myTouch 4G

The myTouch 4G Slide is a well designed phone offering a spacious keyboard, a terrific camera, a fast processor and a Wi-Fi calling app that charges you voice minutes.
First, the good stuff. The phone’s showpiece is its 8-megapixel camera. It is still not a replacement for a quality point-and-shoot camera, but it is better than most phone cameras.
Part of the camera’s usefulness comes from its photo software controls. It has basic portrait, night and action modes, but also has a manual mode that allows you alter the exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpness. It also has an antishake setting to decrease the blur you might see in low-light photos.
Some of the camera features still need work, though. One is an H.D.R. setting for unevenly lighted subjects, like a room with sunlight pouring in the windows. It did not work very well in my tests. The camera also claims to have no shutter lag, so that it snaps the instant you touch the shutter button. It was quicker than most, but hardly at zero.
Also in the plus column, it has an expansive sliding keyboard with nicely raised keys in a case that is not absurdly thick. There is a snappy 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, and an Android operating system that can play both HTML and Flash animations.
Other standard features include the Genius button, which activates the voice controls, a group text feature and access to Netflix.
But then there is built-in Wi-Fi calling, possibly the least favorite feature I have seen on a mobile phone.
Anyone familiar with Wi-Fi calling apps like Skype and Fring knows that the VoIP programs allow calls to be made using your own Wi-Fi connection, so calls do not go across the voice or data channels of your carrier. That means no voice or data charges. In some cases, VoIP calls are completely free (apart from the cost of your Wi-Fi, of course).

This is a very good phone with a superior camera, but for Wi-Fi calling, stick to Skype or Fring instead.