Samsung SPH-i500
Average Ratings
The I500 is the winner.
This phone really is the best for any traveling sales person that needs to keep in touch via phone & email.
Most other smart phones are just too big, too slow or too much like a Palm/PC than a phone.
It's a phone first and that's what's important. The Palm, Email (BizCon) and Web Access (Blazer) all work well and quickly.
It runs on Analog & Digital which is a huge plus. (The Treo 300 & 600 are Digital only but also have GSM but that's slower).
I also have the Samsung SPH I330 and compared their speed side by side and the I500 just blows it away. Not only that but the fact that it's more like an every day phone just makes it that much better.
The MP3 player and camera are just extra gadgets that aren't really needed and would either get in the way or cause other system issues or battery drainage.
I'll admit that speaker phone would be nice but if you turn up the volume all the way you can hear it no problem (good for listening to vmail.)
The email is through BizCon / Sprint and works well. We sync our corp email with it. However, using someone like Good.com and their Good Technology might make it better and more secure but also more expensive.
I also tested/investigated the Treo 300 & 600 & the Kyocera. None were as well rounded as the SPH i500.
Not worth the money
For a phone that costs $600, it should at least have external caller ID!! No camera, no speakerphone, no expansion slots, what the heck are we paying for? a flip phone with an old palm operating system? Forget it, it went back to the store within 24 hours.
Waste of Money
I bought this phone thinking they had made improvements over the last few years. This phone is terrible. I went back to my HP pocket PC and bought a new Sanyo phone. Sanyo is the most reliable phone that Sprint carries by far. I own 3 of them all different and they all work great!! This i500 would never ring I would miss 75% of my calls. Sanyo has never failed me in this regard. I can't wait until they build a PDA phone as it should truly work.
where's the sGh-i500
no slot
no camera
no java
palm4.2 and stuck with it
cant update anything
mine went back within 2 weeks
oh as a phone it worked ok
but thats not why i spent 600 bucks
Worth every cent!
I have owned an SPH-I500 for over two months and can not say anything bad about it!
Personally prefer PALM instead of Windows CE so that was a plus.
I was in the market for both a new cell phone and a PDA and did not want to carry two different units.
Compared to other units that felt like having a âBRICKâ on my belt, this phone is so small and light weight that I can carry it on my shirt pocket.
Since I already own a digital camera, I had no need to have the âCAMERAâ feature in the phone.
Love the âONE HANDâ operations. This feature does not exist in some of the other Phone/PDA models.
Since I have my own web site and mail server, I can send and receive my POP3 mail anywhere I have phone coverage.
Would encourage anyone to invest the money and buy one of these units.
Thank you Samsung for producing a WINNER!
Good Phone
I am completely blown away by this phone. I have only had it for two weeks, but I am just amazed by it. I am impressed by the way the phone is designed to incorporate a full palm device and phone. Of course, and like others who have posted before, why palm OS 5.0 was not used is beyond me. But 4.1 is just fine for my needs. For the average businessman, this phone is perfect.
I love this phone, but, one deal killer problem...
This is the best phone/pda on the market. It is small, easy to dial, pretty well configured and the first Palm phone that actually fits in your Palm. But, and it is a big one, (for me at least), the vibration ringing mode is VERY light and VERY undetectable in your pocket. I received 36 calls today, and I missed 24 of them, because the vibration is just too weak. With my old Sanyo I might miss two or three in a similar day. I went to a Sprint Store and we compared it with two other i500 models and the vibration was the same. The Samsung Rep came by and he indicated that the vibration level is what it is. I can not use a ringer, nor have I for several years, so this is a deal killer for me unless Samsung can figure a way to calibrate the vibration level. It is really too bad because they have nailed everything else right on the head. This would be a 4.5 of 5 star phone if not for the vibration thing. (Something they should have resolved years ago). If vibration mode ringing is not an issue for you, then I highly recommend this one. [question removed ]
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Worth the Wait!
I have had this phone for two weeks now and it is NICE! No other phone out there successfully combines a PDA and a phone in such a small package. The Kyocera 7135 is a brick compared to the SPH-I500.
Pros:
Size, Solid Feel, Size, Bright Screen, Size
Cons:
Price, Palm OS 4.1 (why not 5.2?), slow processor, no speaker phone, no SD slot, no car adapter, battery hog
For me you can keep the camera and MP3 players. They would have only increased the size of the phone and not contributed to the productivity value of the device. I guess they could have added items in my Cons list and the phone would have been bigger.
good phone, but not worth the money
I purchased this phone and realized after one day that I had to return it. I admit it is nice for those gadget people, but there are 4 things missing that would make this the perfect phone.
1. it has no speakerphone even though this website says it does.
2. no external caller id
3. no camera
4. no access to the regular pcs vision. can't download ringer, games or screen savers to the phone.
I definately would spend more for a phone like the i500 with those extra features. But I do have to admit, the phone is nice for someone who doesnt care about the things missing I mentioned. Also I realized it was silly to spend so much for a phone when I'm going to buy another one when the push to talk phones come out.
The Best I've Had
It's 2009 as I write this, and, no, I haven't used my i500 for about 6 years. I've gone through a couple of Treos, an HTC Tilt, and an HTC Fuze since then.
Sure, my Fuze is way more powerful than the i500, but I'd have to say that, for it's time, the i500 was the best phone I ever owned.
It was better than anything out there. It had a touch screen in 2002, full PDA, full desktop sync. I had about 3000 contacts stored in there, my calendar, etc. IT was very reliable, small in the pocket, worked as promised, and was a great phone as well as a PDA.
It seems like, ever since then, I've always had as many frustrations with my phones as I've had benefits. My current windows phones hang occasionally, sometimes offer massive delays, often need a "reboot" to get things in order. But the i500 was just more stable.
OK, so I like 3.5G HSPA, Slingbox, Youtube, GPS, etc. But I wish there were a modern equivalent to the i500.
