Samsung Gravity 2 Phone, Metallic Pumpkin (T-Mobile)

by Samsung

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.8 x 3.5 x 0.8 inches ; 3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B002SB8U6U
• Item model number: T459 Gravity
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,920 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Thinner and sleeker than its predecessor, the Samsung Gravity 2 for T-Mobile also includes an improved slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3G cellular connectivity, GPS location capabilities, and a higher megapixel camera/camcorder. A great choice for heavy texters, the Gravity 2's slide-out keyboard makes it easy to send SMS text messages and e-mail as well as keep up with your chat buddies on popular IM services. Enabled for T-Mobile's expanding high-speed 3G network, the Gravity 2 offers fast data delivery and an enhanced Web-browsing experience that lets you connect quickly to social networking sites.

Featuring high-speed 3G data connectivity, the Gravity 2 can quickly send and receive e-mails, pictures, and videos over T-Mobile’s high-speed data network (see a schematic of all this phone's controls and ports).

This GPS-enabled phone comes with a 14-day trial of the TeleNav navigation service, which provides real-time location on maps, turn-by-turn driving directions, and more (monthly subscription required after trial expires). Other features include a 2-megapixel camera for still photos and video capture, Bluetooth for both hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, microSD memory expansion (up to 16 GB), digital audio player, personal organizing tools, and up to 5.5 hours of talk time.

Key Features

• Fast 3G connectivity via T-Mobile's HSDPA/UMTS network (1700/2100 MHz bands, UMTS/HSDPA; see more about T-Mobile's 3G service below)
• Quad-band GSM phone for good global voice connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands)
• Built-in GPS provides real-time location on maps, driving directions, and more (monthly subscription required).
• Full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the left side of the phone, complemented by standard alpha-numeric keypad and navigation keys on the phone's face. (Learn more)

The sleek horizontal slider Samsung Gravity 2 features a full QWERTY keyboard and access to text messaging, e-mail, and IM chatting (see larger image).

• Brightly colorful LCD screen with auto-rotation (240 x 320 pixels, 262K colors) that flips orientation from portrait to landscape when you slide open the keyboard.
• 2-megapixel camera/camcorder for high-quality still prints and on-the-go videos that can be sent via MMS messaging. (Learn more)
• Digital media player compatible with a good variety of audio (MP3, AAC/AAC+) and video (MPEG4, H.263, H.264, 3GPP) formats
• Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity with stereo music streaming (A2DP) capabilities as well as hands-free headsets and car kits. (Learn more)
• Memory expansion via microSD card slot with support for optional cards up to 16 GB. The phone has an internal 40 MB memory.
• Full messaging capabilities including SMS text, MMS picture/video and IM instant messaging (via popular services including AOL, Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger, and Google Talk)
• Audio Postcard feature allows you to add a personalized message to a photo before sending it to friends and family using multimedia messaging (MMS)
• Personal e-mail with support for AOL, Yahoo! and Gmail
• Organizer tools including calendar, alarm, tasks, memo, calculator, world clock, converter, timer, and stopwatch
• Download HiFi Ringers, MegaTones and wallpapers to customize your phone with sounds and voices from your favorite artists, instrumental versions of songs as well as cool graphics.
• Web browser with RSS feeds
• Phonebook stores up to 1000 entries with room in each entry for 4 numbers, 4 e-mail addresses, 3 IM handles, street address, URL and note
• Included and downloadable games
• Speaker phone for easy hands-free communication
• Voice dialing enables you to call someone with simple voice commands to keep your hands free for activities like driving.

Vital Statistics
The Samsung Gravity 2 weighs 4.4 ounces and measures 4.49 x 2.05 x 0.59 inches. Its 1000 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.5 hours of talk time, and up to 300 hours (12.5 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies, as well as T-Mobile's 3G network (1700/2100 MHz).

