Samsung T659

About a week and a half ago I finally signed on to a family plan through a major wireless carrier: T-Mobile. Before, I had been using Virgin Mobile, a primarily pay-as-you-go service. I'll say that I frequently found myself frustrated with the Virgin Mobile service and that became one of the main driving factors that led me to switching to a contract with a major wireless provider.

Anyway, this post isn't about Virgin Mobile or T-Mobile for that fact (which I must say, I am so far happy with. Of course, it's only been a week and a half.)
I'm here to talk about the phone I decided to buy with my contract. The Samsung T659. You could read the review from Cnet but I also wish to present my own opinions. I don't claim to be a professional by any means, and have not had a ton of experience with phones, but I'll give my honest opinion as someone who isn't going to pass over things that make my phone perhaps less that I desired.

I wanted a nice looking phone that wouldn't lag behind as I tried to use it... especially while texting. Thus far, the T659 has lived up to that expectation. Beyond that I was looking for decent call quality and decent music quality. I wanted something that wouldn't easily call someone in my pocket (since I find some phones do, even with keyguard.) Oh, and I wanted decent picture quality. I got all of these things in my new phone. I'll elaborate separately on each feature of the phone.

Texting: Texting, like most teens and young adults, is definitely what I use my phone for the most. And as I mentioned, this phone is good for texting. Of course, probably the best thing for texting is a full qwerty keyboard, and the T659 doesn't sport one of those, but the standard keypad that it does have feels good and works fine. I started on phones with just the standard keypad and have become highly adapted to texting using the T9 function, so a qwerty keyboard was highly unnecessary for me. Of note, Cnet mentions that the keypad is slippery. I suppose it is somewhat, but that slipperiness has not yet hindered me once while texting.

Calling: Calling works fine. Voices are clear, though perhaps sometimes a little bit tinny. I've already had a couple of hour long conversations with my (beautiful and charming) girlfriend and didn't ever have a problem while talking to her. I've tried out the speakerphone, tho briefly, and it seems to work about like any other phone on average... not superb... but still usable.

Camera/Camcorder: Just in the past week and a half, I've already used the camera several times. And it does its job well. Pictures look good both on the phone as well as on the computer. I plan to get some of them printed as 3x5's at Walmart or Walgreens to frame, and expect they'll look pretty good. I'll update this when I do so with my reaction. The phone also has a camcorder which viewed again on the phone is clear, both in sound and picture. It's capable of zooming in and out while filming.

Music Player: The music player works great. You can play and sort by track, artist, album, or playlist. You can also navigate away from the player and use other features of the phone, such as texting and continue to have the player play your music. To skip to a new song though, you'll have to return to the music player, though you are able to turn the player off by pressing the end button. As for the quality, when listened to through the speaker, I'd compare it to an Ipod Touch in quality and volume. Though, note, I didn't actually compare them, and I'm only going off of memory from hearing Touches that my friends own. Through the headset that comes with the phone, the quality is also very good.

Web Browser: I don't subscribe to web service, so I can't tell you how this feature on the phone works. I will say though, that if you're planning to use web on your phone frequently, a smart phone would be better for you.

Display: The display is clear and nice. It only becomes hard to see sometimes in bright sunlight.

MicroSD: Using your MicroSD card is simple and easy. When accessing files, I'm able to easily switch back and forth between two tabs. One for the phone and one for the card.

OVERVIEW
The Samsung T659 is so far living up to my expectations extremely well. All the features work well and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs something that does everything a standard phone these days should. It also, at least in my opinion, looks really good.

My only complaints with it is that the screen seems to scratch fairly easily. In the short time I've owned it, it's already gained several small scratches and one larger, slightly deeper (and thus more noticeable) scratch. These scratches make using the phone in bright sunlight even harder. There's a simple solution though: a clear screen protector. Don't make this con your reason for not getting the phone. Just be sure to get yourself a clear screen protector for it as well. My other complaint, which is a minor one, is that I've found it tends to slip out of my pocket when I'm sitting down due to it's slick, sleek nature. This really isn't much of a problem though since I always check the ground/seat when I get up.

That's what I think about my new phone, the Samsung T659. If you have further questions about it, comments of your own about it, or just want to say "hi" please leave a comment. Thanks for reading =)

Me, Just Another Teen

Hi, I'm Sam. Perhaps no one will ever read this blog post. I hope my future ones will be read. They'll be about anything... anything that I, as a teen, am interested in. Hopefully they'll be found informative, entertaining, or interesting. Or all three. Anyway, enjoy what you find. I'm out.