Customer Reviews

Samsung Katalyst Titanium Phone (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With the SGH-T739 "Katalyst" phone, Samsung had a great opportunity, to create a really great phone with one really outstanding feature. UMA, or "Unlicensed Mobile Access" is a relatively new wireless technology for seamlessly merging GSM (regular wireless) phone calls with VOIP (voice over IP) calls that go through a wireless internet (Wifi) hotspot. When passing outside a hotspot's range, the system allows the exchange to take place from one system to the other, ostensibly without dropping the call. And when you start the call from within a hotspot (at home, for example), the minutes for the call are free; they don't count against your plan minutes. T-Mobile calls it "Hotspot@Home", and the curious can find much more copious and readable descriptions of how it works elsewhere online. Short of T-Mobile's UMA-capable Blackberry Curve 8320, the Katalyst stood a good chance of being their first UMA phone with a decent feature set (like, a good camera for example). Unfortunately, they kinda blew it.

First, I'll go through the good points. The phone is pretty well-made physically, which puts it in good company with other Samsung phones I've owned and played with. Samsung, T-mobile and online reviewers are quick to point out that the sliding action is smooth, and that it is. Compulsive fidgeters will need to just leave it in their pockets; the temptation is far too great for some of us. The screen is big and brightness is adequate. I'd have preferred the phone without the chromish trim, but I guess it's very blingy for those who are into that. I've got a 2Gb card in mine, which is OK for the phone's basic MP3 player capability. The menus and shortcuts are acceptably well-organized; though switching to this phone from a Sony-Ericsson made it very clear that Samsung is not a leader in intuitive menu and UI design.

It may seem obscure but I was very impressed by the capability of the voice recognition system, which is intelligent enough that it doesn't need to be trained, even on people's names. I was pretty impressed.

The 1280x1024 camera is "decent" -- colors are respectable, and with the "auto" ISO setting the images come out about as well as you could expect them to without a flash. It's been useful for me, taking pictures of projects and whiteboard notes.

The phone has a lot of features that just weren't very well executed however. The first is the UMA/VOIP/Wifi feature. There are a couple different problems all wrapped up together here, but the end result is the same; unreliability. If the people you're talking to are in any way important (e.g. vendors with whom you're trying to put together a business deal, potential customers, etc), you'll find yourself turning the Wifi feature off just to avoid the possibility of having the call get screwed up ... repeatedly. At this point, I've gotten really tired of apologizing for my phone. The Katalyst has a very weak wifi antenna, evidenced by poor signal strength displayed on the screen, as well as a comparison of what hotspots it can pick up, versus any other wifi device. It also can't transfer to GSM properly if the data flow is suddenly cut off, so if this happens for some reason, the call will drop 100% of the time. If you have unreliable broadband internet, this is not the feature or the phone for you. And finally, if the call is going well but starts to get sketchy, there's no way to manually switch over to GSM and turn off the wifi function while remaining on the call. I've dealt with these problems by purchasing extra Hotspot@Home routers for my bedroom and my office (they're actually a good idea for having adjacent to your cable or DSL modem since they prioritize your phone's data traffic, and the price isn't bad), and so drops are less frequent now. But I really shouldn't have to have an access point in the same room just to get a good signal. A friend has the cheaper Nokia phone for Hotspot@Home, and doesn't have any of these problems.

My next gripe, and this one is the one that's going to force me to buy another phone shortly (I've gone past the 2-week window when I can take this phone back) is about Bluetooth. T-mobile and Samsung claim that the phone is Bluetooth-capable.

This is not entirely truthful.

The Katalyst does have a Bluetooth chipset, and it is capable of communicating with some bluetooth devices, however it is not what I personally would call a Bluetooth capable phone. Honesty would demand some caveats with such a description. An asterisk. Fine print. Something.

Saying that a phone is Bluetooth capable carries with it some basic assumptions:

* The phone can be used with a headset or handsfree device
* Files acquired with the phone (camera photos, videos, sound or voice recordings, etc) can be grabbed off of it
* Files you want on the phone (pictures, MP3s, etc) can be uploaded to it
* SMS messages can be sent and received via Bluetooth, with devices with better data entry capability than a phone has
* You can get online through Bluetooth dial-up networking.
* For the hackers out there, there are even software programs that allow you to do fun stuff like remote control other software on a computer (media players, etc) from your phone's keypad, via Bluetooth.

