Review of Samsung i730 and Verizon - too much or not enough?
Written: Jun 26 '05 (Updated Sep 30 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: This is a very powerful phone.
Cons: This phone is so powerful, it doesn't really work as well as my simple phone.
The Bottom Line: This phone is worth it if you want a powerful PDA and a phone all in one.
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| mrisch's Full Review: Samsung SCH i730 Smartphone |
I have been waiting for the Samsung SCH-i730 cell phone/PPC since it was announced at a trade show in January. I had just received an iPAQ rx3715 (see my other review), and while I love the iPAQ, the lack of cell phone coverage required me to carry two devices. The iPAQ was a casualty.
So, when Verizon finally launched the i730 I (or rather my company) bought one the day it was released. It was really expensive, because we had no discount plan and I wasn't at my upgrade time yet. Time will tell whether it was worth the price, but I needed a new phone anyway - my old phone (a Samsung i600 Smartphone) was so beat up that it just wasn't working.
The Basics
Samsung designed a very slick phone - one of the reasons I wanted it so badly. The phone includes Verizon wireless cell service with Microsoft Pocket PC Windows Mobile. This does not include the new "version 5" that Microsoft has announced. There is also no camera on this phone (OK with me - they don't allow it many places I go), but rumor has it one will come soon.
The phone's big new feature is a very nice "slide out" QWERTY keyboard with tiny buttons and a number pad. In reality, the color screen slides up to expose the keyboard, and the motion is smooth and easy.
The size is smaller than an iPAQ and there are 4 hardware buttons plus standard navigation/OK buttons, and phone connect and disconnect buttons. The antenna is fixed and extends from the phone about an inch, and then a pullout menu pulls out of that. I have not pulled that out yet. The holster is plastic and rotates 90 degrees in either direction.
The biggest design flaw to me is the status window at the top. The two critical things I need to see in a status bar are the battery power remaining and whether I have voicemail. The i730 shows neither - the battery power is not there (at all) and the voicemail is under a "sub" window that you have to use the stylus to get to. In other words, no quick glances to see if you have a message. The LED does not appear to show messages either.
The phone is pretty light on included software, though it does include Windows Media Player and Sprite Backup. It also includes remote terminal client for windows (that is, remote desktop manager), which allows for login to remote servers (and desktops, if set up that way). This is a nice feature as I do a lot of remote management. I did not find much else useful other than Pocket Outlook.
The phone
The phone works like any standard cell phone. The unit is smaller than a standard iPAQ type device (but the screen resolution still works) so the phone is not uncomfortable to hold and talk with, but it is really heavy - especially with the extended battery. I prefer to use a headset (the kit comes with a wired headset - I use a bluetooth set).
Activating the headset brings up voice signal, which I think works terribly, but I am too cheap to pay for Microsoft Voice Command. The primary problem with voice signal is that it is very hard to hear who you are calling, and it makes mistakes all the time. While you can slow down the voice to better understand what you are saying (so you don't call Ted when you wanted to call Dad), you cannot do custom training for the contacts, which means that the system will mistake Ted for Dad over and over and over again, as far as I can tell.
The biggest issue with the phone, and the part I will need to get used to the most is that it doesn't dial like a phone. While the QWERTY keyboard is nice, it isn't easy to see or deal with while driving. On the plus side, maybe I will spend more time looking at the road, and less time at my phone. I am very, very good with T9 typing, and moving to this will be very different. I knew things were different when I wasn't enjoying my solitaire game on the new unit. I finally figured out why - on the i600 I could play with one hand - move column 6 to column 1, etc. On the i730, I have to use the stylus to not only move cards, but also to turn new cards. It takes twice as long to play a game and two hands as well.
Dialing is accomplished many ways. First is voice signal (see above). Second is speed dialing using the pullout keyboard. These two will be CRITICAL on this phone if you want to "one hand" it. Third, you can also dial on the pullout keyboard (pulling the keyboard out activates the unit from sleep mode). Fourth,you can also dial by tapping numbers into the unit. Fifth, you can look up a name in the Pocket Outlook Contacts, which drives all of the stored numbers.
I was pretty disappointed with name lookup. On the i600, I just typed in the name of whoever I wanted to type and by 3 letters or so, I had the list. With the i730, I have to load contacts (there is a hardware button for it at least) and then use the stylus to search for the name. Not really how I used to do it, or very easy.
Also, on my i600 I could tie Apps to my speed dial (my favorite was the calls log) - I haven't figured out how to make that work yet.
The PPC
I won't write much about the Pocket PC - it is standard Windows Mobile PPC (Second Edition, I think) software. Just about everything I have downloaded to it has run just fine, including third party syncing software. It is pretty easy to use for the basics, but it is also compact and thus not really intuitive for "power" usage - in order to really do task switching and other management, additional tools may be necessary.