T-Mobile Services

• High-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile's 3G network: In addition to its quad-band GSM connectivity, this phone is also compatible with T-Mobile's UMTS/HSDPA 3G network, which operates on the 1700/2100 MHz AWS spectrum. This phone is designed to automatically connect to the best available network (3G or GSM/GPRS/EDGE) to provide faster data speeds when accessing the Web or downloading content from the T-Mobile Web2go content portal. T-Mobile is currently rolling out its 3G network, and it expects by year's end that its high-speed data network will be available in those cities where a majority of its subscribers currently use data services.

  In areas where the 3G network is not available, you'll continue to receive service on the via T-Mobile's EDGE network (which stands for "Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution"). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and e-mail on the go.

  While this phone is optimized for use with T-Mobile’s high-speed 3G network, many of its functions will also work well on the moderate-speed EDGE network. If you plan to access the Internet extensively on your phone, 3G network coverage may serve you best.

  Activities that work well on EDGE or 3G networks:

  • Email, instant messaging, and texting
  • Downloading ringtones, CallerTunes, wallpaper, light data files
  • Sending photographs via e-mail or picture messaging
  Activities that work best on a 3G network:
  • Viewing content-heavy websites (lots of images or videos playing)
  • Viewing YouTube and other video files (they will play on EDGE, but require loading time)
  • Uploading large files (photos, videos, presentations) to sharing websites
  • Downloading large files from an e-mail or a website

• T-Mobile's web2go intuitive web browsing service makes it easy to view and navigate the web from your phone with features including Yahoo! oneSearch, a customizable home page and a simplified shopping and download experience. You can create a personalized home page for easy, one-click access to your favorite Web sites.

  With access to the web2go marketplace included at no additional charge, you can also browse and purchase the latest ringtones, games, wallpaper and mobile optimized applications and services to customize their phone. Providing access to the latest news, information and content, Yahoo! oneSearch intuitively returns results grouped around your intended search. For instance, when you search for a sports team, Yahoo! returns the latest scores, schedules, team profiles, roster, news, images and a link to the team's Web site.

Learn More

---

Sliding QWERTY Keyboard for Fast Messaging

The candybar-style Samsung Gravity 2 holds a secret--turn it on its side and push the face up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, perfect for easy typing of longer messages and e-mails. When the keyboard is opened, the screen orientation automatically rotates to landscape mode. The keyboard includes arrow keys for navigating the screen's UI and a handy www./.com key for quickly entering Web URLs. When closed, you can use the standard alpha-numeric keypad on the face to send quick messages. It's complemented by a five-way navigation pad, send/end and two soft navigation keys, and a dedicated messaging key.

---

2-Megapixel Camera/Camcorder

Great for snapping still photos and capturing short videos while on the go, the Gravity's integrated 2-megapixel camera can snap pictures in one of four resolutions (1600 x 1200, 2180 x 960, 640 x 480, and 320 x 240). It also includes a 2.5x digital zoom, three quality settings, night mode, multiple white balance settings, three metering modes (matrix, center-weighted and spot) and several special shot modes, including Panorama (which stitches together multiple shots taken from left to right) and Smile (which automatically snaps a photo once a smile is detected). You can also capture video clips at up to QCIF format (176 x 144 pixels) and can shoot for as long as you have available memory; videos meant for MMS messaging are capped at between 20 to 30 seconds.

---

Wireless Freedom with Bluetooth

This phone provides Bluetooth wireless connectivity (version 2.0), and includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and file transfer. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones or speaker dock.

Bluetooth profiles include: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BPP (basic printing profile for text, e-mail), FTP (file transfer), HID (support for mice or joysticks), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures),

Product Description

This messaging phone sports a slide-out QWERTY text keyboard. Upgrades over the original Gravity include 3G data, higher-resolution display, and a 2-megapixel camera. Other features are similar, including memory card slot, music player and stereo Bluetooth.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not too good a Phone, November 24, 2009

By 

I. Peters (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung Gravity 2 Phone, Metallic Pumpkin (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

Since the feature list of the Gravity 2 is readily available here on Amazon, I would simply like to mention a few things with regards to using/handling this phone:

The Good:
- The Gravity 2 has an ok quality feel, which especially extends to sliding out the keyboard - an important point considering how often this feature is used.
- The keyboard itself is comfortable to handle and not too small, even for bigger hands and fingers. The keys are responsive and are easy to hit correctly.
- Size, weight and height of the phone are very comfortable, not bulky.
- All functions (contacts, messaging, settings, organizer etc.) are fairly easy to access via the menu button.
- The display is clear and contrast-rich, sound quality is not outstanding but good enough.

