Sleek, stylish & durable mobile phone!
Written: Mar 15 '01 (Updated Mar 15 '01)
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Pros: Great sound quality, both Mic and speaker, excellent call screening
Cons: Can't find a good headset
The Bottom Line: This stylish and durable phone performs very well with excellent sound quality and an ample set of accessible features. A definite asset at work or home.
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| cwkemp's Full Review: Samsung SCH 3500 CDMA / AMPS Cellular Phone |
From the title, you can probably tell I like the Samsung SCH-3500 cellular phone.
This fact is actually kind of funny as I originally went kicking and screaming into the purchase of this cellular phone.
You see, my work decided “I needed a phone”.
At first, their suggestion was that I carry a pager. After dodging this horror extremely effectively for months, I finally was given a “loaner” cell phone and I have to admit it did make my job easier almost immediately. However the digital reception in my building was poor, so I needed a dual mode phone which could switch seamlessly between analog and digital.
The recommendation from Bell Mobility was the Samsung SCH-3500
Personally, I like being ‘unavailable’ when in a meeting or at lunch or generally away from my desk. With the marvelous inventions of voice mail and e-mail, leaving and returning messages quickly has become a very effective way of life for millions of us over the past several years.
However, a couple key features made this Samsung phone an extremely useful tool:
• Caller ID
• Vibrate Alerting
With these two features, this annoying tool became very useful almost immediately. I almost always have the phone on vibrate mode and screen the call with Caller ID which let’s meetings go uninterrupted unless I really need to take the call.
Anyway, on to the specifics and my experience with the Samsung SCH-3500:
Lightweight & Compact
While the 3500 is not the smallest phone on the market, it does in my mind classify as small. I find the ergonomics very pleasing and the phone will slip into the pocket of my slacks comfortably.
There is also an excellent coffee-coloured hard plastic belt/pocket clip which the phone slides in and out of easily that I would highly recommend.
From the popularity of the phone, I will also draw the conclusion it is considered somewhat stylish. I know I find it quite a pleasant design.
Functionality
This phone has a ton of features (check the spec page for the full list), but by far the following are my favourite set of features:
• Microphone and Speaker Sound Quality
• Voice Dialing
• Ample size and easily navigable Address Book
• Memo taker
• Caller ID display and Caller ID blocking
Everyone comments on the quality of the microphone. I get a lot of “Oh! I didn’t know you were calling from a cell phone” comments, and my co-workers have asked me the model simply because my voice comes through on their end so clearly.
The speaker sound quality is ample enough such that I can hear most people in a reasonably noisy pub, and the ear piece is small enough that you can comfortably cup your hand over it if necessary.
Oh did I say “pub”?!? I meant a noisy cafeteria...
At first, I thought voice dialing was a frivolous feature, but for the very frequently called numbers, I have come to use this feature extensively.
The voice recognition is not perfect however, and I would say I get it about 7 out of 10 attempts. My hint (actually the manual’s hint;-): make the voice dial prompt sufficiently long. For example, to record a voice dial prompt for Bob, use “Bob at Work” and not a shorter “Bob”.
The one strange thing is that the voice dialing does not seem to be adversely affected by ambient noise. Even with a radio playing, it still easily recognizes “Bob at Work” most of the time.
The phone book is amazing. Storage is easy from the outgoing, incoming, or missed call lists, or simply adding a new entry from the very easily navigable Menu system. The phone book holds 179 entries (#179 being reserved for the voice mail number) and entering the names is using the now common hit 2 three times for letter C mechanism.
I should note also that the screen and the backlight are both very good, with sufficient options to configure the back light timer to save on battery life. I have even given up wearing a watch since I can always easily see the clock on the cell phone, even in bright sunlight.
Oh yes, and battery life. I expect to get three solid work days out of this phone, two with a heavy volume of calls. Recharging is quite quick and I have not noticed any real degradation in battery life nor battery "memory" factor in the 6 months I’ve had the phone.
The Samsung also has a voice memo recording function, where you can quickly record reminders to yourself such as a FAX number, or even a date to be added to a calendar at a later time. I have been truly amazed at how useful I have found this function. Everything from shopping lists, to reminders for work, to spelling someone’s name. A very useful feature in my opinion.
The mini-browser novelty wore off within the first couple of weeks, but I still use it to check movie listings every blue moon.
My major complaint definitely has to be the headsets. I have tried two headsets now:
• a plantronics head phone model and
• a samsung ear clip model
For both, the sound and microphone quality has left a lot to be desired. I have mostly stopped using the headsets since they provide only mediocre performance, leaning towards the poor side.
Summary
All in all, I’ve been very happy with the Samsung SCH-3500. The phone is durable, especially considering the beating and use it takes at work, with the only complaint being I lost a little rubber screw cover on the back side of the flip top arm.
The reception, sound quality and effective call screening feature combinations make this an invaluable tool for work.
Even so much so that I replaced my wife’s personal phone (a older Sony) with a Samsung SCH-3500 so now the two of us match (how cute, eh? “Ack Barf!” to again quote Bill the Cat).
“Hey - I thought you didn’t like cell phones?” you ask.
I never said I didn’t believe in personal cell phones... ;-)
And the Samsung SCH-3500 certainly satisfies both personal and professional cell phone needs very well.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130.00
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Epinions.com ID:
cwkemp
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Member: Colin Kemp
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 21 members
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