5 User review

1. Holland Green says:

   August 8, 2010 at 3:08 am

   The Samsung Intensity is a pretty good phone.

   Features: Although this phone is not a smart phone, it has all the basic features you would expect out of a phone. This phone is able to play Music over bluetooth if you have a device that supports this. I use this feature on my Volk-L system in my car. The bluetooth stereo support isn’t always the clearest sound though (although this may be just my radio that is the problem). Also I use Zune, and it is nice that I can just copy and paste my music to my phone (using the included USB charger/data cable). The phone has “Word” or I think it is called “T9″ for quick txts. Which if you are used to that form of txting, it very well could be quicker than using the keyboard. The keyboard is nice (it feels nice in your hand), but the keys are not very intuitive (meaning, the keys don’t always feel like they are in the places they should be). I would imagine (like anything) after getting used to the keyboard it won’t be so bothersome. I would give it 5/5 on features (with the expectation that whoever is buying this is NOT expecting a smart phone).

   Battery life: I would only say that the battery is 3/5 stars. It surely isn’t the worst battery I have ever used, but if you are actively using the phone for txting (which is likely since it is a txting phone) the battery drains relatively fast. It will probably only last you till the end of the day with constant use (and that might be stretching it). If you leave the phone alone in your pocket the battery may last for a day and a half, but it would still be smart to charge it every time you go to bed (cause the phones buttons do get pressed in your pocket, and it will cause the screen to light up, draining battery life).

   Call Sound: For call sound I would rate this phone 3.5/5. The call sound is decent enough. I can hear what the people are saying, but sometimes it is not very clear. It does get crackly at times, and sometimes it can seem quiet. It definitely isn’t as good as my LG Accolades sound was. But despite the not as good quality it is still bearable. I would just give the phone a “C” rating on sound. Also I’m not sure if it has speakerphone on it, but if it does it isn’t as intuitive to find this option (meaning, it isn’t an easy option to find).

   “Make up” quality: The phone appears to be very sturdy. Although I haven’t dropped the phone yet, it feels as though it wouldn’t break on the first few drops. Also since it was an almost free phone it wouldn’t be too much of an issue if it did break. I give the “Make up” quality a 5/5.

   Design: The phone design has its goods and bads. First impression of the phone is that it is very stylish. It is truely a nice looking phone. After examining a few things about the phone you immediately notice that the phone looks REALLY slippery and easy to drop. So a suggestion would be to search on here (Amazon) and get a new rubberized backing for the phone if you are concerned about dropping it (I’m not… But you may?). The next thing you notice after how slippery the phone is, the keyboard. The keyboard although it has a nice feel, just doesn’t seem intuitive enough. The last thing you might notice, is that when reviewing the phone you realized that they said it had a micro SD card slot. And now you are starting to wonder “Where the heck is that slot?”. Well at that moment you try and open the battery backing (which is a pain in the butt if you don’t have long finger nails), and then you see it directly under the cover. Now you ask yourself the question…. “Why wouldn’t they make a slot in the backing for the SD card? It’s almost as if they forgot to or something?” It is in a perfectly easy place to do this, but they just decided not to? Oh well. Overall for a design I would give it a 3.75/5, a C plus (can I do that?). It has a nice sleek design, but it could be made less slippery, the keyboard layout could be better, and an SD card slot access (without having to remove the backing) would be nice. Other than those flaws, I really like the design.

   Call Reception: Call reception seems to be 5/5. Everywhere I’ve been has had good reception. I have even taken it up in the middle of the woods and have had reception (which is speaking highly of a phone that doesn’t have an antenna in my opinion).

   Overall Rating: 25.25/30 or 84% or B. I think the phone is a generally good phone. It isn’t the best phone in the world, but most certainly not the worst. If you are looking for a decent phone (that doesn’t require the new data package plan) this would be a good choice.

