Customer Reviews

Samsung B2100 Unlocked Quad-Band Phone, Extreme Anti-Shock, Waterproof, Built-in Flashlight, Bluetooth-International Version-Black

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This mobile is so far a wonderful purchase. It doesn't have all the 'app' capabilities of a multimedia phone, but if you need a quad-band that can make calls, and keep up with an active person - this is it.
The only thing US buyers need to be aware of is that it's English formatting is based off of British standards. Therefore certain features, such as date format or spelling of certain words, will not be what Americans are used to. Ex: when setting up the phone, you must manually enter the date & time. The date format choices are DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD. So if you aren't careful you might read 02/08/2011 as Feb. 8th, 2011 and not the proper Aug. 2nd 2011.

It is unfortunate more mobile phones are not made to be waterproof and shockproof with a built-in fm radio, as the Samsung B2100 is. We had high hopes when we purchased this "unlocked" mobile phone through Amazon.com, however, upon receipt we soon realized it was only partially unlocked. We spoke to AT&T Customer Support over the phone, took it to our local AT&T store, followed by taking it to a Best Buy Mobile store, and all three sources, and their multiple representatives all concluded the phone was not fully unlocked. This is a UK based cell phone, and we are US based customers currently on the AT&T network. The phone is unlocked in the sense that we can make and receive phone calls without issue, but not fully unlocked in that the phone does not permit us to send or receive photo messages, nor can we connect to the internet with it. When AT&T and Best Buy Mobile Reps went into the menu settings of the phone, to where they needed to adjust the corresponding tower/network code to remedy these issues, the UK code was grayed out (0.0.00.0) and therefore unchangeable to a US one. I then e-mailed Samsung USA and Samsung UK with no response. AT&T phone based customer support was unable to proceed with any step-by-step instructions, as this UK phone is not in their US database, which is why we then went to our local AT&T store instead, per their request. When our local AT&T store could not help us in any way, despite the best efforts of their entire in-store team, we then proceeded to Best Buy Mobile, who also tried vigilantly, without success to address this issue. We also Googled this issue, and found a few other folks who had these same issues, but nobody seemed to be offering any real solutions. On that note, we even posted our issue on Fixya.com, with no response of any kind. Having exhausted our efforts, today I called Amazon.com who was kind enough to e-mail us the necessary information to begin our full-refund process. It's just unfortunate we could not find a fix for this issue, as I am sure it's out there somewhere, as we would have liked to keep the phone. None of the US phones currently for sale at our local AT&T store or local Best Buy Mobile are said to be waterproof, as this one is, and all of their "military grade" phones are flip-phones, with minimal water resistance.

If you do not care about being unable to send/receive photo messages, or connect to the internet, and just want a durable waterproof phone, this may be the phone for you. There's a "Samsung B2100 Review" currently on YouTube, which I will attempt to link below, showing the phone fully submerged in a tank of water, receiving a phone call, and still working perfectly when they take it back out. Oh, and it has a built-in flashlight too, just in case (no camera flash though).

[...]

First of all, this phone isn't for everybody. But, that being said it definitely was the perfect phone for me. I was looking for quite a while for a phone that, on the inside, was nothing more than a phone (send & receive calls, send & receive text messages, and store numbers) and on the outside was durable enough to stand up to some healthy abuse. I haven't dropped it in a river or run over it with my truck, but I do shop work everyday and have dropped it, banged it against machinery, and my wife threw it at the dogs once, and it's still ticking just fine.
I have read some reviews about it not being able to send media messages or access the internet if you're in the US. To me, that's fine. I haven't even tried to because I didn't care about that to begin with. So, if you're looking for a phone with some brains in it, you might want to look somewhere else. If you just want a phone that can take a good beating, this one is right for you. Above all, my best points of impression are:

1) Screw Secured Battery Cover (regular snap-on ones are the first things to break otherwise)
2) One-piece keypad cover (good for water resistance and reducing dust contamination)
3) One-piece body (sliders and flip-phones will always break eventually, I don't care what they might say)
4) A LED flashlight that could blind a grizzly bear (you never know when you'll need it)
5) Small size (the only other one-piece phone I found similar to this was the even-more rugged $600 military spec. phone, and that sucker was around eight inches. This phone does fit into the fifth pocket of most blue jeans, by the way.)

Other high points that I didn't expect, but have come to enjoy:

1) FM Radio with the headphones acting as the antenna
2) Music player
3) SD micro card ready
4) Loud speaker (for music and speaker phone)

I have had this phone for a little over a month now, and it has been terrific. I live on the coast, so a phone that is waterproof is particularly helpful. Bluetooth works great for transfer of photos to my computer and contacts between phones. The FM radio is nice too, although I have not used it too much, since it requires the headphones to be plugged in for reception. The multimedia player read the audio and video stored on my Micro SD card, and is intuitive enough to be able to play music by artist/album/genre/etc.

