Customer Reviews

TMOBILE SAMSUNG T809 SPRUCE PHONE

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I've had Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, and Motorola phones - and each has had features that I found to be incredibly useful. I've heard a lot about Samsung phones in the international community and I was excited when I saw that T-Mobile began offering this phone. I was hoping it would be a combination of all that I ever wanted in a phone - but I was disappointed.

To begin with, this phone looks great. Well-built, sturdy, and with a high-gloss finish that screams class it received many compliments every time I brought it out. The screen is bright and delivers detailed images and video. By far, this is the nicest screen I've seen on any portable product - including the iPod Video. It slides open and closes smoothly, and the keypad it reveals is backlit and easy to see in the dark. As an MP3 player, it delivers crisper sound than I heard from my Nokia 6600. The Bluetooth worked flawlessly and instanly hooked up with my other phones and my laptop. The camera is as good as any other cell phone camera that promises 1.3MP. In short, what this phone promised ... it delivered.

However, I was disappointed mainly because it appeared that the user interface was not as cleverly designed as the physical package. The phonebook only allows three phone entries per name. Looking up names, you can only search by typing the first letters of the last name. For example, suppose you have an entry for "John Smith" - if you use the search feature and type in "Jo" it will NOT list all the Johns. You have to search for "Sm..". Why? Sure you can sort the phone by either the first or last name, but you can only search using one or the other. Not both. My Nokia and Ericsson could do both. Another phonebook problem - suppose you've just called someone's home and now you want to call their cell. You have to start the search over. It doesn't remember your last search.

Headset works fine. But if you have the headset on and the phone rings, you don't hear the ring through the earpiece. The phone rings normally and you activate the call by pressing the button on the headset. That sort of negates the purpose. You can listen to MP3s using the headset, but since the headset uses a proprietary connector, you can't use your "good" headphones. Maybe when the phone becomes more popular, adapters to standard headphones will be made.

The keys under the screen aren't soft - meaning they cannot be reassigned. The left button opens the menu and the right buttom opens the phonebook. My Nokia let me reassign these keys - so, because I use SMS a lot, I could assign one key to open up the message center.

Speaking of keys - the entire keypad is nearly flat. This makes it hard to "feel" for a key (while driving for example). I don't have particularly large fingers, but I found myself making a lot of mistakes.

Another irritating problem - each menu option has a submenu but the submenus have no relation to one another. (This is a hard one to explain). For example, you are going through your list of audio files. You want to delete one. You click "Options" and you get a submenu of seven items. #6 is "Delete". You can scroll down, but it is faster to just type in the number 6 as a shortcut. So far so good. Now, you are going through your text messages. You want to delete one. The submenu shows the delete as #7. You want to delete a phonebook entry, the delete is #4 in the submenu. No consistency makes it very hard to use shortcuts. All my prior phones had a dedicated "Clear" button that can be used anywhere - but if the people at Samsung don't want to "waste" a button, they should've at least made the submenus more consistent.

By the way, everytime you delete something it asks you if you want to delete "All or Selected" - this is an unnecessary step.

You can listen to MP3s, but you can't use them as ringtones unless they are converted to 3gp. This is as easy as changing the extention from .mp3 to .3gp on your computer before uploading the song (via bluetooth or USB). Why the extra step?

Battery life is terrible. As expected, using the MP3/video player causes a serious drain on your power. One thing I found weird - after listening to MP3s on the phone during a 1-hour flight, the phone became quite warm. I'm not sure if this will affect the phone's general life-span.

The beautiful case looks shiny and great - but it smudges really easily. If you aren't using a headset and you have to press this phone to your ear, be prepared for major smudgeness - especially after a long phone call.

Another weird thing - you can only use the supplied charger to charge this phone. Even if you have another Samsung phone, you can't use another phone's charger. All my Nokia phones used the same charger.

I ended up returning the phone on the last day of my 14-day trial period. It just didn't deliver what I needed, and the annoyances were just too much for me. I am still waiting for the perfect phone - one that combines the best features of all the other phones. I want the appearance of this Samsung (I love the way it looks and feels), but I want the features in all the other phones. I also want it to use standard plugs.

