Samsung SCH-U520
Average Ratings
Awesome phone
Got the phone the 1st day it came out, Alltel store said i was first to ask for it even before they displayed it. Had to wait forever for phonescoop to add it to Alltel list. Awesome phone! I try them ALL. Great reception, great graphics and sound. Very easy to carry and has lots of features. Finally got me a SD card and loaded some songs, MP3 sounds GOOD. This phone is easy to use fun to carry and i bought the acess kit with Bluetooth(very small and nice) the leather 2 piece case and car charger. The case works very nice. I have had problems finding acces for the phone but i think Samsung will keep upgrading but hey the phone has about everything you need. I recommend it over the 815, all the LG's and definately the razors!! I bought mine outright and paid full price! They are running some sweet deals now for this phone, u better give it a try. O yeah the GPS navagation feature is SWEET!!!! TRY IT- It's Awesome phone!
Best phone ever!
I have had this phone for years and i still love it. I have put this phone through hell and it has never failed me. I have dropped it more times than i can remember and picked it back up to see the everything still worked perfectly. I am so confident in this phone that i have actually thrown it on pavement just to see if something would break on it and nothing did. I bought this phone new in 2006 and just recently had to get a new one because the vibrate function on it stopped working. otherwise, i have had absolutely zero problems with it. this phone is only running around $40 on ebay and i am planning on buying another one soon. The camera is excellent for a camera phone, it has no time limit on the video, good sound quality, excellent reception and excellent battery life. No other phone i have had can even compare to this phone. It is so durable and will last longer than any other phone. I would definitely recommend this phone.
It was ok (not the best)
The tone worked its best in the 1st 2 months....Aftr a while it started freezing,cutting off wen it felt like...it was not the best fone 4 txtn t9 was complicated the keypad wouldnt register wat u typed if u txt 2 fast. u can only send a txt 2 10 ppl at 1 times (most fones limits r 25)...if u tried 2 do 2 things the phone would turn off....the txt messages wud not always send or they will freeze or fail...the memory isnt that great...good speakers.the camera isnt great... the calls start 2 drop...Mp3 great
PROS:
most of the features r great...just not sufficient
Mp3 is great
CONS:
receiving messages- takes a long time
memory- not great
bluetooth enabled- doesnt work most of the time
txt msg- type slow
calls in & outgoing- drops
appearances- fone startsx 2 look brown...
Nothing could be better
Pros: Great reception, camera with flash, music player with access from the exterior of the phone, great bluetooth profiles, beautiful chocolate color
cons: hard to hold on to because its a little slick, average samsung/alltel menu, sometimes embarrassing when you press the play button on the front face in a quiet area.
Couldnt ask for anything more than this. This phone has everything you would want from a clamshell model. you have a nice colorful exterior display with music buttons placed smartly below the exterior screen. the interior is gorgeous with every button accessible by your thumbs. The camera takes wonderful pics and has a flash surrounding the lens (what a bonus). All in all great phone with all in one pkg.
This phone got me excite about cell phones again
I WAS using the Samsung a870, which is not a bad phone, just very basic.
I jusr purchased the u520 about a week ago, and I am loving everything about it!
Pros: Sleek design
Good screen display, both front and inside
MP3 player
comes with external microSD Memory card slot
Also can get the USB cable to manager your mp3's and ringtone and directory
Speakerphone
Works excellently with bluetooth (Motorola)
Well lit keypad
Speakers are pretty good for music
No lag going between menu items, or accessing @metro
Very sleek design
Can get an extended battery and door for it
Lot of accessories to buy and play with :)
Cons:
My biggest con is that the ringer is not very loud.
Also, the T9 texting does not learn, at least not what I have seen so far.
Over all, this is a great phone. I compared it to the Motorola SLVR and it won hands down, It's a great phone for the pice.
Comparison/Review U520 vs V710
I've had the U520 for about a month now. I am very happy with it, but there are some "I wishes".
Some comparisons to the V710:
The U520 has a bit quieter ring volume(I wish it was louder).
The screen is a tad smaller, but very nice clarity. The V710 has one of the nicest cell phone screens I've ever seen, and this one compares well.
Probably my biggest and only gripe about the U520 here is that the text messaging isn't nearly as nice as the V710. There is no auto-learning feature on the U520 as far as I can tell. There is also no auto-complete(on the V710 as you are typing in T9 it shows suggested finishing options in greyed out letters and you can just finish the word by pressing up on the D-Pad). It's kind of frustrating that there isn't an auto-learning function for the dictionary that the U520 uses for T9.
