Cell phone rep review
Written: Jan 03 '02
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Pros: looks; features; price; screen
Cons: not a GSM phone (world phone), can't have more than one phone number per contact
The Bottom Line: I would recommend it 100%. It is an excellent phone that does not cost a lot, is cool with a lot of features and offers very good quality.
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| sebdavid's Full Review: Samsung SCH-T300 Cell Phone |
A little background: I work in a store in which, among other things, I sell cell phones. I have all kinds of phones with all 4 companies that offer service in my area (Montreal, QC, CAN). Therefore, when I decided I needed to buy a phone, I had a lot of choice and good knowledge about the different brands/models.
It should therefore go to great lengths to convince you that I chose this phone amongst all the ones my store carries. I wrote two reviews, for the hasty and the detail-oriented.
-------------LONG VERSION-------------
This might not be the most complete phone with all the cool features etc., but it's certainly unbeatable in its price range. The list price over here is 250$ with a 50$ mail-in rebate, and you can get additional rebates after that if you choose to go with a 1, 2, or 3 year contract. It is not the cheapest phone around, but is in line with the price of the other reasonably good-quality, feature-packed phones on the market here. Most of this bargain is probably due to Telus (the service provider), since the SCH-T130 offered by Bell is more expensive, even though it has less features.
That covers the price, now what about the phone itself? Well, as I said, it might not have a color screen or full-featured Palm-style personal assistant, but apart from those, it's not missing much...
It has (and I only list the features that I actually use) vibration, voice activation (say "call mom" and it automatically dials the right number), a big screen, dozens of different tones, the ability to download new ones from the Net (although Telus doesn't allow me to do that through their network), a scheduler, easy internet access (can't comment on that, haven't used it and don't plan to), active but not wired flip (more about that later), up to 400 names storage, voice memo function (which also lets you record a phone conversation), sms function, T9 text assistant, and some cool games.
The phone works really well, I get signal (launch all ZIG) when I'm supposed to, but it's not a miracle phone, which means there are some areas where I can't get good communication, which is much more related to Telus than the phone itself.
The quality of the phone is second to none, I already dropped it a couple times and nothing shows on the surface. You can feel that the unit is very well-built, the only gripe I have about the construction is the small pesky rubber thingy that cover the phone's recharge plug. Not only is it not attached to the phone (making it very easy to misplace it when recharging), but it is quite quick to fall off the phone when in your pocket or otherwise rubbing against stuff. The phone is very light and quite small too, despite the big screen. The buttons are quite small too, but with the voice activation and cursor (the little joystick you use to navigate the menus and play the games; really cool) it shouldn't be much of a problem, you won't use the number buttons all that often.
The features all work without a hitch. The phone has no trouble recognizing who you want to call when using voice activation, and if it has trouble it asks you whether it is really that person you want to call, and you just say "yes" or "no". The screen is really big for a phone of this size, which might not seem like much at purchase time, but you really are glad to have that thereafter. The phone can display cool animations when turning on or off, or when staying idle. It can either display the date/time in two different time zones, only with digits, or both with an analog and digital display. The number of contacts allowed is ample (if you know more than 400 people on a phone call basis, you need a Palm and/or a break), as is the number of voice activation numbers (20) and memos (5 with a total of 4 minutes). The T9 text completion feature also works surprisingly well.
They really thought of everything, for example you can set hyphenation to on or off (either 111-111-1111 or 1111111111). You can set the phone to auto answer calls, when you press a key, or when you open the flip. As soon as you have some voice activation entries, you just open the flip and it asks you who you want to call. Just a couple of the really nice touches all over this phone. The flip is active, as I just mentioned, however there is no wire or microphone inside of it, which prevents some of the contact issues seen with other phones such as the SCH-3500.
One gripe about the use of the phone is that you can't add more than one voice-activated number for each contact. In fact, to add more than one number for a particular contact, you have to create the contact with one number, then go back and edit the entry to add another number. Therefore, if you wanted to have a voice-activated number for someone's cell phone and another one for the home phone, you would have to create two different contacts. Could be messy.
The scheduler works well too, however it is limited in its functions, i.e. it won't replace your Palm if you use ti to its full potential. For me, however, what it offers is ample enough that I won't need a Palm or agenda.
Oh, and the games that are included with the phone are pretty cool.
-------------SHORT VERSION----------------
The phone is great, I love it, the features all work very well, the quality of the reception and of the construction are top-notch, it's got all the features you need and more, plus the cool factor is extremely high.
PROS:
pretty much everything is cool about this phone, but here are the best features:
-voice activation that actually works
-vibration
-big screen
-cool factor
-the flip
-the games are cool
-ample memory (memos, contacts, etc.)
-price
-well thought-out cursor
-T9 text works well
CONS:
they are minor, but here goes:
-rubber plug cover prone to removal/loss
-only one voice-activated number per contact
-people might become jealous
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 110
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Epinions.com ID:
sebdavid
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 1 member
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