Get ready to parent at 4G speed
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"Good solid phone" on by Mahadragon
Pros: Good set of features, lights stay off during recharging
Cons: Pain to get the time showing on outside display
Summary: I have only used this phone for 1 day but there are so few reviews currently out right now I felt compelled to write something. This phone is currently free with Bluetooth headset on T-Mobile's website which is the deal I got. The Bluetooth headset works very well and is easy to use. My friend could not tell the difference in call quality between the headset and my other regular cell phone (an LG).
Call quality was solid. I was able to converse with my friend the entire 25 minutes I was driving on the freeway. There were a few dropped words in our conversation but the phone recuperated quickly. This wasn't necessarily a fault of the phone, but T-Mobile's coverage. I knew of a dead zone over a bridge between Foster City and San Mateo and I was not surprised when signal quality dropped.
I dragged and dropped a few pictures onto the SD Micro card (and resized them to fit) as well as a few tunes. I was able to change the wallpaper and set the ringtone to some music, although for some reason the music wouldn't play at loud volume during a call. The chime however did. The ringtones btw are quite loud if you want to set it that way. You can set it to ring and then vibrate so you can have a combination of the two.
So many ppl complaining about low screen resolution. My complaint is the lack of screen brightness. I don't care if my screen only has 65,000 colors, that's good enough for me. This is a cell phone not a 26" hi-res monitor. Nobody is going to be seriously using this to look at pictures. But I know what my pictures *should* look like, and they look darker than normal.
Picture quality with the phone was good. It's a cell phone, not an SLR. Btw- this camera also takes video.
The reason this phone smudges easily (on the outside) is because of the glossy piano black finish. Incidentally the back has a matte plastic/rubbery type of finish so it's totally the opposite of the front, very difficult to smudge.
When the cover is closed no lights are emitted during recharging which is nice (this drives my brother nuts when the lights continue to emit during charging). Recharging is easy and straight forward. There is a little door in the side that opens up for the charger to plug into. It took less than 2 hours to fully charge.
The included headphone for the music player was very disappointing as it only has one earbud for either the left or right ear. I don't care if the sound is monotone, but at least give me the option of being able to listen with both ears! The sound coming out of the speaker is good enough.
There is an option in the settings to transmit the music player through a stereo bluetooth headset, but the bluetooth headset I received free with my phone did not work with this setting.
Ppl have complained about having difficulty working with the battery cover on the back of the phone. Since my phone already had the battery inside, along with the SIM card, I never had to take it off, hence I cannot say much about it.
One big con is the lack of phone memory. You might say, well that's why you have an SD Micro card. Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with it because in order for you to use your ringtone with the phone, the phone has to transfer that ringtone to the phone's main memory before it can be used as a ringtone. If your phone is bogged down with videos and games already you might not have enough memory to use your custom ringtone. I don't remember exactly how much standard memory the phone has, but it's really small. Put it this way, there's 4 games on there which are taking up roughly half of the total available memory. After I downloaded my mp3 ringtone to the phone so I could use it as the main ringtone, there wasn't anymore memory left over to add anymore songs. I don't have any video or anything and I had only taken two pictures with the phone's camera.
Considering how many features you get, the attractive sleek look, and the fact that this phone is free, I say this is a very good value. It would be nice if the time would be displayed with the push of a button. Instead you have to flip the phone open and then close it to see the time on the outside. In other words, you pretty much have to open it up to see the time/date.
One last con: you have to push the Micro SD card wayyy into the slot in order to secure it. You'll need a small screwdriver or something because even if you have long fingernails you won't be able to push that thing back far enough. -
"Great for the price" on by StormRider80
Pros: Decent 1.3MP camera, Music player, Internet access (T-Zones), MP3 ringtones, speakerphone, microSD slot
Cons: The part that flips up seems kind of flimsy, not the most colorful screen, doesn't like Internet-based Javascript apps, It prefers internal memory over your memory card
Summary: I got this phone for free for renewing my contract with T-Mobile. It says the MSRP is something like $179.00, but I wouldn't pay over $50 for this phone. It's nice if you're not too hardcore about taking a lot of pictures and videos, but if you're a media-nut and Internet user on the cell phone like I am, you should probably invest your money in something a little more high-end.
I was bummed out the phone only has 65,000 colors. That sounds like a lot, but if you're familiar with cell phones you know that that number can go into the millions on high-end midrange phones. The first time I opened it up and seen the menu, I was disappointed because the menu wasn't as colorful as I expected. The phone also won't let you edit the font face, size, or color (it will let you change the outline/shadow around the font though, which is best left at default).
