TouchWiz 3.0 Interface

Like the rest of the Galaxy pack, the Continuum runs Android 2.1 (Éclair) with Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 user interface running over it. Unfortunately, there might be some delay in upgrading to Android 2.2. When the Continuum launched in New York City last month, PCWorld asked Samsung when an update to Froyo might be happening. A company executive said that because the Continuum is so new, and it because it had the additional hardware (the ticker), it would probably take longer for 2.2 (and subsequent updates) to get to it.

Overall, TouchWiz is a fun and nice-looking take on Android-but it isn't for everyone. Like we've stated before, the biggest problem with the TouchWiz interface is that it is overdone--so much so that the result doesn't even look or feel like an Android phone. Additionally, the skin sometimes interfered with the Continuum's speediness (see the "Performance" section below).

Another issue we have with the Continuum is more on Verizon's shoulders than Samsung's. Despite the obvious fact that this is a Google Android phone, the Continuum's search function defaults to the Bing search engine. We also saw this on the Samsung Fascinate. There's nothing bad about the Bing search engine, but when you buy an Android phone, you expect Google-everything. And what does Google do best? Search. Even worse, you can't change the default settings. To use Google search, you have to go to Google.com in the Web browser, and then search from there.

Performance