Things I don't like:
- The Gravity 2 is quite "slippery". I have almost dropped it on more than one occasion. A somewhat rubberized surface material, especially on the backside, would have been much preferred.
- Power-up time is fairly long. When turned on, the phone displays a progress bar which seems to be inching along. My old Nokia 6133 was much faster in that regard.
- I picked this model specifically because it had the voice dialing feature which I have used heavily on my last two phones. However, I was extremely disappointed to learn that voice dialing is buried somewhere deep inside the phone's functions which basically renders it useless. In order to access this, one has to press several buttons - now where is the advantage in that when it comes to hands-free dialing? Having to first press buttons to use voice dialing is counter-productive!
- I feel that this phone's volume setting could be improved. Even on the loudest setting I don't think it is loud enough. When I am in a noisier setting like a restaurant and carry the Gravity 2 in my purse, chances are that I will not hear it. Again something where my old Nokia was much better.

All in all an ok phone but I don't think I would buy it again specifically because of the impossible voice dialing setup and the limited ring tone volume.

UPDATE August 2010:
After having owned this phone for 8 months I must report that it has a tendency to go completely dead on a moment's notice. The battery is fully charged so this has nothing to do with that. I suspect that the battery suddenly loses contact with the phone, causing it to go blank. The only way to get the phone to work again is to remove and re-seat the battery. The latter is a chore with a capital "C" because there is no grip anywhere to slide the back panel off to actually get to the battery. As a matter of fact I have not once succeeded with that and always had to have my husband do it for me, it is that difficult. BTW, I never dropped or otherwise abused this phone so this is obviously a design flaw... I adjusted my rating from 3 stars down to 2 stars for that, especially after searching the web and finding that many other people have this problem with this phone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A QWERTY Phone That Will Make You Pine for T9, November 27, 2010

By 

Michael Anderson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung Gravity 2 Phone, Metallic Pumpkin (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

I recently had need to downgrade from a smartphone to a normal device. After having owned the T-Mobile G1, the Motorola CLIQ, and the Samsung Vibrant (with Swype), I was absolutely sure that I did not want to go back to the days of T9 predictive text. Enter the Gravity 2, a candybar with a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. I purchased the phone feeling sure that, though I would miss the capabilities of my Android devices, I would at least be able to send messages in style. It wouldn't be too long before I realized how wrong I was; but, first, allow me to address what I feel are the pros of the phone.

The phone is solidly built. A tad on the heavy side, after having owned the super sleek, super light Vibrant, but certainly no heavier than my CLIQ. In fact, in this case--as with the CLIQ--the weight lends a certain sense of durability. Whether or not that is the case, I have not yet had cause to test. (I'm not in the habit of throwing or dropping my phones.) The sliding action is smooth, and I never feel like I'm about to break the phone, even after constant opening and closing. All of the buttons on the outside of the phone, from the volume rocker to the front-facing keypad, are easy to find and use; as a plus, the phone includes a physical camera button on the side of the phone opposite of the side with the volume rocker. Coming from a smartphone user, I don't feel that I can review the phone's screen and camera without bias, so I'll simply say this: they both seem adequate, or just about what I would expect with any normal phone. Battery life is outstanding, but, again, that's coming from someone who hasn't used a normal phone for about two years now. Also, the Gravity 2 has a microSD slot, and it can handle up to a 16GB card.