The phone is significantly smaller than the V710, which is very nice.
The camera on the U520 is miles ahead of the V710, especially in low light situations.
There is no external antennae it beats the V710.
With Alltel at least the Access Apps selection isn't as good as other phones. I miss my Lumines!
PROS: Battery life. Signal reception. Small size. Great screen. Great camera for a phone. Voice commands(an external voice command button would be nice though). Nice external screen options. External MP3 buttons. Speaker phone that you can close the phone while using and not hang up on someone. Micro SD expansion. High speed internet capabilities in Alltel areas with Bluetooth modem capabilities as well. Bluetooth conectivity and backup was pretty easy with BitPM. Side volume, speaker phone, and camera buttons.
CONS: Ringer volume/vibrate intensity, T9 should have auto-learning dictionary, Voice clarity isn't the best sometimes.
I have had this phone for a week and it could be better!
I got this phone a week ago from alltel after my third motorola 815 broke in a week. I like it but not really like it! I got a memory card and headphones and i have to say that this phone does really have a great mp3 player, once it loads which takes at least 10 sec. The camera is almost too nice! Hello this is a phone not a professional camera! It has so many options no wonder it takes 5 seconds to load! It is fancier than my digital camera! Anyways the main issue that bugs me on this phone is that you cannont set mp3s as ringtones and the original ringtones suck! They are dumb ones like "tea at 6" or "bossabutgo!"
Pros
mp3 player
camera-really good quality!
size- it is 0.1 mm thicker than the razr and way less boxy and huge! (like when it is in my pocket it does not hit my ......)
memory card slot- always good
extremely loud and strong vibrate! It shakes my whole body when it is in my pocket
perfect size
Cons- camera and mp3 take way to long to open
- seriously wtf no mp3 as ringtone
- i think there is something wrong with the texting because it freezes a lot when sending a message and then i have to take out the battery!
-fingerprint central!!!
I HATE THIS PHONE
I had to return my Motorola E815 and had the option of the Razor or this Samsung U520. I was told the Samsung was a better phone so I took that.
Good things:
1. It is compact and the right shape.
2. Nice MP3 Player
3. Great built in program tools such as currency converter, stop watch, world time, and many other converters.
Cons:
1. Does not allow you to use your loaded MP3s as ringtones
2. Vibrate Alert available only on the loudest setting or on silent.
3. Reception is not the best sometimes (your hand is naturally over the antenna so that may be it)
4. The keypad is smooth and is difficult to dial by touch alone.
5. Awful chocolate color.
6. Didn't come with a holster (at least mine didn't)
7. The menus, contact setup, and texting is not easy to use. Not intuitive like other phones I have used.
8. The keys under the display (some call them "soft keys") cannot be programed for different functions.
9. The main screen menu cannot be customized as they are on Motorola phones.
10. Camera and Video feature take a long time to load and be usable.
Question
I was wondering about the "not being able to set an mp3 file as a ringtone". Is that just with Alltell? Because i want to get this phone with MetroPcs... Someone please answer my question as soon as you can
Seriously let down so far
I've only had this for less than a week, but I believe I'm going to take Alltel up on their 15 day return policy and swap it for something else (but what, I don't know). Maybe I'm not giving it a fair enough shot, but so far I'm less than pleased with many features.
The things that are good, are very good:
PROS:
Camera and Video quality are top notch.
Excellent internal and external screens.
Appears to be built well, feels solid.
Compact, easy to carry, nice finish.
Please keep in mind I've only had the phone a few days, but there's several things that jumped out right away for me, at least:
CONS:
HORRIBLE reception...I'm in SE Michigan, have been with Alltel and the carriers which preceeded them for over 15 years. I've NEVER had a reception problem with their service until this phone. Maybe I simply got a "bad" one, I don't know, but it's driving me nuts so far.
Speaker quality for hearing callers is horrible. People I'm calling say I sound fine, however. Again, maybe I simply got a bad phone.
The T9 problem everyone else talks about. It doesn't learn, it "suggests" letter combinations which make no sense, and doesn't allow you to backspace without clearing everything. It's horrible and makes texting using the Abc method tedious at best.
The navigation button is almost flush, and directly above the "clear" button. Fat fingers like my own and this combo do not mix well.
Complex method of entering in contacts for text messages. My ancient V265 was night and day easier/better to use, and IT's predictive text did just that.
OK, I'm rambled enough. I really wanted to like the phone, based on the positive (but few) reviews here. But based on my experience, though limited, I can't recommended it.
