Samsung Samsung SGH-T809

Samsung SGH-T809

Samsung SGH-T809 Review, by Grace Aquino April 19, 2006

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• Reviewed by: MacDaddy07

  Strengths: Great Display(bright and colorful), Mp3 player, Memory card, video player, Very Sleek Design, headset sounds awesome*, great Pics, ease of use!!

  Weaknesses: The Headset!! One feature at a time, poor reception.

  Overall: To start off, THIS PHONE IS THE BEST. When i started searching around for a phone, i wanted something that played mp3's so i didnt have to carry around 2 devices at a time, my cellphone and an iPod. (Being that i don't have an iPod) One major first choice was the Motorola SLVR. it looked great, but unfortunately I had cingular service, and thats never been the best. The T809, was second choice, i finally decided to go with it, and i don't regret it. This was the best bet, its like an iPod and a phone is attached. don't get me wrong, its no where near as fast as the iPod, but mine has a phone. Being that I'm 16, its the coolest thing ever. I always get compliments on how cool it looks. When playing music, it can be a bit sluggish while shuffling through the songs, but thats not a very big problem. I own a mac, and as soon as i plug it in it acts like another hard drive, i drag and drop the music and videos i want to to the phone and it plays flawlessly. I downloaded a program that condenses the file size of the songs and videos. it works great, because i save more space on my memory card. its called iSquint. PC's have a lot more choices for video converters, but this works great for mac. *about the headset, my main use for the phone besides making phone call is listening to music and watching videos. and when I'm on the go or skating, i like to plug in the supplied samsung headphones. now, one major problem with that, is when I'm listening to music through the headphones and all of a sudden i get a call, the ring doesn't go through the headphones, it rings right on the phones speaker. whats up with that. i miss calls because i cant hear them. Whats really wrong with that is, the only headphones i can use for my cool phone, are the supplied samsung ones. it has a weird adapter that plugs into the phone. you cant use a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. or even the 2.5mm common with most phones. One other thing that people were complaing about was the reception, that is true. But being that I'm in Los Angeles, there is a cell phone satelite station within every 5 miles. its great outside, but i can admit its not always the best inside a building. Last thing, you can only do one thing at a time. For example, if your listening to music, you can only listen to music, you cant do two things at once. Playing music and texting at the same time is out of the question. done with all the negative, overall, this phone is Awesome. The Screen is gorgeous, its very easy to use, all the buttons are fairly large being that its a small phone. It uses Micro Sd cards, that are not that expensive. $45 for a 1Gb. Great black design, oohs and ahhs when i slide it up. Put it this way, I paid 100$ Bucks for mine, thats the Cost of a 1Gb Apple Shuffle, I added a 1Gb memory card, that puts it at $150. Thats the Price of 1Gb Nano. Now lets compare: the Nano plays 1 Gb's worth of music and allows you to see pictures for 150$. My Phone Plays 1Gb worth of music or videos, takes pictures and video, plays videos, makes calls and text messages, plays games, internet, and has just as clear of a display, only bigger for $150. Same price and i can do a lot more, this is why i got it. The only down side is i have to pay 40$ a month for the cellular service. But thats for the cell phone part of the phone. This phone is great for anyone who wants a cool looking phone with lots of features for a cheap price. It kicks razor butt. NOTE- I'm not talking trash about apple, because i am a huge a mac fan, i just wanted to make a comparison that everyone can relate to.

• Reviewed by: gypsyjewel

  Strengths: Everything

  Weaknesses: None, I cant find anything wrong with it

  Overall: I Love this phone, a lot going on. Not one problem with it. A+++++++ Everyone that has seen my phone and used it wants to get it, top quality. :)I am very satisfied

• Reviewed by: brucehorner

  Strengths: Comfortable, tactile design; great display; good camera; storage card; bluetooth

  Weaknesses: no reception inside buildings; battery runs down fast; hard to use five way selector/cancel button area

  Overall: The Samsung t809 is a very good looking device. It feels great in my hand, fits unobtrusively into my pocket and the slide action is very solid. The main problem for me is that it does not function as a phone! I work in an office building in midtown New York City and this phone cannot connect to the network. On out the street, it's fine; more than two feet from the window inside it loses the T-mobile network. Whilst the device does have a great screen, with vivid colors and a pretty good camera, those features need to work in addition to being a phone, not instead. So, I ran an experiment. I took my old T-mobile candy-bar phone (Samsung x105) to the same dead-spots that the t809 experienced. I swapped my sim card between them and found that the old phone had between 4 and 6 bars, whilst the t809 had no service. There was nothing wrong with the T-mobile network -- it was the new phone. I had the new phone for three days in which time I was only able to make one call (out in the street) and only had one incoming that did not drop after a second or two. Other people who had tried to reach me said the calls had gone straight to voicemail.That one outgoing call hurt me. T-mobile customer support used it as evidence that the t809 was okay and they would not replace it. So, after three days it has gone back with no replacement (luckily for me I am inside the 14 day return period -- but the return postage was from my pocket). Not only am I unhappy with this high-tech phone's rather low-tech approach to reception, I am also annoyed at the attitude of T-mobile customer service towards a defective unit. Doing research after my final call to them, I found a number of people with similar experience of poor reception.My advice: if you plan to use this phone inside a building, make sure that you test its reception (and not just in the T-mobile store) before you make any long term commitments.

• Reviewed by: tjtaylor

  Strengths: MP3 Player, hot-pluggable miniSD, big color screen, 1.3 megapixel camera, speakerphone, J2ME/MIDP games

  Weaknesses: buggy software, cheap/flimsy feel, uncomfortable, wierd stereo headset

  Overall: I bought this phone as an alternative to the RAZR and ROKR - about the same size & weight. In theory, you can set your own MP3s as ringtones, but T-Mobile locks it out of the phone, so you can only use their tones. The speakerphone and stereo audio output is decent for a cell phone, although a bit tinny. Over the included stereo headset audio quality is excellent. I had to use both earbuds for phone calls, as I couldn't get the sound loud enough to use as a single ear piece. Screen size and resolution is very good and pictures on the 1.3 megapixel camera are decent. Includes a few games: Forgotten Warrior - some wierd super mario-esque game Free Kick - a soccer game (you get to take free kicks at the goal) Arch Angel - a 'afterburner-like' game Tetris (demo) and Block Breaker Delux (demo) Graphics are good, and Java/MIDP games should work on the phone (if you pay T-Mobile for them) I couldn't get the included Samsung PC Studio 3 software to connect to the phone to update contact information, upload MP3s, etc. even though Windows recognized the phone as a USB mass storage device. You are supposed to be able to synchronize the phone with your Microsoft Outlook contacts, but I couldn't get it to work - the phone kept turning off-and-on when connected to the USB cable. I downloaded the latest Samsung software and drivers, but it made no difference in connecting to the phone. The PC Studio software allows you to edit (cut & paste) MP3 audio, edit video clips, and manage your contacts (assuming the synchronization works). It is difficult to open the phone with one hand, and after a 15 minute phone call the handset was uncomfortable. I also found that dialing numbers on the recessed 'slide-down' keypad to be difficult one-handed. Finally, connecting the headset with the proprietary Samsung connector is difficult. I did not try the phone with Bluetooth. Overall, I think the phone looks great, is light weight and relatively small, and has a good feature set. Unfortunately, it is not easy to use and the plastic case and keys give it a cheap feel. Because of the deficiencies, I have decided to return the phone.