I noticed a lot of concerns about getting multimedia messages (MMS) to work on this phone from other reviewers. I searched AT&T's help forums and found the following settings, which have worked for both my B2100 and the one I got for my girlfriend last fall.

From the menu, navigate to Messages --> (5) Settings --> (1) Multimedia Messages --> (3) Multimedia message profiles.

Hit the left soft key for "Options" --> (3) Create. Here are the settings for each of the fields:

Set name: Media Net
Home URL: http://mmsc.cingular.com
Bearer: GPRS first
Proxy: On
Address: 66.209.011.032
Port: 80
DNS1: 0.0.0.0
DNS2: 0.0.0.0

Then, immediately below DNS2 is "GPRS Settings" - click that and enter the following settings:

Access name: wap.cingular
User ID: [...]
Password: CINGULAR1

The password is case sensitive, so make sure it is in all caps. Once it is all entered, hit the left soft key for "Options" --> (1) Save. Then, at the previous 'Multimedia message profiles' page, hit the left soft key again for "Save" - and you should be all set.

I bought 2 of these about a month ago. One of them has worked flawlessly for the past 8 months, while the other failed within 3 days of normal use. The defective one started turning on and off every 5 minutes or so, but thankfully Amazon took it back and gave me a refund.

The phone is a work and play beast. It really is water proof to 3 feet (tested it for just under 30 minutes, so as not to exceed the max rating). I took pictures underwater at a hotel swimming pool. The pics came out pretty good for a basic cellphone. But really, the phone is intended as a work beast. It takes a hell of a beating. I've dropped it, stepped on it, kicked it a good distance while dropping it, froze it in water (for the lols) and regularly wash it with soap and water or even glass cleaner. Perhaps, its only weakness is the little side cover for the charger port: it will take on water (according to the manual) if you forget to close it.

THE SCREEN
It's small, simple, basically designed for durability, so don't expect web surfing to be practical. Also, it doesn't scratch easily, but if you put in in your pocket along with some keys, don't expect any miracles.

THE KEYBOARD
It's rubbery, a bit hard to press at times, works fine for dialing up phone numbers, but texting can be frustrating. On the other hand, it's practically unbreakable, waterproof, and washable.

THE CASE
It's built for war. It bounces like a hard rubber ball when dropped, and then it's ready for more abuse.

THE FLASHLIGHT
I love this thing. It's always there when you need it most. It has average brightness and does eat the battery pretty fast, but it's so handy that I could care less. There is one bad thing about the flashlight though: it's very easy to accidentally switch it on while talking on the phone. After a couple of days, though, I got used to not pressing the light button, so no worries.

THE EARPHONE PIECE
It's OK as long as it's kept properly aligned to one's ear, otherwise the volume can fade out a bit. It is hard to hear in noisy environments, though.

THE SPEAKERPHONE
It works quite well, sound quality and volume wise. But because the feature is hidden when there are no active calls, I would expect most people to have trouble figuring out how to activate it, let alone realizing that it exists at all. (If I remember correctly, It can only be activated during an active call by pressing the large navigation selection button.)

THE BATTERY
On a single charge and without making/receiving calls at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, It will survive 5 to 6 days on standby. Talk time is about 6 hours with a loss of roughly 17% to 25% per day of battery reserve which is what keeps the phone on standby. If you fiddle with the settings or do texting, the LCD backlight and extra CPU activity with eat the battery pretty fast (2 to 3 hours). (Worth noting: varying ambient temperatures will likely give different battery life results. Putting the phone in your pocket, for instance, may make the battery warmer resulting in almost triple the daily reserve loss. And yes, batteries of almost any kind drain faster as they get warmer.)

RECEPTION
Seems to work wherever I go. No connection drops, except when standing next to large metal structure and even that is rare.

BLUETOOTH
The 'hands free', works flawlessly with my car's factory receiver is all I can really say. I haven't really tried it with any other devices, though.

THIS IS NOT A PRETTY PHONE
It's intended for situations that would kill an iphone instantly. It really is tough and dependable, and for once I don't have to buy a stupid, overpriced protector or worry about some pretty looking phone falling or getting scratched. On the other hand, it obviously won't run apps like an iphone, and it's is borderline terrible for texting, so be warned (not that I care for texting).

