Samsung Sway U650
Average Ratings
Blue Sway'd Shoes
First, all of the complaints about the slider on this phone being hard to operate are 100% dead-on. It's a got a slick silver finish, and if your hands are dry or even slightly oily, there'll be no sliding in these parts, mister. Nossir.
Other than that, there's not much to dislike. The texting can be slow, sure, but adaptation to varying environmental conditions is a survival trait; try it some time. Text slower. If your social life is so hectic that an extra three seconds per text is going to put a crimp in it, you've got problems that a phone won't fix. Study more. Text less. Life is good.
The camera is good enough for snapshots, but I wouldn't stake my memories on it. The screen, on the other hand, is big and beautiful, which might account for the slightly attenuated battery life, although the battery isn't so bad that I'd consider returning the phone for something else. I came from a Rizr Z6tv, and the Sway is miles ahead in terms of construction quality and ease of use.
Signal strength is solid enough, though EVDO devotees will be disappointed, as will fans of the 2.5mm headset jack. There are four different menu themes (true themes this time, not simply different main menus covering the traditional Verizon UI), which makes the phone distinctly customizable.
Earpiece quality is top-shelf, though the speakerphone is horrible. I'm not sure if it's half-duplex as claimed on the spec sheet at PhoneScoop, but it's nearly unusable. This isn't a big deal for me, but some might consider it a deal-breaker.
If you're one of those social paramecia who can't tie his shoes or eat a bowl of corn flakes without Twittering about it or calling a buddy to announce every bodily function, keep looking. But if thin is your thing, and you're looking for a handset for casual use, the Sway won't disappoint.
A good phone
Pros:
Nice big screen
Easy to use navigation though out the phone
Nice camera
Cons:
Battery life is low
Numbers are too close together hit wrong number or letter when texting all of the time
This is a good phone and I did enjoy it for a little while. The battery life is not all that good I maybe will go a half a day with a battery and that is with little use. The camera is nice takes good pictures. The numbers are to close together for texting though. The phone unlocks easy so you can dial someone's number with out knowing. screen scratches easily.
I was hoping for more...
I've now owned this phone for a little over 8 months. As such, I feel I can tell everyone what to expect as far as the important things go.
Pro's
-Camera, as far as cell phone cameras go, this one works fine and dandy. It has a neat panoramic feature which is sadly entertaining to play with
-looks nice
-very durable. long story short, my co-workers sway was submerged in water for 10 hours or so, remained turned on, and didn't miss a single call or text. she was able to make a call directly after pulling it out of the water. : )
Con's
-Worst battery life I've ever encountered. Just yesterday, I made a total of 6 phone calls, totaling to 35 minutes of airtime, plus 15 text messages. The phone was fully charged overnight and only lasted 13 hours before it died and disconnected me from a phone call.
I average about 10 texts a day and 45 minutes of talking a day. Expect your sway to be crippled with this moderate use for a year.
-when the battery is about to die, the phone will attempt to turn on over and over again. doing such, it plays an annoying sound. It cannot keep itself on long enough to allow you to turn it off. It will endlessly beep at you until you either remove the battery or plug it into a charger.
-texting is very slow. so slow that I have to wait for it to load characters before moving onto another letter or sending a message
-the microSD slot doesn't seem to be able to take much abuse. I've only taken mine in/out about 20 or so times and my sway now has trouble seeing the card half the time. the sd card works 100% of the time in my computer.
samsung sways are not what they seem
i got this phone less than 2 months ago and at first it seemed very nice and easy to use, then as time when on i got too used to the texting and it couldn't keep up, which isn't really a problem. then it started freezing and slowing down considerably. then it started doing a weird problem where the screen would completly go insane. it would show just random lines and only a little of the color thats not the actual menu its on. at first i could fix it by turning it off then back on, and i got it to work correctly i would have to keep it open so it wouldn't freeze. now it got to a point where i cant get the regular screen back so it is useless. please for your own sake don't buy this phone. the screen is nice at first but the software is pathetic and will not suit you for long
Display Leaked
I have had this phone for 3 months, and the LCD display leaked for no apparent reason. The phone still works, I just can't read the display. I never dropped or abused the phone, and was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
Get the Software Update!
I bought this phone 6 days ago, and every day since then it has either gone down to one battery bar, blinked, or died completely by 8 pm with VERY mimimal use. The texting was also VERY slow. Tonight I took it into Verizon and got the software update. When I took it in it had 2 battery bars. When I picked it up it had 1 left (which I expected), and since then I have reset all my settings that got erased in the update, looked through my pictures, redownloaded VZ Navigator (took about 3-4 minutes) sent a picture, made an 8 minute phone call and I still have 1 bar! And texting is EXTREMELY noticably faster! I've only had the upgrade for about an hour but so far, it's working!
PROS:
Nice looking
Slider
Easy to hear on
Takes good pictures
CONS:
If the software update keeps working this great, no cons!
Battery tip!
I researched this phone for quite awhile before getting it, and it looked like exactly what I wanted other than the battery issues I kept reading about. I've had it about a month now and really like the phone a lot. It's even easier to set up and use than my old Samsung and I love the look and feel of it.
I was happy when I first got the phone in that after the first 1-2 days the battery was holding up great, but then suddenly I ran into the same issues I'd kept reading about - after 12 or so hours it'd be down to 2 bars, even without any talking or texting. Well thru some trial and error, and some dumb luck, I've found a simple tip that works amazingly well, at least for my particular phone. And that's to just briefly turn it off 2-3 times each day. That easily at least doubles my battery life, and I've found that if I forget to do that the battery life is terrible again until I turn it off and back on.
Anyway, I figured if that works for me it will hopefully work for others. Good luck with it!
All things considered, pretty good phone
Very good sound quality. Any complaints in this area are probably based on low signal from carrier or other network/carrier issue. I can concur w/ past reviews explaining difficulty in opening slider but that's merely an issue that just takes getting used to, not a design flaw. Fingerprints can be wiped away easily with a cloth. Side-note, it could also be because of how thin the device is as well.
The media center is powerful w/ capabilities to play any compressed music file: mp3, wma, m4a (aac, aac+), etc. ID3 tagging only works for mp3 & wma. AAC tagging not recognized and places everything under 'No Artist' and 'No Album' categories.
The overall OS is quite powerful as well. Graphics and its ability to be customized as far as layout is fantastic.
Now to the gripes: the device only comes w/ a proprietary connector (M20 I believe it's called) for charging and wired headsets meaning it's near impossible to find accessories. The Samsung BT (SBH500) was thoroughly tested on device. Great sound, better than any other wired or wireless unit. Downside is it suffers from interference from any other 2.4Ghz device in range whether it be cordless home phones, wireless routers, & other BT devices (which is everyones whole neighborhood). This causes sound to be dropped for 1-2 secs and pick up again for 5-15 secs just to be dropped again on both listening to music and phone calls. The device does come w/ a cheaply made adapter for proprietary connector allowing for both add'l M20 connector and 2.5mm headset. Mine lasted for two weeks before splitting at seam from being placed in front pocket. For the power of the device (and media capabilities) it should have NEVER came w/ proprietary connector. Should have mini-USB-B plus a 2.5 or 3.5mm jack.
This phone is horrible
The design is horrible--there's no place to hold onto to slide the phone up.
No matter what ring tone I put on the phone, they all sound distorted and like crap.
Even on "high" I can't hear the ringer across the room most of the time (and I'm young so I'm positive that it's not my ears).
The texting is SUPER SLOW. If you hit send before it catches up it only sends half a message.
It's going back to Verizon the first chance I get.
