Customer Reviews

Samsung Exhibit II 4G Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Wooow! I need to catch my breath...

Let me begin by saying I'm an economist. Logos do not impress me. Excellent price/performance ratios impress me. Although I must admit, the Exhibit II is a fairly beautiful phone in real life; don't let the photos scare you.

This powerful yet humble device has the same memory (512MB RAM) and CPU speed (1GHz) as the iPhone 4. And, dare I say, it actually makes phone calls. It even has a larger screen than the latest $700+ iPhone 4S. Still with me?

Why I bought this phone (with a new prepaid plan):

>1. Freedom: With T-Mobile's prepaid plans, you can start or stop your service anytime without any fines. You can switch carriers, sell your phone, and walk away without even saying goodbye.

>2. Screen: The 3.7" screen is bigger than the one on the iPhone 4S. The 800x480 resolution makes for a relatively high pixel density (252 ppi) and looks fantastic.

>3. Android has developed into a very solid OS. With over 400,000 apps to choose from, I'm overwhelmed.

>4. Price: Why spend $500 to $800 on a flagship phone when you can get 90% of the utility/functionality for $200? At $200, if my phone is destroyed, lost, or stolen, it's not the end of the world.

>5. Plan: The phone is shipped with a prepaid SIM card, so there's no need to order the $7.00 SIM card from T-Mobile. For $30/month you get 5GB of "4G" data, unlimited texts, and 100 minutes of talk. If you setup a Google Voice # and get either the GrooveIP app ($5.00) or the Google Voice Callback app (free), you'll be able to make unlimited domestic calls for free, over the internet. It works quite well and even allows you to make much cheaper international calls than you would through your carrier. Just make sure to set it up correctly, so you don't accidentally use up all your minutes. Edit: Groove IP/Google Voice is only reliable with a Wi-Fi connection so it may not be a viable alternative to normal voice calls in all situations.

>6. ROI: The return on investment is phenomenal. This phone truly represents a breakthrough in information and communications technology. For the first time in history, with a device that costs $200 and service that costs $1 a day, you can have a 3.7" window to the world that goes with you, guides you, informs you, entertains you, wakes you, and connects you to everyone and everything that matters in your life. The list of gadgets that this phone makes obsolete would go on for pages, but let me just say that if you don't have a smartphone yet, get this phone and don't look back.

I was finally released after serving a 2-year sentence, I mean, a....contract. I'm free!

EDIT: (after 1 week with the phone)

Performance (including call quality) is excellent while battery life falls short of miraculous. With more moderate use and battery saving apps, you could easily go an entire day without needing to recharge. The 3Mp camera on the phone doesn't quite replace my old DSLR, but it works flawlessly for bar-code scanning, jpg-to-pdf scanning, and other "utilitarian" applications. By the way, the maximum video capture resolution is 640x480, not 720x480.

EDIT 2: (after 4 weeks with the phone)

My Exhibit II is still going strong and looks brand new, even after dropping it a few times. I've gotten used to using Samsung's "swype" keyboard which is the only technology I've seen that truly makes touchscreen typing viable beyond a few words. I'm not surprised that the phone is out of stock at both Amazon and Walmart.com. If you're planning to get this phone, good luck finding it in stock! On eBay, the going rate for this phone is $250. Get it on Amazon, if you can.

EDIT 3: (After 40 days with the phone)

The phone still works perfectly and looks great. Even now, it's easily the best smartphone under $300 and, at $189, has the best price-performance of any phone currently on the market.

EDIT 4: (After 10 weeks with the phone)

We have had many fruitful discussions in the 100+ comments that have been posted since I first wrote my review 10 weeks ago. If you own this phone, I strongly recommend reading the comments posted by Franquis, Yogi Bear, and others who have become de facto experts on this device. They have surpassed my knowledge of the phone and I have learned from their insights. It appears many of us have been having difficulties with the Groove IP app and various alternatives have been suggested, including Skype.

I have dropped the phone so many times and I finally managed to crack the screen but it functions perfectly nonetheless. The Exhibit II is a truly remarkable device (at any price) and I continue to be amazed by its capabilities.

