Customer Reviews

Samsung U340 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you're looking for a phone that should be used as just that -- a phone, then you've found the right product. I didn't purchase this phone myself but my mother had gone out and bought it for me instead because I wasn't up to leaving the house that day.

Still, the reception is great. I have not had any dropped calls whatsoever and the sound is clear. In fact, it can be a little loud for me.

The ringtones aren't the best but they're not the worst either. In fact, a few of them are pretty nice melodies.

The wallpapers it come with however are a different story. Don't particularly like them. I do, however like the color themes it offers: Red, Blue, and Black. I've always hated the usual red color of themes in other Verizon phones so I'm pleased to see that these themes work and get rid of all the red.

The camera takes EXTREMELY clear and crisp pictures that beats the Razor V3 my younger sister has. In fact, she can never get clear pictures on her phone and insists I send her the pictures from my phone to her. In fact, as I mentioned, the wallpapers were not exactly appealing to me so I took pictures of my Desktop Wallpapers on my computer and used those as my Phone wallpaper. The pictures really ARE crisp and clear and they look as if the phone had come with the wallpapers.

The only downside is battery life. But that's not much of a problem.

If you're looking for a decent phone in which it's purpose is to be just that -- a phone, then you've come to the right place. This is the phone for you. If you're looking to play movies, listen to music, and whatnot, then this is NOT the phone for you. This is a phone for basic needs. In fact, I don't see the point in listening to music and watching videos on a PHONE. We have the PSP or MP3 players for that. Why use a phone?

While at the local Verizon store, I spotted this compact phone and immediately was sold. The color is nice, and has sleek, black keys inside. The VGA camera takes very nice photos, although some turned out underexposed, which can be fixed quickly and easily using the brighten and darken settings. Other great camera settings include quality, white balance, self-timer, color effects, and resolution.

The phone has great features, like texting, mobile IM, including Yahoo! and AIM, and other features. Although it does not have music, or any of those over-the-top features, this phone offers great calling quality, excellent features, and a bright screen, all in a nice, compact body.

I definetly recommend this for anybody who loves texting or taking pictures. The only downfall is that the only way to accquire your pictures on the computer is if you e-mail them to yourself via picure messaging. Although this doesn't sound too bad, it does cost $0.25 cents per message, unless you have a picture-messaging plan. This is a downfall for all who don't because you can only send one photo per message.

All and all, this is a great quality phone with a compact size, nice camera and features, and a good quality body.

Here's another "free" phone from Verizon, with a two-year committment.

I don't like paying for phones because the service costs plenty enough by itself. I needed a new phone because my old Samsung A670 had no speakerphone at all. This U340 has one, but the volume is simply not loud enough to be what I would consider an acceptable speakerphone. With the volume at the highest setting, it's just barely OK if there's very little ambient noise in the background. Two friends of mine have LG phones and their speakerphones are loud and have good voice fidelity. But, each of them had to shell out about $40 for their phones, even with a plan committment.

What I do like is the navigation through the menu items, which is quite a bit better on this phone than my old Samsung A670. Very user-friendly, even to a person who doesn't use a cellphone as a plaything.

Transmission and reception is about average compared with other cellphones. To a much greater extent than most people realize, these characteristics are controlled more by what kind of equipment the antenna sites have and how they are configured for coverage. You can have a hooptie iPhone with sucky call performance just like you can with these cell phone company freebies if the coverage is marginal.

I haven't had any problems with the battery so far, but I've only had the phone a couple of weeks. I must say, it is quite small when compared to any other cellphone battery I've ever seen.

The camera seems to take better quality pictures than my old A670 did, and there's no flash. This is a disappointment to some people, but I'd rather not have a flash that may draw unwelcome attention to it and to me. Physically moving the phone up and down in the air changes how light or dark the image capture will be, and I've found this camera will take OK pictures in even fairly low light situations.

All in all, if you're a cellphone "power user" go get a hooptie name brand latest-gen phone. If you are oriented toward simple functionality and economy, consider selecting this from the "free" phone list at Verizon. The price is right!

+++ Additional comment after having the phone for two months +++

The battery in this phone is really the best I've ever seen in terms of strength and length of service between charges. After seeing other reviewers complain quite a bit about the battery, the amazing battery performance surprised me, and I thought I should add this comment. So, yes, the speakerphone is a tinny, low-volume bust, but the battery is definitely a big cut-above that of any other cellphone I've used.

If your main interest is making/receiving calls and sending/receiving text messages then this is the phone for you! It is light, compact, has an internal antenna, doesn't look too girly nor too masculine, has decent reception/battery and is very easy to use. If you are looking for a cell phone with a good camera and speakerphone DO NOT purchase this phone.

I have had two Samsung phones in the past that both have extrememly angered me. Samsung is NOT a good line of phone but I had no choice in buying this phone [as I am sixteen and under my parents line -- haha] but I really like this phone so far.

The camera couldn't be better. The pixels work well and it's great. Very bright and easy to use.

The reception is perfect. Even with Verizon [which angers me as well -- you can never hear anybody] the sound is excellent. I haven't had a dropped call yet.