I just got this phone a few days ago. It is absolutely amazing. I wasn't planning on getting this phone until I actually saw one in person. I wasn't too impressed with the pictures of this phone on the internet but when I saw one in person, I couldn't close my mouth. I just had to get it.

The LCD screen is very big and bright (you can change the brightness level of course). You'll be amazed by the rotating camera/camcoder feature of this phone. You can zoom in/out in camera mode and it has the best video recording mode out of any cell phone out there. You can download mp3s and set them as your ringtones or play full mp3s. You can even download video clips and watch TV shows. The phone came with a music video and the video quality was exceptional. The phone has 70MB built in memory but it comes with a 32MB transflash card which is one half the size of your fingernail. You can buy a bigger transflash card if you need more storage space. The fact that this phone is quad band means it will work almost anywhere in the world, which is a big plus. The phone is roughly the same size as Motorolla Razr but it is lighter and has superior features not to mention it's a SLIDER PHONE!

However, no phone is perfect.
-I wish the phone had a small hole for cell phone straps or keychain.
-Camera does not have a flash.
-You cannot set MP3's that aren't DRM (Digital Rights Movement) protected as ringtones. You will need to change the MP3 file extention to .3GP to be able to set them as ringtones, which is a little annoying. You can still play all the MP3's on the phone, but only the ones with DRM protection can be set as ringtones (unless you change the file extention to .3GP).

I suggest you go to one of the Tmobile stores and actually see the phone for yourself.

Samsung got this phone right. I have had this phone for about 2 weeks and I can't put this down. By far the best phone I have owned. It is very light weight and packed with features. Voice quality when using bluetooth and speakerphone is excellent. Sound volume while not using bluetooth/speakerphone is sufficient but not very high. Nothing to take away a star though. The most distingishing thing about the phone is a crisp 240x320 screen and awesome multi-media features. Add the removable trans flash memory to this and you have expansion!

Pros:

* Looks great. It's a black beauty.

* Large 240x320 screen. Want to watch videos in fullscreen? Just press 1 while playing a video to go in full landscape mode at 320x240.

* Camcorder quality is great outdoors and even indoors with sufficient light. 1 minute of good quality video (320x240 resolution) translates to about 3MB per minute with sound. Duration is only limited by memory so with 512MB trans flash you can get over two hours of decent video.

* Video player: This is super. Just watch the sample "Ai No Corrida" song that came with the phone and you will agree. I could easily convert other video formats to 3GP using Xilisoft 3GP Converter. Just play with the bitrate and sound settings and you can get a full movie in good resolution with stereo sound on a 512MB trans flash card.

* MP3 player: Sounds great. Phone comes with stereo speakers that are loud enough. Supplied headphones make it sound much better. Just drag and drop songs to your trans flash with the supplied USB cable and arrange into playlists.

* 1.3 Megapixel camera. I could take good quality 1280x1024 images outdoors. Indoor images are okay under good light. Photo feature comes with several frames for various occasions.

* Removable trans flash (MicroSD) memory. I bought 512MB for $35 shipped and it's definitely worth it. You don't need a separate flash thumb drive if you can carry the USB cable around.

Cons:

* No voice activated dialing.

* You have to take extra care of screen. It easily gets exposed to dirt and oils so you had better purchase a leather case or screen. I bought the Samsung t809 case so I can receive and make calls and even charge the phone without taking it off the case.

NOTE: This phone is not for someone who drops it frequently.

Now some TIPS on using the phone:

* Put the phone in silent mode by pressing and holding #.
* Watch video in full screen landscape mode by pressing 1. The toggle feature is cool.
* Use USB setting of "Mass Storage" to drag and drop files on to phone. This option is much faster since it uses full USB capability. Change USB setting to "Modem" to use Samsung PC suite. Don't use this option to copy large files on to the phone. Use Mass Storage instead.
* You can easily set MP3 ringtones by changing the extension of the file to .3GP and then copying to the phone.

Find some tips for t809 power users at http://t809.blogspot.com/2005/12/samsung-t809-faq.html

Having read the other reviews, I notice two points that should be addressed and corrected.

