Customer Reviews

Samsung Phone

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I had my Samsung S105 for more than 2 years. I managed to drop it for the one-millionth time, finally splitting it in two. It was such a great phone with incredible reception, that I knew I had to have another Samsung.

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone wants a camera. A large part of the reason this is billed as "entry level" is because of its lack of a camera. For someone like myself, who works in the court system, a camera phone is a no-no. They confiscate them, forcing you to retrieve it on the way out. It's a pain and defeats the purpose of having a phone. if I want to take a picture, I'd like it to be worth saving, and I'll use a real camera with actual quality. :) The only other thing missing is bluetooth, and frankly that another thing that people are extreme on: Either they MUST have it or they could care less. I could care less. My cell is never sooooo far away that a small wire to my pocket is bothersome. Besides, an expensive earpiece with no wires is just one more thing for me to lose. That said, here's what I think about this phone:

Design:
Sleek and small, but the buttons aren't too small, which is a plus. The four way directional buttons are easily programmed to shortcut to your most often used functions. There's no visible antennae. Everything is capped, the charging slot at the bottom and hands free jack on the side. To those who think this would be annoying, you're wrong, the pop out easily, not like the rubber plugs on past samsung models. The volume button is conveniently located and easy to use while talking. The colors, a soft blue and silver are appealing both to those who want a little color and those who would be put off by neon bright colors or patterns.

Features:
The color screen is incredible sharp with easily adjustable brightness and contrast. The menu can be set one of three ways, all of which are nice. The original ringtones are dreadful in many ways, but they are on most phones. Adding hi-fi ring tones was easy and fast. Adding wallpapers was also easy.

The games selection beats the hell out of the S105 and V205. They are crisp and amusing. It comes with 4 preloaded java games, more than any other cell I've ever had.

The organizer is standard with the addition of a "voice memo" where you can record 30 second clips to remind yourself of things. You can also make these 30 second recordings and send them out with Text messages, directly to phone numbers, or as emails. If you purchase the GPRS software and data cable, you can create your own wallpapers or update your organizer from your computer.

There are plenty of ways to customize this phone. Even the lettering on the main screen can be changed to a variety of colors and styles. The service light only has three colors, unlike the S105, which had a virtual rainbow of colors to choose from. But its a service light... who cares?

There is an auto-update feature on the time-date function, which is also nice.

Reception:

Everyone I've talked to has commented on how clear I sound. And the same is true in reverse. Calls are loud and clear and reception is wonderful. I've come to expect this from Samsung, and this phone is true to form.

Other:

I just love the size and feel of this phone. It's substantial enough, doesn't feel flimsy, and yet its so slight. I can't review the long term hold up of this phone, its so new, but in my experience, Tmobile does a good job of correcting problems, and so does samsung.

I could have used a clip or case. This is the first phone I've bought in a long time that didn't come with at least a simply belt clip. It comes with the charger, an international plug adapter, and the hands-free headset. There aren't a lot of accessories just yet, but they'll be out soon enough.

Overall this is a great phone with plenty of bells and whistles. It's easy to use, even for tech idiots, and easily customized for the tech friendly. The reception is great and the size is perfect. If you dont need bluetooth or a camera, this is the phone for you!

the x475 is good for a general user.

Pros:

1) Excellent reception anywhere. I went Washington DC, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Zhangjiakou (a suburb) with this phone and it was excellent everywhere, except in Tokyo where it couldn't pick up the signal at Narita Airport. This phone will automatically switch to the closest service provider to you, such as how the x475 switched to China Mobile or China Unicom.

2) Excellent batter life. I can go for 3 weeks without charging the phone.

3) Nice look. Streamlined without antenna.

4) Quick loading phone book.

Cons:

1) Strong weather can break the signal. Last night during hurricane Katrina, i was trying to call Florida Power and Light, and when i got through i could barely hear them.

Overall: If you are going around the world, you will have good reception except maybe at Tokyo Narita. Battery will last you, and no problems. Very reliable.

I've been using the Samsung x475 for a while now and I must say that I'm very satisfied with it. The small size and weight of the cell allow it to be easily stored away and provide a lot of comfort when you need to be on the phone for a long period of time. Not to mention the hands-free set it comes with helps to make things that much more comfortable.

I love the overall look and design of the phone. It has an attractive blue/silver cover and a service light (green-default) that can also let you know when you have received a voicemail or text message (red-default). The screen is very easy to read and it's simple to navigate through everything and change your settings.

The charger it comes with doesn't need to be used as much as I thought it would. I find that I can use the phone all day long and still not lose even a single bar on the three-bar battery line. Of course, I do put it on the charger almost every night just to be on the safe side of things.

Next comes the fun part: accessories. Hi-fi ringers, wallpaper, games, cases, etc. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but I love the Hi-Fi Ringers that you can purchase from T-Mobile's site and then assign each one to a different contact in your phone book. It's a great feature that will let you know the difference between a call you really want to take and a call that you would rather let your voicemail answer instead.

