Samsung SPH-M520 user reviews (gray, Sprint)

5.0 stars

"GREAT PHONE!!" on February 22, 2008 by peakerswife0712

Pros: Great resolution, Awesome battery life, love the slide up action, sleek design, great call clarity , loud ringtone volume!!

Cons: doesn't not have any.

Summary: I had a blkberry 7130e, realizing it was time for an upgrade, i went from the blkberry to the centro, katana dlx, rumor.. and ended up returning them all.. This by far is the best phone i have had in a while.. no flaws, no complaints.. AWESOME PHONE!!

4.0 stars

"Great Feartures for the price. Solid feel." on February 27, 2008 by Buick107

Pros: Looks good, Very customizable (Rumkin uploads work fine!), Fast easy to use menus, Great voice quality

Cons: Speaker could be louder (but I'm used the Samsung A920 which has 2 large stereo speakers), occasional software glitches with pictures

Summary: Great phone for $49. A firmware upgrade will fix a couple of hiccups and make this phone a 9 or 10. Sometimes when downloading pics or taking pics the phone gets confused and drops to main menu. Its only happened a couple of times so its not a deal breaker. This phone has only been out a couple of weeks so its the price I pay for being an early adopter. I'm sure as with other Samsungs their will be a firmware update to fix things like this once the phone has been in the field for a couple of months.
I have had no problem uploading my own ringtones through Rumkin.com. No issues putting music or screensaver pics on the memory card either. The wife got one too and has had lots of fun customizing and using the TV and picture mail features.
BOTTOM LINE- This phone is worth it if you want an affordable fully loaded handset.

4.5 stars

"Great phone for pros and joes!" on May 4, 2008 by hpceman

Pros: Bluetooth, camera, slider phone, call clarity, missed alerts

Cons: Keypad (non-QWERTY), ringtones, headset adapter.

Summary: I just got this phone a few days ago, and I am over impressed with it. Because it is a phone, I will start with the basic phone functions.
Call Clarity:
I read that this phone picks up background noise very easily, but I have not had that problem at all. I currently use the speaker on level 1 and the clarity is the best I have ever had in a cell phone. I can actually understand the person on the other end in loud environments without asked to repeat themselves twelve times.
Text-Messaging:
Texting on this phone really isn't that bad, I just wish that it had a QWERTY keypad. The T-9 word with predictable text however helps out a lot and really is easy to use. The only pain that I have had with it is sometimes I will put in the last word of a sentence and it will automatically put in the next word. When this happens I have found that all you have to do is erase just the letters of the extra word and leave the space before it. Sometimes the T-9 can get really screwy predicting non-words. When this happens you have to retype the entire word.
Ring tones:
The phone comes with many ring tones built in that aren't half bad. There are a lot of just plain jane rings that don't sound half bad. I personally can't stand the music ring tones, but that is true for most phones that I get, so I just use the plain jane ringers. Music ring tones can be downloaded from Sprint, but I don't suggest getting them unless you have a vision plan. At $0.03/Kb, the cost for one ringer will go WAY up quickly. I have found a tutorial online where you take your own music and create a video ringer with it which works! Music clarity is amazing for ringers on the one speaker which doubles as a speaker phone and earphone. This thing gets loud!
Camera:
The Pictures on the camera are everything you should expect from a 1.3 megapixel camera. Color quality is very nice, but don't expect to take anything too amazing with this camera.
Odds and ends:
One thing I don't like at all about this phone is the need for an adapter for a wired headset. It plugs into the same port as the charger and falls out very easily. When connected however, it is very nice. I suggest getting a blue tooth headset for this phone. Speaking of blue tooth, this phone supports pretty much every profile of it. File transfer is kinda slow, but it works. With the USB data cable, you can bypass this and turn the phone into a mass storage device. The phone uses a micro SD card which is very convenient.

Overall:
I love this phone so much and I am glad that I got it over the LG Rumor as it supports so much more than it does (my sister has one, feel sorry for her).

Updated on Mar 14, 2009

I have had this phone for almost a year now, and I still stand by everything that I said in my original review. The only problems I have had since then are that I have scratched the screen and some of the shiny paint has worn off. Other than cosmetics this is still a great phone!

4.0 stars

"a good phone." on April 7, 2008 by sambrochill

Pros: good camera, uses a micro SD card, the reception is great, very vibrant display.

Cons: not as customizable as I'd like, no usb port.

Summary: So I went to sprint and upgraded to this phone about two days ago. i haven't had any problems with it yet, accept for some of my text messages will switch times, like it'll be 9:30 but the message will say received at 10:30 and then some of them will display the correct time, so this can make a conversation somewhat confusing. I'm not sure if it is just network problem or problems with my phone.Be for getting this phone I read other reviews about it and a lot of people complain about battery life, I've had my phone on for about 24 hours and i had to charge it once and yes I mad at least 20 calls and I've sent over 300 text messages so i did use the phone. In my opinion the battery life is great.

The Phone allows you to use a Micro SD card which is nice so you can have expandable memory and transport things from your phone to your computer or vice versa, I have had really good reception every where so no complaints there. The display is just gorgeous, its very vibrant and colorful. The camera is good not the best but definetly better than what's put on some other phones.The design is also very sleek and stylish, the gunmetal sort of color is really nice and the phone is pretty slim and light so its a very stylish phone if u ask me.

Besides all of the good things, there are some bad. The phone does not have a USb port, so you can't just get a USB cable and connect your phone straight to your computer. Instead they have some custom sort of port, and you have to buy a USb cable for Samsung or go to your local sprint store and see if they carry the cable. The phone doesnt have much customization options, for the directional keys on the phone, usually you can customize what they go to, but sprint has set them and I've looked all over the phone and there is no sign of a customization option.

Overall i think this is a good phone, a few downsides, but a lot of good things.

so i give it an 8

thanks for reading.

Updated on Dec 21, 2008

don't buy this phone. it breaks and freezes constantly. In less than half a year I've had to have 4 replacements. Every single time the screen goes blank and wont come back on for hours and some times even days.


I would not recommend this phone.