1. The video camera feature of the t809 is outstanding- it is the main reason I went with this model. To begin, it has the highest video resolution available right now on a cell phone (352 x 288)- in fact it has nearly DOUBLE the resolution of Microsoft's SDA handset! In addition, videos are saved in Quicktime's mp4 format, which my experience has shown to be far superior to Windows' wma. With regard to the amount of video you can record, an earlier review suggested that only a few seconds of video could be saved. This is completely incorrect. The phone's built in 70MB memory can store approximately 30 MINUTES of continuous video, at the highest resolution. When you factor in the optional 512 MB transFlash expansion card, you are talking about a couple of HOURS worth of video. If that's not enough storage, then you should probably invest in an actual video camera... As far as the quality of the movies, the images are quite crisp and clear, and the sound is unusually rich, with nice bass tones and distinct highs. All in all, the t809 serves as a perfect solution for, say, recording your favorite band live in bar somewhere. Once you have your footage, simply dump it onto your computer via the included USB cable. Obviously you aren't going to get the same quality as a full-blown digital video camera, but as far as cell phone video capture goes, the t809 can't be beat.

2. A previous reviewer stated that you have to use DRM mp3's downloaded from T-Mobile's website. This is also incorrect. Any MP3 file can be transferred to the phone and used as a ring tone- all you have to do is change the .mp3 extension to .3gp. That's it. No conversion software necessary, no fancy computer skills needed. Just change the extension, then transfer the file via USB. Finally, from the phone's file manager, simply navigate to the file you just transferred and select "set as ringtone," and you are done. Note, however, that in order to avoid wasting memory, it is probably a good idea to just clip 30 seconds of the song you want, because the ringer will only play for half a minute before looping the file anyway.

My only complaint is that the battery life seems to be a bit lower than advertised. Plus, the huge, color screen, which is one of the main selling points, also seems to shorten the time between charges considerably, as does use of the MP3 player. However, I feel that the pros far, far outweigh the cons, and use of extra features always shortens battery life somewhat, so I am sticking with my 5-star assessment of this wonderful little piece of technology.

Samsung has a fairly reliable history as far as the quality and features of their GSM mobile phones go. I used to sell GSM phones B2B for a national GSM carrier, and I sold more Samsungs than anything else, including Motorola. Motorolas people generally bought because of the design or some gadget feature. Samsung was bought because it offers a more reliable phone with better features, and a better price. Samsung has made great strides in its design process in recent years, and with the T-809, Samsung has finally capitalized on their promise to deliver an elegant, quality featured phone, at a good price.

A slider model the size of a RAZR, almost the entire front is giving over to the beautiful color screen. Some too small navigation keys are on the bottom, and the keypad slides out from underneath. Two things about the slider format im not wild about: 1. slide hinge loosens over time, making it more prone to open on its own and 2. the keys are usually too small for a big guy like me. Battery life is better than average, except when playing Mp3s(which drain faster), pictures look great on the screen, and there are more than likely firmware mods that will allow video clip playback from a download file. Reception is average due to an internal wraparound antenna. So if you live in a dense coverage area you should be fine, but rurals areas may have spotty reception.

Features overall(screen, 1.3megapixel camera, bluetooth, Mp3, etc) make this phone a solid value, and as the price is dropping due to TMO's new product line launching in the next couple months, this presents a solid value opportunity for the money. I would recommend going to a TMO store and testing one of their live demo phones, menu functionality is easy for Samsung fans but can be difficult at first for Moto users. Plus you'll get a good sense for how well the phone fits your hand, your dialing fingers, and how it places against your ear. Recommended highly over the Moto PEBL, SLVR, or RAZR, and recommended overall.

I got this phone because it's super-thin, and it's a slider. The form factor and screen are fabulous, as everyone else has noted, and it's great to watch peoples' eyes pop when they see me slide it open.

However, in use I've found a few things that prevent me from really loving the phone. Battery life is average- battery lasts for a few days, which is not great compared to many other phones these days. The organizer has some cool functions, like a timer, calendar, todo list, etc., but their usefulness is limited by the fact that they're buried under 3 levels of menus. There are no customizable menus/shortcuts that I've found either. For some reason, there is no "normal" ring tone included on the phone. I suspect this is part of T-Mobile's scheme to make you download one from T-Zones, which is probably the most annoying thing about this phone. The center button in the directional pad takes you straight to T-zones, and there are several other places in the phone (like the menu after taking a picture) that take you to T-Zones without really making it clear that's what's going to happen. Basically, I never ever want to use T-Zones, because I don't want to pay extra, but the phone is constantly trying to "trick" me into going to T-zones. I just hope I'm not charged anything for the 20-30 times I've inadvertantly started up T-zones.

