Samsung SCH-8500: A Winner
Written: Jan 24 '01 (Updated Jan 24 '01)
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Pros: Durable construction means I won't be breaking this one
Cons: So many features that it's a bit confusing
The Bottom Line: Would recommend this to anyone looking for a phone to keep for a while. I like the phone more than I like the Sprint PCS service, but that's another epinion...
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| deliciae's Full Review: Samsung SCH 8500 CDMA / AMPS Cellular Phone |
I didn't want to do it. I had resisted for the longest time; committing to a cell phone was more relationship with electronics than I wanted to have in my life. I was happy, I was free, I was unreachable when I wanted to be unreachable.
Unfortunately, the day came when the inevitable happened: I was out of the office and my boss needed to speak to me immediately. He took care of the emergency; however, when I returned to the office that day, he pulled me aside and said, "The time has come." I looked at him and knew that my cell-less days were over.
All of my colleagues have cell phones; talking with them made it easy in trying to figure out which one to buy. After hearing their recommendations, I had decided on the Samsung SCH-8500. It had all the features I wanted, not too much of the stuff I didn't care about, and it looked hot.
My decision was sealed a few days later when I received an email from our office manager; Sprint PCS was making an offer for both a discounted phone and service to my company, and the Samsung SCH-8500 was one of the phones included in the offer. Rock! I paid $60 for the phone, which currently lists at $199. Not bad.
CONSTRUCTION
The 8500 is totally stylin! It's small enough to fit in my coat pocket easily, yet doesn't get lost in my bag when I stow it in there. It's light (approximately 4 oz) but it has enough heft to feel comfortable in your hand when using it. The keypad buttons are of a reasonable size and I find them very easy to work with.
Samsung has designed a phone that I would bet will long outlast many other equally stylish phones on the market. After 4 months of hard use, there are only two minor scratches on the brushed silver front casing, and none on the back. I don't own a carrying case for this phone, and luckily, don't feel the need to get one, thanks to this design.
Another great design feature is the flip hinge. This piece is designed so that the holders of the hinge, on the outside, are part of the body of the phone, while the inside part is longer than most I have seen, and is completely contained. This translates to mega-durability because these pieces cannot crack, which would render the phone useless. I don't worry when I flip this phone open.
FEATURES
This phone has lots of features to play with! The total group of features is detailed on their website at http://www.samsungmobile.com/mobile/products/cdma/sch8500/features.html.
The phone book is great, and is the feature I use the most. Included in the phone book are 250 autodial slots and 20 voice dial slots (just say the person's name to call them.) The voice dial feature is very cool but I have found it somewhat difficult to use, depending on where I am and the level of noise around me.
One thing that could be improved: the phone's clock is synched up with the service network, meaning that i cannot use it to tell the time if I am in the subway or somewhere else that the phone cannot receive service. This can be mildly annoying when waiting for a train, but becomes greatly annoying when I am late for an appointment or otherwise pressed for time. However, the alarm is LOUD and has now replaced my travel alarm clock when I am on business trips.
I really like the voice memo feature, and use it constantly. Particularly wonderful is that I don't have to be in the Sprint service area to use voice memo, and that you have 10 minutes of recording time, which is plenty. The voice mail is cool except it takes too long to get to the messages through Sprint PCS network. Since you are paying by the minute when you access voice mail, you should just go right to your messages and not have to listen to the same welcome message that comes on each time.
Using the PIM is tough because of the way you type with it, by cycling through letters on the phonepad. This can take some time, but how else would you do it? Voice recognition will be the next step in dealing with this issue; unfortunately, the 8500 isn't set up for it just yet.
I have yet to try the wireless web feature; it's too expensive, and what's the point? I'd rather go online using my laptop and get the full web experience. Additionally, my service provider (Sprint PCS) charges extra for the wireless web access, and I am reluctant to give any more cash up to them than I already do.
I truly love the ability to switch through ringer settings quickly from the outside of the phone, so I don't have to turn the phone on to shut the ringer down. This makes life very easy when you're in a movie theatre and remember JUST as the previews end that you forgot to turn the ringer off.
USING IT
The sound quality is generally very good on this phone. I've only had a few instances where I had any type of echo or ghosting on it, and when that does occur, it didn't last for the entire call, so it was bearable. On the whole, it's pretty decent reception.
The menu displays are designed well; they are intuitive and easy to use. The backlight display makes it easy to use this phone regardless of the light conditions around you.
Battery life is reasonable: I charge mine overnight every day, and leave it in the charger when not using it at home. I have only run out of juice once, and that without having charged it the day before, which isn't too bad, but I'd like a longer life battery, anyway.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60
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Epinions.com ID:
deliciae
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 22 members
About Me:
same bat time, same bat channel...
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