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CNET editors' rating:
3.0 stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 32 reviews
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Product summary
The good: The Samsung SGH-T309 has a compact design, a loud speakerphone, and solid sound quality.
The bad: The Samsung SGH-T309 suffers from low-resolution displays, tiny keys and controls, and poor battery life.
The bottom line: Despite having great call quality, the Samsung SGH-T309's ordinary flip phone design and poor battery life give it scant appeal for the consumer who wants more than a clear call.
Specifications: Carrier: T-Mobile; Band / mode: GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band); Talk time: Up to 270 min; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 01/24/2006
The external display on the Samsung SGH-T309 is a decent size (1 inch diagonal), but the grayscale screen means there's no picture caller ID, and its usefulness as a viewfinder for self-portraits is limited. The display does show the time, battery life, the date, signal strength, and caller ID (where available), but the backlight setting is not adjustable, and we could not display a picture or wallpaper. The lens is in a good central location on the flip, but unfortunately, there's no flash. The headset jack is located conveniently on the top left of the side spine and includes a cover, while just below is a volume rocker that also acts as a zoom for the camera and activates the external display backlight when the flip is closed. Finally, there's a dedicated camera button on the right spine.
The interior 64,000-color display measures 1.75 inches diagonally, but with a lackluster 128x160-pixel resolution, it falls considerably short of expectations. The backlighting is adjustable, and you can control the contrast, the brightness, the font size, and the font color.
The Samsung SGH-T809's five-way navigation toggle is small and prone to misdials, which caused a significant distraction when making calls on the road. The toggle shortcuts, which cannot be changed, prove one-touch access to the camera, the voice memos, text messaging, and the contacts list. Moreover, the large OK button in the middle of the toggle, which doubles as a shortcut to T-Mobile's T-zones, is also much too small; we accidentally hit it a few times. The left soft key is the default main-menu button, and the right soft key accesses the options for the phone book. The keypad buttons benefit from a bright-white backlighting and are relatively easy to read in the dark. Yet, the oval buttons are small and flat with the surface of the phone. That made dialing by feel more difficult.
The Samsung SGH-T309 has a large phone book that stores up to 1,000 unique contacts. The SIM card holds an additional 250 names. Phone book contacts can hold up to five separate numbers, along with an e-mail address. You can organize contacts into predefined caller groups or pair them with one of 15 polyphonic (40-chord) ring tones or one of 15 MP3 tones. There's also room in each entry for a picture, but pictures show up only on the internal display. A vibration mode is included, but settings are limited to vibration only, ring only, vibration then ring, or silence. You can activate and deactivate the silent mode by holding down the # key. Other features include text and multimedia messaging, AOL instant messaging, e-mail support, 1-minute voice memos, a memo pad, PC syncing, a calculator, a datebook, a world clock, a unit converter, a timer, a stopwatch, and an alarm clock.Connectivity is limited on the Samsung SGH-T309, which lacks Bluetooth and an infrared port. One of the highlights of the handset is the robust speakerphone. We were impressed with the sound quality and the volume of the speakerphone, although we wish there were a dedicated button for this feature. Instead, the speakerphone is activated by the soft key once a call is in progress. The Samsung SGH-T309 also allows conference calling for up to six people.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 32 reviews
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