Also- one real oddity- the phone works with some Samsung software called PC Sync, but for some reason, you can't sync your Outlook with the phone, even though the phone has a calendar, todo list, etc. The button in PC Sync is just mysteriously grayed out.

After owning and enjoying a Nokia 3650 with many of the same features, I decided it was time to retire the giant formfactor of the 3650 and step up to a sleek, sexy little thing. I've had the T809 since the first week it was available in stores (12/05) and I can offer my impressions:

- Looks awesome, turns heads, makes people want it. In this way it's a "Razr-killer."

- The screen is incredible - vivid, bright, and very high-resolution. It's tough to see in direct sunlight - don't get this phone if you spend a lot of time outside - but for nocturnal types or barhoppers it's unbeatable.

- Interfacing with your PC is really easy thanks to the software they provide.

- It has a ton of features for such an easy-to-carry package.

- Did I mention it's easy to carry? And tough, too - I've dropped it on concrete about 8 times from a distance of 4-5 feet and it still works perfectly.

However...

- The text messaging implementation is awful. I don't want to upset myself by going into detail - and it seems some other reviews have mentioned this in more detail - but it's terrible. Basically, the software is incredibly poorly thought out in terms of usability. If you enjoy text messaging, I'd advise that you run from this phone.

- The camera is high-res - 1.3 megapixel - but it's super hard to get a shot that's not blurred in some way. I wish they had put some steadicam technology into the software.

- I have heard the opposite on forums, etc., but in my experience the reception this phone gets is not so hot. That said, I've never dropped a call that started with more than zero bars (when not in a car, etc.).

- The "slide" functionality seems to just emulate the "end" button when closing it during an operation - you can't, for example, do something that requires the keypad and then slide the phone closed before the operation is complete. Sending text messages? Gotta wait until the message is fully sent before sliding the phone closed. It's annoying that they didn't spend more time on how this sliding feature could be more useful or convenient.

- I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't play a lot of my MP3s... I think it had something to do with the encoding - bitrate, or something like that. At this point in the lifecycle of MP3 technology, I don't want to mess with MP3s that work on my computer and iPod in order to get them on my phone... it should "just work." Skip this phone if you want a good MP3 player.

- Getting videos on this thing is almost as hard as getting them onto the PSP. Skip this feature altogether.

- There's no way to get the phone to vibrate and ring at the same time. The only option is to have it vibrate a couple rings, then play your ringtone, which is really inconvenient - I set it down at home, walk into the other room, and once I hear it ring it's too late to get to it in time. Worse, changing the ring type is nowhere near as easy as the one-touch profile swap on my old Nokia - you have to navigate through a ton of ridiculous menus to change the ringing options, which (for me) negates the functionality.

- The volume is not loud enough at its highest setting to compensate for imperfect circumstances (friend using headset, etc.).

Overall I'd say that this phone is crippled by poor execution on the user interface side - too many engineers, not enough designers. It's too bad because fundamentally it seems pretty solid - as a phone, it works well, and it looks sexy as hell. Despite those strengths, every time I use it for text messaging, I want to throw it against the wall.

I got this one three days back and have been trying to figure out the design philosophy. Not got it yet. But I like the phone.

First off, phone performance:

Phone reception is fine - SF Bay area.

Sound quality: Like a normal cell phone. No echoes, boominess or any such thing.

Battery life: 2-3 days per charge with bluetooth on and about an hour of use, rest on standby and fiddling around with the screen at full brightness. I think that is reasonable based on the previous phones I have had.

Usablity as a phone: Depends.

To carry around: I feel this is not one to carry around in a pocket with the screen unprotected. Why? The screen is highly polished and I am concerned it might get scratched easily and then look not so cool. Has not happened in my few days of usage, however.

