Customer Reviews

Samsung Knack SCH-U310 Phone, Black (Verizon Wireless)

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

 

 

This phone will never be stolen or used by anyone under 21 (or under 50). It is the most un-kewl device in existence. An iPhone, it is not!

For the vision or hearing impaired or for those who don't need or want the latest gizmo, this phone is for you.

Since the phone does relatively little, there are much less menus. Most of the menu options turn on or off sounds. Example option: Phone will sound out each key you press("four", "six") . Turning on each sound option will make for a very talkative companion.

Pros:

The fonts are large. Very, very large. And you can make the fonts in some of the menus even larger.

No camera. No games. No music. No pictures.

The text is very black and in some areas, the background is bright white making for highly readable ultra-high contrast text. With my 20/20 vision I can literally read the text from across the bedroom. I kid you not.

It does have speed dial but the options to set it is not as described in the manual. I found the speed dial option in a different menu.

The keys light up quite clearly and brightly.

The keys are nicely tactile.

Superb battery conservation. If you don't use the phone much, you probably can go over a week or two before needing a recharge.

The maximum sound is loud -- really loud. A person can hear incoming voices on the other side of the room at the highest setting. You might want to lower the sound for some phone calls.

I use the calendar but it could be improved. I also use the alarm clock, stop watch and calculator. The calendar, alarm clock and calculator have dedicated buttons.

Cons:

Why, oh, why didn't they allow for a blank wallpaper?

This phone is clearly designed for the visually impaired or the no-frills type of person so why wouldn't they have a white, or neutral color, background on the main menu? What were they thinking? There's no way of importing a blank wallpaper since there's no camera and no option to disable the wallpaper.

Small (tiny?) "OK" button.

Small external display. No caller ID on external display. No date on external display.

Also, the font could have been (should have been) larger on the main menu, but no, they had to have a cutesy background.

No Bluetooth. A disadvantage if you want/need a wireless headset.

Some backgrounds have other colors. No option for change. Colors reduce contrast and readability.

The voice recognition is positively awful and slowwwww. It just drives me to tears. My phone from 10+ years ago did a far better job of recognizing names. And you have to see the moronic copyright screen each time. If I wrote that software, I would hide, not show, the copyright screen. It's shameful.

The voice recognition voice prompts is played though the speaker phone which can be rather embarrassing in certain situations. I haven't found an option to disable this "feature". Again, what were they thinking or are they just stupid?

There is no vibrate before ring option. I like to be able to answer the phone before it actually rings so the ring doesn't disturb others. The vibrate feature is rather weak. [Update Feb 28, 09: I found a voice option where a feminine voice softly says 'You have an incoming call' before the phone rings. Many times I'm able to answer the phone before it actually rings. I absolutely love this feature.]

The appointment feature in the calendar is a bit lame. There's no way of alerting you of an upcoming appointment. What I do is set the appointment for several hours in advance and type in the actual time in the text field.

I don't understand why they made the power connection so small and difficult. On the power cord, there's a dark red arrow on a black background. Why not white? And the protective cover is dark red and flimsy. Good luck if you have low vision or poor finger coordination. Another insult to the disabled. On some reviews, the protective door colors are brightened so that they appear to be highly visible. Those reviewers are being deceptive.

In short, this simple phone will meet 80% of the needs of those who are mildly disabled and 95% of those who just want a simple phone. If you have a relative who needs a simple phone or is disabled or a technophobe, you can set this up for them and they'll be happily independent (except for the recharging).

The ring volume is rather low on both of our phones even though the ring volumes are set to the maximum. If the phone is in a pocketbook or a jacket, you might not be able to find your phone when it rings. I find this to be a major detractor. We miss a lot of phone calls because of this. I carry my phone in my pocket. I can never hear my phone ring when I'm in a store. We don't carry phones on a holster and we're not about to start. When other people's cell phone rings, they're so loud I jump. Mine could ring in a theater and I don't think anyone would notice.