With the Katalyst, none but the first in this list are possible. The Katalyst provides a crippled Bluetooth implementation, intended for audio (headset/handsfree) applications only. To make matters even worse, it won't even do this universally. I have a Tomtom GO720, which in addition to a feature for sending and receiving and reading aloud SMS messages (which of course I can't use), it also functions as a speakerphone. Very handy. I can't use it with my Katalyst however, because Samsung omitted the capability of making the phone "visible" so other Bluetooth devices can discover and pair with it. Mainly for me though, I'm upset because I paid a lot for this phone and now I can't get online with it when I'm travelling. I could get online (and do all the above actually) with my last phone, which was so cheap that I actually got $50 in my pocket after rebate, for choosing it. Why did Samsung do this? It is definitely intentional; a call to Samsung to ask about it yielded the response that the Bluetooth functionality of the phone will not be completed or upgraded in any future software release for this phone. It's not a bug to them, so they're not fixing it.

And more importantly, why did they hide it? On Samsung's site, looking in the feature list will show "Yes" under "Bluetooth" for this phone. It's only when you drill into their FAQ that you'll find the truth about what this phone supports (e.g. look up how to make it visible, the FAQ tells you that you can't). T-Mobile's representation is worse -- as of this writing their verbiage actually implies that the phone can be used with a computer, which is at best *highly* misleading. I couldn't get it to pair with mine at all.

Of course, there are a bunch of other little complaints. For one thing, the usual idiotic multipurpose connector that all Samsung phones have, which prevents you from plugging a headset in at the same time as a power connector. I'm not sure about the previous reviewer's complaint about data cables -- I bought one off ebay for a couple bucks, which didn't indicate any compatibility with this particular phone, but the plug fits and it works. File uploads are *excruciatingly* slow however; far better to pull the memory card (don't sneeze or you'll lose it) and use a dedicated card reader, even though you'll need to switch off and pull the battery to do it -- it's that bad. Especially since the phone becomes unusable while it's connected for file transfer. (What were they thinking?)

Voice notes record over each other, despite the phone's claim that they've been "saved to the Voice List". I lost a couple dozen sequentially recorded voice notes the first time I tried this, and had to spend an hour redoing everything and retaking the notes on paper. My experience using this phone has been full of little moments like these.


After talking with support people at T-mobile, who were surprised that the phone's bluetooth capabilities were so limited, and talking with Samsung support who showed no sympathy whatsoever, I really can't escape the feeling that I've been had. In the end, my advice is pretty simple. Wait until Nokia or someone else makes a decent UMA phone, or until Samsung pulls their head out and fixes the software on this one or makes one that sucks less. Unless you don't care so much for the gee-whiz features but just want a UMA phone that works -- in which case, get the ugly little Nokia clamshell phone.

This review is meant for those of you who like to upload your own software / music / images onto your phone and listen to music with it. The Samsung / t-mobile redesigned the data output/input for the katalyst so that it doesn't work with regular samsung cables, meaning you must buy a new $25 data cable. Further more, there is NO OPTION to use regular headphones with this phone. There's no output for sound, and there's no adapter available to allow you to plug regular headphones in. Your only option is to buy crappy samsung earbuds. I found this upsetting. If you're not at all interested in these things, the katalyst is a decent phone with good calling capability and battery life.

The Katalyst is a mystery to me... T-mobile won't list the Music Player, but you can find many sites claiming it has one and sure enouph its there, but the playlists is limited to 30 songs. Also, even this description shows its supports A2DP, (Bluetooth profile for streaming stereo music to Bluetooth Devices,) DON'T buy stereo bluetooth headphones or speakers!!! Only the phone calls use them, no music or video sound supported by Bluetooth. Samsung must have pulled it after the initial product releases is all I can think with it being listed that way on so many sites. I already purchased bluetooth speakers only to find out I can't play music with them, they have a mini-stereo input, but the Katalyst does not have a mini stereo out, you can find places that say they have an adapter, but both sets I purchased didn't fit, so I am stuck with the mono wired headset or the tinny sounded speakerphone...