UPDATE 1/18/12: As of now, there are a few custom ROMs in the making for this phone. I have personally tested and loved the ROM made by bpear from XDA-Developers. Clockworkmod recovery can be installed now (5.5.0.4), unfortunately I cannot link to the page, but go to the XDA-Developer's forums and search for "exhibit II". A thread named "[DEV]Samsung Exhibit II 4G(Tmobile)" should help get you started.

UPDATE: The microphone issue has been resolved! Now my phone is running like a boss :D

I love this phone! I picked it up at WalMart because of their exclusive $30 monthly plan with 100 talk minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited web (first 5GB at 4G speed per month, rest of the month slows down to EDGE).

It does come with a lot of crap T-Mobile loaded up with, but I rooted the phone with SuperOneClick easily, and installed an application which allowed me to uninstall the bloatwares (Root Uninstaller in Market). For those who cannot for the life of them find the USB drivers for this phone, you have to use the ones for Samsung Galaxy S (LOL WTF). Just go to Softpedia, search for "samsung galaxy s", and download the one called "Samsung Galaxy S USB Driver 1.4.2.2". This package contains driver for both 32- and 64-bit Windows. Install it, and enable USB debug mode on your phone, and you're ready to root it.

This phone has very decent specs:
* 1GHz single core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (S2)
* 512MB of RAM
* Dual-facing camera with LED flash on back one
* 4G network - HSPA+ (Up to 14.4Mbps)
* 3.7" TFT high-res touch-screen (Like 480x800 or something)
* PREPAID! LOW MONTHLY PRICES!

Everything I do on this phone is snappy. If I do somehow go over my talk minutes, I just use GrooVe IP with Google Voice for free calls (Uses data). All apps are compatible with this phone unlike most prepaid carriers that limit the phone's functionality. Although I did have a huge disappointment finding out that 4G is not available in my house, so I'm limited to EDGE. But my Wi-Fi should take care of that! (25Mbps down/1Mbps up :D)

There are currently no custom ROMs for this phone, but it is rootable and can be customized. I recommend getting LauncherPro from the Market to customize the homescreen.

There is one problem I ran into: the microphone does not function correctly in any application other than the stock "Camera" app. This shouldn't be a hardware problem, but a software problem. I'll look around for some answers.

I still can't believe the $30 a month plan! After tax it was only $32.05, so really, I'm not complaining. Be sure to get a microSD card though (Up to 32GB), and a class 4 one too, because if you like to put a lot of music and apps on the phone, you only get ~2GB internally.

Overall, I'm satisfied with this phone.

I have been researching pre paid phones and plans for a while now and this phone with the pre paid plans T-mobile has is a great deal. The phone is really nice for a $200 buyout phone. It has great sound quality (both earpiece and speakerphone). I am coming from the original Droid on Verizon. The camera on the phone is very decent. Certainly as good as the 5mp on the Droid and faster too. I like T mobiles wi-fi calling from home..it allows me to run on my own wifi system if T-Mobiles signal is weak indoors. Video chat using Gtalk works very well. The phone comes with Kies Air for wireless transfers from your laptop and Yelp (for finding all those nice places to do business with). The GPS system works very well and the web is super fast on T-Mobiles great 4G (and I get it almost everywhere even in places my friends do NOT get Wimax on Sprint. The phone is very light and smaller in size than the Droid (but with same screen size). It has a textured back for better grip. The battery lasts all day with moderate use (remember not to load the phone with tons of apps and widgets). My chargers for the Droid work with this phone (including the car charger). The screen is very easy to see and the colours are good. It comes with Gingerbread 2.3.5 and the scrolling is very smooth. It's a way more pleasant phone to use than the Droid is. It's not flashy, but it works very well.

Cons: Lots of bloatware (not removable without rooting), ATT might consume T-Mobile potentially ruining a good thing, I wish it had a 4" screen...maybe version 3 will have that.

I ordered this off amazon, tax free, with two day shipping. Arrived in a timely manner, but just got to activate it this morning. Activation is very simple. The kit includes a sim card, which you just insert above (and to the left) of the battery in the back. Then you will want to go to t-mobile.com/activation and follow the instructions. It comes with a random $3.34 balance.. for emergency.. instant calling or something I suppose. But following the activation, it takes you to where you can pay for your service online. You can also get those cards at the store, but honestly, it's so easy just to pay online. And then you're good to go. I chose the $30 unlim text/data + 100 min plan. You don't need to go to walmart or tmobile to get this. To my understanding, it is only available for new activations.

The price and quality of the phone is all great. One problem I have with it is that... honestly... I'm not really an Android fan. I didn't think I would mind it at all but somehow it really annoys me how much bloatware it comes with. Sure, there are ways to delete it. But people on reviews made it sound 100x easier than what I had to do. I don't really consider myself technologically challenged, but it was hard to find all the steps to uninstall this crap I didn't want. You can't just go to the "APPLICATIONS" menu and drag what you don't want to the trash. Why? Everything I've tried to delete just stays there when I go back to the menu. What the hell is that function for then? Why can I not just delete the stuff I don't want? (And there are many.)

I'm new to Android so rooting was a brand new concept for me. I must have downloaded 4 different apps off the Android market to no avail. I didn't understand why the hell something called "______ Uninstaller" cannot uninstall apps. After a bit of research and trying a bunch of different things, I finally figured it out.

I figure I'd type it out in layman's terms for those who have trouble rooting:
- Turn on USB debugger (settings>applications>development>usb debugging)
- Have the right USB drivers installed ON YOUR COMPUTER (Apparently these are difficult to find. Install the samsung galaxy x drivers from softpedia instead. When I did this, it told me it wasn't installed correctly but I couldn't find a fix so I just ignored it.)
- Connect your phone to the computer via usb port
- Then you can download SuperOneClick on your COMPUTER. It is a computer application. Extract (it is a zip file) and run. Click on "root." (top left big button) It may take a couple minutes. It should say root complete or whatever at the end. And to confirm that it is indeed rooted, you will see a "Superuser" icon in the applications folder.
- Now you can begin the uninstallation, but that is not all! You have to download some more stuff to uninstall. From the Android market, you can find some apps that will allow you to uninstall items. Android Mate was too advanced for me. You have to know exactly what files you are deleting (which is a constant annoyance.) If you delete the wrong files then your phone might not work or it will brick. Kind of terrifying, considering the price I paid. I used Titanium backup to uninstall items, but you still run the risk of deleting things you need. It is better to "freeze" the apps but that is a premium feature, which you must pay for. I also tried Root Uninstaller to no avail. It didn't show any apps besides Market and itself for some reason. I'm sure there's something out there that might be better but, so far, my experience is that these apps are not that user-friendly.

Others have claimed that the process above is "easy" but it wasn't for me, apparently. Maybe some people know how to do this intuitively, I don't know. But think about it. All I wanted to do was delete pre-installed junk like internet radios and "MORE FREE APPS!@!!" apps. But it took entirely way too long. You can just press on any app in iOS until it's shaking and then press X to delete. A couple seconds, max. I don't understand why it is so hard to delete things on the Android (not even including the risk of bricking your phone at every corner.)

Aside from my long rant, in the end, it is a good deal for a 4g smartphone and great rates on plans. Still, I'm not too satisfied with Android. I feel like it's one of those apple vs. windows commercials, comparing efficiency. There's a pre-installed anti-virus (free trial for 14 days, then you have to pay). Really? I never even thought that would be an issue with iOS. Obviously these are my opinions, and others will have no problems with the bloatware. I'm a bit OCD and inefficiency is such an annoyance. I just want my phone to run as efficiently and quickly as possible, not having junk on it that tries to make me install more apps or pay for premium services. Yes, the iphone costs way more, but I would still rather have it than Android. That's just me though.

EDIT:
After a few days of use, I'm getting used to the Android system more. I don't mind it as much, and hopefully it will hold up well. It's still a fantastic deal, and with no contracts none-the-less! In the end, the savings are fantastic. Think about the activation fees and taxes and whatnot when you have to get a phone with a contract. This phone is really a smart purchase.

Let me start this off by saying I'm not someone whom normally writes reviews on Amazon as when I buy stuff, it's generally things that people aren't on the fence about. However, I decided to go ahead and write a review to strongly recommend that you consider the Samsung Exhibit II from T-Mobile. When I read the PR from T-mobile about this phone, I got really excited that finally a GOOD smartphone was coming to the prepaid lineup at a reasonable price. I placed my order the day the phone came out and received my order on November 4.

