- 17,865
- 509
Quick blurb, see more detailed explanations below the blurb...
Samsung u740 from Verizon.
Price - $149.99 USD as upgrade (can be found for less, see note on sale)
I've had it for a couple of weeks now.
* indicates new items added after getting the memory card that I have found
Pros -
Robust texting and IM.
Large screen.
Small, flip design for a qwerty phone.
Clear cut navigation.
Call quality is good.
*Has voice to text input that is fairly accurate.
*Music quality is pretty good, even through the phone speakers.
Cons -
Minor setting annoyances.
Some inconsistency in how input is handled for texts.
*No sub folders for Media
*Video quality is a bit lacking through Super... not sure if VZW's software would have better results.
Overall - I really like this phone, have sent some 400 texts and IMs on it the last 2 weeks, talked several hundred minutes up, and had no issues at all. At the price I got it, its an amazing deal. And if you do alot of texting and IMing, its probably worth the extra money, as the price is cheaper than the enV or any smartphones, and its quite a bit smaller. It takes a little getting use to, but once you do, dialing and calling on it is no different than a normal phone, and texting is faster and you get to use whole words and punctuation.
Rating - 9/10
More detailed ranting follows
Well, I had been hurting for a new phone for some time, and a sale came up with my Verizon upgrade plan. Got a sweet deal I do think myself on this phone at $30 USD (Its normaly a $150 upgrade)
I had been considering getting a phone with a keyboard for some time, more so with AIM and MSN on it. However, I have issues with non flip phones as I am very rough on stuff and the screen needs some protection from keys, pens, etc in my pockets. This pretty much left me with the LG VX9900, or the enV. While it does flip, its effectively a candy bar phone thats a little chunky, kinda like a Sneakers bar. It seemed to be the only real solution though to my pickiness in phones, and worked well after fiddling one my friend had for a bit.
Then this gem came out... the Samsung u740
I was a bit skeptical at first, because the dual hinge design looked flimsy, and the keys seemed rather small and cramped. My thoughts on this quickly changed after I handled a working u740.
First thing you notice is the phone feels solid. It has a certain weight to it that is reassuring, and then fiddling with the hinges you find they are pretty solid too. Apparently, Samsung actually used metal, unlike the Moto RAZRs plastic hinge. Speaking of which, its just barely larger than the RAZR (about .08 inches thicker, really) and can be easily opened with one hand with the thumb under the front lid flip.
Open the phone into portrait mode for making phone calls, or just working it like a normal phone. The greyed out numpad takes a little time getting use to, but the large screen makes it easy to check what numbers you have typed in. The Voice commands seem to work fine, though it garbles a bit of what I say (I am terrible about mumbling and speaking softly though), but all around works well. Taking pictures is just a simple matter of pushing the camera button and then point and "ok" to snap the shot, and the flash is actually helpful. Picture quality seems decent, and saves at a respectable 1280 by 960 pixels. Calls are fairly clearly, though it does this thing where the speaker shuts off when noise is below a certain level, so I keep thinking I get disconnected. It does help battery life out though.
Opening it in landscape mode, the keys are a little narrow, but the overall size is about the same as my room mate's Treo phone's keys, just a little taller and a smudge narrower. However, the cramped feel might be exxagerated for me, as my hand span is nearly 10 inches, so large fingers and such. Each key moves a slight amount thats just right for letting you know you pressed the it, and typing out 100+ character texts and IMs is easy. The screen is bright and sharp, and most of the time you'll be going through menus and such will be in this screen. I'm normally only in portrait mode for phone calls or when I am too lazy to use both hands to open the phone to check a text. Of course, if I need to reply, I do switch back to landscape... which brings up a neat feature.
If you are composing a text message in portrait mode, you can close the phone and re open it in landscape to continue the text with the full keyboard. Likewise, if you get a call in Landscape mode, it will let you answer it with the speaker phone, and you can then shut the phone and open it in portrait mode for use without the speaker phone. Doesn't come up often, but it is handy.
Viewing pictures and videos on the screen is decent, and not just squint at the small fuzzy thing. However, there is no option to view photos full screen, which is slightly irksome. I have yet to use the music player on the phone, awaiting the arrival of a memory card. The custom ringtones I have sent to the phone sound good, consisting mostly of music from RPG games and such, but bass is weak (one should expect this though from these speakers).
Menu navigation is fairly clear, but some features seem to be lacking. For example, I cannot set the phone to vibrate and THEN ring. Its either ring, vibrate, or ring and vibrate right off the bat. I also cannot change the vibrate settings, so I am seemingly stuck at 3 pulses for a new text, etc. The speed of navigation is brisk, but sometimes is seems like there is a little lag. Saving settings does take its sweet time though. And I cannot apply ringtones to whole groups, I have to manually set it for each contact (Apparently, this is a Samsung thing in general, from people I have talked to). On the plus side, the keyboard makes updating a calender/planner easy, allowing me to organize my life a bit more.