   Hope this helped you guys out.
   Rating:
2. Dan Steely says:

   August 8, 2010 at 5:22 am

   Pros:
   
   - Simple design
   
   - Compatible w/ Verizon network
   
   (in the US many people think that’s important)
   
   - Cost me nothing to get 4 of these
   
   (ordered on line from Verizon on a 2yr contract)
   
   - Music player handles AAC files
   
   - Music player displays album art
   
   (w/ proper skin selected)
   
   - Battery charges over USB cable
   
   - Keypad lock
   
   (a must if you plan to carry your phone in your pants pocket)
   
   - Slide out QWERTY, good for text messaging

   Cons:
   
   - No way to sync calendar to PC
   
   - Can’t transfer notes (text) files to PC
   
   - As w/ most phones, difficult to see the screen outdoors in sunlight
   
   - Custom mp3/aac ringtones only by way of picture message – not USB or SD card
   
   - Music player is very slow to load library
   
   - Bad placement of left/right select buttons
   
   - microSD card access is not convenient – behind battery cover
   
   - No video capability

   I was due for an upgrade and this Samsung handset seemed like the best option for a Verizon phone w/ a music player that did not require a data plan ($10/month per line or higher.) It was already going to cost me another $10/month to add a line for my son and $30/month for the texting package. And I couldn’t justify spending more for the data since I would not use it enough.

   This handset makes for a decent phone for voice calls and is good for texting. It also feels pretty good in my hands.

   Having the keypad lock is something I appreciate. My old phone didn’t have this feature so I had to always carry the phone on my belt. With the phone in my pocket buttons would get pressed, the screen would come on at full brightness and run down the battery. With this phone the buttons still activate the screen in locked mode, but the screen doesn’t come on full brightness. I’d have preferred that the keypad be completely locked – so to me this feature needs improvement. But it is a step up from my old phone.

   The music player handles AAC (nice plus) – but it is slow to load the music and is picky about id3 tags!! I had to use a program called Mp3tag to make the tags ISO format. With the right skin selected it will display the album art (a minor perk.)

   The placement of the left/right select buttons on the regular keypad (i.e. Messages/Contacts select on the main menu) makes it quite difficult to push left/right select w/o pushing send or end respectively. Not a major problem most of the time, but it can be annoying – for this and the slow music player I’m subtracting half star.

   I’ve struggled with getting custom ringtones on to this phone. It seems you can only transfer AMR and MIDI by way of the SD card. The AMR quality is dreadful and for some odd reason the volume drops to an inaudible level when the files are loaded to the phone memory. I’ve only been able to get custom mp3 or aac ringtones onto the phone by emailing them using picture messaging. This is a minor issue for me since with the texting plan I don’t have to pay for each picture message – but for this fact and the fact that the SD card is behind the battery cover I’m taking off half star.

   I have found no way to sync the calendar to my PC. That’s a bigger issue for me. Subtract one star. Having the QWERTY makes it easy to capture notes on the go (in the grocery store, sitting down to lunch, waiting in lines, etc). But there is no way to transfer the note files off of the phone.

   I have been able to get my contacts onto the phone by exporting to vCard and then depositing them into the my_contacts directory on the SD card. Then I had to transfer from the card to the phone memory through the menus. This was a painful multi-step process that should be much easier, but since it’s not something I need to do very often I am not taking any thing off for this.

   I don’t need a smart phone – don’t care about apps, games and surfing the web on my phone. But I would like to be able to easily sync my calendar and backup my contacts on my PC. And so far the only tool I’ve been able to find is the program Datapilot (there’s a listing here on Amazon but as of 5/31/2010 Amazon is out of stock.) [[ASIN:9984958116]] The Amazon listing/description is specifically for the Samsung Intensity and it says quote :
   
   >>> “Used to safely access and/or sync your Phonebook, Pictures, Ringtones, MP3,
   
   >>> Calendar, Images, Video, and more to your PC or Mac. (Features may vary from
   
   >>> phone to phone).”
   
   But if you check Datapilot’s website for the u450 it says:
   
   >>> ONLY SUPPORTS ADDRESS BOOK AND IMAGES. < <<

   Most others probably won’t care about this last bit, but I had bought a LG Stereo Earbud Headset for LG VX9800 from Amazon for my old LG VX8350. The LG headset adapter works with this Samsung phone – that was a pleasant surprise. I mention it because I had issues using a Samsung headset with the LG. The plug was not compatible.