Screen Quality --- I think the specs are not quite as good as some of the top of the line models, but they're incredibly sharp and pretty dang close. It's incredibly clear and leaps and bounds better from the earlier android and iphone screens. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Text is smooth and crisp.

Phone calls --- Sound quality is excellent and sounds like a landline using T-Mobiles free wi-fi calling app. It integrates seamlessly with the phone and elects to use Wi-fi if a good signal is available. If not, it'll switch to the cellular network. There are no apps to install on the device or on your computer/router. Like I said, very seamless. Also, phone calls over the cellular network sound excellent as well.

Text Messages --- Typical Gingerbread text message interface. The phone comes with swype which I had never used before, but have since become accustomed to and am thrilled it came preloaded on the phone.

Memory --- The memory is a bit shallow. The specs say it has 4 GBs of memory though I have about 1 GB of USB storage and 1 GB of onboard memory. I don't know where the rest is though it could be used by the Android OS. Honestly, I would consider it a non-issue since you can get a Name brand Class 4 32GB microSDHC relatively inexpensively. I certainly have the option to upgrade the memory at anytime. Also, I have installed every app I can think of that friends have/use as well as several Amazon free apps of the day and I've used under 1/3 of the 1 gb system memory available. With the Amazon Cloud music player, it makes the total storage on your droid phone a non-issue since Amazon lets you upload unlimited music to their cloud for free. Then, you can stream it to your phone for free. So, I could have 200 GBs of music on my Amazon Cloud and this phone could play it all perfectly without the need for tons of onboard memory. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, there are several free radio Apps that I found on Amazon that are free and stream thousands of stations.

Battery --- I've been getting about 15 hours of usage out of the phone and keep in mind, this is my first smartphone so it's still fun to play with. I don't have the screen brightness maxed out, but it's definitely bright and good enough. Also, the nice thing about buying a non-Apple device is that it has a user-replaceable battery. I found a generic replacement from Amazon relatively inexpensively. So, after a year of charging and uncharging when the battery begins to age, I can buy a new one and it'll be good as new.

Overall, this is a great phone for the price. It's honestly not as snappy as a top of the line, dual core smartphone, but you're also not paying the price of that new phone either. It's still fast enough to handle every application I've run on it. But, I do have several widgets and services running so I know that I'm taking up ram and CPU power doing that.

After coming across T-Mobile / Walmart's $30 monthly plan, I started looking out for a phone that can connect on T-Mobile's 4G network. The two other candidates (Galaxy S II and the not-yet-available Galaxy Nexus) are all above $500, and I'm not sure I want to spend so much on a phone. Then I came across this one.

It lacks some of the other features I'm interested in. I'd like to have a good camera, this one is about average. I'd like to play with NFC. And dual processors would be nice in some situations. And I'd like to have Gorilla Glass on the front. But I'm not prepared to pay full retail for a Galaxy S II. Contracts don't make sense in my situation when I take the total cost of ownership into account - I don't use the phone enough to justify the price.

For the price, though, this is an amazingly good phone. The display is crisp, the UI is responsive. Voice is clear, and it gets better reception than my other phone (a clamshell feature phone). It's easy to root, which you'd need to do if you want to uninstall some of the bloatware T-Mobile put in there. It won't win any design awards, but it looks good. It has a 3.5mm headset jack, LED flash, takes microSD memory. The micro USB port is protected behind a sliding door.

Activation was painless and can be done online. The SIM card and all other information is included, and if you don't have the box handy and don't want to remove the battery, you can get the IMEI by dialing "*#06#" - it'a also easier to read this way. There's $3.34 on the card, so you will need to add money if you want to activate the $30 Walmart plan. Getting T-Mobile to SIM unlock the phone, on the other hand, is painful. When I talked to a rep, she told me my account needs to be active for 60 days. I have another T-Mobile prepaid account that qualifies, but then she said that SIM needs to be in the phone for more than a day, and to call back later. This is despite me explaining I paid full retail for the phone.

I've not tested the data network too much yet. I'm sure you can find reviews of T-Mobile's 4G network elsewhere. What little I've tried was quite fast and responsive, but then again, I had 4 bars of 4G signal at that time.