I'd recommend this phone to anyone wanting a standard flip-cell without the need of a camera. It's a really good purchase for all of us minimalistic lovers out there who just need something that can get the job done.

This is the perfect phone for me. I'm not really into text messaging or taking pictures; I just wanted a basic clamshell phone, with an internal antenna (a great, newish feature that makes the phone sleeker and less prone to damage), and good reception. I love this phone - reception is surprisingly good for T-Mobile in my area, and the phone is small and sleek. If you're looking for lots of additional features like a camera, look elsewhere.

The details are above, so without repeating those:

I found the color screen to be bright and very crisp. I agree with the other guy, the processor is fast. My wife downloaded some ringtones and had no problem navigating it to make it work.

All it took was one phone call to my cell phone to hear the difference over her last phone. This one is louder, clearer and has less background noise.

We found the best feature (for us) is that it DOESN"T have one of those annoying 'cradle chargers' that never work all that well in the first place. The x475 has a plug-in charger, so no more fooling with the phone to get it in the cradle at the exact angle to make it charge -- just a hair off and it would drain the battery! BUT, the x475 has this little rubber door on the bottom of the phone that you must open in order to plug in the charger. It doesn't come off completely, but instead hangs by another piece of rubber. This makes it virtually impossible to plug in the charger with only one hand, so if you have only one hand or require that one hand be free during the plugging-in of your phone then this may be a problem for you; otherwise it's a small annoyance. You could just tear it off to solve that whole ordeal.

Anyway, I highly recommend this phone, especially if you get it free, like we did.

PROs:
1. Very tiny compared to others I've had
2. Easy to flip open and view
3. Nice color screen
4. Robust "vibrate" mode
5. Hands-free earpiece volume good
6. Battery life great - charges up quickly
7. Hands-free can re-dial and answer and end calls. Nice, but makes the plug too sophisticated - see CON #4

CONs:
1. Flat keys make it impossible to dial by touch alone - need to look at the keypad! This is terrible for driving. See also CON #7.
2. Hands-free earbud falls out of my ear (never had a problem with any other earbuds)
3. In car, hands-free mike picks up road noise. I've had to cup the mike in my hand next to my mouth for people to hear me. Can't use my nice Sony hands-free with X475 because of CON #4.
4. Non-standard hands-free socket. Few devices will work with it. The Amazon "product description" says, "There's also a standard jack to accept universal hands-free headsets." - this is NOT true!
5. Ringer volume difficult to adjust. Need to go into menus!
6. Almost TOO sleek - I'm terrified I'll drop it. There's practically nothing to grip. It's smooth, slippery and rounded.
7. NO VOICE DIALING. T-Mobile salesman told me the X475 was far superior to my old Motorola C332, which DID have voice dialing! This phone - a new, slick phone - should have voice dialing. A major drawback to X475 if you need to drive with it! Mobiledia.com claims this phone has "voice commands", but 2 calls to carrier have confirmed: no voice dialing.
8. Reception cuts in and out - more so on the road - even in metro area, full battery. Is it X475 problem or carrier problem?? Don't know.

I really don't care about (and thus have no opinion on):
Ring tones, IM, "T-Zones" / Internet capability (wish I could disable it...), Games, No camera, No speakerphone Connectivity software.

OTHER:
I got a $10 holster - it says "Sydney Harbour" on the belt clip. This is a great accessory! Keeps phone from getting scratched. I never worry about it falling off my belt. Phone is so small I forget I have it sometimes.

CONCLUSION:
Flashy, pretty and small, but I'd rather it was ugly, had voice dialing, a standard jack, and no fade in and out. (function before form!)

UPDATE 12/05: I now have changed to a Motorola phone from same cell provider and all reception issues are solved. Apparently the problems were due to the phone, not T-Mobile.

I have been a T-Mobile customer for 2.5 years and I have kept my original Motorola v60 that entire time. I have been very happy with the phone and up until its recent death I was still getting great reception and amazing battery life. (I only had to charge it once every 6-7 days with an average of 20-30 minutes of talk time per day).

After my v60's demise I followed the advice of several reviews and posts as well as the T-Mobile representative and purchased a Samsung x475. I greatly regret this decision and will be taking the phone back today. I was looking for a phone with good battery life and good call clarity; the Samsung x475 most definitely does not meet those requirements.

My first complaint is that while people on the other end of the phone seem to have no problem hearing me, I have a terrible time hearing them. There is plenty of volume coming out at my end but the sound is so distorted and garbled that I frequently can't understand what people are saying. This phenomenon exists no matter what volume setting I have the phone set to, and no matter who I call. Even land lines come through with the same grating distortion. The effect is similar to pumping a book on tape loudly through badly blown speakers. You can hear that the device is being overdriven and much of the sound at certain frequencies is simply lost. (This problem is especially pronounced when the caller at the other end has a voice in the lower register)

My second complaint is that the battery life is atrocious, especially when compared to my v60. I acquired the phone at 7:00 PM on Thursday, I charged it over night for 12 hours and first powered on the phone at 8:00 AM on Friday. Over the course of the following three days I set the time and ring tone, adjusted records in my phone list, and made phone calls totaling 43 minutes and 6 seconds. The phone was also powered off from 8:00 PM Saturday night until 8:00 AM Sunday morning as I went to see a film and forgot to turn the phone back on. By 8:00 PM Monday night, 72 hours of standby, 43 minutes of talk time, and roughly 15 minutes of menu navigation later, the battery on the phone was completely dead.