The big thing for me with this phone was the AIM and MSN chatting, which is part of a mobile messenger that also includes Yahoo!. Overall, its pretty straight forward and easy. However, each UI is slightly different, and the MSN one annoys me (but MSN always annoys me) in that the current conversations are on a different screen than the contacts, where as on the AIM one, the conversations are at the top, and the contacts online are below them. Just one more menu to jump back and forth between. Also, the typing settings are quite as robust as they are in the phone to phone texting composer. Hitting Shift is basically caps lock, and the special characters must be accessed by hitting "Num Lock." In the text composer, just holding a key longer puts the special char in, and the Shift key lets you put one caps in and then proceeds back to lower case. Minor things really, but annoying at times.
One thing that really got to me, and its not the phone as much as it is Verizon (or the Best Buy sales guy), is in regarding to the AIM and MSN. Messages sent over it use both Texts and Air time unless you have a data plan. The sales guy thought it was just Texts. So I burnt some 200 minutes almost on AIM and MSN before I noticed it on my account info. Annoying, but caught it soon enough.
When the memory card arrives, I'll upload some samples from the camera and review the music playback. I'll also update if anything happens with the phone that is a design flaw or a neat feature I overlooked.
UPDATE: Music and Media
Okay, so I got a memory card. Music quality is pretty good, but some annoying things regarding the file system and such. You cannot have more than 36 characters in the file name, and no sub folders. So, make sure your ID3 tags are nice and neat. I only have a mono headset, but music and movies sound decent. Over the speakers built into the phone, as long as the volume is kept unreasonable, there is not much distortion. Turn it up much and you'll get some popping and cracking though, but what do you expect from speakers that can't be more than a few mm in diameter? Its nice enough for me to use it to play music when I go to sleep and need to drown out background noises - built a small playlist on the phone and it just shuts off when its done playing the list.
Video playback is a little lack luster. I'm using Super to convert to the 3g2 format, and at bitrates beyond 192kbps, it chugs. At 192 and lower, there is quite a bit of artifacting and the current resolutions in Super do not include a native resolution for the phone... I've loaded a full length movie, a SNL Jeopardy clip, and some anime on it. Do not expect to read subtitles on this screen or at this quality. Larger files take quite some time to load, over 10 seconds I think on the full length movie, so its better suited to small and random clips. So keep your iPod (or similar) with you if you watch alot of shows on the go.
Also found I can dictate to my phone for text messages. You train the voice system, and it is fairly accurate, picking up most of what my mumbling is. You do have to pause between words, but it is generally faster than typing for larger words and if you don't have the time to look down at the screen or use both hands to text. Not the most helpful feature, as you tend to text when you can't talk, but handy to have non the less.
Samsung u740 from Verizon.
Price - $149.99 USD as upgrade (can be found for less, see note on sale)
I've had it for a couple of weeks now.
* indicates new items added after getting the memory card that I have found
Pros -
Robust texting and IM.
Large screen.
Small, flip design for a qwerty phone.
Clear cut navigation.
Call quality is good.
*Has voice to text input that is fairly accurate.
*Music quality is pretty good, even through the phone speakers.
Cons -
Minor setting annoyances.
Some inconsistency in how input is handled for texts.
*No sub folders for Media
*Video quality is a bit lacking through Super... not sure if VZW's software would have better results.
Overall - I really like this phone, have sent some 400 texts and IMs on it the last 2 weeks, talked several hundred minutes up, and had no issues at all. At the price I got it, its an amazing deal. And if you do alot of texting and IMing, its probably worth the extra money, as the price is cheaper than the enV or any smartphones, and its quite a bit smaller. It takes a little getting use to, but once you do, dialing and calling on it is no different than a normal phone, and texting is faster and you get to use whole words and punctuation.
Rating - 9/10
More detailed ranting follows
Well, I had been hurting for a new phone for some time, and a sale came up with my Verizon upgrade plan. Got a sweet deal I do think myself on this phone at $30 USD (Its normaly a $150 upgrade)
I had been considering getting a phone with a keyboard for some time, more so with AIM and MSN on it. However, I have issues with non flip phones as I am very rough on stuff and the screen needs some protection from keys, pens, etc in my pockets. This pretty much left me with the LG VX9900, or the enV. While it does flip, its effectively a candy bar phone thats a little chunky, kinda like a Sneakers bar. It seemed to be the only real solution though to my pickiness in phones, and worked well after fiddling one my friend had for a bit.
Then this gem came out... the Samsung u740
I was a bit skeptical at first, because the dual hinge design looked flimsy, and the keys seemed rather small and cramped. My thoughts on this quickly changed after I handled a working u740.
First thing you notice is the phone feels solid. It has a certain weight to it that is reassuring, and then fiddling with the hinges you find they are pretty solid too. Apparently, Samsung actually used metal, unlike the Moto RAZRs plastic hinge. Speaking of which, its just barely larger than the RAZR (about .08 inches thicker, really) and can be easily opened with one hand with the thumb under the front lid flip.