To receive calls: Its neat. You dont have to open the sucker, just set up any-key answer and you can use it in its closed state. Infact, you can set it up to shut off its screen after 30 seconds, so it looks fascinating to be speaking into this sleek black thing with no lights and mostly no buttons showing.

To make calls: almost as neat. You dont have to open it to access previously called numbers - just hit the green button, up pop the numbers, scroll to the right one and hit the dial button. Nice. Almost the same deal with the phone book. Unfortunately, to dial a number NOT in your phone book, you DO have to get at the numbers, and show the dial pad. Oh well.

Bluetooth setup for headset: Simple. Couple buttons did the trick
for me.

Screen visibility: Phenominal. Best I have seen so far, even when it is dimmed down to 30% brightness when most other phones screens are looking really washed out. You can use it as a part-time flashlight instead of stumbling your way around at night, its that bright. And of course, when it goes into battery saver mode, the screen goes jet black - very cool. Not a wimpy gray or blue. Nice fonts.

Other stuff:

Rings. The one they give is, well, lets just say there is room for improvement. YOu can download others, or hook it up to a computer, throw in some midi files and use those.

Games: Yes, but that is not my criteria when buying a phone.

Washing machine/dishwasher/mouse trap capability: No. Its a phone.

Computer interface: Piece of cake. With a USB connection - you need to install the drivers first, and the documentation sucks - I installed it as a precaution. You can drag and drop files - photos, mp3 and midi tracks to convert to your ring tone (mp3 files suffix needs to be changed, though), probably even word docs and spreadsheets if you must - if you want to use it as a temporary external storage device.

Samsung software: umm, same deal as the supplied ring tone. Room for improvement. Considerable room, actually.

Comments: The Java applets, flashing lights and monkey tricks lose their charm very quickly. Have not yet figured out how to stop the circus. The user manual, well, as my optimistic boss used to say, its a good beginning.

Others have covered other features well enough so I will stop here.

Last word: Very good phone. Overall package - can do better.

I've seen almost all good reviews for this phone, so naturally I went into buying it with a very positive feeling. I've only had this phone for 3 days, but it's a truely amazing phone so far.

My favorite features:
Amazingly bright and clear display
Very impressive 1.3MegaPixel camera
Easy user interface
Great look

Downside:
Sometimes it's hard to slide the phone open if your fingers are a little bit slippery, but there's a little ridge to catch the edge of your finger, so I guess it's not so bad. It definitely takes some getting used to, that's for sure.

Bottom line, this is one awesome phone. I mean, talk about top of the line technology.

Hi. I purchased the phone abt 3-4 weeks ago. I was a previous customer of US Cellular. Their service in our area sucks. I dont know if its good elsewhere. But switching to T-mobile was a whole different experience. A good experience of course. Their reception on my phone at my place is very good. The best part is for $10, this phone is a steal.

May be some of u have complaints abt T-mobile may be b/c the reception might be poor in ur area. But my advice to people who r comparing wireless services, first thing i would say is find out which provider is good overall, u know by value, reception, customer service and stuff like that, by reading reviews and doing some research on some websites that offer wireless services like amazon.com, wirefly.com and letstalk.com. Then second thing to do is to check how good is the reception in the area that u live. Ask some people abt the reception of the service provider u like and choose accordingly. The next place to check for reception would be the places that u visit the most like work, school, college etc. The third thing to do is check the reputation of the service provider that passed the first two test and usually it will be good. A good place would be JD Powers & Associates. According to which T-mobile is one of the best companies. The next thing would be selection of phones and other options such as wireless internet features, which might not be a big deal for a few. But for phones, u always have an option to buy it unlocked online. Of course if u have the money and r willing to spend it. Otherwise usually service providers have pretty good selection of phones, plus u get a discount if u r a new customer. And there r always new ones coming out. The next thing to do is "GO FOR IT". Although u might have to give up a thing or two which shouldnt matter much. One most important thing is u have to have good credit in order to buy service or u will have to make a deposit. I myself have lived here in US for abt a couple years, so i dont have enough credit. But what u can do is buy it under someone else's name who has good credit. And DONT FORGET TO PAY BILLS ON TIME, or else u might end up messing that following persons credit. That's all i can think of right now abt choosing service providers.

