Samsung SGH-D407 / D347
Average Ratings
Great phone
Not being technically minded, most of the bells and whistles on phones these days don't do much for me. Until now my favorite flip phone was the old reliable Motorola Star Tac and for pure reliability the Nokia series of what I call "bricks," which were virtually indestructible. But I've had the Samsung D407 for about six months and I love it. It's easy for me to use and the camera is a nice toy. I like the bluetooth earpiece (mine is a Motorola) but when I'm talking to someone else who is using one, I can hear my voice echoing back to me, which is rather distracting. As for durability, my Samsung rivals my old Nokia "brick" and the steel pins in the hinge make it feel more solid than most of the other flip phones I've checked out. The outside buttons could stand to be completely disabled as I have called people before without realizing it until the loudspeaker started ringing (pressure from the foneGEAR holster), but it hasn't happened any more often than when the exposed buttons on my previous phone would cause someone to get a call from my seat belt (it would push the buttons while I'm driving). Overall it's a great phone, easy for me to use, and the features it is lacking in, such as games, didn't attract me to the phone in the first place as I don't fool with them. The camera isn't that great but when I go on a photography expedition I grab my Nikon. Basically, everything I need a phone to do it does very well, and the areas it fails to perform adequately in are areas I don't depend on and don't need. Also, when I upgraded with Cingular, the phone cost ten bucks after I received my rebate card (which came just before Christmas-handy). All in all, it's a great phone, I got a great deal, and Samsung got a happy customer.
Excellent performer in every way
This is the best phone I have had in years. I had purchased the new LG with the mp3 player, but the ascending ring tone was not practical, and let's face it, I'll use my rear mp3 player for serious listening.
Pros:
light weight
Great speaker volume
Answer without opening
Close while talking and not cut off
Best speaker phone I've had
Easy bluetooth connectivity
Great battery life
Cons:
Really none unless you're a serious phone photographer
All the features just work so well I can't think of another phone that comes close. I've had it now for 2 trouble free months.
Great phone. Great Price, every feature and more I need, easy menus, and doesn't drop calls like my Motorola.
Homerun Samsung!!
Design problem
While this phone appears to work 'ok', it has some design problems which have been exploited by poor programming.
First, the menu icons are so crowded on the screen that they are difficult to differentiate. Why not offer a text menu option?
Second, the external keys are easily pushed by accident and the keylock is turned off by holding an external key. When I placed the d407 in a case, an external key was held long enough to turn the keylock off EVERY TIME. This phone started dialing voice mail using the speaker phone, it accepted voice commands which were unknown to me, it took photos of the inside of my pocket and phone case, etc...
Why on earth would I want a key lock which is turned off by pressing a key on the outside of the phone? It's like putting the deadbolt to your front door on back-wards so you can get in by turning the knob rather than using the key!
I tried using the phone lock to cure this awful problem but that only has an affect when turning the phone on.
Might be a nice phone but you'd better carry it by the strap and forget using a case or putting it in a purse or pocket.
can't believe nobody mentioned the software
After wrestling with this phone all day, I have to say it's about the worst phone interface ever. Everything involves multiple button pushes. For instance, page 57 of the manual, see how many keys it takes to delete a message. That's at least fourteen key presses to delete 1 text; more key presses if you've more folders and more emails.
Press Menu
Select Messaging
Press the Select soft key
Use up or down to to highlight My messages then press Seelect
Higlight Inbox
Press the Select soft key
Select an individual message
Press Options soft-key
Select Delete
Press Select soft key
Select "Selected"
Press the Select soft key
Press the Yes soft key to confirm the deletion
Press the Hang up key.
You press the Menu key, and out jumps the word in BIG letters "BUY". That about says it all about this phone. And you don't seem to be able to change, reconfigure or customize the menus or hot-keys in any way. You can use numeric short-cuts, if you can memorize about seven pages worth of instructions. What's the point of a short-cut if you have to look at the phone in between each key-press to find out what the next short-cut is?
It's almost impossible to read the manual, since the key images are so tiny and all look the same. (e.g. page 34)
I can't find any way of changing the default text entry method. It's always AABB unless you change it each time to T9. Having said that at least I can send my texts in French or Spanish, and with bold-face font, if I can remember which fourteen-key sequence to use.
You're stuck with the given ring-tone. The only way to download another is to, you've guessed it, "BUY". And that feature does not work with the phone from my company.
I haven't been able to try or test any other features because my eyes are not fine enough to read the manual, and every time I make it so far, I inadvertently press the wrong key and end up somewhere completely different.
