Samsung SGH-T809 / SGH-D820
Phone Scoop Review
Feb 1, 2006 by Jesse Lewin
In-depth review of the razor-thin Samsung T809 slider for T-Mobile. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
OMG This Phone Rox My Sox
This phone is the sizzit! It does evry thing u could hope for in a modern cell phone. MP3 player with an expandable micro sd card slot. Awesome Still pictures and video from a 1.3 megapixel camera, and easy text messages with the t9 texting format.
SWEEEET PHONE
Pros:
Slider
Looks Sweet, people always tell me how tight it looks
Camara takes good pictures (Put em on my computer, could EASLY put em up 4x6 and have it look just like a digital camara
Video takes exceptional video for a cell....looks great on my computer
Like someone else said, service bars can be deceving. I can have 0 bars, but still make a perfectly clear call
For some reason, my phone never breaks out....it will either not be able to make a call....or make crystal clear calls. The service is great...works better then my old Motorola (and they are known for having good service)
I accualy use this as my mp3 player, digital camara, and cell phone, and it can fill all those spots!
Battery isen't amazing, but nothing for me to complain about either!
I love the speakers, you can play large music
You can watch full screen, video.
Try the phone out, the screen, is like nothing i'v seen before....it is GREAT
It looks amazing outdoors, you can see it perfetly
Cons:
I have a new one coming (t-mobile is awesome) because my down button stopped working....but i'm getting a brand new on, no big deal
um...the sliding mechanism sort of loosens up after a little while. Not a big deal either, just expect it
Doesn't come with norm headphoen jack, but comes with nice headphones you can use with it, can also double as hands-free device
Overall, I have to say this is an awesome phone!! Defently worth the 150$ i droped on it....i also got a 1gb memory card...put a bunch of songs/music videos, and it tizzight!
(all u do, when watching a video, is press one, and it turns from a thumbnail, to a full screen vid, its amazing)
I was thinking about buying an extra batery, and putting a video or two, or 3 on the phone and watching it on an airplane ride....that would rock
Samsung T809
I am very pleased with this phone. I believe I just got it last week and I have had no problems whatsoever. T-Mobile was very pleasant and everything went smoothly with the purchase. As for the phone I am also very pleased. As a 15 year old, the phone satisfies all my needs and more with ease. The infamous dust problem has not effected the phone in any way and I am VERY relieved. Although I have not had this phone very long, I am pretty sure I will be just fine with it.
Pros
-Sleek Appearance
-Easy Spring-Up Slide
-Nice Camera
-SO MANY OPTIONS, ringtones, backgrounds, layouts. I was overwhelmend with how many I had to choose from
-Good Sound
-Interesting Looking Games
-I am a newbie to T9 but this phone helped me master it in minutes.
-Phonebook is Nice
-Small
-Easy to use
-Nice Camera effects, mosiac, image editor
-Voice Notes
-MP3's can be used as ringers
-T-Mobile is very customer friendly.
Cons
-I don't like how the camera zooms out on things, like you could be very close to something, but when the picture is complete it is way farther back then how close you took it from.
-Charge holds a lot less longer than the Nokia I used to have but nothing to fret about.
-Finger print prone screen
very good phone at best?
hey everyone who is thinking of buying the t8809 not d820 than this is the review to read.
1. as i know you have read people have said to set a mp3 at ringtone you have to change the format well no they are totally wrong. i just put the mp3 file on my phone went to mp3 on phone and click settings the click set as and you will see ringtone click it and there you go . i just wanted to help everyone out wit that everyone thinks you have to do format change heck no its simple as 1..2.3 or mp3 ha ha ha ha
here are some pros and cons.
pros:
1.beautiful 262k color screen
2.great 1.3 pixel camera
3. average video
4. reception is good at best. i get better reception on this phone in the mall than my previous nokia 6101,6103,8800 and motorola razr(silver-t-mobile)
5. great slide design i get best results when push up from right side of screen
6.great kekpad for texting
cons:
1. not very custumizable as far as shortcuts or what not
2. slider gets flimsy after about 2.5 months
3. battery life is ok not as bad as people percieve it to be 3.5 hours isnt that bad but its pretty long if i use bluetooth and camera and mp3 and so on so forth everyday ill hav to charge it maybe every 3 days which is good because phones with 6 hour battery life i charge about the same sk its no different for me
4.thats all i can really say is bad i would recommend this phone and if you want a similar phone actually the same feautures all around you can also try the samsung t609 which is samsung but it is a flip not slider but sliders pretty cool i think chicks dig it if you need more info email me at hand_of_glue@yahoo.com hope to hear from you but i think i did enough info in this review
Former T809 to D820
This phone purchased through T-Mobile as the T809 is average at best, but after flashing it with the D820 firmware, this phone is exquisite! Many of the cons from these reviews are erased with this simple procedure. To name a few:
1)Ability to change shortcut keys!
2)The simultaneous Vibrate and Ring option appears. (No more vibrate for 7 seconds THEN ring)
3)Ability to use any java app without having to purchase through T-Mo. (free java games and ablity to use opera-mini)
4)No more DRM issues.
5)Cooler default font types, flash menu, wallpapers, more customizable light settings, etc.
There are many more subtle differences from T809 to the D820. I used the phone as a T809 for 2 weeks and I didnât really like it but now itâs a world of difference. Super phone!
Better than the Blade!
I've had this phone for about a month, and haven't had any issues with it so far.
Pros:
>Nice screen
>Slim design
>USB
>trans flash & mini SD to store music & pics, etc.
>1.3 megapixel
>being able to use the phone without having to use the keypad, or having it in your way, or accidentally hitting it.
>flat buttons
>nice graphics
>Simple navigation almost like Motorola phones
>fast download & send speeds for pics and such
>swivel camera
>bluetooth enabled
>great reception
Cons:
>No short cuts (doesn't exactly bother me too much.
