Samsung SCH-3500 - a nice little phone
Written: Jan 11 '02
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Pros: small, voice dialing, easy to find headsets
Cons: Does not work in malls or supermarkets
The Bottom Line: It's a good phone, unless you need to make a lot of calls from large buildings.
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| kurt_g's Full Review: Samsung SCH 3500 CDMA / AMPS Cellular Phone |
In October of 2000, I ditched my old wireless company (Cellular One, which has now morphed to Cingular Wireless) and signed up with Sprint PCS. The reason was simple -- more minutes for the same money. The phone I picked was the Samsung SCH-3500.
Sprint has a ton of these phones. They're quite popular and have a lot of nice features. One of the most important, for me, was that this phone's earpiece did not get hot when I used it. (I have written an Epinion on my prior phone, the Nokia 6120, which suffered from this flaw.) The phone is small and easy to carry around with you in a jacket pocket or shirt pocket.
The SCH-3500 has a lot of the features you would expect from modern cell phones. It supports Caller ID and has a voicemail indicator. It has a large phone book that is relatively easy to use once you spend a few moments with the phone's manual.
It is a dual mode phone, able to shift between Sprint PCS digital service (2100 mhz digital) and plain old analog 800mhz service. This is pricey, however -- .34 cents a minute. That's Sprint PCS, not the phone, so it's not really a minus against the phone. You can set the phone to use only Sprint PCS's service and never shift to analog. I recommend doing this, because the phone has the habit of sticking with analog once it finds an analog signal.
Call quality is great. I rarely get static or dropped calls. The sound quality in this phone is among the best I've tried. That is, however, when you are able to get a signal. In large buildings, usually supermarkets or shopping malls, the SCH-3500 often cannot find a signal. Since I refuse to pay Sprint's analog roaming rates, I often watch people in supermarkets and malls chatting away on their phones with some jealousy. Once my contract is up with Sprint, I may look elsewhere to get around this issue. (Sprint usually does not do contracts, but since I got a deal with them through my company and paid $10 for the phone, I'm stuck with them until October of 2002 or I have to pay them for the phone.)
Battery life is also good. The phone can usually go for two days on a single charge, figuring it gets turned off around 10 PM or so. By the end of the second day, the battery is pretty well flat. Still, it's markedly better than the 6120, which usually lasted me about eight or nine hours.
The phone's coolest feature is easily the voice dialing. Simply record a name, associate a number with it, and there you go. The phone can get confused sometimes, but it works well enough. It's a good feature to have while driving.
While we're on driving features, it's also worth mentioning that the SCH-3500 uses a standard 2.5mm jack for its headset port. What does this mean to you? That it's easy to find headsets that will work with this phone. Some other phones have used their own proprietary interface, which limits your choices. Headsets are now the law in New York State for calling while driving, and it's a good idea anywhere you fo.
All in all, the SCH-3500 is a good phone to have, unless you need to make a lot of calls from large buildings.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 10
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Epinions.com ID:
kurt_g
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Location: Brick, NJ
Reviews written: 116
Trusted by: 38 members
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