[Update Jan 24, 2010] I've been informed that a recharging cradle is available which will eliminate the plug-in recharging problem. With Verizon, the default number of rings are 3. You can call Verizon and increase the number of rings up to 8. This CANNOT be done from this phone. Please note that some of the rings are gobbled up before your phone rings so don't expect the phone to actually ring a full 8 times.

This is a great entry level texting phone for all the text message whores out there. Despite all the pictures advertising the phone, it only appears to be big and bulky but it's the complete opposite. The phone is actually very slim & slender. I love that it comes in 3 different colors (Green, Blue, & Rose White) and probably more on the way. I picked up the green one and i love it. I originally purchased the Samsung Epix PDA phone and was so disappointed by the awful operating system and returned it right away. Finally the Samsung Propel hits the stores and it's basically a PDA smart phone without the Window Mobile operating system (Which is awful by the way). I love the Samsung Menu and UI. It's easy to use and just navigating through it is a breeze. You don't even need to look at the manual to operate this thing. The one downside to the Propel is that the screen could be a bit bigger and the colors could be a bit more vibrant. You only get 65K colors as oppose to the usual Samsung high end phones that come with 262K colors. So, that was one of the disappointments with this phone. Samsung knew this phone was strictly for the teens so i can see why the price is so cheap. Considering the friendly price is probably a big reason why you don't get the 262K colors. Another flaw is the Instant Messaging. You do get AIM & Yahoo but the buddylist is not in real time. You will only be able to see a few friends on your buddylist not all. But if you IM them they will respond even though they appear to not be signed in. The best thing about my Sidekick LX is that IM is in real time. I signed on from both devices and had about 50 friends on my buddylist appear on my SK while the Propel only had 3. As i stated before even though only 3 appear you can still IM the ones that don't appear and chat with them. Also AT&T for some reason is so stingy with the accessories. I wish it came with an additional USB charger, free micro SD memory card, or a case. Unfortunately NONE. All you get is the cell & wall charger. Overall i am very pleased with my purchase and recommend anyone looking for a texting phone or any device that might come close to a Sidekick on the AT&T network, this would be the phone 4 u.

Pros:
Sleek sexy design
Comes in multiple colors
Camera/camcorder (Really should be 6.0 megapixel by now)
Built in Messaging Clients (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Etc)
Access to Emails
Qwerty Keyboard
MP3 Players
Samsung Menu
GPS
Slider Phone
Micro SD (Up to 8GB)

Cons:
Only 65K Colors on screen
Only 1.3 Megapixel Camera/Camcorder (Really should be 6.0 by now)
Battery is really thin so carry an extra charger with you
AT&T is really cheap with the accessories (Only device & charger included)
Wish a USB Charger was included

On May 4, 2009, I finally broke down and bought cell phones for all five members of my family, opting for the Samsung Knack because it was a no-frills phone and I didn't want to open Pandora's box with my three teenagers. I went with a one year contract with Verizon just in case the expense of a family share plan was too much. We immediately began having problems with the phones. One phone had to be exchanged within two weeks, and since then we have had to replace three others for a total of four replacement phones in less than three months.

Needless to say, I contacted Verizon about the "lemons" and was told that we were stuck with them. According to our contract agreement, we could only replace phones with the same phones, so now I am getting reconditioned Knack phones, and based upon their track record thus far, I can expect to have 16 replacements before the contract expires.

My two kids who have been the heaviest users have had the most problems and required the replacement phones; however, there is no disclaimer that accompanies the phones indicating they are incapable of heavy use. The actual problems with the phones have run the gamut from not turning on, freezing, scrambling messages/data, menu functions that do not work, etc.

If you are over 50, you might not have any problems with the phones because you are using them on a limited basis. I would not recommend this phone to anyone who uses one throughout the day.

