Kin One
The smaller of the two, the Kin One is a petite, rounded square of plastic with a tiny screen and a keyboard that slides out from underneath. It's almost impossibly cute and surprisingly functional for a phone that could easily be mistaken for a compact.
The touchscreen is just 1.5 inches tall by 2 inches wide, but its resolution (240 x 320 pixels) is up to the task of displaying your slice of the digital world — at least, that part of it that is posted in 160 characters or less.
A 5-megapixel camera (with a tiny LED light for illumination) takes OK pictures, though it had some trouble focusing on closeup objects in our tests.
The keyboard, though puny, is surprisingly easy to use. One mystery: The bottom, keyboard part of the phone's body protrudes a half-centimeter beyond the screen portion on the bottom and the top edges of the phone. Why the designers didn't just make the screen a little larger and go for a perfectly flush look is a puzzler.
The company claims its batteries will last for more than eight days on standby, and in our tests, it was about exhausted after a full day of heavy use.
For $50 with a two-year contract, the Kin One has a temptingly small sticker price, but don't be fooled: The contract demands a minimum of $70 per month for voice and data service, which means your total cost will be at least $3,410. That's a steep price for keeping your kids up-to-date with the latest on Facebook and Twitter.
But if all you want is a tiny, compact social communications device, and you've got a deep pocketbook, the Kin One is an adorable choice. We're looking forward to seeing more phones like it.
WIRED Super pocket-friendly size and weight (4.1 ounces). Cute as a button. Surprisingly usable keyboard. Built-in FM tuner. Extremely responsive touchscreen.
TIRED Screen too small for much reading or web browsing. Autofocus problems, especially on closeups. Video recording is only standard definition. Doesn't integrate with Google contacts or calendar. Limited Twitter capabilities.
$50 (after $100 mail-in rebate, with 2-year contract)
Kin Two
The Kin Two, with its 3.5-inch, 480-by-320-pixel display, isn't particularly innovative in its design or features. It does what Microsoft is known for best: Come into the game late and copy an idea well enough to make it cheaper and sometimes, just sometimes a little better.
When it comes to the hardware, the Kin Two proves you get what you pay for. The run-of-the-mill design feels cheap. The 4.8-ounce phone doesn't have a solid body, the plastic casing is flimsy and the keys on the slide-out QWERTY keyboard aren't soft or easy to peck on.
But what the phone lacks in looks, it does make up in technical artillery. The Nvidia Tegra processor is zippy, the touchscreen is smooth and the 8-megapixel camera, with an LED flash, delivers some good photos in low light. Unlike the Kin One, it can shoot HD video.
With a larger body comes more screen real estate and a larger keyboard, and that makes the Kin Two potentially more powerful than its little sister. The lack of an onscreen keyboard is a surprising omission, leaving you with no alternative but to flip the phone to the landscape mode if you want to type anything.
Overall, the Kin Two lacks the panache of the tiny, squarish Kin One, however, and invites comparison with smarter phones in the same form factor, like Motorola's Devour, Backflip and Droid, and Samsung's Behold II.
Like the Kin One, the Kin Two requires a two-year voice and data contract with a $70 per month minimum, bringing its total cost to $3,460. Unless you're some sort of iced out playa ballin' out of control, you're better off buying your progeny a feature phone and making them use SMS like all the other kids.
WIRED Free and automatic browser-based phone backup. Easy sharing of photos, videos and web pages.
TIRED Lack of apps and games. No easy way to access maps. El cheap-o design. No calendar or alarm. No onscreen keyboard.
$100 (after $100 mail-in rebate, with 2-year contract)