One more thing i would like to say is, Dont believe in every review u read. Some people have lower experience and understanding than others. Some may be lying or joking just for fun or benefit. RESEARCH on everything u buy. Read reviews, comparisons and toppers lists. Use the resources u have to the full. A few good places to look for would be amazon.com reviews, cnet.com, newegg.com reviews, for pc related stuff, anandtech.com, tomshardware.com, xbitlabs.com, theinquirer.net. Do a search or two on yahoo or google, and search for reviews abt the specific product or its category on blogs or FORUMS.

Now going back to the phone. I absolutely love it. From color to style to finish, everything is great. Some of u may opt for razrs but everybody has a razr and its inferior to samsung, in a few areas which i will explain later. Go for something new, better and different than what others have.
Here r my pros and cons for the phone.
Pros:
1. The ability to get or catch reception is good. Now i cant say that without comparing to something else. But i did compare it with razr which one of my friends own and its the same. And i havent come across a complaint for razr reception from him or anyone else, so they r both good in that area.
2. The phone has plenty of storage. It comes with i believe 64-70 Mb of memory which is a lot for pictures, games and ringtones. Compare that to 5 Mb for so far released models of razr.
3. The phone has 1.3 MP camera which takes great pictures and short video clips. Comparing the picture quality of samsung and motorola razr, the samsung is by far the best. There was a picture that my friend send via bluetooth which he took on his phone and he saw it on my phine and he was absolutely amazed by the picture quality of my samsung. I remember his exact words were, "Damn, your phone is bad*?s". And 1.3 MP is standard on phones. If u want more, buy a camera or wait for some time for phones with better cameras.
4. Abt Mp3 ringtones and mp3 player on phone. The phone has a good mp3 player with equalizer and visualizations. The sound quality is not as good as ipod or zen, but its decent for a phone. The stereo speakers are not bad but again not great either. A lot of people have been struggling to set mp3s as ringtones. I will write detailed explaination on how to set mp3s as ringtones at the end.
5. The phone has a micro SD slot which can store and additional up to 1 Gb of data. The phone initially comes with 32Mb one, but for me that wasnt enough, so i bought one with 512 Mb from amazon.com. Make sure if u buy one, get the right one. The card also comes with an adapter which allows it to be used on memory card readers for pcs.
6. The interface and menu is good too. The navigation as it turns out is an issue for some, even for me it was. But after like a week or two i got used to it and now i think thats not an issue anymore. Although i dont have big fingers, thumbs or long nails, so i cant really say abt anyone else's perspective. But if u try u will probably get used to it.
7. The software that comes with it is very good too. Now again it also depends on the users level of experience and understanding. I could sit and complain all day if I dont really know how to use it. I havent used all the features of it yet but transferring, viewing, managing data, synchronizing they r all great. Make sure to set the USB Setting on the settings menu on the phone to MODEM mode. The phone even charges itself via USB. I dont know if its as good as the wall charger. It also allows u to edit mp3s. Manage phone book and sync data.
8. It also comes with additional features such as world time and unit conversion. The unit conversion can be useful for people like me who go to college. But its not easy to access. U have to go to the menu then to apps, then to organizer. So i prefer manual calculations.
There might be few other pros too but for now thats all i can think of.

Cons:
1. The battery life which specifications say 4.3 hours of talk time is pretty good but in reality its almost always less than that, not only for phones but for many other electronic devices. Comparing that to razr, its less than that of razr which boasts 6.67 hrs on current models. But for me i dont chat all day on the phone "like girls", no offense but u know its true, so its not really a con for me but i might be for most of u reading this.
2. While charging the phone while its on, it does charge but theres no indicator if the phone has finished charging or not. But when u turn it off and then charge, it does indicate if its done charging. By the way it has cool animation for "charging" and "charge complete" when its off. Now again this is not a con for me b/c i usually charge for required time, mostly at nights so by the time i wake up its done charging. Also most people do that so no "charge complete" indication when the phone is ON should not be an issue for most of u.
Thats all the cons i can think of. Although i havent gotten a chance to use all the feature so there might be more pros or cons. And also some of my pros could be cons for a few, but its just an opinion.

