iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 8 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Abandon old accessories and get used to wasted space."
Pros: -Call quality / volume
-Speaker phone volume
-microSD location
-Big screen
-Big buttons
-Very light weightCons: -Lots of wasted screen real estate
Summary: I just renewed with AT&T in order to upgrade from my old Samsung D807 before a hairline crack in my screen grew any larger. I figured that another Samsung was the safest way to go since I liked the D807 so much. I guess I picked the wrong Samsung b/c I'm getting rid of this phone as soon as possible. There is nothing horribly wrong with it, just one little design flaw after another that adds up to me getting rid of it after just three weeks.
-Any accessories you have from previous Samsung phones are useless
-Size
-Bluetooth file transfer problems
I'll start with the good, I was pleased to see that the issues I had with the D807 (like the screen that doesn't turn off while the phone is charging and low speaker volume) were all fixed in the Access. However more problems were created then fixed.
The first problem I noticed was that the screen was HUGE and so the phone was bigger too. I assume this was because of the new AT&T TV stuff that I'm not spending $15/mo to try. It's probably great for that feature too but you'd think that since screen real estate is so very valuable on cell phones that the designers would be in heaven with such space. Instead all the menus feel like there is less information displayed per screen then any other phone I've used. I even had hopes I could fix the problem with "Menu Style" or "Pop Up List" settings but there was little or no help from those. The screen constantly feels cramped even though it's 1-1/3 to 1-1/2 times the size of other phones.
Another problem was timing. Again, this wasn't a huge problem but when I unlock the keypad or set the wake-up call or any other feature like that I would like to keep moving through the menus. Instead I have to wait 5 - 6 seconds for the confirmation to disappear. It can be cleared early by using the soft key for "OK", the end key, or the clear key. I'd still rather start dialing my call right away.
I guess the biggest problem that I had with this phone was the one that negated a big reason for me sticking w/ Samsung, none of my old accessories or chargers work with it. My wife just got the Samsung A437 that's one model year newer than my old D807 and we were able to share the wall charger, USB cable and car chargers interchangeably. No point in buying two USB cables and always a spare wall charger to take while traveling. I figured I'd keep it up and save some money on accessories and was very disappointed to learn that none of our old equipment worked on my new phone. If I keep the phone I'll spend roughly another $50 replacing all the accessories I had. If I have to buy that stuff anyways I'd much rather buy it for a phone that I like using.
It's not a bad phone and probably better if you can utilize the massive screen with the broadcast tv but don't expect it to be to Samsungs usual standards. I didn't like it b/c it just didn't do exactly what I wanted. Otherwise the call quality is good, the keys are easy to find even for those with larger fingers, and it's a good plain phone. If you want something other than plain you'd better look somewhere else.
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