Fun but flimsy
Written: May 05 '09
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Pros: Sexy styling, good music and sound quality, small footpprint
Cons: Limited bluetooth capability, fragile mechanics
The Bottom Line: For casual use, it's great. You can't beat the look, it's really awesome. But the device doesn't hold up well to todays younger crowd that lives on their phone.
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| bwestman's Full Review: Samsung SCH U470 Cell Phone |
I recently switched our cellular service from one company to another. I did so to take advantage of an employee discount and to add my son's fiance to the family plan. I correlated this action to happen on her birthday and presented her with a Samsung Juke for the occasion. My son got a new Juke in the process as well.
As appearances go, the phone is quite sexy. It is about the size of a pack of gum and has about the same dimensions. It is 3.8 inches by 1.2 inches by 0.8 inch and weighs 2.8 ounces. Hers is teal and his is navy. They also come in red and black. The phone has 2 gig internal storage and no options for a memory card or expanded storage. It also has a VGA camera, which takes acceptable pictures (specially given the itty bitty screen to view them on), but there is no option for video...just still shots.
At first, the kids were thrilled with their new toys and spent a happy few hours choosing music to put on their phones. The sound quality of the internal speaker is acceptable, but not stellar. However, with the included ear buds, the phone/MP3 player produced nice, substantial quality sound. They were happy. The music player supports MP3, WMA, WMA Pro, AAC, and AAC+ file formats, meaning all the music we had stored in iTunes for my iPod now works on their phones as well.
When it came to using the device as a phone, the joy diminished somewhat. The phone is totally cool, with how it flips open and the display changes. The buttons are sleek and shiny and the whole apparatus just looks technocool. But actual use proves a little more challenging. My son used to be a heavy texter, but he has slowed down considerably with this phone. The buttons are just too close together for comfort, causing quite a few wrong strokes. The entire button panel is smooth, making it almost impossible to key by touch. Also, the shininess, while very pretty to look at, is hard to see outside in full sun.
In the box, you get the phone, battery, charger, USB cable, and a set of ear buds/hands-free headset. The ear buds have a built in mic on the cord, allowing them to be used for talking as well as listening.
The ear buds are pretty typical (i.e. don't fit anyone's ear) and work fine in general. The stereo quality sound is quite nice and as a head-set, produce good clarity. However, the plug is not the standard 2.5mm plug of most headphones. Attempting to listen to the music on the phone using standard headphones does not work, not even with an adapter. Plugging in anything other than the supplied headset causes the sound to cut out.
The phone has bluetooth capabilities, but only for talking/listening and "object push" - meaning you can send contacts, but the kids could not exchange music, pictures, or ringtones via bluetooth with this phone. Media has to be sent via MMS messaging in order to share.
After only two months, my son's phone had a physical malfunction. The spring-loaded cover that "flips" open, would no longer catch when closed and was likely to flip open at any time. It reached a point where every time he set the phone down, the cover would pop open. His fiance's phone is getting close to that point as well. Her's isn't quite so bad yet, but she does sometimes have to close it more than once to get it to stay closed.
Neither of them abuses their phone. They are both over 18 and mature enough to take care of their devices. My son carries his in his pocket and she carries hers in her purse, and that may be why his wore out sooner, but still, 2 months is no life span for a phone...specially one geared toward the younger crowd.
Overall, I was pleased with the physical appearance and sleekness of this phone, and the music application is really pretty good, but the practical usefulness of the device as a phone, coupled with its short life span make is less than exciting.
Both kids still use their phones on a daily basis, both for communications and for music. But they do so with a little wariness now that one of the phones has already "crapped out".
To their credit, our cellular company did replace the phone that wore out in only two months so my son has a new Juke.
Recommended:
No
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy
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Epinions.com ID:
bwestman
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Location: Maine
Reviews written: 240
Trusted by: 45 members
About Me:
I am hopelessly impulsive. I admit it.
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