And for the people complaining abt soft keys, large size, dust under screen, hard to open and bluetooth, i would say for soft keys, u cant always have things the way u like it. Give it some time, u should get used to it. May be some phone offer features to change the keys but i found it standard and convinient. Abt large size, the phone is lighter and as big as razr when closed. But still, if u want it smaller, the small keys if there were any on a smaller phone would be a con for a few. For dust under screen, it hasnt happened to me yet. Although i have an invisible shield but i dont know if that will help or not. I got it b/c with screen being exposed on the outside i thought it might be vulnerable to scratches when in my pocket with keys and stuff. Which didnt happen either before i bought it. For hard to open, i think it might be tough in the beginning, for people used to flip phones to get used to it. But again give it some time. For bluetooth, it works fine for me, but i only used it for phone to phone transfers and stuff. I dont know how it would work for bluetooth earpiece. There was also a complain abt phone getting warm after some time use. Yes its true. But hey most electronics do, including ipods. Looking at the bright side, it would help keep the hands warm in winter (esp. in Chicago, where i live).

Now for the fun part.
ABT USING MP3s AS RINGTONES
1. Select a mp3 u want to use as ringtone.
2. Make sure the phone is connected and if its not detected set it on "MODEM" under USB setting on the phone.
3. To set the format as ".3gp" perform the following steps:
Go to "CONTROL PANEL" under "START" menu on windows based pcs. On "CONTROL PANEL" open "FOLDER OPTIONS". In the new window that opens up, there are 4 tabs to the top left of the window. Amongst the tabs click on "VIEW". Now in view u should see a bunch of check boxes and selections. Uncheck the 8th "CHECK BOX" which says "Hide Extensions for known file types". So it should look like an empty box.
Now go to the folder where u have the mp3 file. U should see the name and extension of the file as for example "Check on it.mp3". Right click on the mp3 song and click on rename. Change the last part from ".mp3" to ".3gp". Then click anywhere outside on the folder or desktop. So now after changing extension the example file should look like "Check on it.3gp".
Now u r done changing the extension but thats not it. The transfering part comes now.
Now the ".3gp" extension will not allow the transfer to the "MUSIC" or "SOUNDS" folder so perform the next few steps:
4. Assuming the phone is connected to the pc and the phone has any micro SD card inside. Go to the phone and change the "USB SETTINGS" under "PHONE OPTIONS" under "SETTINGS" under "MENU" to "MASS STORAGE". I should have gone in the other order.
This allows the phone to be used as an external storage device. Now go to "My Computer", whose shortcut should be on the desktop on the pc. There u should see an additional drive which says "REMOVABLE DISK :?". The "?" is the drive letter. If u have more than one it should be the last one or click on all untill u see 5 folders with names "IMAGES", "MUSIC", "OTHER FILES", "SOUNDS" and "VIDEOS".
5. Now copy the ".3gp" file from ur folder to the "REMOVABLE DISK" in the "OTHER FILES" folder.
6. Now after done copying the file, change the "USB SETTING" on the phone back to "MODEM".
7. Go to the phone, go to "FUN & APPS" under the "MENU". Then go to "FILE MANAGER", then to "MEMORY CARD, then navigate down to "OTHER FILES" folder and click on the file. U should see your ".3gp" file there. Select the file, click on "OPTIONS", and then "SET AS--> RINGTONE". AND U R DONE.
8. If it bothers u abt the extension on every file, check the "Hide extensions for known filetypes" in folder options in control panel. Then click apply and ok.
9. Repeat for every transfer. U can transfer more than one at a time.

THE PHONE ONLY PLAYS THE INITIAL 30 SECS OF THE SONG AND THEN IT LOOPS, SO U SHOULD EITHER LIKE THE BEGINNING OF THE SONG OR U SHOULD KNOW HOW TO EDIT IT VIA THE SOFTWARE SUPPLIED OR ANY OTHER LIKE "NERO WAVE EDITOR", "SONY ACID PRO", OR ANY SUCH SOFTWARE. EDITING IS NOT TOUGH AT ALL JUST EXPERIMENT AND GIVE IT A TRY. U WILL LEARN IN NO TIME.

For all the people who made it till this point from the beginning, i hope this helps. I didnt go much in detail. I just wrote some general stuff, what an average user might expect.

The phone and the service have been great so far.