Samsung SCH-i730 (Verizon Wireless)

Pros: Too many pros for this section but read on and you will see.

Cons: No Camera if thats important to you, and battery life of course is an issue with the I730

Summary: I have had my I730 for over a year now and have always been 100% happy with it. Now alot of people have had various complaints with the I730, but what people do not realize, is the I730 has had a bit of a faclift.

So what was the list of problems? Alot of people complained of the fact that the wi-fi would not work without shuting off the phone radio, so you could not recieve calls or text messages while using wi-fi. People made numerous complaints of the fact that the I730 runs on windows mobile 2003se. Users felt that, a smartphone that cost so much should run on the newest version on wm5. Another thing users had issues with was the one handed functionality of the device. Using the d-pad was not always convenient. Also, People dis-liked the I730 because of the lack of phone as modem capabilities. $45 for a data plan but you can't teather? Users where very unhappy about that. And then there where the people who hated the I730 for not having a camera. And then of course the battery life has been a bit of an issue with the I730.

Now before I adress what I mean by the I730 has had a facelift, I will take a moment to review some of the finer features of the device. Obviously wireless connectivity is all there. Bluetooth, IRDA, EVDO, WI-FI, and dual band CDMA. The screen is great cause it is a nice size and looks great! (I730 is about the same size as treos but the 730 has a bigger screen cause of the "slider" form factor.) Of course it has power to boast! The Intel Xscale that it runs on clocks in at a massive 512mhz which to the day is one of the more powerful Xscales. The keyboard is debatable, but for this reviewer the design of the keys have been great! I could continue on and on about great features, but I will leave it there for now.

As for the I730 facelift... well most of those issues that people have had with the I730 have been fixed! And alot of people do not realize this. So I'm going to go down the list of I730 problems and give there resolution:

I will start with no camera. I actualy have no answer for this. It doesn't have one. If you must have a camera on your phone than the I730 is not for you. I personally have my digital camera and thats all i need... but thats me.

The battery... it does suck, and there is no good solution. but at least the extended battery comes with the phone. a battery swap during the day is not that bad!

Most important of things fixed on this list is wm2003se. Verizon has released the WM5 upgrade for the I730. Actually to my understanding, one purchased brand new today has WM5 on it already. But for those of us that have had the device for a while, the upgrade is available from verizons web-site. And its great cause the upgrade is WM5 AKU 2.2 build which is about as new of a version of the OS you can get!

Phone and Wi-FI... most people don't even use the wi-fi but people bagged all over this phone because wi-fi didn't work with the phone at the same time. But now those people can't complain! The WM5 upgrade fixes that issue. So while those people who complained before will still never use the wi-fi, they can if they wanted.

as for one handed use... much better with the WM5 upgrade! the buttons have been re-programmed to make one handed use much easier. The one handed capabilities are just like any other WM5 smartphone now.

And last but certainly not least... phone as modem. A quick web search using the keywords "Samsung I730" and "MCCI drivers" will have your solution. The modem drivers are now publically available and actually have been for some time.

My whole point here is that people have either loved or hated this phone in the past. But it is a whole new device! Those of us who have always loved them, love them even more with the upgraded OS! Those that hated them before, have now had virtually all their arguements squashed. Granted for those of us who have had the device for a while will have to do a bit of work to upgrade (there is a hard reset involved in that upgrade) it is a small price to pay for the closest thing to perfection in a smartphone.

-jason