Samsung SGH-E316 / SGH-E317
Average Ratings
Returning it today!!!
Have Cingular service and have had for almost four yrs now, so I have had several different phones. This is the worst yet! My teenager has the Samsung 427 and it is perfect for her. My phone prior to the Samsung e317 was a Motorola V400, and all I can say is "Wow..what a difference!" Motorola's quality was 100x better!
Pros:
+Small & compact
+good phone for teenage girls
Cons:
-Battery life is horrible!
-Photo Caller ID would be nice if it would only work
-Ringtones are geared more for teenagers
-No quick dial features
-Camera phone picture quality in comparison to Motorola V400 is not good
-Reception seems to be worse with the Samsung
Phone can charge over night and only be used for approximately 15-30 total airtime the next day and one bar is already gone. Have had the phone and week and have let everyone try to set up the Photo Caller ID feature and as of today it still will not work. Motorola offers a wonderful Quick Dial feature on their phones, but Samsung does not. We are returning the phone this afternoon to either exchange or get our money back.
my favorite ever
I bought this phone over 2 years ago and have not had any major problems with it until now. The battery won't hold a charge and a new battery doesn't seem to help.
pros- size, options, user friendly
cons- loses signal and disconnects, rarely but occasionally.
I am tempted to go out and buy this phone again but I think I will upgrade to a newer Samsung model.
untrue reviews
I don't think that all these negative reviews about this phone are true. I just upgraded my phone and I'm with Cingular. I had a Nokia 3595 I think...the pewter colored phone with a color screen and the 2 middle buttons were round. Anyway, I constantly had dropped calls when I was in my hometown, a small city area that is finally catching up to everything. At school, I attend college in a bigger city it worked good, but I needed it to work in both places. My Samsung, though I have only had it nearly a week, has been working great. I haven't had a dropped call yet in either place. Don't believe the bad reviews!
Pros:
-Great signal
-Very customizable
-Cool camera with features
-Overall neat phone
Cons:
-No vibe and ring at the same time, there is a setting where it vibrates 3 times, then rings which is works, but it was a feature i was used to on the nokia
-You might want to download ring tones, only 2 or 3 are decent to have
-This isn't necessarily a prob for me, but if you have bigger hands you might think some buttons are too close.
Excellent phone!
This phone is awesome. I had a V551 for a while and it was just horrible. Whoever on here said that signal has nothing to do with phone but everything to do with carrier is only 1/2 right. It has a lot to do with the way the phone is processing the signal. Case in point: My 551 would not work in my apartment, as soon as I stepped in the door my signal bars died. The e317 gives me 5 bars everywhere I go, including in my bathroom!
This phone is awesome. I would have given it a five, too, if not for a few cons listed below.
Pros:
⢠lightweight
⢠handsome
⢠great picture quality
⢠front LCD with picture caller ID
⢠leather cover that actually fits
Cons:
⢠no speaker phone
⢠new headset format makes it impossible to find one
⢠no data count
⢠phone book is a little awkward to use
I really like this phone. I miss some of the features I got with the V551 like a wireless data log so I could keep track of my internet, but overall I'm infinitely more pleased with this one. I'd rather be able to make phone calls from my house instead of having to go outside than knowing exactly how much wireless data I use. Besides, Cingular's website now provides that info for me.
Piece of junk!
I had the unfortunate experience of having to rely solely on this phone this weekend because my home phone stopped working. I was basically unavailable all weekend. I was able to stay on long enough to tell people that all of my phones weren't working. It's amazing that a signal can make it all the way from space, but it can't make it past my house walls.
To call the phone company about my home phone, I had to make the call three times. I finally had to stand outside IN THE RAIN in order for the call not to drop. That's ridiculous!!
I've been with AT&T since 1995 and am ready to drop them along with this phone! Shame on them for selling this piece of junk!
PROs:
- lightweight
- easy to program
- good screen color
CONs:
- no speakerphone
- ringtones are ridiculous
- sound quality marginal (when calls connected)
- drops calls frequently
It's a pretty good phone
I really like this phone. I previously had a little Motorola that was the size of my thumb. I'm a big guy and I need a bigger phone. So, the e316 is a damn good piece of electronics. I enjoy the colour, the display and everything related to the phone.
Except for one thing. I got me some big fingers and I find that I need to use my fingernail to press the buttons.
So, here it is:
PROS:
great reception
excellent design
beautiful colours
battery life is pretty good
CONS:
Either my big fingers, or these tiny buttons!
Good Phone Overall
I work for a cell phone company and we carry the 316 and the 317. The only problem we have with the phone is the cost. We have discovered that the biggest problem is the user interface. After using the manual people decided to keep it. I have seen many different phones including the V551 and I'm still thinking about this one. I haven't had it for service but for now it's still a go.
Excellent phone with camera
Negative:
1. It has all but no way to transfer photos from phone to computer and other way.
2. It has good ringtone but no way to assign to different contact number (sad)
3. Ringer volume can't to lower for alarm
4. No speaker phone but samsung provide good headset. Also no universal jack.
Good things
1. Excellent call quality
2. Excellent screen and menu navigation
3. Good battery life without using camera too much.
4. Good screen savers
5. Four built in games (nice)
6. Compact and light weight can carry in your pocket easily.
7. Good solid body
8. Overall good receiption
9. Excellent software with good features like three types of alarm, games, calender, to-do-list, world clock etcc...
10. Video recorder and memo recorder as well.
11. Last your camera not bad...
Overall good phone. Get it if AT&T has and offer at cheap price (mine was FREE)
Something seriously wrong.
I don't know if it's just the phone I have, but it's driving me crazy. I love the phone & the screen & the camera.. but, it sometimes doesn't let incoming or outgoing calls through & I have to turn it off & on over & over to get it to work again. Also, it duplicates the numbers in my contacts. It also deletes the picture caller ID set for certain people. I'm really hoping its just my phone, but I am returning soon.
At First...Then, No.
I just bought this phone on Dec 23 2004. At first, I was impressed by its size and features. But for the past few days, it has been acting quite strangely. It goes blank, does not respond, and when I take the battery off and replace it, the phone is reset to factory settings and everything I downloaded is gone.
The battery life is VERY poor.
The ringtones are very childish. There is not one single "normal" ringtone built into the phone. It is rather embarrassing to have it ring in public. I think Samsung tried too hard to impress the younger users and sacrificed the professional fan base that they could have.
I think it is geared more towards teens.
PROS: Neat camera, clear screens, compact size, good sound quality, lots of customizable features, VERY user friendly.
CONS: Malfunctions (Maybe it's just mine), poor battery life, childish ringtones.
I am going to try and return the handset and see if another one works a little better. If so, I will re-submit my review without the malfunction details. However, the rest of the review is concrete as far as I am concerned.