Samsung SGH-T109 review (T-Mobile)

Though the keypad is covered in the same material as the navigation array, the keys feel stiff and a bit cheap. The hunt-and-peck crowd shouldn't be bothered, but dialing and texting quickly was the slightest bit uncomfortable. If you're a messaging fan, we'd suggest that you look elsewhere. Dialing by feel is difficult as well, but the bright backlighting is welcome in dim environments.

Features
The T109's phone book is rather small, with room for just 300 contacts but you can store an additional 250 names on the SIM card. Each phone contact holds five phone numbers, an e-mail address, and notes. You can assign callers to groups, and you can pair them with one of 15 polyphonic ringtones and a photo. Just remember that caller ID photos won't show up on the external display.

As mentioned previously, the T109's feature set is slim, but it holds all the basics. Inside is a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, call timers, a speakerphone, a file organizer, an alarm clock, a task list, a calculator, a world clock, PC syncing, a timer, a stopwatch, a currency and unit converter, and a tip calculator. You'll also find a voice recorder, and you can save clips as ringtones.

You can personalize the T109 with a variety of background colors, greetings, wallpaper, and alert tones. If you want more options and additional ringtones, you can buy them from T-Mobile's T-Zones service using the WAP 2.0 Web browser. The T109 also comes with demo versions of Bubble Bash and Midnight Pool; you'll have to purchase the full versions for extended play. The handset does offer an airplane mode for playing games while aloft.

Performance
We tested the dual-band (GSM 850/1900) Samsung SGH-T109 in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was serviceable with good voice clarity and signal free of static or interference. The volume was a little on the soft side. We had some trouble hearing in very noisy environments. It didn't ruin our experience but we recommend that users with hearing impairments test the phone before buying.

On their end, callers said we sounded fine. They didn't love the audio quality--a few reported some distortions in the audio--but they could understand us most of the time. Speakerphone calls were just average. The speaker output is loud enough, but the audio was pretty harsh.

The T109 has a rated battery life of 4 hours talk time and 10 days standby time. Our tests reveal a talk time of 3 hours and 39 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the T109 has a digital SAR of 0.80 watt per kilogram.