Samsung Convoy 2 user reviews (Verizon Wireless)

Pros Feels solid, good voice quality.
I like the flashlight. I like the fake call option that is built in.

Cons The display is old school, has a very narrow field of view...they must have got a really good discount to be using this display on a newly released phone..these days.
Also, the headphone jack is smaller than the standard 3.5 mm. It is 2.5 mm..***??

Summary All in all, I like the features of this phone...the voice quality is good, the features are good..for a flip phone. Good basic phone..takes good pictures too.

Pros Very loud ringer
Very loud speaker phone
Very loud music player
Very bright flashlight mode

Cons Low volume on handset
Weak vibrate mode
2.5mm headphone jack
My Music mp3 player software crippled

Summary In an era of Android powered touch screen phones that require a data plan, it's getting harder and harder to find a simple flip phone that does music decently.

I upgraded from a Verizon LG-VX8360, so this is esentially the same phone layout. Since I wear my phone on my belt all day, and I have a physically demanding job, I prefer the flip sytle over the keyboard style of non-data phone.

Dimensionally, this phone is a bit larger, thicker, and heavier than the LG it replaced, but not annoyingly so. The outside stereo speakers are very loud, making for excellent hands free operation, ringer volume, and mini-boom box music playing.

The 3.2 Mega Pixel camera is so-so for the supposed resolution, but the LED "flash" is extremely (and for your subjects, annoyingly) bright. This camera flash doubles as a flashlight that can be activated either by a button on the outside of the phone, or via a dedicated button on the keypad. When activating from the outside of the phone, you first press the "rewind" button, then confirm by pressing the "fast forward" button. CAUTION: Don't look at the phone when pressing the confirm button, or else you'll blind yourself temporarily! It's that bright.

The outside of the phone has a red button that is for PTT if you subscribe to that feature, and can be assigned as a shortcut to almost any function. Since it sticks out further than the rest of the side buttons, it is too easily activated, but the one shortcut you cannot set for this button is "none." So set a harmless shortcut to this button because you will activate it often.

Being a newer generation than my older LG, the voice recognition functions much better on the Samsung. If you go through the brief training routine, it nails 99% of your contact names on the first try. However, it's text-to-speech function leaves a little to be desired, as it doesn't do very well with last names. But the announciation of the caller ID as a "ringtone" is pretty cool.

On the minus side, the vibrate mode is rather weak. When working in a loud environment, sometimes I cannot hear the ringtone, and I only know I have a call by feeling the vibrate while the phone is clipped to my belt. Ironic that a 'ruggedized' phone won't vibrate very strongly.

My major sore spot is in the software implementation of the music player. With my old LG phone, I could simply transfer mp3s from my iTunes music folder to the microSD card, and all of the song titles, artist and album names, and genre of music would show up in the music player, and be searchable, sortable, and viewable.

With the Samsung Convoy 2, there are places to display artist, album, genre, album artwork, lyrics, and more, but none of it works. Only the song title is displayed. I even went as far as wiping and reformatting the memory card, and using Verizon's VCast Media Mamager software to rip and transfer songs to the Convoy 2. All of the information is displayed in the VCast Media Manager, but after it is transfered to the phone, the phone's player has no artist or album naming, thus no sorting by artist or album. Big dissapointment.

Overall, the Samsung Convoy 2 is a good value if you're looking for this style of phone. Only the music player prevents it from receiving five stars.

Pros looong battery life, lots of nice features (flashlight, shortcuts...) comfortable feel

Cons front face can only be clock or wallpaper but not both at same time

Summary I have had the phone for about 3 days and have been constantly playing with it and have only dropped one bar on the battery scale. Speakerphone is just OK but ringer is loud. Earpiece sound is crisp and clear. Good reception but not much better than my old phone.

Pros he call quality is excellent and the phone has a great feel for typing. The phone is well built and feel very sturdy. The battery is commendable as well with 4-5 days of uptime with moderate calling and texting usage.

Cons As mentioned by other users, this phone will have a tendency to "butt text" when you have it in your pocket because of the front facing keys. It's happened to me several times hence the docking of one star in the review.

Summary Overall I'm very satisfied with this phone. It is much better than my previous Samsung Intensity. I did not buy this phone because of it's ruggedness, but it's a nice plus since I tend to be a bit rough with my phones. I've already dropped the phone from 5 feet onto solid concrete and the phone was not damaged from the impact. I personally dislike candybar phones since I tend to accidently text/call people all the time with those. And touch phones are so fragile with their exposed screens. So this phone being one of the dying breed of flip phones is a huge pro for me. The guy at the store told me he expects that these phones will stop being made in the next two to three years. If that is the case, it will be a sad day for me.
As for the issue of butt texting, I had a samsung alias with front facing keys that were touch sensitive and that seemed to solve the accidental calling/texting problem. Why can't they have touch sensitive keys on a phone like this?

If you're a flip phone person, I highly recommend this phone. The build quality is great and it will serve you well as good no frills communication device. Also, about the user who claims the phone won't send picture messages, I send/receive 400-500 text a month including many picture message just fine with this phone. Don't know why his isn't working right.