My husband and I have been totally cellular for over 2 years and we are in our 50's-60's, so you can teach old dogs new tricks. We wanted to stay with Verizon due to the number of towers making our reception much better in a rural area. Since his contract was coming to conclusion we checked into a number of "Senior Friendly--No Frills phones". He didn't want a camera, he has NEVER texted a message in his life, he has a dedicated GPS, a computer for intenet usage and all the extra knobs just got in his way. He did need large, backlight numbers arranged clearly with a large font display, ICE features for emergencies,the phone volume had to be sufficient for 60+ year old ears, and easy enough for daily use without fumbling around. After 2 months of use, he has found this phone much more user friendly than his previous Razer. The volume (not even maximum) is so loud I have unjustly accused him of having the Speakerphone on....and it was NOT. It has a charger stand that positions the phone so you can easily see the time(thanks to large fonts) on his nightstand even with our old eyes. Absolutely NO problems with VM, freezing or locking up and the phone is used throughout the day, granted NOT by a teenager.

I love this phone. I was going to get the Alias, as it also has a large font, but the new $10/month data fee was a deal breaker. I use the phone for calling and texting. I took only a couple of pictures with my previous phone, so I didn't care about that feature. I didn't want email or internet. I had a Razor, which had a short battery life and very small font. Texting is easy and better than the Razor, in that rarely does the wrong word show up. The numbers-letters are easier and more reliably pressed. The display is bright and large. The phone works great--its earpiece is clear and the numbers have a nice feel. The speakerphone is high quality. The contacts are simple to save and they all came over from the previous phone, unlike the warning I read here. Also, it does ID the caller, with the contact name or the phone number. The recharging cradle makes it easy as pie to recharge the phone.

I bought this phone after returning the Nokia 6650, because I had a difficult time trying to understand how to use the Nokia 6650. Before I bought this phone I was a die-hard Nokia user, but that has all changed now. The Samsung Propel is so easy to use. I love it. Texting is so easy to do on the Samsung Propel. I only use one hand to text. No need for two hands. I haven't had to use the instruction manual yet. I have the blue-black phone, but they also come in red-black, white-red, and green.
The only con that I can say about the phone is the battery life if you use it a whole lot. But that's not really bad, because it only takes a few minutes to juice up once you start charging the battery. Just keep a car charger or wall charger handy.
Again, this is a great phone. It's just the right size to fit into the universal phone case that I used to keep my Motorola and Nokia phones in.

I bought this phone because I finally entered the world of text messages and my beloved Pink Razr was not living up to the task. I wanted something small but with a full keyboard. After comparing this with the Centro, I found that this keyboard was much more user-friendly. I also like that it snaps closed. I'm not a web user on my phone...so I can't speak to its capabilities there. I bought it for texting, that's what I use it for (and calls!) and it has been just great.

This phone is so wonderful. I text on it most. I love it. Using it is so easy. It is a great phone for pix and it easily takes new ringtones from my computer. It has its own program to help connect it to your computer as well. There is no need for a usb cable if you have bluetooth on your computer. The keyboard is much better than my last phone. The call quality is superb. It is not bulky like my old one and is even nice to look at. I don't use the internet on it, so I have no idea how well any of that stuff works. All in all I am very pleased. It seems durable for a klutz like me too. My other phone broke after dropping it a few too many times.

The only con I have is the tiny keys but they weren't hard to get used to and the qwertry keypad was a step up from my old phone. I only gave it 4 stars because my ultimate phone would have some touch screen capabilities. but for the price this is a great phone to have. easy to use, especially if you're used to samsungs. And it's sleek for a full keyboard slider. I'm a big fan!
I txt all day long and the battery life is great, it goes much faster if you're a talker though so keep that in mind when considering a purchase. :)

My phone was accidentally washed in our washing machine. Despite enduring a full wash, detergent, fabric softener, and the spin cycle, the little phone that could came back to life after a day of rest. Amazing!