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"Amazing Budget Phone!" on by ty407
Pros: Better qwerty than the original Messager
Great camera
Video recording (finally!)
Good music player
Good speakerphone
Calls sound crisp & clearCons: Limited in terms of phone customization (Can only change wallpaper, ringtones & sound levels).
Can't play streaming videos on Metropcs' i-net! (ughhh)Summary: I've had this phone for a month now and i absolutely love it. Huge upgrade from the messager I (which i owned). Has a great 2.0 megapixel cam (Versus 1.3 on the original), plus a camcorder.
Picture quality is great. Camcorder quality is decent, but still records better than most budget phones. Pic cam has nice features, such as mosaic shots (to customize pics) and 3 multi-shot options (to take multiple pics at once) Qwerty keyboard makes txting and browsing the internet a breeze! keys are alot spaced out better than the original messager. speakerphone sounds great, unlike other budge phones.
Music player plays songs loud and clear. Can make songs ringtones. With a microsd card, you can play movies that have been formatted for 3g & 3gp2. Only drawbacks are not being able to stream videos online, due to metropcs' work in progress internet, and limited phone customization (Can only change wallpaper, ringtones and adjust sound levels). But overall, i definitely recommend this phone to anyone who's looking for a good phone under $200. -
"I Love IT!! It's Amazing!!!" on by pretty_poison03
Pros: Has an awesome camera (2.0MP), *Video Capture, GPS, Email, web, AOL AND Windows Live, Memory card slot is on side of phone, rather than having to remove the battery cover, unlike its predecessor, and typing is a breeze for me with the qwerty pad.
Cons: So far, there is nothing I do not like about this product. I upgraded from previously owning a Samsung slider cell phone, that did WAAY less than this one. Put it like that.
Summary: I didn't even realize the full potential of the $45/month plan on Metro PCS, til I got this phone! I have had the $45 plan for over a year, and I wasn't even using HALF the features in that plan. I now own the Samsung Messager II, and I must say, instant messenger, facebooking, and just typing altogether is so much easer, looking back. My old phone had only a numeric keypad. Even on T9mode, typing started to get a little tedious. My new phone also has video capture, a feature that was not on the previous Samsung Messager. I almost got the old one, but something told me to wait. I am so glad I waited! This phone reminds me so much of my LG Chocolate, the phone I had on contract with Verizon before I switched to Unlimited with Metro. The only difference between my Chocolate and my Messager II is the qwerty key pad. It's like a bonus. I also managed to find the 'return' function that everyone had been complaining about. It's been there all along. You just have to go to the symbols, and find it there. It's like an arrow pointing left, like on an 'enter' button on a computer keypad. Anyway, now that I have mastered that, I'm unstoppable. It took a night or so to get used to the fact that I now have a qwerty keypad, but I love it now. I seriously can't keep my hands off it. When I purchased my phone I also got an 8GB memory card. Yes, it can take 8gigs. I think it may even be able to hold up to 16, but I have not tried it yet. The memory card was free with mine because of a special deal that was given to me. Everything is so easy to use. But maybe that's just me. I'm 23, and pretty savvy with most gadgets. If you're trying to get a great phone, that's sporty, and is also reasonably priced, the Samsung Messager II would be the way to go. Plus, the features pay for themselves, if you get the $45 plan. You will be sure to get the best use of it with this plan. Trust me, I had NO idea what I was missing out on!! Go buy it!! Now!!
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"Some issues but otherwise an Improvement vs. Messager 1" on by JayRW
Pros: Very good camera quality
Records video
Call clarity very good
Lets you assign .mp3 as custom sounds (text msg/ringers/alerts etc.)
Weather / News feature built in.
Supports Cricket 3G
Speaker is louder than original Messager (for music etc).Cons: Not as easy to text vs. original Messager, keys are to close together
LCD screen has a very noticable color shift when viewing anything but dead center (no color shift issues on original messager)
battery life reduced vs. original messagerSummary: I upgraded from the original Samsung Messager which I had been using for over 2 years, Overall I like the Messager II better but my biggest gripes would be the keyboard and rotary dial, the keys are to close together which causes me to hit the wrong keys a lot but im getting better at it, the rotary dial feels cumbersome when navigating menus in comparison to Messager I.
The battery life isnt quite as good vs. Messager I but so far it hasnt been as bad as Cnet's review claim.
But the much improved camera quality, video recording capability,3G support, louder & better sounding speaker made it worth the upgrade. -
"Its okay in my standards" on by Meghan1997
Pros: I like that it has a button on the front that you can rotate, i like that its silver.
Cons: I dont like that the internet shuts down alot, the keyboard is not straight its that slanted, curved disign, it has keys that are FLAT. The keys dont press when you press them and if they do they press twice without you pressing them twice.
Summary: Its a bad phone.. I wouldnt recomend it. only if you like slow phones that make alot of typos in your text
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"Great Phone for the Money" on by miketaylor325
Pros: Very good build quality, large keyboard, bright screen, clear call quality, easy texting
Cons: Few aps, weak Internet browser
Summary: I'm moving to the Messager from a Blackberry, so the feature set of this phone seems very limited to me. That aside, I'm on the Metro PCS pay-as-you-go arrangement, which saves me about $200 a month over what I was paying Alltel to keep my Blackberry up and running, so all-in-all, a fair trade-off.
The phone quality seems excellent, call quality is equally good. And the internal keypad is large and (relatively) easy to text on. I do a lot of texting, so this is a big selling point for me. The flat keys sometimes make it a tiny bit difficult to text under certain conditions, but I'm adjusting.
Speaking of the keys, they by default light up whenever the keypad is pressed. This is great in the dark or semi-dark, however in daylight or even bright room light, this can make the key characters all but invisible. The blue back-lighting does look cool, though, and come in handy when texting in the wee hours. On the plus side, the back-lighting can be turned off. However, this must be done from within a series of pull-down menus; kind of a hassle if you're going to be going back and forth. It would have been nice to have a quick-and-dirty method for switching the keypad lights on and off, but this is really a minor issue.
The "weakest link" of the Messager is the Web browser, which is, sadly, pretty darn lame. Pages often display poorly, everything runs VERY slowly, and some pages won't display at all due to memory limitations. It would be nice if you could download another browser for use with this phone, something like Opera, maybe; but I, at least, have not been able to do this.
Also, the shortcuts on the main screen are nice, but again, there's no personalization offered; you get what the phone comes with and what can be downloaded from the company's Website, period. Too bad, because the shortcuts can come in really handy. This is typical of a phone in this price range, though, I think.
The speaker and camera quality are both OK, though nothing to write home about in either regard. There's no "mirror" for snapping self-portraits, and there's no flash. The photos are about what you'd expect in a camera phone at this price point. (In other words, hire a professional photographer for your daughter's wedding; don't count on this phone to do the job for you.)
All that quibbling aside, the Messager really is a VERY nice phone for the money. I've had mine a couple weeks now and have had absolutely NO issues with it, even though I've dropped it at least three times on a hard, ceramic tiled floor (yeah, I text in the john - sue me).
I haven't found a better phone for a price this low, with the possible exception of the Samsung Incognito, which I may switch over to eventually, because you can buy that on the Boost Mobile network, which has MUCH better coverage than my current carrier, Metro PCS.
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