Well, I liked the small size, the long battery life, the good sound quality, and the minibrowser, but I really got it because it looks nifty. The SCH-3500 is a mighty cute phone. I love that it can fit in a pants pocket and I can still sit down. That it's tough enough that after three weeks of rattling around in my pockets, it still looks completely new. But mostly I love flipping it open and closed, watching its little screen light up.

The sound quality is generally excellent, when the digital signal is strong, though it tends to crackle and break up at medium signal levels. The speaker can be incredibly loud, which comes in handy on a busy street, but I'm glad there's a volume control right under my thumb. Voice dialing works just fine, though I wonder why they say it only works in PCS service areas. Do they store the voice samples on the network instead of on the phone? Hmm.

It's not perfect. The menu system is a bit awkward. Why do they hide the key numbers for the top ten menu entries, making it take twice as long to learn the key shortcuts? Why does it take so many levels of menus just to set ring volumes? Why doesn't the call log include the duration of each call? (You have to go to a separate Airtime menu to get only the duration of the most recent call.) I want a single, easy to find menu to override all the ring settings (and there's about a zillion of them) to silence or vibrate instead. Information such as numeric pages, phone book entries, etc. is often strangely formatted on the display, making it hard to interpret. But on the whole it's okay.

It wouldn't be pocket-sized without the flip, but sometimes it's a bit awkward to get it open.

The batteries are great. I leave the phone on all day, and it sits in the charger at night for less than an hour before it's done.

I can't think of any practical use for the minibrowser, but I tried it, and it works. Maybe someday there'll be a reason to use it.

Unfortunately, after just three weeks I'm returning the phone because of the poor quality of Sprint PCS service in New York City. But that's a different story. (See Service Plans/New York/Sprint)



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 70