Samsung Renown user reviews (Verizon Wireless)

Pros great call quality, takes good pictures, awesome loud speaker, good outside music controls

Cons no flash for the camera, very strange battery life, weak vibrate, and SD card slot is inside next to the battery.

Summary The Renown is a great and simple flip phone that gets the job done but sadly falls short thanks to its strange battery life.

Lets start with the downside since all the reviews I?ve read here on CNET focus on the negativity of the Renown. First of all most phones nowadays do not come with an external flash feature if their MSRP is under $300. In a way this defeats the purpose of having a 2.0 MP camera or higher but of course if you buy a phone with 3-5 MP?s then you should get a fancy L.E.D. flash feature. The Renown takes good quality pictures in the day light and only in the day light, in darkness it is pathetic to say the least. You can always try and touch up your pictures but most wont or just don?t know how. No flash is a let down but only is you?re a big ?night time? person. Another annoyance is the weak vibrate feature. The phone gives you the option of vibrating and ringing at the same time when you get a call, txt or set a reminder but the vibrate is so weak that the only real way to feel it is if the battery life is at full power and the phone is secured in your pocket not jumping around. I remember the old Motorola 770i for Nextel vibrated like a machine gun and that?s how a vibrate feature should be but those days are gone. Luckily the speaker on the Renown is loud enough that it makes up for the weak vibrate but sometimes you just need the vibrate on. The SD slot is behind the battery cover and inside the phone. It becomes a tedious problem if your always uploading or downloading things from the SD card. The biggest problem with the Renown and the main thing that kept me from giving it a 5***** rating was the really strange battery life. Before writing this review I read how other persons Renown?s have had disgustingly poor battery life and I have to say that my Renown has given me up to 4.5 hours of talk time. The battery life is still highly questionable but when it comes to talk time it really delivers. Almost every night I talk on it for at least 3.5 hours and the most I have gotten out of it in one conversation was 4.5 as I said. The problem with the battery life is if you leave your phone on stand-by in a ?dead zone? or if you set your reminders to more than 2 rings. For example, lets say your at work or something without the phone and you leave it somewhere where you have one bar or no reception at all, this will cause the phone to keep searching for reception which drains the battery. As for the ?reminders? problem this drains battery life the fastest because the phone will keep ringing and or vibrating until you make it stop. Also charging any battery every night will cause it to loose power faster and have a shorter overall lifespan. Another big battery killer is having the phone in your pocket too long or in contact with your direct body heat. This also cause the battery to loose its charge in a faster manner. If you don?t believe me Google it.

On the positive sides of the Renown I will keep it short. The call quality is great and if its not it can always be the other persons network. It can be poor reception on your part and c?mon the Renown has no expandable antenna, which be nice and helpful. The speaker is just great and so very loud which is a huge plus and in a way makes up for the weak vibrate. The outside music controls need a firm touch which mean even if you forget to lock them it wont start the music player by just taking a step. Good pictures but ONLY in the sunlight, I cant stress thins enough. Overall the phone is not perfect but I would recommend it.

Pros Good call quality, nice camera

Cons Battery life, battery life, and battery life.

Summary My initial feeling of the Samsung Renown was that is a very capable flip phone. The call quality is pretty good, the displays are vivid, and the camera takes great photos in adequate light. Beyond that, that the phone is a complete let down.

I was looking to renew my contract and upgrade my phone, and was disappointed to see that Verizon had moved into 2 distinct categories of phones. Mobile ?media centers? and low-end basic handsets. There is virtually no in between category for those of us who have embraced the convenience of having a basic flip phone that will snap a fairly respectable looking picture when a camera is not handy. My personal opinion is that Verizon seems quite content with using their equipment options to force customers into pricy per month service contracts loaded with features that the average grown adult doesn?t want or need.

I thought I had found a great compromise when I saw the Samsung Renown in Verizon?s lineup of phones. A basic flip phone that will take a half way decent photo when a camera isn?t handy. Being a new father, I was looking for something like this to capture those hard to get spontaneous moments, so the camera feature was an important aspect of my future cell phone. I didn?t want a touch screen ?media center? since my job, as well as the aforementioned child can be difficult on equipment. I wanted a smaller phone that can be safely tossed in a pocket, or carried in a belt case. I wanted a phone that I didn?t have to remember to charge every night. The Renown is rated for 5 hours of talk time, or an admirable 320 hours (13 days) of standby time. The Renown seemed to fit the bill.

