I just received my VM Kyocera Rise this afternoon, and thought I'd post my thoughts on it. I previously had the VM LG Optimus Elite, which I liked but for $99 the Rise was worth checking out.
Here is my Summary:
Size: The rise is a Tad smaller compared to the Elite in overall Length. Very Similar to a deck of cards.
Weight: The Rise is a much heavier phone mostly due to the qwerty slide out keyboard. The phone itself feels pretty solid to me, but maybe a tad heavy for some peoples tastes. I personally prefer a little bit of weight in a phone.
Housing: The outside is a silver metallic finish, and contrary to other reviews I've read on the net I find it to be a nice looking solid phone. It's far from flashy, but it's a clean appearance.
Volume Buttons are on the left side like the Elite. The Usb port is on the left as opposed to the bottom like the elite. Headphone and power on buttons are opposite with the power on the top left, and the earphone jack on the right. There is a physical camera button on the lower right side.
Qwerty Sliding Keyboard. The Qwerty keyboard Slides into position fairly well. Mine is a bit stiff, but probably will wear in after some use. The four row keypad feels a bit cheap and is a membrane type. The keyboard is backlit and the keys are nice and bright. I wish there was a little more space above the top row as my thumbs hit the bottom of the touch screen when texting. I also
wish the spacebar was bigger as well, but Kyocera decided on including a "@" symbol to the left of the space bar. Overall, the phone feels good to hold in the hand when texting. The headphone jack feels a bit out of place at times due to the "bump out" in the house, but of course this is personal preference.
Display: The Displays look fairly similar IMO. The Elite is brighter when set to full brightness, the text looks a bit crisper on the Rise.
OS:Ice Cream Sandwich runs pretty smooth. The screen transitions seem to be a tad lagging, but nothing very noticeable.
AnTuTu Benchmarks: Here are the Benchmarks results.
Kyocera Rise: Overall Score: 3400
CPU:1027, GPU:1549, RAM:339, I/O:485
VS.
LG Optimus Elite:Overall Score: 3163
CPU:1002, GPU:1367, RAM:308, I/O:486
Phone Sound quality has been very good. I'd rate it a bit better than the Elite.
Accessories Included: USB A/C Adapter/USB Cord. Preinstalled 2GB SD Card.
First Impressions for this device are very good especially for an entry level ICS phone at this cheap $99 price point. I'll have to break it in a bit to see how it performs overall, but with a root exploit and custom recovery this phone could have great potential IMO.
I have yet to get a good feel for the Battery Life, but this phone does have a "Eco Mode" option that sets the Sleep/Display Brightness/WallPaper,Auto Sync/Haptic Feedback/Auto Rotate and GPS/BlueTooth options.
Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.
Here is my Summary:
Size: The rise is a Tad smaller compared to the Elite in overall Length. Very Similar to a deck of cards.
Weight: The Rise is a much heavier phone mostly due to the qwerty slide out keyboard. The phone itself feels pretty solid to me, but maybe a tad heavy for some peoples tastes. I personally prefer a little bit of weight in a phone.
Housing: The outside is a silver metallic finish, and contrary to other reviews I've read on the net I find it to be a nice looking solid phone. It's far from flashy, but it's a clean appearance.
Volume Buttons are on the left side like the Elite. The Usb port is on the left as opposed to the bottom like the elite. Headphone and power on buttons are opposite with the power on the top left, and the earphone jack on the right. There is a physical camera button on the lower right side.
Qwerty Sliding Keyboard. The Qwerty keyboard Slides into position fairly well. Mine is a bit stiff, but probably will wear in after some use. The four row keypad feels a bit cheap and is a membrane type. The keyboard is backlit and the keys are nice and bright. I wish there was a little more space above the top row as my thumbs hit the bottom of the touch screen when texting. I also
wish the spacebar was bigger as well, but Kyocera decided on including a "@" symbol to the left of the space bar. Overall, the phone feels good to hold in the hand when texting. The headphone jack feels a bit out of place at times due to the "bump out" in the house, but of course this is personal preference.
Display: The Displays look fairly similar IMO. The Elite is brighter when set to full brightness, the text looks a bit crisper on the Rise.
OS:Ice Cream Sandwich runs pretty smooth. The screen transitions seem to be a tad lagging, but nothing very noticeable.
AnTuTu Benchmarks: Here are the Benchmarks results.
Kyocera Rise: Overall Score: 3400
CPU:1027, GPU:1549, RAM:339, I/O:485
VS.
LG Optimus Elite:Overall Score: 3163
CPU:1002, GPU:1367, RAM:308, I/O:486
Phone Sound quality has been very good. I'd rate it a bit better than the Elite.
Accessories Included: USB A/C Adapter/USB Cord. Preinstalled 2GB SD Card.
First Impressions for this device are very good especially for an entry level ICS phone at this cheap $99 price point. I'll have to break it in a bit to see how it performs overall, but with a root exploit and custom recovery this phone could have great potential IMO.
I have yet to get a good feel for the Battery Life, but this phone does have a "Eco Mode" option that sets the Sleep/Display Brightness/WallPaper,Auto Sync/Haptic Feedback/Auto Rotate and GPS/BlueTooth options.
Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.