The phone's software feels like what I expected from a normal phone, particularly one without a touchscreen, which is to say that it's easy to use, and has no flair. (I must admit, it took a few weeks for me to stop poking at the screen, expecting it to recognize what I was selecting--but that was not a fault of the phone.) The camera software is self-explanatory, with a decent assortment of shooting options: night mode, smile detection, panoramic mode, 2.5X digital zoom (as long as you're not shooting at the full 2.0MP), etc. The phone also has some decent photo editing software that allows you to crop, rotate, add filters and text, and a number of other edits. The Gravity 2's music player is ok, with standard options like shuffle, repeat, and multiple equalizer settings. (It also has the apparently useless capability to allow the user to rate each song on a 5-star scale.)

The main aspect the firmware fails to satisfy is personalization. You cannot change the shortcut buttons for the up/down/left/right ring on the front of the phone. (The shortcuts that correspond to those key presses are: Call history/Contacts/Create message/Audio postcard.) There are no themes to choose from (as my Nokia XpressMusic had, back before I upgraded to Android). Messages (SMS) come directly to the SIM card and there is no option to have SMS messages save to the phone automatically (since the SIM has a 30 message limit).

The camera may function adequately as a camera, but it is a miserable camcorder, with a tiny viewfinder and very poor quality product.

The Gravity 2 comes with earbuds that also function as a hands-free device, but they feel very cheap and produce very low quality sound. Worse, the connection is proprietary, meaning that the phone does not have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. That means that if you want to use earbuds, you HAVE to use the earbuds that came with the phone. (Also, the port for the earbuds is the same port for the USB/charger, which means that you cannot use the earbuds while you charge the phone.) Unfortunately, the built-in speaker also produces low quality, tinny sound.

All of those shortcomings, however, are items I expected to fall short of my expectations, since I so love smartphones. What really disappointed me, and the reason why I now hate this phone, is the very poorly designed QWERTY keyboard. One would think that, being the main selling point of this dumbphone over other T-Mobile dumbphones, Samsung would have put in some effort to make the keyboard a joy to use. They got it right on the Epic 4G for Sprint, but fell painfully short of what their goal should have been for the Gravity 2.

The keys are tiny, with almost no spacing between them, and they are sunken in to the phone. All of this means that finding and successfully pressing your desired key consistently is impossible. I often find myself having to press a key three or four times before it pushes in far enough for the phone to recognize the stroke. I also find that I send messages with misspelled or missing words, because the Gravity 2 didn't register a keystroke (or 6). Each key also has an Alternative function that can be accessed by first pressing the "Alt" key. What is truly irritating is that there is no Alt lock (analogous to CAPS lock), so if you want to enter a number of symbols at once, or a string of numbers, the only way to do so from the QWERTY keyboard is to press the Alt key before every keystroke.

I hate the QWERTY keyboard on my Gravity 2 so much that I don't even use it anymore: I have resorted to using the keys on the front of the phone to send messages via T9 predictive text. Considering that the QWERTY keyboard was the only reason I bought the Gravity 2 rather than any other of T-Mobile's normal devices, I have to say that Samsung failed to deliver a quality product with this phone.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, April 19, 2010

By 

Aunt Rocky (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung Gravity 2 Phone, Metallic Pumpkin (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

I purchased the Gravity 2 in December 2009, been using it for 4 months now. I agree with everything the previous review says, and here is some feedback of my own.

1. Purchased for voice calling - as previously stated, this feature is useless. Do not buy this phone if you must use voice calling.

2. QWERTY keyboard is handy, but no NUM LOCK if you need to type a series of numbers. Very annoying!

3. Top slide should open just a tiny bit more so it would be easier to use the top row of keys on the keyboard. Slows me down a lot trying to aim for them, but I have large fingers.

4. "Contacts" consists of ONLY 1 name and 1 phone number. No place for alternate number, address, email, or notes. I had that on my previous Nokia flip phone, and just presumed it would be there on the newer Samsung. THIS IS A PROBLEM SAMSUNG SHOULD FIX, as it is not the way their other phone contact lists work.

5. Not as quick/easy to add a recipient for a quick text. Must go through 3 steps to be able to select a name, rather than just hitting the soft key for texting and then first letter of the name. Was much quicker on my 'dumb' Nokia flip phone.

Overall, I would not purchase this phone again. It's pretty, but it's more show than go.