I have used the Samsung Renown for a week, and I can assure you that you will never achieve the rated battery life. I?m currently on my second handset, and 3rd battery and the best battery life I?ve witnessed is 30 minutes of talk time with 48 hours of standby time. I am in an area where signal strength NEVER drops below 2 or 3 bars, and the phone NEVER has to search for a signal. Still, every other day I?m rushing home from work to plug the thing in before the battery dies. This is after talking on the phone for a total of 10 or 15 minutes. I hate to think what I?d experience if I actually had to ?use? the thing.

I took the second handset into Verizon?s service center, and the service tech actually had the nerve to tell me that I could not expect the phone to achieve more than 2 days of standby time and that there is nothing wrong with my equipment ? just my expectations. I asked him why the specs state that the Renown will get 13 days of standby time, and he stated ?that is under optimum conditions.? I do not live in the Bermuda Triangle. As stated earlier, the phone never has to search for a signal, and always registers good signal strength, but still the battery life equates to 15% of the advertised duration. I find this to be completely unacceptable.

Updated on Mar 26, 2009

I contacted Samsung, and they insisted that I must have had a run of bad luck and got 2 defective phones. I went to Verizon for a 3rd time and got a 3rd handset. Same problems. I actually talked on the phone one day for approximately 30 minutes. This usage ran off 1 full bar of battery life. Out of the 3 phones I had, the best battery life I could ever achieve was almost 2 days. I finally gave up and returned this phone. I would HIGHLY discourage anyone from buying the Samsung Renown.

Pros Features visual voice mail shape screen everything but voice quality and some other tehnical thing I will discuss in my main review.

Cons Voice quality cut's in and out while talking

Summary Hi,

I really wanted to keep this phone. Everybody says it was clear but I think there was a tinny and muffle componant to this phone.

I"ve had the LG 8300 and I just re activated this phone today and I hear everyone now just great. It seems like the 8300 is the only phone that has good voice quality on the reciving end. I'd love to upgrade to a bigger keyboard and visual voice mail. But the sound quality of these newer cell phones won't allow me to.

The other thing that this phone does is weird. While I was on the phone I heard a baby crying in the background It was just cutting him in and out. I had 3 bars at the time so it wasn't reception. Just for a test I put this phone in front of a TV and called my house phone with it and yes it was doing the same thing. (this happened on all of them)

What it is, is if the person you are talking to is talking to low you will not here anything on this phone. if his voice volume level drops below a certain point and then comes back up you will here the choppy ness. sort of like a wakie talkee sound.

As for a postive note.the screen is great holding the phone is great, visual voice mail is wonderful and when I gave this phone back it felt like a death because I really wanted it for that purpose. But what people want today s features not quality. which makes people like me suffer.


I would give this phone a 5 star if they fixed the voice issue with this phone and make it sound more like a phone rather than a walkee talkee. but I will give it a 2.5 star for (my purposes) for someone else it might be the best phone.



That I could have excused but for my ear I did not like the lower sound frequency that this phone produced, which to me sounds muffled.

Updated on Mar 16, 2009

LAST PARAGRAH ABOVE WAS THIS SUPPOSE TO GO UNDER THE 4TH PARAGRAPH SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I AM IN A RUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pros Great phone in many aspect, easy to use, great mocha color, easy to set up, greta to hear people clearly

Cons The other stupid things is for a global phone, the money conversion tool does not come with a automatic update since it is under tools, you can manual update the currency but that is a pain.

Summary main Negative, its very sensitive to pressure on viewing area where the main clock is, once its closed and going to sleep mode It will go to the shortcut by itself ( my Verizon and mobile web) and might give you roaming charges without you knowing it. The only way right now is to change your short cuts so mine goes to My setting now.




Informed Verizon of this issue, hoping for a software update to change the sensitivity of this phone , or add on of lock key

Updated on Jan 22, 2009

main Negative, its very sensitive to pressure on viewing area where the main clock is, once its closed and going to sleep mode It will go to the shortcut by itself ( my Verizon and mobile web) and might give you roaming charges without you knowing it.