The camera (for picture purposes) is great in my opinion. It's no 3MP camera by any means, but for a 1.3MP it does the job pretty darn nice. I am disappointed that you can only shoot video in a couple different sizes, the largest is 160 x 120. The music player on it is nice, but be prepared to buy at least a 1GB microSD card if you're going to listen to a few songs, I would recommend a 2GB however. Not that this is related to the phone, but if you decide to buy a microSD memory card for your phone, get an expensive one! I ended up learning the hard way that you get what you pay for when it comes to memory cards. SanDisk is the only brand I trust when it comes to a microSD card for my phone, I've had both 'Dane-Elec' and 'Lexar' brand cards before and I've had to return both after having them less than a day. Also, be weary about buying memory cards on eBay for too-good-to-be-true prices, remember: you get what you pay for when it comes to memory cards!
I had a few minor beefs with the phone that I should mention to anyone thinking about getting one. If you want to have a certain ringtone come on when a certain friend calls you, you have to store the ringtone on the phone's internal memory. This doesn't sound like a big issue at first, but remember the phone only has 7MB of internal memory and even if you have a 2GB microSD card for your phone, if you want a certain ringtone to come on when a certain person calls you have to have that ringtone on the phone's internal memory. This is also the same for picture caller ID, if you want someone's picture to show up on both the external and the normal screen when they call, their picture has to be on the phone's internal memory.
Another thing I didn't like was that when you're recording video, it goes straight to the phone's internal memory (yes, even if you have a memory card). So the length of your videos will depend on how much available internal memory you have, although after you're done shooting the video you can certainly move the video from the internal memory over to your memory card if you have one (it would certainly be nice if Samsung would 'wise up' and at least give you the option to save videos straight to your memory card and not the phone's small amount of internal memory).
I'll also say that the Bluetooth on the phone doesn't seem to be very strong or sensitive. My friend and I were at the local fair and we both decided to scan the crowd to see if anyone had Bluetooth; his phone (an LG) picked up twice the amount of Bluetooth-enabled devices within range than my Samsung did.
The last thing I'll gripe about is that you can't zoom on pictures once they're moved onto the memory card. If you take a picture of something and keep it on your phone's internal memory, you can zoom in close to see the picture better. But if you move the picture onto your memory card, you can no longer zoom in on the pictures. Even if you move a picture from the memory card straight onto the phone's internal memory from the memory card, you can't zoom in on it. The only photos you can zoom in on are the ones you take with your camera and keep on your internal memory, once they're moved off the phone's internal memory for the first time you'll no longer be able to zoom in. This was a major disappointment for me, because I've got hundreds of pictures of myself, my friends, and other things of importance that I like to share with people.
If this is going to be your first time having a camera phone, or a phone that can play videos, or a phone that is capable of checking your web-based e-mail, then the Samsung T439 might be a good candidate for you. But if you're really into media and you want to be able to zoom in on pictures, take decent cameraphone videos, and browse sites like YouTube, then this phone probably isn't for you. I ended up not liking the phone very much because I'm so obsessed with being able to carry any type of media on me wherever I go, and this phone just seemed to limit me on a lot of that. I ended up giving the phone to my mother (who's in her 50's and has never had a cameraphone), and on the other hand she thinks it's the best thing around. -
"Defiently worth getting it free with activation!" on by deararee
Pros: Great design, great features: bluetooth, mp3 player and micro sd slot
Cons: low resolution screen, super smudges, fingerprints
Summary: This phone is super stylish (unisex). I got this phone free with service. great features and everything works great. Good call sound quality, great sound on mp3,bluetooth, with micro-sd card no more paying for ringtones and music. the screen is not as bright, but trust me its not bad just like most samsungs in my opinion. cellphone cameras are to catch UNexpected photos not build your portfolio,you want better birthday pictures get a camera. you want fast internet get a laptop, stop expecting a robot to cook your dinner, in other words 'some things just cant be replaced'. I gave it a eight because 1 no qwerty keypad and two low resolution.
Updated
the pedictive text doesn't remember past word entry. Only had the phoe two days, will update in a month -
"Great phone with a never ending battery!" on by rd.1109
Pros: Best battery life I've ever seen, texting is easy, camera is decent, call quality is really good, slim design.
Cons: External display isn't color, internal display is kind of dim, video capture is horrible.
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"Poor design and difficult to use" on by speedbird2
Pros: I like the camera resolution.
Cons: This phone is difficult to use, the controls are poorly placed, the camera key is troublesome, outside display turns-off.
Summary: This camera has nice sound but the poor resolution of the LED screen, the setting-off of the camera every time I grab the camera, the difficulty to delete, and other problems exist. I wish the outside screen had a constant visible LCD screen so you could see if a call was missed. Now, I must open the camera for the screen to turn-on.
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