Samsung SGH-E335
Average Ratings
Seems Like Samsung Never Took it Outside of the Factory to Test It
I got this phone after my Samsung e315 (which I loved dearly) accidentally got washed. I was hoping this phone would live up to all that I had come to expect of Samsung, but it has fallen short several times.
My biggest issue is the button on the side of the phone that allows you to take pictures with the phone closed. Yes, this is a great idea to some people, but it should be able to be disabled. Since I keep my phone in my pocket, every time I bend down, I take a blank picture of my pocket. And even in vibrate mode, the camera makes a 'snap' noise to tell it's taking a picture.
My other pet peeve with this phone is the alarm. When the wake-up alarm goes off, one soft-key says 'confirm' (which turns the alarm off) and one says 'snooze' (which allows you 5 minutes more to sleep before it goes off again). However, I'm not so coherent when I first wake up, and I often miss, and hit another key. This sets the phone into snooze mode, but it stops showing the bell at the top, so you think the alarm is off. After that first time, when you realise the phone is in snooze when you've pressed the wrong button, you go into the alarm options to turn it off, pressing 'disable alarm'. This however, doesn't work. Again, the bell sign disappears, but the alarm will go off in 5 minutes. The only way to turn it off is to press 'confirm' when the alarm goes off again. (Note this is only a fault after the alarm has gone off once..you can disable an alarm that has not yet gone off through the menus.)
Lastly, when writing texts in t9, once you arrow away from a word, the letters are no longer 'connected'. So if you dont press * enough to get to the right letter combination after typing something in (say 'lips' instead of 'kiss') you have to erase it all, instead of just arrowing back to the word and hitting * when it's underlined.
Overall, the phone works ok, but there are so many little things like this that make me feel this phone was never really tested in the real world.
Cool Phone
This phone is so cool, it way better than my last phone, with was the Nokia N-Gage QD.
I Really Like the option that you can take pictures when the phone is closed by holding down the picture key outside the phone. I also like the size.
Not bad
This phone is great it is just like most samsung phones great. Motorola and Nokia really have to do some work on catching up with samsung.
Sound quality, Sound quality (ehh-Samsung)
I saw few reviewers have complained about the sound quality and about the type of ringers. WELL, I'm not surpriced anymore.
There is something wrong specifically with Samsung GSM flip phones. All Samsung flip phones (at least the ones for american market) have bad sound quality.
This include: E105, e315, x475, x495 and others.
Sound quality is the main reason why not a cingle Samsung phone ever got 4.0 review neither on this forum nor on any other forum.
BUT I ALSO have one other, very important question about e335 and the new e635:
IF BOTH OF THESE models are made specifically for T-Mobile USA, then why the heck it is 850/1800/1900 instead
of 900/1800/1900???? T-Mobile only uses 1900 frequency in the United States! Also at least put european 900 instead of european 1800 ( 900 is by far more used in europe than 1800!).
I demand the answer from Samsung USA!
Major selling point for me...
The speakerphone. I'm not deaf, but, I have a hard time hearing through any cell phone especially in the car. The speakerphone is not a separate speaker so the sound is amplified through the ear piece on the phone. I can now hear anyone in any situation. I originally had the Moto v330 and although a good phone was just way to low even with the spkphone which is on the back and small. No matter what faults this phone may have (haven't really found any) the spkphone will outweigh them all. If you have a problem with your hearing or just low volume this phone is a winner.
Samsung phones need major reinvention.
My first Samsung phone was the SGH-S105 and then later I had the E715 (2 months) and E315 (for about a month). In all cases it didn't seem like Samsung improved much. Sure the color displays got more colorful and brighter, and they added a camera and spoofed up the user interface with animations and whatnot, but the basic fact that the phone does not perform as other phones do in the same price range is telling that Samsung needs to show improvement.
The quality of the signal strength seemed to degrade with the models mentioned, and are in fact well lower than similar price ranged models from Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson. Secondly, the E335's voice quality is one of the worst I have ever had the chance to listen and speak into. Both incoming and outgoing voice quality is lackluster, from what my friends say who hear me and from what I hear from them. I used a Nokia 6230 prior to the E335 and my friends could easily tell the drop off in voice quality.
This also leaves the Speakerphone in a bit of a bind, since the quality of the speaker isnt very good. Still, it works, but doesnt quite work as well as say the speakerphone on the Nokia 6230 or the Motorla V600. I currently own a SE K700i but have not used the speakerphone significantly to warrant any comment.
The buttons are a tad too close to each other but that's mostly due to the small compact size of the phone.
What I do like about it is the stylish looks, the navy blue, and the mostly ease of use of the phone. The screen resolution is actually worse than the lower priced Samsung E315, and also the E335 only features a monochrome external display -- which is also a step back from the E315.
The camera quality is comparable to any other Samsung phone of the same price range, and actually does not seem to improve alot from earlier models either. The E715 actually has been the best Samsung GSM camera phone under 1mp that I've used, probably since it has flash capability.
