Samsung Stratosphere / Galaxy Metrix 4G
Average Ratings
hide detailed ratings
Phone Not Dependable!
Carrier: Verizon
I got the Stratosphere for a good price to be used mainly for my home business. I needed to be able to pull down various sites and use the hotspot on occasion when travelling. I've had the phone for 18 months and have really had a hard time with it.
It has never been dropped, gone into water, has had a case for protection and is treated with extreme care but still is shorting out. The hotspot has never been good and works at best intermittently. This has been a real disappointment for my work. I don't expect perfection but some stability and it seems to not work or drop out more than it works.
In the last 5 months the phone has been dying. It drains batteries usually within 6 hours with little or no use. In the last 3 months it is heating up (evidently it has a short). It takes forever (5 minutes or more) to turn on and at certain times it can take a minute or two to respond to a command such as dial a number, etc. It never has been fast but now that it has issues it s really slow!
I will never buy this phone again and am looking for a new smartphone.
hide detailed ratings
worst smartphone i've had
Carrier: Verizon
When my Droid 3 came to an untimely end, Verizon sent this phone as a replacement. I was not happy about it because the reviews were not good, but I had no choice.
Pros: it has a keyboard. The display is nice looking.
Cons: it freezes up often.
It goes to screens when I don't tell it to.
The keyboard has a weird layout. It has no tab key, but it does have lots of useless keys.
It keeps asking me to turn on wifi.
It sometimes automaticaly turns on wifi.
it loses its data connectivity often.I think this is connected to its obsession with wanting wifi turned on.
The battery dies quickly.
it feels like it will break when extending the keyboard.
There are unnecessary services running that I can't stop (two preinstalled games).
I would not recommend getting this phone.
Be Gentle!
This phone does freeze more than it should and like many Samsungs, it seems to have a variety of common glitches. But for the money (30-100 dollars depending where you get it) it's not a bad phone.
The real problem with this phone is not performance related. The real problem is a design flaw that makes it extremely easy to crack or shatter the inner LCD screen by applying a moderate amount of pressure to the edges of the slide out screen.
I have worked in the wireless retail industry for more years than I care to admit, and have never seen a phone (not even the iphone) damaged so easily.
So so phone
The Samsung Stratosphere for Verizon is not a good phone over all but there are some PROs.
First the PROs: The screen is big, bright, and clear with nice color. The call quality is good. Voices are clear. The 4G signal is good where I live(Roslyn NY). Battery life is good with the extended battery. The keyboard which is main reason why I purchased this phone.
Here are the CONs: The phone is slow going between screens and sometimes stays black. This is very annoying if I am trying to make a call. The screen does not always flip when I slide the phone open. The screen locks up way too often. When texting the phone locks up or individual letters stop working. I have to shut the phone down and restart it to fix the problem. I love to text so this really annoys me. If I am reading a text and a new one comes in I can't read the older text because the older text scrolls up and out of view. While texting sometimes if I hit a letter the phone takes me to web page. This is a bad design flaw. The phone has too many weird issues when using facebook or other websites. I don't always get my most current emails. The phone often says "server problem". Again I have to turn the phone off and on. This happens whether I use wifi or 4G. The ringer is not loud enough and the text chime is way too low. Changing the text chime volume is annoying too. The main volume does not control the text chime. The camera is lousy especially in low light. I don't like the way the phone stores pictures. I find the phone ends up on screens when I didn't ask it to. The CONs out do the PROs on this phone.
Not bad
Taking into consideration it is the only 4G phone that has a keyboard its pretty good. But as a techy I am not satisfied with it.
PROs: Has a Keyboard, 5.0 Camera with an awesome zoom, good service, not bad battery life. Loud volume. Strong vibration.
CONs: Keyboard style is awkward and makes you mistype, Camera is fuzzy in night, touch screen messes up, low internal memory (makes phone run slower even though its 4G.) The slider (it gets stuck often and feels like its going to break)
As a techy person I am returning mine for the Droid 3.. the 4G isnt worth it on this device.
ok phone
This phone isnt the best but not the worst i've had it for only a day. For the cost I guess it works ok.
PROS
Great bright screen
keyboard
not to sluggish
CONS
seems to freeze a little already
the ringer volume button get hits almost everytime i use the keyboard
and it might be verizon but im having trouble getting it to send picture messages
All in all not to bad just a few little quirks so far.
