Samsung SCH-A850 (Verizon Wireless)

Pros: Attractive design, solid feel

Cons: Poor reception, really small font

Summary: My two-year contract was up with Verizon, and since I didn't want one of the monster all-in-one phones, I chose the SCH-A850 even though it had very few reviews. I thing the Verizon cell-phone selection is very poor, especially in terms of size and looks, but this was the best looking of the bunch. I'd also been happy with a really small Samsung (forget the model) that I had before.
On the 850 I was told that I came through loud and clear on both the speaker and in normal mode, and sound through the earpiece was generally loud and clear. The speaker worked pretty well and is a great feature, but it drained the battery really quickly.
I thought the phone was designed pretty well physically - fit nicely in the hand, pretty small, a little different look, but there were a few design drawbacks too. The backlighting of the keys was dim on the outside edges, making it difficult to read the letters/numbers at times. Also, you really needed a microscope to read the menus because the font was so small, a problem I tried to fix for a little while but then gave up on. The screen was also effectivey made smaller by the bands on the top and the bottom. The camera seemed to work OK - was the first camera phone I'd had. The web browser was a little slow I thought - don't know if that's the phone or Verizon's problem.
The real problem was the reception. There were four possible bars, and most of the time, even in Manhattan, I only had three. The Motorola v120 I had been using briefly after my old Samsung broke got significantly better reception than the 850. I also had to redial a number of calls because when entering numbers/letters to work my way through a menu, or even on Verizon voicemail, when I pushed keys it often wouldn't transmit, and I'd get kicked out - incredibly frustrating. I gave the the phone almost two weeks, but gave up and I returned it today for an LG6100 - much better reception already. The SCH-850 was a nice design, but there's no excuse for not making a phone that works well.