Samsung Saga i770
Average Ratings
Best option so far
I come from the SCH-i760 and I have given the Omnia a whirl for a few days (see my review there) and now I am keeping the Saga.
Cons:
-Phone size is big which I would not have minded if screen was also big! Which leads me to con #2...
-Screen too small (Slide out vertical keyboard would have been the answer so that the screen could be bigger). I don't mind a little heavy as long as I have two of my most critical requirements; big screen and vertical qwerty keyboard. With the Saga, I settle for the one and wait again to see if Samsung can get me those two features in one phone.
-I too noticed that the phone would just come out of sleep mode for no reason. I kept thinking that I rec'd an email/text/call but there was nothing, just a phone making its presence known!
-Sometimes on a call, buttons seem to get accidentally pressed and you lose the call or just hang up with a note on your screen; annoying.
Pros:
-Vertical qwerty keyboard is awesome and easy to use (fat-thumbed individuals will hate it).
-Navigation/optical mouse is sweet!
-WM solid OS and all emails synchronize flawlessly
-Location and job of each button is awesome, especially the vibrate one located on the space bar.
-Call quality and speaker phone quality are phenomenal.
Like I said, this will be my replacement of the i760 until my dream phone is released. Come on Samsung! I am sick of waiting!! It has been almost 4 years since I first got the i730 and I just keep expecting more from you all...
great so far!
ive had this phone for about 4 days now and so far i'm loving it. i would have sprung for the BB STORM but couldn't find it and i'm glad i got this instead! my last phone was a moto Q and this just totally enhances all of the windows mobile features i got used to using.
PROS: big screen, touchscreen, great call quality, loud speakerphone, not heavy whatsoever, TXT msg threading (each TXT msg with someone is like its own chat window), syncing with Exchange is much better than WM5. huge software selection for Windows Mobile (a lot of free apps!)
CONS: big screen=big phone, battery life, no music over older mono bluetooth plantronics headset (apparently i need a newer stereo headset).
Once i get an extended battery and a newer bluetooth headset, i'm rock n rolling with this bad boy!!
Heavy Business User Review Coming from Palm OS and WM Treo's
Heavy business user coming from Treo's I was sick of Palm OS on the 755P so instead of going back to a 700wx (VZW), I thought I'd give the Saga a try; it's going back.
PROS: Slick looking phone, bluetooth works well, flush screen, world phone, reads urgent emails through bluetooth automatically.
CONS: Optical mouse, buggy, big, battery life, screen lock doesn't work right, pocket calls, too many button pushes needed to do simple tasks, Samsungs implementation of WM6.1 is just horrid, no d-pad, no iR, dialing etc exhibits eratic tones making you wonder if you dialed right, no disabling of touch screen while on a call and much more.
I switched almost a year ago to the 755P when it came out on VZW thinking Palm OS wouldn't be that bad (just wanted new hardware)...I was wrong, I've grown to hate Palm OS now. Wanted to go back to Windows Mobile but not on the 4 year old Treo 700wx, when VZW came out with the Saga I thought "Finally a new front facing qwerty smartphone with WM6.1 on VZW!!! Yeeha!"...Then I got the phone and that happiness ended.
I didn't realize there could be such a significant difference in the implementation of WM6.1 between phone manufacturers and on a non-treo phone I can now see why people don't like Windows Mobile, it's horrible. The optical mouse while a neat idea should really be left on the desktop, a d-pad is MUCH more friendly/easy to use on a phone.
The phone frequently wouldn't answer calls, just ignored me pushing the answer buttons, it pocket called people like crazy, and since you can't disable the touchscreen while on a call like Treo's can, your cheek pushes buttons while on a call (the screen lock doesn' work right either so that didn't help). Overall I think it's primarily the lack of iR, the lack of a d-pad (and inclusion of the optical mouse) and the massively ineffective crappy implementation of WM6.1 that is responsible for me sending this back.
Apparently only Palm knows how to properly implement WM - Ironic.
