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(More customer reviews)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.
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This flagship quad-band phone from Samsung combines a super-slim slider design with the latest technologies, making it a must-have tool for those who demand the best. Goodies include Bluetooth, support for EDGE high-speed data, a swiveling megapixel camera, a music player, and a microSD memory card slot. The Samsung SGH-t809 is the perfect way to take advantage of all that T-Mobile service has to offer.
Design The t809's sliding design hides the phone's number pad under the display until you need to make a call. The massive, 240 x 320 display supports up to 262,000 colors -- plenty of resolution and color depth for your videos and photos. A five-way center control button is positioned below the display, as are shortcut and selection keys. The phone's 1.3 megapixel camera is housed on the top of the phone and it swivels to face in or out. USB data and charging ports are located on the phone's bottom edge. There's also a connector for a stereo 2.5 mm headset on the left side, while the microSD slot resides on the right.
Calling Features With 70 MB of internal memory, the t809 is designed to hold all the contacts, phone numbers and addresses you can throw at it. A call list remembers your most recent missed, received and dialed calls, and in addition to a vibrating alert, the t809 supports polyphonic ringtones and MP3-based music ringtones. You can also download additional MP3 music ringtones from T-Mobile's t-zones service. A speakerphone lets you talk hands-free while you're doing other things, and picture caller ID lets you assign a photo to specific callers. Similarly, a ringer ID lets you assign ringtones to callers.Like all T-Mobile phones, the t809 also supports voicemail, caller ID, conference calling, call forwarding, call waiting, call hold, built-in paging, and access to T-Mobile's 411 service. Lastly, the phone's Bluetooth connectivity means that your favorite Bluetooth headset is fully compatible.
Messaging, Internet, and Tools The t809 has all the bases covered when it comes to messaging. Support is built in for sending and receiving text, video, graphics and sound via messages. When used in combination with the phone's built-in camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging fun. Messaging clients for AOL, Yahoo!, and ICQ are included.
Getting on the Internet is easy with the t809, too. It supports the GPRS protocol, as well as the new, high speed EDGE data protocol. When used with a T-Mobile data plan and the phone's USB or Bluetooth data capability, the phone can be used as a wireless modem for laptops and PDAs. There's also a built-inbrowser for t-zones downloads and mobile Web browsing. T-Mobile's t-zones service lets you receive and send emails, read news headlines, get weather updates, download games and ringtones, and more. T9 text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit-- a plus for mobile text messaging users.
A number of handy productivity tools are bundled with the t809 including a voice memo recorder, an alarm clock, a calculator with currency converter, a calendar, and a to-do list.
Imaging and Entertainment The t809's built-in 1.3 megapixel camera captures stills and video to the phone's internal memory, or to an optional microSD memory card. The camera captures video at 352 x 288 resolution, and it features white balance and brightness controls. Meanwhile, the phone's powerful still camera sports a self-timer, a multi-shot mode, a night mode, brightness and white balance controls, ISO controls, and spot metering.
Into music? You're in luck with the t809. Store your favorite MP3-based music on the t809 and listen whenever the feeling strikes you on the built-in stereo speakers. Simply upload the songs from your PC via the phone's USB interface (the phone supports USB mass storage mode), then organize and play your songs with the t809's music management software. And when you want to jam out in private you can hook up a stereo headset. Lastly, if you want to dress up the t809, picture effects, custom screensavers, backgrounds, and themes can be set to fit your personality.
Java support is built into the t809, making it a powerful gaming companion. Games are downloadable via the t-zones service or you can use the handset's USB data connection to load more games and files onto the phone.
Vital Statistics The Samsung SGH-t809 weighs 3.35 ounces and measures 3.9 x 2.0 x 0.58 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.3 hours of digital talk time, and up to 130 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.
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