Pictures - one of the reasons I waited is for the 1.3 meg camera. It does alright, but you cannot redirect to your microSD. All pics go to the puny 5 meg internal, put one mp3 song for your ring tone and over half of you memory is gone!!! You have to manually move the pics over to microSD and the next batch have the exact same name, so you have to make a new folder each time as well. Lastly the slide show is not available for pics on your microSD card, so forget showing the kids easily to a friend. Each pic must be individually opened, then closed, select the next one then open again, how ANNOYING! (At lease let me click the right arrow to show the next one!)

Save up for the Blackberry Curve, my wife has that and it does everything as expected, have you ever heard anyone complain that a curve doesn't do what you expected? (she even got my bluetooth speakers...) Ouch!

keep in mind i'm a 20 year old that just needs a simple phone to make simple phone calls and be able to text efficiently and i am not that picky.

this is my first slider phone and i do love it! it's a good upgrade from the motorola razor flip phone.

the only negatives i can think of from this phone is
-i can't personalize all the shortcuts and the soft keys and menu layouts
-default ringtones and wallpapers aren't that great (oh well!)
-it does feel a bit thicker than what i'm used to from my razor, but i can get a better grip on my phone and doesn't feel as flimsy
-the outside gets easily smudged
-looks like it could scratch easily
-sometimes it can lag when going through menus really fast, but i think that's with all phones...?
-doesn't show off a red light or anything like that to show an unread text or a missed call. but you can have a reminder tone of an unread message go off every minute or two

other than that everything is great!
-wifi is an interesting feature, but i'm sure it's not for heavy internet users (like a computer!)
-i haven't tried the music player, but that's what my ipod is for
-texting is easy since the buttons are somewhat big (but i do have small fingers)
-the texting response is really good
-sliding feature is smooth
-i can connect my bluetooth headset easily
-calls are much clearer!
-the camera takes pretty decent photos (for a 1.3 megapixel...keep in mind...it's not a real camera!)and has quite a few fun features for messing around with it
-my razor didn't have this: if you have multiple numbers for one person, you can save it all under one name

overall, even though i've only had this phone for one day and this is my third phone i went through with t-mobile in the past two weeks...i can see that this is the phone for me! it' not a very high-techy phone, but it is enough for a simple user with simple needs!

First of all I dont demand much in a phone, so you may want to take that into consideration with my review. The only things I really care about are signal strength, size, and the capacity to take pictures.
The thing I love about this phone is that I have had three or four other phones that get bad reception. They were all good phones, but I live in a hilly area with strange buildings that block antenna signals. This phone has the capacity to transfer to Wifi, but even before I had that set up I was getting and making calls in buildings that previously had NO reception whatsoever. I can't figure why and I'm not one of those people that really knows about these things.. perhaps it's because its a quad band? Any way, I was SO irritated not getting calls or having them cut out all the time with ALL my other phones and this one is great in that respect. The only thing is it echoes sometimes where I can hear my own voice bounce back... not sure why.
Other than that it's a little on the large side for me but not *huge* by any means. Its not much thicker than any of my other phones so at least thats the same. The easiest way to open it is to push on the screen with your thumb so its smudgy a lot which is very apparent with the chrome finish as well but... eh. that doesnt bother me too much, would make my boyfriend nuts though so I thought I'd mention it for you folks that freak over that stuff.
It seems to have lots of features, most of which I dont care about, but one thing I've noticed thats neat is you can record a voice note (or sound, etc.) and set it as the ring for people... so you can have your phone make a farty sound when your ex is calling if you like. hehehe
I wish it had the capacity to move things around and prioritize them like my last phone, that was really nice since I dont use all the features ever, but it doesn't that I can find. Pictures seem good and clear enough.. it's irritating to not be able to use the headphones and the charger at the same time as they share a port. Bad design.
Only had it a week or two so thats all at the moment but man does the thing get good reception in all my trouble zones. That alone makes it worth it to me.

