Verizon Blitz Review

I am a very picky person when it comes to certain things; one of those things happens to be cellphones. I got my first cellphone in 2004 as a necessity for my job and have had 5 or six phones in the past 4 years. Each phone has had different features and I have had issues with each one. I guess there isn't a perfect cellphone for me out there unless I design it my self.

Besides the flip phones I had the Audiovox XV6700 smartphone, the LG V (great phone), env2 and now the UTStarcom Blitz. I really hate flip phones since they are ergonomically uncomfortable for my hands but most phones with a full keyboard are kind of big. I liked the LG V because it had a full keyboard but you could to T9 on the front keypad and access 90% of the features on the front screen. I saw the env2 and really though it was great until I had owned it for a month or so.

Like another blogger, I too tried to like env2 but just couldn't. It's a sexy phone IMHO but biggest problem is the front screen. It's a messaging phone and you can't read or send messages of over 160 characters with T9 on the front screen. Nor can you read extended messages without flipping the phone open. This is ridiculous and seems pointless to have a front screen, at least with the people I text. My texting buddies (mainly my wife) send me mini emails via text and it got really annoying to open the phone every time to read it. I just couldn't open the phone easily and navigate with just one hand. Even if I could, I couldn't reply on the QWERTY keyboard with one hand.

The other beef is the fact that you can't read send messages from the front screen. Basically you can send short texts and dial with the phone closed. I'll just take this moment to state the fact that I HATE Verizon and think that Vcast and the mobile web is virtually useless. That said the env2s interior screen was of little value to me.

That rant leads me to my latest phone: the UTStarcom Blitz. I saw this phone on Verizon's website and decided to check it out. After watching and reading many reviews I decided against the common thought to give the Blitz a try. I had a mini fiasco buying the phone on eBay but that's another story. I have been using the phone for 3 days now and am very happy with it. 

My biggest two things are call quality and texting. The call quality is perfectly fine both with the handset and my bluetooth headset. I like that you can talk with the phone closed once you dial. It fit's in my hand nicely both open and closed.

Texting is a lot better than I expected it to be. I have rather large fingers and the QWERTY keyboard has the smallest buttons I have ever seen. I do make some mistakes but I am still getting used to the phone. The amount of mistakes aren't annoying enough to really bug me. I really like the fact that I can read incoming and sent messages all without opening the phone. If I do need to open the phone it slides open easily with one hand and surprisingly can send messages with one hand. Granted one hand QWERTY is probably not as fast as one handed T9 but it's not bad. 

The phone has dedicated camera and music buttons and Stereo Bluetooth capabilities. There is also a soft key shortcut to messaging. I do with the phone had video capabilities and allowed you to type peoples names in the message to box like the env2 but these things aren't enough for me to hate this phone. Overall it does what I need: allow me to make calls and text quickly and easily. 

I would recommend this phone for anyone looking for a good messaging and music phone as long as you don't plan to use the internet much (it lacks EVDO so browsing will be slow). It might be geared toward kids but it's a great phone for adults as well if you like to text.

Features at a glance:

1.3 Mp camera

VZnavigator

Mobile Email

QWERTY slide out keyboard

Music player

Speakerphone

Stereo bluetooth

I would rate this phone 4/5