Features & Specifications
The Latte BOOM GSM Phone is a slider that has a boxy design that, when closed, is slightly shorter than my Motorola Razr, about an inch and a half wide and roughly twice as thick as the Razr. When opened the Latte BOOM GSM Phone is about an inch and a quarter longer than when closed the exact measurements of the phone are 89 x 37 x 22.9mm.

The BOOM operates on the 850/1800/1900 MHz or 900/1800/1900 MHz frequencies. A pair of amplified speakers is readily noticeable on the front of the BOOM and is positioned above and below the 1.5” 65k color LCD screen. The camera integrated into the pone is a 1.3MP CMOS unit that can also record video. Naturally, with a name like BOOM and the boom box styling this phone is aimed at music lovers.

The Latte BOOM GSM Phone has built-in MP3 and MP4 player functions. Music, video and images are stored to an included 256MB microSD card. You can use any microSD card in the Latte BOOM GSM Phone, which allows you to expand the storage capacity. Also built-in are the functions you expect to find in a quality phone these days like a calendar, world clock, and phone book. Included accessories with the Latte BOOM GSM Phone are two batteries, travel charger, stereo earpiece, USB cable, manual and the 256MB T-flash (microSD) card. SMS, MMS, and WAP support round out the features.

BOOM in Use
When you connect the Latte BOOM GSM Phone to your PC via the USB cable, you can choose to use the phone on a com port, which allows charging or use it as a mass storage device for copying files directly to the phone from the PC. Once you move your files over you can browse the contents of your card via the phones menu and play video or music files easily.

The Latte BOOM GSM Phone has surprisingly powerful speakers and music played back has sound rich enough to make you forget you are listening on a phone. The speakers had more volume than some of the dedicated MP3 players I have listened too and had decent bass as well. While the screen of the Latte BOOM GSM Phone is very small, video looks good and is watchable, though you will know, you’re not watching at home on a TV.

The cell phone functionality of the BOOM is good. The phone lacks a few features I really want in the phone such as Bluetooth and one touch dial. Call quality is good for both incoming and out going calls. My biggest problem, with the BOOM was the location of the buttons for answering and ending calls.

These buttons are positioned outside the sliding keypad and on numerous occasions, I disconnected calls inadvertently while trying to pull the phone out of my pocket because the buttons are exactly where my fingers grasp the phone. A speakerphone is built-in as well to allow for hands free calling, but that doesn’t make up for the lack of Bluetooth for me.

Battery life is passable, and made much better thanks to the inclusion of a second battery. If you listen to lots of tunes with the external speakers, your battery life will vary. I saw about four hours of moderately heavy talk time before the battery was dead. I suspect most users not playing much music will be able to go all day on one battery.

The camera is decent for a cell phone unit, but not nearly as high quality as what you get on real digital cameras. That said it certainly takes clearer and more detailed shots than my Razr. The video recording capability is cool and captured video looks good. I’d like to see the phone available in a different color, I’m not much of a fan of white gadgets, but that is nit picky.