>T9 doesn't auto finish words. like if your typing hello, and you start typing he, you still have to type ello. Most T9's will auto complete and assume ur typing hello and will finish the word and give you the option to use the word it predicted. Also it learns things like ur (your) but not kk (ok).
>downloaded ringtones are not loud enough, but the ones that came on the phone are
>playing games and mp3's suck up the battery
>vibrate isn't loud enough
I heard some complaints about the phone being a dust magnent, and all I have to say is almost any phone will collect dust if you're constantly cramming the thing in your pocket, or purse. Please use a case for your phone, or some kind of screen protectant.
Overall I like this phone better than Sprint's Blade. We use the Blade at work (I work in a cell phone kiosk). the Blade's form is nice, but the menu is a bit confusing. I don't care for GPS navagation on my phone. I use map qwest to plan ahead of time. TV on my phone... maybe... but I'd rather not watch tv on such a small screen. And the worst part is it doesn't have a trans flash card... Only 70 mb's when my phone can do up to 1G (i have a 512 mb in it though)
VERY SLEEK AND NICE LOOKING PHONE!
Very nice graphics
Loud ringtone
Good Speaker
Unlimited Video (depend on your memory card)
You can watch movies in this phone(I'm talking full length movies)
You can use video as a caller id (way cool)
Camera is 1.3 mega pixel (quality is really clear)
The only thing I hate about this phone was the battery life. but other than that, this phone rocks!
TMobile's "KNOWN ISSUES" with this phone
TMobile has had TREMENDOUS trouble with this phone. I personally have had 5 exchanges in just under 2 months.
These are just a few of their known issues:
1. "Sonic Wellness" has glitches in software. It will continuously lose the ability to function.
2. If manufactured b4 02/06, dropped calls and poor reception is caused by bad software and you must send the unit back for an exchange to correct.
3. Videos are not able to be played on the large screen except in tiny thumbnails.
4. Signal bars are misleading. I will have a "full signal" and at the same time have the "no service" icon present.
5. Sim card replacement does not correct these problems.
After plopping down $200 and uping my contract to 2 years this is a RIP OFF! They have since reduced my contract to the remainder of 1 year, and have promised any new bluetooth to my liking that comes available shortly. I am a "valued longtime customer" but am not getting the value!
Samsung PC Studio 3 works for me.
I am a big slider phone fan.
I owned the Kyocera SE47, Samsung SGH-D415, Samsung SGH-E635 and now the Samsung SGH-T809.
All these phones had their good features and bad ones, but I must say I am very happy with the T809. A great phone with great features. People are complaining about the PC Studio software. I downloaded the PC Studio software from Samsung website and installed it, then I ran the update on the software and it works just fine. You have to make sure you are in MODEM mode not in MASS STORAGE mode on your phone. (Menu-9-2-5)
This is a website that I found to be very helpful that answers a lot of questions.
http://t809.blogspot.com/2005/12/samsung-t809-faq.html
PRO
- Large Beautiful screen with top resolution (240x320) QVGA
- Thin phone
- Good camera (people have to understand that none of those phone cameras are great, they are not yet to replace our digital cameras but they are decent when used in good light conditions), video recording with sound is not bad either
- Media player
- Phone built in memory 70MB (NICE) - plus the ability to add a 512MB or even a 1GB Micro SD (TransFlash) memory card (phone comes with 32MB Micro SD card)
- MP3 ringtone - use your own (just rename .mp3 to .3gp and upload into music folder)
- Great organizer and alarm features (Samsung always has that covered)
CON
- Dust - I did not have this problem yet but get yourself a screenprotector and a case - for under 20$ for both on ebay and you should be fine
- Battery life - this is truly a problem when using all the nice features (bluetooth, media player, speakerphone, vibrate alert)
- Headset that comes with it is no good - the sound when listening to mp3's is horrible
other then these issues this phone is truly great - but because of these issues I am not rating it 5
FREE wallpapers for this phone:
http://www/howardforums.com or http://www.pocketpcscreens.com/
Picture taken with this phone http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5337/photo00012rx.jpg
Contact me if you have ?s
Samsung T-809 Review
During an early demo last December, I was blown away by the screen. Haven't seen any other cellphone to come close in that regard. Having primarily used flip phones (SE Z600), I figured to give this slim slider a try. However, I decided to return it after three weeks of use and here's why:
The pros:
-Gorgeous screen. Incredible brightness and contrast, clarity was superb. Made seeing text and numbers very easy.
-Intuitive UI... makes it very simple to navigate menus.
-Loud speakerphone. Actually found myself using it more than having it pressed to my ear.
-Stereo speakers. Didn't think I'd care for it but it is a nice touch.
-Slim form factor. Hardly makes an imprint when stowed in my pocket.
-Large internal memory/ability to expand up to an add'l 512 with memory card.
The cons:
-Biggest problem for me was the battery life. Even with screen brightness at the lowest level, it was a big power hog at about 3 hrs of talk time (and mind you, this is without using the built-in MP3 player.) The Moto RAZR has similiar issues, due to it's thin size.
-Dust. The slide mechanism leaves a lot of nooks and crannies for dust to collect in your phone. I have read other reviews that cite the same problems here.
-Scratchable materials. This isn't exactly a rugged phones. The plastics used on the top and bottom of the phone scratch easily. It didn't take long for the main screen to get nicked either.
-Built-in earpiece not centered so the phone rests in a different position depending on which ear it pressed against.
-No built-in email client. You have to go through T-Zones and use their web based applcation which blows.
-No Mac support.
As much as I wanted to love this phone, I couldn't keep it. Talk time was extremely low for my needs and I felt that the phone itself was poorly made.
