 "Samsung's aren't the best phones in the world, but..." | 2009-10-12 |
| - Reviewed By cycadese |
The last Samsung I had was a slider and I ended up selling it on ebay because the ear piece got hot when you talked on it, no one could hear a word you said, and the phone just seemed low quality. Fast forward two years and I HAD to get a Samsung because this is the only phone, other than the iPhone, on ATT that was easy to use with the virtual or slide out keyboard. The first thing I did was buy a screen protector and a case for it; these are a must otherwise the phone is very fragile. With the screen protector, you don't have to worry about scratching the screen and with the case, when you drop it, it is the case that absorbs the majority of the damage.
Now, for the phone's functionality:
1. The battery life is HORRIBLE. If you talk on the phone for more than an hour or use the internet, you have to make sure you recharge it. I am always charging the phone which is ANNOYING.
2. Most of the time people can't really hear you. You have to put people on speaker for them to hear you otherwise you are constantly hear "what, I can't hear you?"
3. The touch screen sometimes doesn't work when you try to turn it to the side. You have to tap it twice to get it to turn to the side and then it still doesn't work sometime.
4. It looks awesome and is an awesome phone.
5. I, however, plan to exchange it when MOTOROLA starts offerring a similar phone for ATT. Motorola phones can be dropped and they stay charged for at least a week and people can hear you. Samsung just can't seem to perfect functionality, although, the looks are always on point. |
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 "Samsung Eternity: AT&T and Samsung's Missed Opportunity" | 2009-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A6AOG2NNZVCLB |
A number of reviews online have called the Samsung Eternity the poor man's iPhone. If that were true, that man must have a lot of time on his hands to deal with the phone's shortcomings.
Where to begin.
Apps:
Or better yet...What apps? If Samsung wants to take a page from the playbook of PC sellers, i.e., load the Eternity with useless demoware, sure there are apps.
The apps that are arguably useful have idiotic usability issues:
- Task - a 15 character limit for my task title? Really?
- Alarm - I cannot wake up to whatever music I want but need to deal with a 300kb alarm file limit?
- calculator - the upper left key is grey? They could not find a function to stick there? How about 1/x?
- text file reader - really awkward four direction navigation. Plus if my document is anything more than a page long, I cannot quickly navigate to the beginning of the document.
When the only pain free app right out of the box is "Tumbling Dice", your product should not have gone past beta.
The need for a data plan:
A lot of the apps are fine if you have a data plan but if you do not have a data plan, Samsung and AT&T makes your phone a minefield. Since a lot of the apps are locked (i.e., cannot be deleted), and the main menu cannot be configured, you risk accidentally clicking on one of the apps every time you use the phone. How do you like seeing that you used some miniscule amount of data accidentally each month and received an annoying $1-2 data charge on your monthly bill?
More configuration issues:
A visit to samsung-eternity.com indicates a foment of unrest amongst developers. Yes you can install your own apps but you have to use a combination of PC Suite, tkfe and a data cable (not included). Why couldn't Samsung have allowed for bluetooth application upload? Why!?
Things that downright suck:
- Hand writing recognition. They couldn't license Graffiti from Palm?
- No wifi. With no wifi, the Samsung Eternity compares unfavorably to even the iPod Touch. If Apple ever approves Google Voice for its App Store, the Samsung Eternity would be next to useless.
- a GPS that is not free but requires data plan subscription. Couldn't Samsung have included something fun and free like a pedometer or a mileage tracker?
Looking over the review, I realize three things:
- Steve Jobs had it right to INSIST on a data plan with the iPhone. Not only does Apple make tons of money through its share of the data plan fees, it also gets to guarantee that the iPhone can be configured independently of a computer.
- Samsung should have added wifi to this phone. That alone would have made a lot of the issues above worth tolerating, if only because so few phones actually have wifi.
- the folks buzzing around samsung-eternity.com have spent a lot of time looking for ways to work around the above problems through hidden key sequences, yet a lot of the part time Eternity hackers would have spent their time doing something else if Samsung and AT&T had bothered to make the Eternity more usable before releasing it. Is there any better proof of a missed opportunity than a site dedicated to working around your cell phone's shortcomings? |
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| "Only one little snag." | 2009-10-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A15LWKZ4FRF3AD |
| This is my first touch screen phone, and I was impressed with design and fuctionality. I did not have a problem with calibrating to my large fingers. The only snag for me was is that the phone has a problem with the signal between my bluetooth and phone. I could be one foot away or thirty feet away and no different. Of course this is a huge problem when you are in a state that is hammering down on people using cell phones while driving. I liked this phone a lot. I wished I could have gotten another Eternity, but Amazon is out of stock and I had to exchange it for a Samsung Soltice. Hope this new phone works as well as the latter and has no problem with bluetooth signal. |
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 "I can always trust the Samsung products" | 2009-09-22 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1QAK2H2I2N50U |
| I can always trust the Samsung products. Full of features, signal and call quality is great. |
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| "compatibility with Macintosh computers" | 2009-09-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2GVQNHX8SFNFO |
| Have had this phone only 3 weeks and was beginning to get to know it when the screen locked after 3 seconds. When I attempted to make calls, I received the message "Emergency Calls Only". When I dialed the phone from a land line the cell phone went directly to my voice mail, although the phone was on and not in use. After spending 1 hour with the AT&T SUPPORT help, another hour with Amazon wireless, and 1/2 hour with Samsung, I learned that the phone was probably defective. I had purchased several accessories for this phone, including a cable to connect to my computer. When I tried to connect to download all the pictures I had taken on a recent trip, I learned from Samsung that none of their phones are compatible with Macintosh computers!! No one told me this when I did the research for this phone, either on Amazon, CNET, or the Samsung website. Mac users beware! |
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