Typing into email can be done in all of the PPC methods (tap keyboard, and various handwriting recognition), this unit adds the ability to use the slideout QWERTY keyboard as well as a bluetooth keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard is a bit small for my fingers and the letters curve up to match the phone shape, but I am getting used to it. I am not quite as fast as T9 yet, but I am getting there.
The phone supports SMS and wirelesssync from Verizon. I tried the wireless sync and am not a big fan, but I think it works great for others.
Wireless Data
This phone has four ways to get connected: Cell (CDMA), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (802.11b - not g), and infrared.
One of the coolest things I did the first day I owned this phone was download an mp3 from a website (searched on Google) and then play it. That is something I couldn't do very easily even on my i600.
Here are my results with each:
Cell:
This works just like my i600 did - go to the browser, and it dials out to verizon's wireless dial-up POP. This phone support 1x (standard network) and EV-DO (broadband wireless). I was really excited for the EV-DO, but it turns out that the San Francisco Bay Area doesn't have it yet. Who would have thought - I figured we would be the first, but I'll have to wait to test that out.
I am able to use the 1x network, and it seems faster than my i600 for data retrieval, but the dialup seems to take longer. I am able to retrieve all my email via web access.
Unfortunately, this unit does not come with an option (that I can find) to turn it into a wireless modem for laptop dialing. So, even though I pay a ton a month for unlimited data, it doesn't deliver full value. I have heard that there are third party products that may make this work.
Bluetooth
My only test with bluetooth so far is my Motorola wireless headset, which I just bought. It connected and partnered fine, and the voice quality is good, but sometimes I can't hear the voice signal voice dialing commands in my ear - I am trying to figure out why.
Also, there is apparently a problem with voice recognition when there are outside sounds. I am nearly unable to dial by voice when walking down the street through bluetooth.
Wi-Fi
The wi-fi works fine, but I have found that wi-fi on the PPC is difficult to configure and slow to find networks, and this device is no different. It does connect to my home network, though the default settings require WEP, and I had to figure out how to connect to my open network. There are third party products out there that ease network finding on the PPC.
There are easy buttons on the front "Today" screen for turning bluetooth and wi-fi on or off. This is good, because I have found that wi-fi doesn't work that well if bluetooth is on. Also, wi-fi turns the phone off (can't do both at once), so the bluetooth headset is pretty useless anyway. It is a bit of a pain to keep going back and forth, but I suppose that's better than nothing.
infrared
There is infrared send and receive, and I have connected and sync'ed my laptop to the i730 without any problem and without any new installation. It is, however, much slower than the USB cradle. You can also to standard iR to iR file swapping without activesync.
The PPC also includes remote control software to drive TV's etc. The default choices are terrible (unlike the very nice Nevo based system on the iPAQ), but it is a learning remote, so you can train it on any remote you own.
Battery Life
Battery life has been good so far, but only because I have plugged in via wi-fi. The two things guaranteed to kill your battery FAST are wi-fi and EV-DO.
Fortunately, the phone comes standard with a regular and an extended battery, as well as a charger/docking station that will charge both at once while it sync's to your PC. I get 8 or so hours of standby, and maybe 2-3 of talktime/1x network time on the extended. Your mileage will vary. Needless to say, I don't take chances given that you can't see the battery level through the day, so I leave mine plugged in as much as possible.
Make sure your unit is set up to turn off after a minute or two when unplugged (look at Power under Settings | System). It took me a while to figure out powering this thing on and off. The "phone" button is like most phones - press the disconnect button to turn on, and press and hold to turn the phone off. BUT, that's really just turning the phone radio on and off. There is a different button on the side that turns the PDA on, and then turns the backlight off, or turns the whole unit "off" - but it's not really off - as phone activity or a tap will turn it on. It is very confusing at first, and you will have to play with it to get used to it.
Storage
The system storage is not tremendous. Main Memory is 57MB (and .net takes up some of this - side note - .net is not installed standard) There is a good size (85MB) internal storage card so data survives battery loss. I immediately put a 256MB SD card in as well
UPDATE
Well, I have now used the phone for an additional three weeks, and I have grown more used to it. I am able to do many more things one handed that I didn't realize. First of all, you can set up the phone to answer by opening the slider. Second, if you open the slider, the phone will usually go into "keypad" dial mode, so that you can just start typing numbers. Additionally, if you hit the contacts button, you can dial by name.
Finally, I have discovered that I can use the tab key to move the cursor in explorer (shift tab to go back is a pain, though), and the blue "OK" button to click, and the delete key for the back command. This allows for much more one handed use.
Finally, I am trying out, and will likely buy a neat program called "phone alarm" that shows you all your missed calls, voicemail, SMS messages, battery and antenna status, etc. right on the home "Today" screen. For $15, this program solves many of the problems I describe in this review.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 700
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