Even with my memory card the phone can only hold about 100 texts and about 4 pictures. There is no options to save my texts to the memory card and no option to save pics directly to the memory card either. (you can do that after the pic is stored on your phone)
You have to go through 5 steps to send a simple text if you don't know how to use that predictive text nonsense.
I can't do simple things like assign a ring tone from my memory card to a name in my contact list because the phone constantly says "memory full". I thought the point of a phone with external memory was so I could do stuff like this.
When I went to t mobile they suggested an upgrade that would cost me another $130, which was another SAMSUNG! Never again!

Update: Dropping the review from 4 stars down to 3, because there's no way to disable the outer buttons from answering a call. Doh! It's no fun accidentally answering a call while trying to get the phone out of your pocket. In addition, I couldn't get my wife's Bluetooth headset working with it (popular Plantronics model, I believe).

I recently upgraded from Samsung t619 to the Katalyst after my previous phone's external screen cracked. The Katalyst has exceeded my expectations and has turned out to be an all-around excellent phone.

My previous t619 was a tiny phone. The Katalyst is a tad bigger and heftier, but it also feels far more solid. I like the look of the chrome trim, and everything has a nice glossy feel to it. Although functionally they are similar phones, the Katalyst is by far the better built of the two. The sliding mechanism is smooth and secure. It feels like a top-tier phone.

One of the primary reasons I chose the Katalyst was the feel of the directional pad. I was only comparing it to other free/cheap phones, but this had the best d-pad and OK button of all of them. All of the upper buttons are subtly larger than most phones, and the difference is very noticeable. It makes everything easier to use. The t619 is tiny and clumsy in comparison. The number buttons are a marginal step up from the t619 (both have smooth numbers that aren't very well distinguished), but they are more than adequate for texting and dialing.

The speaker is loud and clear, and so far I have no sound quality complaints on the other end. One of the knocks the t619 had was a quiet speakerphone. I was happy to discover that the Katalyst is far louder and more usable, and it only requires one button press to activate (the t619 requires two).

The t-zones web interface has been upgraded from previous Samsung phones. Now your home page can be customized with any RSS feed. This isn't quite as quick to use as the number-driven home page of previous phones, but it's far more powerful and flexible. Also, for some reason T-Mobile has enabled full http access, which allows you to view almost any web page (forget about javascript or Flash though, of course). This isn't a perfect feature; many websites will not load at all and will post an error. This is OK for me since I prefer to view phone-optimized WAP pages anyway, for the most part. The default Yahoo! search box does a nice job of miniaturizing any full-sized web page accessed through it to be easier to view on your phone. The overall experience, while not quite up to par with an iPhone, is relatively quick and convenient. Most of the waiting done is due to T-Mobile's slow servers for the home page; once I navigate to a page like Reuter's things move much more quickly. The phone's volume up/down buttons function as page up/page down, which greatly speeds up scrolling (if the t619 had this feature somehow I missed it). For reading basic websites (glorified RSS feeds) I actually prefer using this little Katalyst to the iPhone! (Everything remotely complex works far better on an iPhone of course.)

Like I said, I chose this phone primarily based on feel, so I was surprised to learn that it has a WiFi feature. Contrary to my assumptions, you don't need to subscribe to a service to use this feature. You can use WiFi without restriction; the only caveat is that it pulls from your regular minutes, so the only benefit is an improved signal. This is a fantastic feature if you live in an area with poor coverage, because you can utilize your broadband connection to make calls. It also speeds up the web browsing, which is a nice plus. Just be careful when leaving the house mid-call, because leaving the WiFi signal area will cause the call to drop. If you dislike this, you can just disable WiFi calling altogether.

I am not a power user. I use my phone for calls, and to pull up t-zones to check the news or find movies. Other reviews have complained about the bluetooth functionality being limited in this phone. Apparently it works with headsets, but not with communicating to your PC, which is fine for me because I would probably never do that anyway. I also don't use the built-in MP3 player, so I can't really comment on its quality, other than to say there's no standard headphone jack (you need a proprietary adapter).

Overall this phone just feels right. Everything is solid and natural. There may be some fringe features that this phone lacks or doesn't do quite as well as other phones, but the people who use these features know who they are and know to do their research before diving in and expecting the world. For everyone else who are just looking for a great phone, I highly recommend this one.