The design is very sleek and appealing. I love the easy to press buttons and how easy it is to find everything you need.

The pre wall papers are very aesthetic and good. Text messages come in quick, voice mail is great, etc.

Sure the battery life isn't great but they even say that in the description so if you wanted a long one, should have bought one. I charge my phone constantly anyway, I have yet to have it die on me. The talk time is only about three hours but I'm usually indoors and so the charger is easy reach. When charging and talking at the same time, the reception is still good.

It smudges a little too easily, but that's easy to fix.

This sleek flip phone is perfect for jean pockets.

I highly recommend this phone, one of the better samsung products. The only problem is that I have only had the phone a few short days and I'm not sure how it will act up later. I will keep everyone posted though =]

I got this phone mainly because it was free. It is completely barebones, which is fine with me since all I really want it for is talking and sending the occasional text message. HOWEVER, the battery is HORRIBLE. I thought it was just my unit, so I exchanged it, but unit #2 is equally as bad... I'm going to have to suck it up and pay for a better phone.

This phone has several major drawbacks:

1. You can't put your finger over the antenna and get decent service which means you have to hold the phone by your fingertips and results in me dropping it frequently.

2. The default rings are pretty weak, and there is NO short text message sound--most are approx. 30 seconds in length. There is a beep sound, but everytime I set it to that, it reverts to the default when I turn it off and on.

3. The speaker phone is basically unusably quite. Unless you're like in a museum you might as well use the phone normally because you have to hold it that close to hear anything anyway.

4. The battery life sucks. I use my phone as an alarm and have never had a problem with a phone dying just from being in standby mode. This thing frequently dies overnight (not as a result of the searching-for-service problem.)

I really wanted to like this phone. I just wanted a phone that has good call quality and reception. For these reasons, I chose this model as it features trimode. Good speakerphone, slim design ... a basic phone for making calls.

The battery, however, is horrible. I charged it overnight, and took it with me to work at 9AM. When I left work at 6PM, despite only making one or two calls, the battery was down to one bar. This is well under the 9.2 days on standby that it is supposedly rated at. I could get the extended battery, but this defeats the purpose of getting a slim, sleek phone.

Everything else is great ... design, loud speakerphone, ok camera, solid feel ... but I don't want a phone that I have to charge everyday.

My old Samsung finally bit the dust. Since I liked that phone and had no problems with it, I thought I'd order the new model and would be good to go. The one thing that is frustrating is that just when you get used to how your phone works, and are comfortable and familiar with all the options, it seems the phone breaks and you have to start all over. I received my new U340 and charged it fully that same afternoon. By the next morning, I noticed the battery had already started to lose it's charge. By that afternoon, it was halfway drained- keep in mind, I had not even used the phone yet at this point. That evening I charged it overnight and set out for the day. Halfway through the day, again I notice the battery indicator is halfway drained. I visited the Verizon store and they replaced the phone. That night, I charged it fully. By the next afternoon the new phone with the new battery was already halfway drained. I travel for work and the last thing I need is to be stuck in some airport with a dead phone. It is unreliable and unpredictable. The battery is awful- if you never make or receive calls, or text, then maybe this phone would work for you. But be prepared for lots of babysitting as you will constantly be looking for an outlet to give yourself an extra charge throughout the day. I ended up getting the LG VX5400 and have zero complaints. The battery is strong (4 1/2 hours talk time) and the standby is excellent at 16 days. The LG phone is very similar to the Samsung in it's features so you won't spend too much time learning how to use your new phone. Plus it's also blue tooth compatible (which the Samsung isn't). Go with the LG, you won't be disappointed.

It's a pretty decent little phone, but there have been a few qualities that have bugged me to the point that I'm now searching for a new phone.

-Though it does have an instant messaging service that goes with MSN, AIM, and Yahoo, it only ever allowed me to receive messages; my friends would never get my responses. (I only used AIM, though, so maybe it works with the others)

-Battery life is pretty lame, as many have said. It also starts beeping every few minutes once you're down to about an hour of battery left. The beeping cannot be turned off unless the phone is; even if your phone is silenced. Which means that if you're in school or a business meeting, there might be some issues, and if you're a secret agent of any sort don't even think about it. Plus it's just annoying.

-Other than the instant messaging, it has no access to the internet. I tend to mess with my phone when I'm bored and there's just nothing to do with this one. On a similar it's-too-bad-this-is-missing vein, it doesn't shoot video.

-My biggest problem was the text messaging. The phone has no memory- it won't remember anything you type into it, so if you have a friend with a weird name or just curse on occasion, you'll have to type it in every time, which while not an issue at first, gets pretty bothersome. I'm at the point where I'm avoiding Samsung altogether for fear of it having the same sort of system.

-Also, it doesn't record when the message was actually sent, just when the phone received it. For instance, if someone sent you one at midnight saying "Get over here right now!" and your phone is off, when you turn it on the message will say it was sent at the time you turned on your phone, which can cause some issues.

So I really wouldn't recommend at all unless you just want something cheap and would only occasionally use it.