Battery life was OK. I did not measure it before I uninstalled the bloatware, so I'm not able to state how much of a difference it made. My email client constantly checking for mail probably is not doing battery life wonders either. And I have it connected to wifi both at work and at home all the time.

Added after 5 day road trip : you definitely want to pack a charger with you (or a micro USB cable). Even with limited use and battery saving options turned on, it would be practically depleted after 24 hours.

Additional update on battery life : I rooted the phone and deleted, among other things, T-Mobile's My Account and changed my Hotmail app to sync only on demand (instead of Push). Battery life appears to have doubled because of that.

The only thing that really irks me about this phone is the inability to connect it to my computer. I had to install Microsoft's MTP Porting Kit on Vista before it would connect, and I couldn't get it to connect to my Windows 7 laptop. Both run 64 bit Windows. Some web forum posts mentioned installing Samsung Kies for the drivers, I'm waiting to see if there's an alternative before doing it. You can use Kies Air to connect to the phone. Kies Air runs a HTTP server on the phone and allows you to connect from another computer's web browser (no software install required) over wi-fi to manage the phone, including file transfers.

I had a hard time finding USB Mass Storage Class mode until J. Weng helped me out in the comments. Apparently, it is under "Wireless and Network" and is not a permanent setting, but needs to be activated every time you wish to connect.

There are a number of errors in the manual. I think one part stated it had 16GB of internal storage. That is incorrect, there's only 4GB of internal storage. The organization of some other parts is confusing, and the section about storage is just one huge mess.

It would also be nice to have the micro SD accessible without having to open the battery cover, but it is a small inconvenience.

Finally, it would be nice if there are more accessories for this phone. It's still fairly new, but some choices of skin / case would be nice. I did find a very nice case though : T-MOBILE SAMSUNG T679 EXHIBIT II 4G SMOKE BLACK TPU GEL SKIN CASE, IN QUBITS RETAIL PACKAGING

Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase. I'd rate it 4.5 stars if that option is available.

My previous phone was an iPhone 4 which I got for the ecosystem/iLife compatibility with my MacBook Pro. This phone looks and functions like a value version of the iPhone. Whereas the iPhone has a solidity and style that belongs in a design museum, the Exhibit II 4G feels more like a beautiful everyday object, one that, when dropped, inspires irritation rather than panic. The two phones are actually very close in terms of general hardware features, notably the mini-tablet shape, size of the screen, image quality, bi-directional camera, and other smaller details. (It is very easy to see why Apple had filed a lawsuit against Samsung for imitation.) The biggest adjustment personally has been switching from the buttery smooth responsiveness of the iPhone touchscreen to the entirely functional, but uninspiring, Exhibit screen. Otherwise, I am extremely pleased with the range of apps, built-in Swype and voice texting, crystal clear Wi-Fi calling (useful for an occasionally spotty T-Mobile network). Ultimately the decision is whether a great iPhone is worth $60 a month more in subscription fees than a (very) good Exhibit. AT&T and T-Mobile offering a comparable service, we past and present iPhone users are essentially paying an extra $720 a year to remain in the exclusive Apple ecosystem. What's an iLife worth to you?

This phone has a nice form factor and feel: a slightly larger than normal screen at 3.7" gives a surprisingly better feel than 3.5". The screen is bright and nice but you may want to turn the brightness down to save battery (which has a big impact on battery life). The battery has no problem lasting a 16 hour day for normal use even with frequent use of the display which is the biggest consumer of it. But the phone should be recharged every night. It feels compact and light when holding. The materials and case have a nice design and does not give a cheap feeling (except when you open the back cover then you will notice it's a cheap piece of plastic). You need to open the back case to put SIM card and micro SD card. The phone has a nice camera and took good pictures indoor under normal room lighting. The speaker has good volume. The phone does not have a physical home button so you need to turn on the screen and touch buttons by using the unlock key on the side. This may take a little to get use to.

The Android 2.3.5 OS is very pleasant to use. Although it came with lots of garbage on the home screens but those can all be removed (they will still stay in the apps screens which is a secondary level of screens that iOS does not have). The secondary level of screens are nice to keep less frequently used apps so the home screens can be made few and clean. The notification bar is another nice feature that iOS does not have. The OS and touch screen are both very responsive and pleasant to use.

