Customer Reviews

Samsung t339 Phone, Burgundy (T-Mobile)

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

 

 

This is an excellent phone for the intended audience. I got fed up with the sluggish performance of my WinMo phone (for those thinking that I might not be using it right, FYI that I am a software professional and know the nitty gritty details of how to make my gadgets work best) and decided to go back to the basics. And this phone performs great for that purpose, of being just a phone.

Wow, what a relief. First thing I notice after the transition was the SPEED. WinMo is god damn sluggish in being a phone. Takes 2 seconds to just bring the dialer up. Takes 1 min to boot. On the contrary, this phone performs great and saves me time on every operation I perform.

LG has done a great job of integrating WiFi into a basic phone without complicating the software too much. Setup was a breeze and call quality is excellent on both WiFi calls and cell calls. Unlike the CNet editor, I did not find the volume to be "too low". In fact, it's perfect. And "overly bright screen"! Oh common CNet. It seems you're just trying to find faults in this phone.

The keys are great and I like typing on them. I downloaded the PC Studio software from Samsung website and was able to sync my outlook contacts, address book, notes and calendar over bluetooth. Perfect. I also transferred some ringtones from my computer to the phone over bluetooh. Works like charm.

The only problem I've faced until now is while driving. I've synced my phone to my car and while the built in bluetooth headset of my car works great initially, it times out after a while and then I have to restart bluetooth on the phone for it to pair again. Haven't found the solution to that yet. Hadn't had this problem on my WinMo phone.

The bottom line is, this phone is PERFECT if you want an easy to use basic phone (with modern facilities such as bluetooth sync, A2DP etc.) and also suffer "no signal at home" problem and are interested in the T-Mobile Hotspot@Home service.

I am a new T-Mobile customer, having just signed the contract in September of 2008. This is my first phone from the carrier. I chose it because I've had a Samsung before and I really liked it so considering past experience, price point and wi-fi capabilities, it was an easy choice for me.

Starting with the design of the phone, I think it does a decent job of looking like it cost more than it did. :P It's a very nice red color, with an alternating black/grey scheme on the keypad. The outer casing is completely plastic which I'm not a huge fan of but you can't expect steel or titanium for this price. It doesn't feel flimsy at all. The overall feel of a device is extremely important to me and this one feels good. The phone/end keys and soft keys are HUGE and all of the buttons return a good amount of tactile feedback.

Call quality is good, much better than that of the Virgin Mobile phone I used prior to this one. There is a slight difference between quality on a cellular call and one made over wifi.
In fact, let me go into that.

The wi-fi feature is the best thing that could happen to a cell phone. Seriously. When I first purchased it, I was confused and thought you had to purchase the hotspot @ home service to use it but you don't. If you have a wireless network at home, you can make free, clear calls and browse the web over your wi-fi connection. It was easy to set up, easy to use and saves me on minutes every month! The only thing is if your wi-fi signal is weak, your call quality drops SIGNIFICANTLY. It's much worse than trying to make a cellular call with low signal. I don't consider this a fault in the phone, but still something worth mentioning.

The speakerphone is decent, but don't expect to be able to make conference calls on it. It might be too quiet for use in the car without some sort of external setup through your car's speakers. For use at home, though I find it gets the job done.

Texting and picture messaging is easy and efficient. It has standard T9 and it's easy to add words to the dictionary if you're like me and use all sorts of slang. :) Emoticons however always have to be inputted using the "Symbol" option.

The camera has some very fun options on it. There's some fun frames, effects and camera modes--way more than i've ever seen on an entry-level phone. Picture quality is on par with what you'd expect from a phone.

I can't say much about the music player except that it is very basic. There is no way to control playback when the phone is closed and there is no 3.5mm jack which means you need to buy proprietary headphones and you can't charge and listen via headphones at the same time. This is not for someone looking for a new mp3 player.

Overall I'm very satisfied with my choice. It's not perfect but it's probably one of the best values out there right now.

I've had this samsung t339 for about 2wks. I've been a tmobile customer for almost 10yrs and have never had issues with dropped calls, also have had samsungs in the past with very little issues. I purchased this new phone on a very popular auction site at a very affordable price (tmobile offering it for extra $100).
although the CNET reviews claim that the volume and call quality was not very good, I've found no issues yet, the callers come across clear, and the speakerphone is loud enough for me to hear.

I've not tried the WiFi feature at home yet but will attempt to set up within next few days. The phone is small ; lightweight and not cheap looking.

PROS:
affordable price
sturdy feeling (the back cover is plastic though, so care should be taken not to break it)
slick appearance
good call quality
good speakerphone
good battery life (no issues yet)
great browser feature to use with internet (tmobile's Tzones-web2go)
great font size on screen when dialing #'s (for the 50 somethings who wear reading glasses)
settings are user friendly on phone
WiFi and bluetooth feature

CONS:
poor camera picture taking feature (1.3 mpixels)
at least I've not figured out how to take clear photos on this phone yet
photo images appear blurry

This phone is for people who use their phone for talking more than anything else.

I have had this phone for over two years and I LOVE it. Still works, even after I dropped it in an elevator shaft. lol It held up and didn't shatter into pieces. THANK GOODNESS!!! :)

If you are looking for a phone that you can talk for longer than a hour before having to recharge it, this is the phone for you. This phone will last 5 hrs of talk time and the battery life is great. If you're looking for a phone to only go on the web then this phone wouldn't work for you.

My main reason for loving this phone is that it works on wifi. Having T-mobile I do not get the best reception everywhere I go but as long as there is wifi I can connect ANYWHERE! I LOVE IT. My phone works where others don't, even if they have another "better" wireless provider.

The one negative I can say about this phone is that after 200 text messages the phone will not allow you to read or send any more text until you DELETE some texts. I send over 1000 text messages a month and it gets annoying after a while but its still a great phone.