker is one of the better ones I’ve used and the camera is outstanding. The shutter can be activated by pressing the primary entry button near the bottom of the camera’s face plate and also by a chrome bar on the right side of the camera, right below the security lock/unlock bar. One drawback is the shutter can be inadvertently activated by the side bar very easily. It would be better placed elsewhere.

This phone has a number of pop-out features. After watching the video, I was especially looking forward to using the slide menu that pops out from the left side of the screen. However, I’d describe this feature as one of those “works in the video, but not when to try it at home” items. The sliding menu does scroll, but it usually ends up opening a menu item by accident in the process. I pretty much ignore it now and get to my destination through other means. The independent toggle scrolling feature installed around the primary entry button located just under the bottom of the screen makes this very easy.

This is certainly not a top of the line cell phone, but it’s a definite improvement over my last flip phone. If there is a bad feature, it has to be the User Guide. It is so limited in what it covers that it is essentially useless. One example, my service allows me to have five numbers to friends & family (MyFaves) with unlimited minutes/texting to those people. However, the instructions in the Getting Started book are again…useless. I’ve tried to set my favorites up with personalized pictures without success.

I also chose to protect the phone by purchasing a soft rubber case and applying protective film over the glass screen. Both are pretty easy to apply and really provide extra protection. They’re not that expensive and highly recommended.

The T-Mobile Tap Blue is still a winner in my book.

Rating: 5 / 5

Pros: Quality build. It just feels GOOD in your hand, like it’s solid and isn’t waiting to spring the battery cover off in your pocket

extremely potent, (but tinny) built in speaker.

decent access capabilities, like browser and gps.

All the major installed apps seem to work pretty well, [...] works fine on the default browser, etc.

Cons: murky touch response. sometimes you’ll need to type a bit slower to let it keep up, especially in higher processing requirements like

browsing online or long texts.

default browser is crap.

“sleep” button goes off quite easily, and its right beside the camera button, so you may find a lot of images of the inside of your pocket.

as of this writing, there is almost zero 3rd party software support. Can’t seem to get Opera Mini to work on it.

can’t move installed apps to taskbar/desktop areas, have to go through java menus to access all your stuff.

It’s not perfect, and it’s not a replacement for a serious mobile device like Blackberry, iPhone, whatever, but for what it is and it’s intent, it definitely exceeds that. I gave it a 3 because its SUPPOSED to be an average low budget phone with good features, so I rated it as such. But don’t read that as it’s not a worthy device, if you want mobile access to the internet, a touchscreen with a decent built in mp3 player, and a few other toys like GPS (that only seems to work in 3G areas naturally) then I would heartily recommend this.
Rating: 3 / 5