Samsung SGH-D357 (AT&T)

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
Detailed editors' rating
Design: 6.0
Features: 8.0
Performance: 6.0
Overall score: 6.6 (3.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 10 reviews
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Product summary

CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by: Kent German
• Edited by: Nicole Lee
• Reviewed on: 02/23/2006
• Updated on:02/27/2006

After a long absence from the GSM world, push-to-talk technology (PTT) is gradually creeping into new territory with the recent rollout of Cingular's new PTT service. Now, Cingular customers can chat away without using calling minutes and having to lug around a clunky Nextel phone. Take the Samsung SGH-D357: As one of Cingular's two PTT phones (the other being the LG F7200), the SGH-D357 offers an unassuming, compact design. Beyond the PTT functionality, there are few features worth mentioning--you get Bluetooth and not a camera, but sometimes a phone that just makes calls is all you need. The Samsung SGH-D357 is fairly priced at $119, though you should be able to find it for less with service.From the outset, the Samsung SGH-D357 has a typical Samsung look. Small (3.4 by 1.8 by 0.96 inches), lightweight (3.5 ounces), and clad in a basic silver and black color scheme, the SGH-D357 has the rounded edges, the stubby antenna, and the smooth finish that we've come to expect from the company's phones. That's not to say it's unattractive--indeed, we like the sturdy hinge--it's just that it won't win any mobile beauty contest. Front and center is the monochrome external display, which shows the date, the time, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID (where available). Although we can accept the lack of a color resolution, we found the 0.8-inch-diagonal display too small for the phone's size, and its lack of backlighting puzzled us. You can change the contrast, but it still may be too dim for some users. Above the display is a service light that blinks for incoming calls. You can't change the blue color, but you can turn it off if you wish.

Inside the Samsung SGH-D357 is a 1.75-inch-diagonal internal display. Supporting 65,000 colors, the 128x160-pixel screen is fine for most purposes, but it has a slightly washed-out appearance, despite having adjustments for the brightness and the contrast. You can alter the backlighting time, however, and though you can't change the font size, you can fiddle with the font color. Also, it should be noted that the display is hard to see in direct light.

Below the Samsung SGH-D357's display are the tactile and user-friendly navigation controls. In typical Samsung fashion, there's a square four-way toggle surrounded by two soft keys, a Clear button, and the Talk and End/power keys. Inside the toggle is an OK button, which also acts as a Web-browser shortcut when in standby mode, and the toggle itself can be programmed to give one-touch access to four user-defined functions. Like the navigation controls, the keypad buttons are large, well spaced, and easy to use. The buttons are set flush with the surface of the phone, but it's easy to dial by feel, and they're brightly backlit. On the SGH-D357's right spine are the PTT key, a button for activating voice commands, and the speakerphone, while a volume rocker and a headset jack sit on the left spine.

The Samsung SGH-D357 comes with a 1,000-name phone book, with room in each entry for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, and notes. You can assign contacts to caller groups, or you can pair them with one of 15 polyphonic ring tones. The phone also supports photo caller ID, but since there's no camera, you'll have to find images elsewhere. What's more, images do not show up on the external display. If you need more space, the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts. Other features include a vibrate mode, voice dialing and commands, a calendar, a calculator, a 2-minute voice recorder, a unit converter, a timer, a stopwatch, and a world clock. For written communication, you can choose from e-mail, instant messaging (AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ), and text messaging. The SGH-D357 is also equipped for multimedia messaging, but again, keep in mind that there's no camera. Useful businesscentric features include Bluetooth, a speakerphone (for activation only after you make a call), and of course, Cingular's new PTT network. For a complete description of the network, please see our review of the LG F7200. Continue reading

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User reviews

• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 10 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 3 of 10 user reviewsSee all 10 user reviews

• 3.0 stars

  6 out of 7 people found this review helpful

  "For serious users Contact List is a failure"

  by SSidlov on January 25, 2006

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• 2.5 stars

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

  "almost... but not quite"

  by wonder_girl on January 12, 2006

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• 3.0 stars

  1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

  "Decent phone"

  by chrismark420 on March 19, 2006

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• See all 10 user reviews Write review

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