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- Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 12 reviews Back to product review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"Good phone if you don't unplug it from the charger"
Pros: Good call quality, nice camera
Cons: Battery life, battery life, and battery life.
Summary: My initial feeling of the Samsung Renown was that is a very capable flip phone. The call quality is pretty good, the displays are vivid, and the camera takes great photos in adequate light. Beyond that, that the phone is a complete let down.
I was looking to renew my contract and upgrade my phone, and was disappointed to see that Verizon had moved into 2 distinct categories of phones. Mobile ?media centers? and low-end basic handsets. There is virtually no in between category for those of us who have embraced the convenience of having a basic flip phone that will snap a fairly respectable looking picture when a camera is not handy. My personal opinion is that Verizon seems quite content with using their equipment options to force customers into pricy per month service contracts loaded with features that the average grown adult doesn?t want or need.
I thought I had found a great compromise when I saw the Samsung Renown in Verizon?s lineup of phones. A basic flip phone that will take a half way decent photo when a camera isn?t handy. Being a new father, I was looking for something like this to capture those hard to get spontaneous moments, so the camera feature was an important aspect of my future cell phone. I didn?t want a touch screen ?media center? since my job, as well as the aforementioned child can be difficult on equipment. I wanted a smaller phone that can be safely tossed in a pocket, or carried in a belt case. I wanted a phone that I didn?t have to remember to charge every night. The Renown is rated for 5 hours of talk time, or an admirable 320 hours (13 days) of standby time. The Renown seemed to fit the bill.
I have used the Samsung Renown for a week, and I can assure you that you will never achieve the rated battery life. I?m currently on my second handset, and 3rd battery and the best battery life I?ve witnessed is 30 minutes of talk time with 48 hours of standby time. I am in an area where signal strength NEVER drops below 2 or 3 bars, and the phone NEVER has to search for a signal. Still, every other day I?m rushing home from work to plug the thing in before the battery dies. This is after talking on the phone for a total of 10 or 15 minutes. I hate to think what I?d experience if I actually had to ?use? the thing.
I took the second handset into Verizon?s service center, and the service tech actually had the nerve to tell me that I could not expect the phone to achieve more than 2 days of standby time and that there is nothing wrong with my equipment ? just my expectations. I asked him why the specs state that the Renown will get 13 days of standby time, and he stated ?that is under optimum conditions.? I do not live in the Bermuda Triangle. As stated earlier, the phone never has to search for a signal, and always registers good signal strength, but still the battery life equates to 15% of the advertised duration. I find this to be completely unacceptable.
Updated on Mar 26, 2009I contacted Samsung, and they insisted that I must have had a run of bad luck and got 2 defective phones. I went to Verizon for a 3rd time and got a 3rd handset. Same problems. I actually talked on the phone one day for approximately 30 minutes. This usage ran off 1 full bar of battery life. Out of the 3 phones I had, the best battery life I could ever achieve was almost 2 days. I finally gave up and returned this phone. I would HIGHLY discourage anyone from buying the Samsung Renown.
Samsung Renown (Verizon Wireless):
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