Customer Reviews

Samsung C417 Phone (AT&T)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

i work at Cingular and to inform everyone the sim card error is due to incompatability with newer sim cards. if you are having this problem take the phone to a cingular store and tell them, they will exchange your sim card free of charge. we sell far more of these phones than any other phone we have and have had maybe 3 returned for problems other than the sim card issue.

This is a very average phone, at a pretty good price. I've had no issues with it other than with it's reception(it seems as if it take a few moments to get any after being pulled out of my pocket).
I was also dissappointed to learn(dispite cingular's advertising)that the only bluetooth items this phone was compatible with are headsets: which means to data transfers from my PC. Oh well.
Overall, it was worth the money spent.

The phone has a great screen, basic features, and camera works well. We have two and had no trouble with the sim card on either phone (the cingular reps said the problem was with some of the sim cards). The menus are a bit clunky and the navigation buttons cannot be assigned to favorite functions either. The bluetooth seems to be stripped down to only work with headsets.
Otherwise:
Light-weight
Thin
Good battery life too.

I like the price tag. Got it for -$50 with a 1-year plan.
I like the bluetooth feature. Wife likes it too, for her car.
I like the form factor - slim, black.
I like that it comes with a camera phone.

I don't like the fact that Cingular bitched out the phone. Half the buttons lead to IM, the web browser etc and I can't change the assignments.
I don't like the connection covers are flimsy. I give them about 3 months before they break.
I don't like the very very annoying menu structure. Why can't Samsung put the basic stuff up front and hide the "feature to make the numbers you type appear in rainbow colors" way in the back someplace??

I look forward to unlocking the phone and messing around with new firmware. Don't know if thats doable.

I bought this phone in Mid-Jan '07. It was fine for my purposes, but this weekend, I went to download and install the Personal Information Manager (PIM) software and got some bad news. (For you newbies - The PIM software is what allows you to sync your phone w/your Contacts on your PC ...)

1) Per Samsung Tech Support (no, not Customer Support), the software is still not available. 2) The PIM software is being written by an unaligned 3rd party in Korea and Samsung does not support it. 3) You MUST buy the PKT433 Data Kit. You can't buy the cable separately and just download the software from Samsung (which it's there.) You can forget about using the USB cable from Cingular or anyone else (that fits w/the phone.) When you launch the app (after installation), the File -> Setup does confirm that the PIM wants a Serial connection, not a USB connection! Hence, ... 4) The Data Cable is a Serial cable, NOT a USB cable!!! 5) The unaligned software writer in Korea has missed deadline after deadline and no one knows when the kit will be issued. (You have to 'watch' the accessories list for the phone to know when the PKT433 Data Kit is available ...)

I already have something in my Serial port. And I also learned from Samsung TS that the C417 is the ONLY phone via Cingular that has a Serial data cable! The other phones have their kits available too!!! Go figure ...

Samsung SGH-c417, c417

Cingluar guy recommended Samsung SGH-c417, so I got it two weeks ago, and returned back becasue of "INSER SIM CARD" message issue. But it keeps coming back and again and again.....
Not sure if it's Cingluar, but it annoys me and my husband so much.

Right now, phone still says "Insert SIM" although I have removed and reinserted it NUMBER of times. It is SUPER ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!

I have loved samsung phone, so I threw Sony Ericsson away and then got this new slim version phone, which has very simple and needed features.

Overall this has been a good phone. I love the size and weight of the phone. I have had it for about a month now. I have had a couple things that I have not been as happy with. When a get a busy line, I most times get no busy signal at all or occassionally I get about three beeps that are barely audible. The caller busy display only stays up a couple seconds and is gone by the time I take the phone off my ear and it returns to the original screen. Many times I am unsure if my call has even gone through and I have to redial and look at my screen to see what is going on. At first, I thought it was dropping my calls. I have had a little trouble hearing people that I could hear perfectly fine on my last phone. Other than those two main problems, I would recommend this phone.

I LOVED my Nokia 6170, but had to switch carriers, and so I had to get a new phone, and that was not a choice. So after about 2 months of research and asking around, I got this phone, and I love it! The only real negatives I have are because I am a very picky personalization freak with my phones. For instance, you cannot "customize" the message tones and the sounds you hear changing the phone from Silent to Normal mode. You can ONLY choose from the sounds they give you. I like to make my own. Otherwise, the phone is great! Slim, loud, big screen and big buttons. Everything I wanted in a phone!

I got two of these phones a month ago and I'm constantly getting Insert Sim card errors on both of them. I replaced the sim. Still getting errors. The phones are bad and going back ASAP.

This phone works perfect for me. I've never had any sim card problems or reception problems like others have mentioned in their reviews. I love the big brite screen and though I rarely use the camera the picture quality is good enough for a phone. It's very solid and compact. Seems to be well made. The only con I can think of is being able to navigate quickly through the menu. It takes several steps to do most things. But thats not really a big deal to me. I would give it 5 stars but haven't had it long enough to give a long term review. So far, so good.