   Because Verizon doesn’t really offer a better option for me now, I’m seriously considering switching back to my old LG VX8350 clamshell. With that phone I could sync calendar, contacts and mp3 ringtones from my PC w/ bitpim, it had a satisfactory music player, I could even do video (which comes in handy now and then) and it just did what I needed it to do. I mainly use my handset as a phone. The small amount of texting that I do is easily done with a regular keypad (I only got the texting plan for my kids) so most of the advantages of this phone are lost on me. But if texting is what really floats your boat, and you don’t care about the calendar sync you might want to give the Intensity a try.
   Rating:
3. Vinae Reeves says:

   August 8, 2010 at 6:53 am

   This sure is a great phone. It has so many wonderful features. It came with a bluetooth and a corded earphone. It also came with a belt clip holder, and chargers for both the phone and the bluetooth.. This is such a great deal. I got it through verizon at Costco. It can do so many functions including texting, photos, email, ect. I would recommend this phone to anyone.
   Rating:
4. Mary Jo Weiss says:

   August 8, 2010 at 9:25 am

   I love this phone. I had the LG enV touch and absolutly hated it, i had to replace it twice before i decided to switch to this phone. On my old phone it unlocked really easialy unlocked and called people on its own (the touch screen also had ceased)and this one doesnt have any of those problems. I love everything about it, the way it’s so simple yet up to date technology wise is amazing. the only bad thing about this phone that if it’s locked and you get a text message, it unlocks for awhile, which could result in butt-dialing. But other than that its Amazing!
   Rating:
5. Kevin A. Landry says:

   August 8, 2010 at 10:40 am

   Samsung Intensity Overview:

   The Good: Very good keyboard a great simple feature phone.

   The Bad: Feels really small in my hands, only a 1.3 mega pixel camera, no video capabilities, lacks flash in the camera, not a good speaker for taking sounds.

   As you can see from above there is more bad than good, but remember this is based on my opinion and I am an avid SMARTPHONE user so I am not used to having such simple phones and smaller phones like this. So when you are reading this just please keep that in mind.

   The Samsung intensity is a slide out QWERTY keyboard phone. The intensity supports voice commands and also another cool feature I found out on this phone after a few days of using is that while you are on a phone call if you slide the keyboard up you enter speakerphone. Pretty slick if you ask me. Something else that came in handy more than once is the dedicated Camera key on the right side of the phone. It is an efficient way of getting to the camera. But that is pretty much only the good thing that I have to say about the camera. Otherwise there is no flash and only…what did I read that right? 1.3 mega pixels? WE ARE IN 2010 PEOPLE COME ON!!!!!!! And another problem there is with it is that the Intensity does NOT support video. But there is a good thing, there Is a self timer which can be for three seconds, five seconds or ten seconds.

   The Screen size on this device is 2.1 inches, good for a sliding phone but just cannot compare to something like the HTC HD2.
   
   And also if you want to get Insurance on this phone incase that it gets stolen or you lose it or maybe you drop it off the Empire state building…I really don’t know but for whatever reason you will not have to worry about this device breaking on you and if it does then it is only $40 to replace it. This device ways in at 3.53 ounces with a standard battery. Like I said, a pretty small phone. Also a good capability that I found out about when I unboxed it was that you have In Case Of Emergency contacts so if you are a kid owning this phone if you wanted to put your legal guardian in your contacts to get to quickly in the case of an emergency, you can.
   
   One other thing about the contacts is that you can enter up to one thousand contacts. Who would need that many, I don’t know. There is speed dialing so if you want to set 3 as your speed dial to call your husband you can. It is a fast way to get a hold of somebody. AND there is airplane mode so if you are flying in a plane you can use your cell.

   There is a lot of useful tools that I use on a day-to-day basis which include:
   
   Stop Watch, Notepad, calculator, which can be used to a regular one a tip calculator or a converter, USB Mass Storage, World Clock, And an alarm clock which o used quite frequently.

   Stand by time is three hundred hours with a standard battery. Pretty Decent.

   And if you want to listen to some tunes while you are on the go, not to worry you have V Cast music with Rhapsody if you would like to pay for the service. You Can record sounds but the speaker really ain’t the greatest in the world. There IS embedded ringtones.

   Texting is a best on this thing. You can send your voice messages or regular texts and even do MMS. All with threaded messaging feature. When I was typing on this bad boy my thumbs were going faster than my eyes could keep up with!

   Conclusion: If you are looking for a simple phone with a great keyboard–Purchase this. But please do NOT buy if you are looking for good photography on your cell phone or a good web experience. I would have to say the Bad outweighs the good. Also one other think I found out I didn’t like to much was the big button in the middle. I think they could have done better on the phone, but hey it is getting up there in age.
   
   Rating: