Which Windows 7 is right for you
- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 30 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"Simple, no frills phone"
Pros: Inexpensive, good for general and occasional use. Small and sleek design makes it easy to carry around wherever you need to go. Bluetooth capability also a plus.
Cons: Probably not geared for the everyday folks that are dependent on texting and making a lot of calls.
Summary: I had to replace my old Samsung A880 phone (bought in 2005) since it was starting to break down and perform erratically. Imagine to my surprise that when I "upgraded" to the M320, I actually wound up with a phone that while was overall technologically better and with more options, the phone itself seemed inferior, almost a step back.
Camera feature is quite mediocre, no video camera option. Buttons harder to navigate.
I'm one of those that uses cell phones for simple general, almost every other day use; I don't need to use it for web access or texting as these luxuries are simply unnecessary for me. I chose this model because it was the cheapest to upgrade (it would be free with a new two year contract and after the rebate).
After a couple of weeks, I haven't had too many issues with it, signal strength tends to be strong overall in my area, so I haven't noticed any static, dropped calls or bad sound quality. Since I don't use the phone a lot, as with my A880, I basically need to charge it once a week or so. In short, overall phone service has been the same as it was previously.
Menu options fairly consistent to Sprint phones, but with more features and a slightly different configuration, it takes some adjusting.
The camera function is inferior to my old phone. The LCD screen's resolution probably doesn't do the photos any justice, but then again I use it as a mini-personal album for the phone only and for caller ID purposes. It also is lacking a flash, making take photos in dark situations impossible. While there is an option for taking night photos, the improvement is so marginal it seems like a wasted feature. Taking photos in poor light conditions also is rather poor; the A880 handled it better even without a flash. Also, there is no video camera feature. My A880 had that, allowing you to take short videos in 15 second intervals, and which could also be applied to caller ID as well.
Caveat emptor on buying ring tones, too. The built-in polyphonic ones are fine -- and it's missing the classic Sprint PCS default chime, to boot -- but I found out it is terrible for recorded tunes. You need to have your phone volume nearly at full blast to even hear it since it comes out the receiver, not the phone itself. And it doesn't help the quality of those ring tones are so poor in quality, like some badly recorded bootleg. Some people like impressing others with their custom ring tones, but with this phone no one will even notice when the quality is so shoddy.
Several people brought up the cheapness of the M320's design. That is true. The phone is slimmer than my A880, and the plastic is certainly not as sturdy. It's like a hard drop to the floor will probably do it in, something my A880 survived on more than one occasion. The phone is much lighter than my previous one, making me feel that I have to be extra careful when handling it.
Overall the phone does exactly what I need it for at the moment, and since I'm not one of those heavy duty user types, I expect it to be around by the time my two year contract expires. After that, I'm probably going to switch carriers since I've been with Sprint PCS since 2002. I'm sure the iPhones will probably have some very interesting models out by then.
All in all, if you're a light phone user, this will do just fine. But if you need all that multimedia stuff and are reliant on communicating all the time, look at higher end models.
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