Open the phone into portrait mode for making phone calls, or just working it like a normal phone. The greyed out numpad takes a little time getting use to, but the large screen makes it easy to check what numbers you have typed in. The Voice commands seem to work fine, though it garbles a bit of what I say (I am terrible about mumbling and speaking softly though), but all around works well. Taking pictures is just a simple matter of pushing the camera button and then point and "ok" to snap the shot, and the flash is actually helpful. Picture quality seems decent, and saves at a respectable 1280 by 960 pixels. Calls are fairly clearly, though it does this thing where the speaker shuts off when noise is below a certain level, so I keep thinking I get disconnected. It does help battery life out though.
Opening it in landscape mode, the keys are a little narrow, but the overall size is about the same as my room mate's Treo phone's keys, just a little taller and a smudge narrower. However, the cramped feel might be exxagerated for me, as my hand span is nearly 10 inches, so large fingers and such. Each key moves a slight amount thats just right for letting you know you pressed the it, and typing out 100+ character texts and IMs is easy. The screen is bright and sharp, and most of the time you'll be going through menus and such will be in this screen. I'm normally only in portrait mode for phone calls or when I am too lazy to use both hands to open the phone to check a text. Of course, if I need to reply, I do switch back to landscape... which brings up a neat feature.
If you are composing a text message in portrait mode, you can close the phone and re open it in landscape to continue the text with the full keyboard. Likewise, if you get a call in Landscape mode, it will let you answer it with the speaker phone, and you can then shut the phone and open it in portrait mode for use without the speaker phone. Doesn't come up often, but it is handy.
Viewing pictures and videos on the screen is decent, and not just squint at the small fuzzy thing. However, there is no option to view photos full screen, which is slightly irksome. I have yet to use the music player on the phone, awaiting the arrival of a memory card. The custom ringtones I have sent to the phone sound good, consisting mostly of music from RPG games and such, but bass is weak (one should expect this though from these speakers).
Menu navigation is fairly clear, but some features seem to be lacking. For example, I cannot set the phone to vibrate and THEN ring. Its either ring, vibrate, or ring and vibrate right off the bat. I also cannot change the vibrate settings, so I am seemingly stuck at 3 pulses for a new text, etc. The speed of navigation is brisk, but sometimes is seems like there is a little lag. Saving settings does take its sweet time though. And I cannot apply ringtones to whole groups, I have to manually set it for each contact (Apparently, this is a Samsung thing in general, from people I have talked to). On the plus side, the keyboard makes updating a calender/planner easy, allowing me to organize my life a bit more.
The big thing for me with this phone was the AIM and MSN chatting, which is part of a mobile messenger that also includes Yahoo!. Overall, its pretty straight forward and easy. However, each UI is slightly different, and the MSN one annoys me (but MSN always annoys me) in that the current conversations are on a different screen than the contacts, where as on the AIM one, the conversations are at the top, and the contacts online are below them. Just one more menu to jump back and forth between. Also, the typing settings are quite as robust as they are in the phone to phone texting composer. Hitting Shift is basically caps lock, and the special characters must be accessed by hitting "Num Lock." In the text composer, just holding a key longer puts the special char in, and the Shift key lets you put one caps in and then proceeds back to lower case. Minor things really, but annoying at times.
One thing that really got to me, and its not the phone as much as it is Verizon (or the Best Buy sales guy), is in regarding to the AIM and MSN. Messages sent over it use both Texts and Air time unless you have a data plan. The sales guy thought it was just Texts. So I burnt some 200 minutes almost on AIM and MSN before I noticed it on my account info. Annoying, but caught it soon enough.
When the memory card arrives, I'll upload some samples from the camera and review the music playback. I'll also update if anything happens with the phone that is a design flaw or a neat feature I overlooked.
UPDATE: Music and Media
Okay, so I got a memory card. Music quality is pretty good, but some annoying things regarding the file system and such. You cannot have more than 36 characters in the file name, and no sub folders. So, make sure your ID3 tags are nice and neat. I only have a mono headset, but music and movies sound decent. Over the speakers built into the phone, as long as the volume is kept unreasonable, there is not much distortion. Turn it up much and you'll get some popping and cracking though, but what do you expect from speakers that can't be more than a few mm in diameter? Its nice enough for me to use it to play music when I go to sleep and need to drown out background noises - built a small playlist on the phone and it just shuts off when its done playing the list.
Video playback is a little lack luster. I'm using Super to convert to the 3g2 format, and at bitrates beyond 192kbps, it chugs. At 192 and lower, there is quite a bit of artifacting and the current resolutions in Super do not include a native resolution for the phone... I've loaded a full length movie, a SNL Jeopardy clip, and some anime on it. Do not expect to read subtitles on this screen or at this quality. Larger files take quite some time to load, over 10 seconds I think on the full length movie, so its better suited to small and random clips. So keep your iPod (or similar) with you if you watch alot of shows on the go.
Also found I can dictate to my phone for text messages. You train the voice system, and it is fairly accurate, picking up most of what my mumbling is. You do have to pause between words, but it is generally faster than typing for larger words and if you don't have the time to look down at the screen or use both hands to text. Not the most helpful feature, as you tend to text when you can't talk, but handy to have non the less.