This phone can be used with T-Mobile value plans. It's much cheaper than equivalent plans from AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. For example, T-Mobile vs. AT&T is as below.
- first 2 lines 1000 or so minutes $50 vs $70, save $20
- add each line $5 vs $10, save $5/additional line
- unlimited family texting $10 vs $30, save $20
- 200MB data per line $5 vs $15, save $10/line

This will save you $60 per month with two lines and save $90 per month with 4 lines. Over the two years, this is a saving of $1440 or $2160.

There is really not much downside going with this phone vs. any other phones including the iPhone (unless there is a specific feature you want from the other phones). But there is a downside going with T-Mobile's weaker signals. However the signal problem is largely alleviated by using T-Mobile's WiFi calling (which is tied to you phone # and works for texting) at home and office. T-Mobile has good signals at popular areas. The only problem is when you go to some parks and mountain areas but remember, emergency calls can use AT&T's network.

Besides you will get T-Mobile's quick and no pain customer services vs. AT&T's charge-you-for-their-mistake then holding-you-on-phone-for-hours kind of painful customer screwups.

I was trying to decide between getting a 2 year contract to get access to a high end smartphone or getting a low to mid end smartphone without a contract. I was very surprised to discover not only that I could get this (now mid-range) phone for about the price of a premium smartphone with a contract, but that I could get a very inexpensive unlimited text and data plan from T-Mobile, just what I needed. If this phone had been sold a year or so ago, it would have been a premium phone with a premium price.

The phone itself is high quality, with the following basic pros and cons:

- Solidly made - smooth black plastic body with a dark blue textured back cover
- Bright 3.7 inch high resolution screen - the resolution is 800 x 480, not as high as the most expensive current phones but plenty for everyday use
- plenty of internal memory for a mid-range phone. I've got 20 or 30 of my favorite apps installed and still have about 700MB free on the internal storage
- SD card capability - I have a 16 GB micro-SD card installed.
- Fast chipset - This phone has a fast chipset installed - it appears to be the same Hummingbird CPU/GPU as my Original Galaxy Tab of a year ago, so this is a 2010 high end CPU housed in a 2011 phone. This sounds bad but it's plenty fast for most of today's apps. It benchmarked faster than my 7" Galaxy Tab.
- Android 2.3 Gingerbread - This is the latest Android OS available for phones. Android 4 is just coming out and needs some debugging.
- Some preinstalled apps, but most are useful - There are preinstalled apps as usual, but most of these are pretty useful, ones you might use and won't mind having on the phone.
- Good battery - I believe the phone has a 1500mAH battery, plenty for a full day's worth of occasional use.
- Decent camera with flash - The camera isn't going to replace your point and shoot, but it takes decent shots. If you want a nicer camera, you'll most likely have to buy a contract phone.
- Front camera - You can video-conference with this phone.
- Good Data capability - I haven't thoroughly tested this, but I got several Mb/second download and about 1 Mb-second upload speed sitting in my house.
- Clear voice calls

If you are opposed to contracts generally , waiting for the right phone to buy on-contract, or just want a nice phone right now without a contract, it's hard to go wrong with the Exhibit II 4G. I'm pretty picky about devices and was very interested in the awesome Galaxy S2, but I decided to wait awhile and I got this original Galaxy S class phone instead. I'm very happy with it.

I was expecting this phone to be decent and usable. But I am blown away by it's hardware. The screen is amazing. Bright, sharp and crisp are words I would use to describe it. It is one of the nicer screens I have used on a phone or tablet.

The phone also performs well. I haven't had any troubles running programs yet and in the few videos I have pulled up on the internet played without any problems. There has been a couple hesitations when trying to switch between windows but it definitely is not the norm. I am impressed with the interface that Samsung has put on the phone. I was thinking I would need to tinker/root the phone to maximize it's abilities, but I might just leave it as is. However, the phone is loaded with bloatware. Rooting might be worthwhile to get rid of all the excess programs.

The phone comes with an activation kit...however, I popped in a post-paid SIM and it ran fine. 4G works as advertised.