What do you look for in a phone? Do you want a sleek, sparkly little sliver of plastic with "apps" and a screen that does tricks when you poke it? If so, run. Run back to your cozy little Starbucks and...blog, or whatever it is you people do. This is a phone for men and hardy women. This is a phone with which you could bludgeon a wolverine. You do not text with this phone. You do not Tweet. You call people and tell them how it's going to be. True, you can do that with lots of phones--but with this one, you can do it while fording the turgid waters of the Nile. You can use its horrid little camera to record new and grotesque species in the depths of the Amazon Basin. You can make dinner reservations for two at that Hungarian place on 34th while galloping toward the airfield pursued by a mysterious hitman. You'll deal with him later.

Oh, and it's really not that hard to get internet, etc.--See D. Henry's review for directions.

The one thing I don't like is that you have to set the clock again every time you swap out the battery. That gets kind of annoying.

6 MONTH UPDATE:
Having now owned this phone for half a year, I stand fully behind my initial review. I moved to a different continent, and it welcomed the new SIM card with open arms--and I got the internet working here, too. I've capsized with this clipped to the straps of my kayak and watched most of my equipment ripped loose as the craft was scraped over partially-submerged trees by the torrent. When I caught and righted the kayak, the phone demurely informed me that I had a voicemail awaiting my leisure. Just last month, I hit a patch of black ice on my bicycle and the phone ground into the asphalt under me as I skidded from the crash. It came out in far better shape than I did, exhibiting only a slight scuff on the screen protector I made from packing tape.

Always reliable. Never expensive. I've used Samsung phones in central Africa, the middle east, and the United States. I've TRIED to use Motorola, HTC, and other "high-end" phones and been disappointed every time. They look good but fail to deliver a usable phone connection every time. What a shame. I've never been disappointed by a Samsung phone or it's performance. This phone is rugged, sweat and tropical rain proof, gets a connection if one is available to be gotten. Easy to find accessories anywhere, from Kisangani and Nairobi to Dubai to Texas. These phones produce consistent reliable performance and at a reasonable price. If you need rugged and reliable get this phone.

I love this phone. It is waterproof, shock resistant and has a non-slip grip. It is quad-band gsm which makes it a great phone for international travel. I get great reception. I use this as a second phone for travel and outdoor activities. The only big irritation is that it does not get the time and date from your network, so you have to set the time and date everytime you take the battery out to insert or remove a sim card. I have even successfully run the java-based gmail app. It only uses edge data, but you wouldn't want to use it for any web browsing since the screen is very small. Great back-up phone for the outdoors and travel.

I only use my cell phone for phone calls and basic texts, so this phone is perfect for those simple tasks. I am not reviewing the email or web browser programs b/c I don't use these features. I have never had a camera on my phone before so this is fun. I bought a micro SD card with an SD adapter, so I am able to save the photos on my computer.

At first I almost returned the phone right away. It didn't work at all with my T-Mobile SIM card. A message would show up on the screen: "Insert SIM". I went to an AT&T store to see if their SIM card would work with this brand, new, unlocked phone. It didn't. I then went to a T-Mobile store and asked them if they could deactivate my current SIM and activate an older, unactivated, Legacy SIM. This one worked.

Now I am in Australia and this phone is working fine with a Telstra SIM.

Upon further research, I found that the Samsung B2100 phone only uses a 2G GSM network, which is possibly why it wouldn't work with T-Mobile's newer, 4G SIM cards (and w/ AT&T??? - although it looks like some reviewers have had success using this phone with AT&T). It looks like Samsung just updated the B2100 with the new B2710, which uses a 3G GSM Network (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, 3G 900, 3G 2100 frequencies, according to [...]. Maybe this phone might be able to support the newer 4G SIM cards from T-Mobile and AT&T? That would be nice.


As for now, I have given the B2100 five stars because it is able to do everything I want it to do with the carriers I currently use in the USA and Australia.

Update - 21 Mar 2011 - Three stars instead of five.
Phone calls drop or SIM ends up not registering, very regularly unfortunately. I get the message "Insert SIM" and then have to turn the phone off and on a few times before it registers. It has become extremely annoying, enough so that I have to give up on the phone and I plan on returning it once I return to the USA. I am really bummed about this. I will have to save my money and buy the updated 3G version (B2710) when it comes down in price.

Update - 21 June 2011 - upgrade to 4 stars
Since I have returned to USA, phone has been working fine with my T-mobile SIM (the older style, Legacy SIM). Therefore, even thought it didn't perform well in Australia, I'll keep this B2100 after all (I just hope it works in other countries).

I bought this phone for my cell-phone hating, mechanic husband. He loves it. It has stood up to tough handling, the flashlight saved the day on an emergency night call, and it seems easy to use.

It's not fancy, doesn't do the multi-media stuff, but is perfect for my texting, calling, rough/tough guy.