I would definitely recommend that anyone interested in T-Mobile and the phones they offer not settle for the Samsung x475. There are many better phones around, hopefully I will be able to find one to replace my v60 soon.

I just got this phone, and it's smaller than I expected. When I measured it, it turned out to be 3 and 3/8 by 1 and 6/8 by 7/8. At any rate, it turned out to be smaller than I anticipated. The screen is really bright, the backlighting of the number pad is very nice and bright, and it's built pretty durably for a samsung phone. There's this transparent dot in the middle of the face that lights up when it rings, or it serves as a blinking signal indicator kind of like the old startacs. It charges very quickly, and when you type numbers to dial it displays it in enormous font size for people with bad eye sight.

I was really surprised by the service. I looked at the tmobile coverage map, and my area was not very green (digital), in fact my surrounding area was all tan (not even light green). However, I get all full bars of signal in my home, and this phone seems really good at picking up signals according to other reviews I've read. In fact, I get much better signal and call quality with tmobile than I do with cingular (their map claims my area is all green). Also, the included (wired) headset is very nice and clear.

Anyways, on to the cons. Like other reviewers mentioned, the ringer tones stink. They're crazy eccentric tones no self-respecting person would want to use. But whatever; no big deal. The only other thing I wish this phone came with is a holster. I don't like cases because they make the phone bulkier and not very good for clamshell phones. So you're stuck sticking this phone in your pocket where it seems easily scratchable, like most other phones on the market. Other than this, I really like this phone. Nice and functional; does what a phone should do.

Well when I decided to upgrade my phone, I ended up going through two other ones with a completely different company before settling with this phone from t-mobile. I must say that they other two phones were much more flashy and high-tech than this one, but this has all the stuff you really need. I have a few complaints, but mainly they're just matters of convenience.

Pros:
- Really good reception and call quality. I know the other reviews said it was bad, but I've had no problem. I even traveled to Florida for a week and had no problems there or along the way.
- GREAT battery life. After having had a camera phone for a year and a half followed by brief times with the high-end phones, I got used to charging at least once every other day. With this one I usually charge once every 6 or 7 days, with moderate use. - Headset included. It comes with an earbud headset which isn't the best, but works fine for driving around.
-Strong vibrate. You can't not know it's going off in your pocket.

Cons:
- Bad menu. Not all the time, but often I have trouble finding out how to change things on this phone (and I'm usually pretty good with these things). I still can't figure out how to change the ringtone that is played for my alarm, so right now it's the soft t-mobile theme which doesn't really alert me (and often fails to wake me up).
- Pretty long charge time. Even though the battery life is good, it takes forever to charge, and no matter how much time it spends on the charger it will tell you it's full battery once you first take it off.
- Several texting features are abysmal. It took me a long time how to flip between T9, uppercase, and lowercase. Also, things you expect to happen just don't, like if a word is too long for the line it's on, it splits in in half rather than automatically move it to the next line, which is irritating when trying to proof-read. Don't even think about capitalizing names when you want to use T9 because it just doesn't happen.
- It... always... blinks... There is a light on the front on the phone that can do many colors and will ALWAYS blink green as long as it's turned on, unless you have a missed call in which case it blinks red. I can't tell you how irritating that gets, especially when trying to sleep. - Phone numbers have to be exact to be recognized. If you put a number in the phone book without the area code, the person's name won't pop up when they call... instead it will show the while number with area code which I often don't have memorized. On the same note, if you have a number with the area code saved and then dial it without the area code it doesn't recognize the number. I have people down twice in my call list because I've dialed their number by memory and they've called me back, and the phone doesn't understand it's the same number.

Something I wish it had:
- Mp3 ringtones... that would be nice.

I'm going to stick with the phone for a while, because it works, and the problems I've seen are easy to get used to, it's just things I wish they had done differently. I feel like if Samsung had tried to use the phone for 6 weeks, they would have caught all these problems and fixed them early on.

I previously had a Motorola v300 for 2 years and unfortunately, the speaker went on it. So, I ordered this phone through T-Mobile. I only paid $50 for it which wasn't too bad.

The only pro for this phone is the sleek design. It's very lightweight and so small.

Otherwise, the phone is very primitive compared to my old phone. The menus are difficult to navigate through and the sound quality is terrible. It sounds like everyone is talking to you through a tin can. People have also told me that I sound like I'm very far away while talking to them. Isn't a phone's primary purpose just that? To be a phone? I was very disappointed and returned the phone a few days after I got it. I'm sorry to say that I can't recommend this phone to anyone.