The Samsung SCH-3500 - or how to tick off Captain Kirk
Written: May 15 '00
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Pros: light, sleek, voice dialing! Makes Kirks communicator look like a pay phone.
Cons: None I've found.
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| lpmiller's Full Review: Samsung SCH 3500 CDMA / AMPS Cellular Phone |
Through a rather bizarre set of circumstances, I suddenly found myself with an excess of service packages I was paying for - and a decided lack of actual phones to use them. Serves me right for helping out a friend.
"Kirk to Enterprise. Flog Spock."
Having decided I hated my current phone(a Motorola M70) I thought I'd kill one plan, get a Sprint PCS phone, and consolidate. Now I dig on the teeny tiny phones - but price is always a factor, and I worried about the juice. A pretty phone with a dead battery doesn't meet the need.
Ok, I got lucky. I was planning on a different, cheaper phone. Hey, I do ok, but 150 bucks to have people interrupt me over lunch seems a bit much. Thanks to a lucky Chance Card (Bank makes error in your favor, collect 200 dollars), those plans changed. Seems even the fine folks at Best Buy can make a boo-boo in labeling - so for 100 bucks, I finally captured some Federation technology.
The Samsung 3500 is a wee phone indeed - smaller then a Star Trek communicator, and with more options to boot. When compared to my old brick of a phone, the 3500 weighs near nothing, fits easily into the pocket, and slides right out of it and under the car seat like nobody's business. It flips open to reveal recessed buttons that are easily accessible and logically placed - no fumbling for a scroll wheel or a function key.
And the functions! Ok, most phones have Bach as a ringer type. And joy mode (err, vibrate mode for you folks without the pleasure) is getting pretty common too. Web browsing is the big 'perk' - go ahead, ask me the weather in Bora Bora. Dual band - fine, toss that in. Headset jack, sure, even if it sort of defeats the purpose.
But Voice Dialing, now that is cool.
You press a button, then say a word. "Home, James." Then you type in the number. Next time you flip the phone, you say "Home, James", and viola! Instant annoyed wife (um, well, I HAVE to show off my new toy, don't I?). Voice recognition is darn near the best I've ever seen, and mild background noise doesn't seem to cause problems.
Take that, Captain Kirk!
Sound is very clear, and juice life is rated at 180 hours of standby, 2.5 talk with the included battery. I haven't had it long enough to be sure, but I've had it on for the past 2 days and still show a bit above half on the meter, so I'll give them the benefit there.
The 3500 is voice mail/text paging capable. It also can store 10 one-minute voice messages; though it seems to me if you cannot remember something, how are you going to remember you left yourself a message to remember???
Ouch. Ok, I'll stop that.
Let me go back to web browsing. It's cool the first time. It's pretty lame after that. Download speeds are decent, considering its pretty much just text - but I just don't see blowing my talk time on sports scores when I have a 2,000 dollar DSL capable PC lying around the house. I suppose if you're trapped on a mountain somewhere, it'd be a way to kill time while you debated which of your fellow survivors you wanted to dine on, but it's really not the most practical thing in the world.
I love this phone. It's light, sleek looking, and the voice dialing really rubs the Geek genes the right way. Sadly, it's a 150 bucks, so unless you have the same hung over salesman I had, you'll have to spend a bit more.
It would be unfair of me to say if it is worth $150...but if someone made me go back to the store and pay the correct price, I'd do it.
Of course, they'd have to find me first!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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lpmiller
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Location: Plymouth, MN
Reviews written: 100
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