Samsung SPH-N400
Average Ratings
Worst Phone
This is by far the worst phone I had ever owned. It was my first Sprint phone. It would drop calls all the time, web browsing was a pain and then one day it stated "Looking for service" and never left that screen.
Excellent for its age
This phone is by far one of the best phones I have ever owned, (compared to a Sont T200, Audiovoz 8910 Nokia 2275 3560, Treo 600(borderlined with best) and Motorola star tac 3000) Its a solid phone for its design, and really cleaverly designed. It feels great in my hand.. mind you i have larger hands (the phone being larger than most). The screen is large and clear, the buttons have that perfect blue glow, and are easy to reach, and teh controls neatly tuck away. It has crisp clear sound(but i do lose connection occasionally. and I can't forget to mention teh ringtones. I uploaded truetones(bell mobility canada) and was able to hear the singers voices clearly, an amazing feat considering the phone came before mp3/truetone features.
Pros:
Large and clear screen/buttons
Menu system is excellent (bell mobility)
Reception is excellent
Voice ringtones.truetones/amazingly clear polytones
Battery life- after 2.5 years battery strong
Samsung quality
UNIQUE flip design
audio quality is excellent
Cons:
antenna is a little bit long
inside screen scratches like bar phone
limited accesories
phone does start to act sluggish at times
built in ringtones suck, have to download
no games on bell mobility version
text messages take a while to recieve
In the end, this phone is in my opinion one of the best phone si have ever used, samsung has been top of the market for a long while and this oldie is no exception, still a contender for a decent phone even by todays standards(clear ringtunes(mp3 uploaded) it is a lil larger than todays phones, but remember smaller isnt always better.
Great for its time
I owned this one for 2 years, In that time, this phone survived countless throws, drops and other forms of abuse, the screen remained as brilliant as ever and the signal was great throughout Texas. The only gripe I had was that the text messaging feature that required Internet access. I broke the flip top about a year in, and the speaker phone sounded great. The fact that you could attach a camera was great. Alas technology progressed making the memory small and text messaging that much more of a chore. Overall, this was one of the best phones I have ever owned.
Winner of the Most Headaches Given Award
I have had this phone for about two years now. No wait, i have had three of these phones over the past two years. Tomorrow I am leaving this phone and Sprint service behind and I couldn't be happier.
First of all:
CONS:
There are major electronic issues with this phone. Like i mentioned, i have gone thorugh three of these phones in two years. The screen keeps dying. For no reason. I get a gray screen BUT the phone still functions. At the Sprint Tech Support, I waited two hours on a line of equally angry customers. After a heated argument (and ME fixing their computer moniter for them), they agreed to replace the phone for free.
This phone also has a mind of its own. The key guard randomly shuts off. You cannot make calls if the windows are shut. Sometimes, with full service, It wont ring! It will ring for the caller and go straight to voice mail. Then about an hour or two later, you get the voice mail. Nice.
For text messaging, you have to sign onto the internet. It is in no way connected to your phone book, so you have to re-enter phone numbers and names.
Pros:
Ill admitt it's pretty. The games look cute, the screen is nice and big. BUt honestly, all i was looking for was a phone i could talk on with a tiny bit extra. I just wanted to make phone calls from my room (in new york city, where there are multiple towers) without opening the windows. I want to GET my calls. This phone.... jsut doesnt cut it.
Rating of TWO for the pretty.
An OK Phone...
Before this phone was stolen from me, I did enjoy it. However, my brothers have the same phone and between mine and theirs, mine seemed to function better. Their phone often had problems with the phone not turning on, and text message notifications were days late! Mine did not have any problems. I had a fairly good experience with my N400:
PRO'S:
+ Unique design
+ Bright color screen
+ Speakerphone
+ Pretty good signals/reception
+ Good sound quality
+ Long battery life!
+ Easy navigation
CON's:
+ Sometimes has trouble functioning
+ I did not enjoy the ringtones they had
+ No text messaging
+ Wireless web was too slow
+ I did not like the dark gray color of the phone.
As you can see, most of the CON's were more opinion-based than anything else. I honestly did not have very many problems with my N400 as other people have said with theirs. I would say, though, that with the experience my brothers had, I would not recommend buying this phone.
Good Phone
i have had the n400 for about 2 years now and have had no problems with this phone, sprint has discontinued making this phone but i will keep it till it says no more, the screen is wide and easy to read, speakerphone is clear, battery life is about the only thing wrong with it but it last me almost the whole day, but i have the car and home charger so it will never go dead now
Low quality phone...
The N400 has looks, but that's about it. It does a poor job of getting service (will sometimes switch from 1 bar of service to roaming, not even going to 0-bars in between). Also, it will "crash" one out of four outgoing call attempts. "Crash" means that it will show the making call screen, but never start ringing, and after you wait for 2 minutes or you hit end, it loses service. The fastest way to fix this is to remove and re-insert the battery, and restart. It's VERY annoying...
Additionally, it will turn key-guard off by itself (rarely, but it happens), and the web browser is very low quality. The space included is also limited...
Worst part is that my friends can call me, and I will not recieve their call, when I have full signal, and the phone is on ring. They will hear ringing, and eventually go to my voicemail, but I won't even get a missed call. Sometime later, the voicemail icon will show up, and I'll have to check my voicemail.
Don't get this phone!
N400 comments
I have used the phone since March 2003. I have had generally good service with it. I have had it on my belt when taking a couple serious spills on my bike and scrapped the body of the phone and banged it hard. It still worked fine.
I have read some comments on the lock up issue. My phone has done this a couple times. That's it. Not a big deal. I have also read about a firmware update. I never got the update and apparently never missed it as the phone has operated as I would expect a reasonably priced phone to work. People who complain about this phone need to remember that it was likely free or super cheap with sales incentives and you get what you pay for.
The screen is small and hard to read in the sunlight. The buttons are placed well and are accessible by touch quite easily. The menus are clean and the print on them is large and easy to read- if your not in the sun. It is two band/tri mode and has served me well in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri while on vacation. It works well and has good coverage in SF and LA.
Why must you freeze?
The problem with this phone is that it freezes on you about 2 to 3 times a day. It doesn't matter if your lowering the volume, pressing the talk button or ending a call, the phone will freeze on you. The only way to unfreeze the phone is to undue the battery and restart the phone. Another problem is that when you are looking through the phone book or going through the settings, the phone will bring you back to the main screen. This is more annoying than the freezing b/c you cant even find a phone number in your own damm phone--overall the speaker phone and screen are the best features for the n400 and every other feature is horrible
