Samsung E317 Phone (Cingular)

Rating:
Summary: samsung 317
Review: Had the Phone on cingular serves for five days now bought the 317 for my self and the samsung 427m for MY Daughter took mine back to day because the sound quality is so bad, had to ask the other person to repeat them selves most of the time. My Daughters 427m sounded great good sound quailty so I traded my 317 for the 427m. the only thing I miss is the front display

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Summary: Sound Horrible!!!!!
Review: I bought this phone because it was small, had the photo caller ID on the outside of the phone, and was packed with features. The problem I did'nt expect was with the sound quality. The sound quality is horrible, you are constantly asking the person your talking to , to repeat themeselves. The caller seems muffled or like their talking to you from inside a cave. If you can deal with the horrible sound quality I say buy this phone, but if your like me and like to hear your calls go with something eles. Mine will be going back tomorrow!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Review E317
Review: I have been a Sprint customer for 2 years with a Samsung A500, was a very reliable phone except for sprints coverage area. Now to the E317 and Cingular. I read the E316 reviews prior to my purchase and thought that there is now way that this phone (since it's a samsung) is that bad. Well I was wrong, it definitely has its share of problems. I have no gripes with cingular, this is on the phone only.

1. The E317 has very, and I mean very, poor sound quality. Unless the person is speaking very loud or has a deep voice it is very difficult to hear them, even with the volume turned all the way up. This is why I am looking into returning it. Heck, this is the most important thing.

2.It does not have the standard 2.5mm Hands Free jack but instead one that is proprietary to samsung.

3.The volume control on the side controls the keypad volume when not in use, it DOES NOT control the ring volume or send the phone to vibrate mode like my A500 did (I am not sure if samsung has changed all their phones to act like this). Vibrate must be set by the keypad and the ring volume requires you to navigate in the control menus. The side button will control the speaker volume when you are talking on the phone.

4. Has a fair amount of background static that is always constant at some level. Much more than I ever had with the A500.

5. The speaker produces more of a computer generated voice than most people will be use to or will like. My A500 sounded more like the phone would in your home, where the E317 sounds like you are talking to someone through the computer.

6. The Good - Small and light weight with good color displays. Easy to use camera, even though low picture quality. Easy to navigate phonebook and phonebook is easy to setup.

Well I hope this helps you make an informed decision and even though you like the looks of the phone, just stick with something like the Motorola V400. I really look for Cingular to pull this phone off the market within 6 months due to complaints (This is not unheard off).


Rating:
Summary: GREAT PHONE...... But it has its flaws
Review: I Just Bought This Phone A little while ago and when i bought it they made sure this is the one i wanted because of complaints that the sound quality was bad. Well that is if you are in certain areas that dont get the best reception because it sounds just as good as my nokia and sony ericsson and my sidekick 2,but it has alot more features that are well worth the money( dual color screens for the photo viewfinder and as a photo caller id, lights up bright on the front with a multi color,changable service light,has a great quality vga camera with effects such as frames, black and white,sepia tone,negative and it can even make a picture look like a sketch,and it does this all sharply so it doesnt look cheap. also it gets great reception and has a vibrant color screen with animated backrounds. it has great battery life and loud crisp clear ringtones including mp3 and polyphonic.You can change your message tones, powering on and off tones, folder tone, and set personal ringtones so it is highly customizable. The phone itself is also very attractive and small. It is also light so it has alot of pocket appeal. The Bad good call quality but still not the best if you are looking for the best i would go for the motorola v400/v551. Also you have to keep the same shutter tone on all the time you cant change it or make it silent, the keys are a bit small but not to where youll be hitting 2 keys at once. It also runs on GPRS not edge so downloads are a bit slow. other than that no problems, and even better it runs on AT&T/cingular's gsm 850/1900 service so youve got great reliable coverage.

Rating:
Summary: Good light and small phone
Review: I like this phone. Its small and light with a nice look and color. The volume could be a bit higher. Im not noticing all the problems others complain about while I do agree the volume in the speaker should go a big higher. The motorola v551 is too heavy of a phone to expect to want to keep for a year or more.

Rating:
Summary: All the "must-have" features are perfect. (but...)
Review: I own and use this phone, and overall, it's excellent. Samsung got the important features right: Size/weight, battery life, reception and call quality, etc.

All the "must-have" features are perfect. I only wish they hadn't overlooked some "nice-to-haves."

My wish list:

* [major] Give us a speakerphone, man!
* [minor] The display breaks phone numbers up at the 5th digit, so dialed numbers look like this:
718-55
5-1212

* [medium] The call logs only indicate the names of friends--not their numbers. I.e., it will tell me that my friend "Joe" called, but not whether it was from his home, his office or his mobile (if I have all three in my phone book). This is especially inconvenient when it comes to using the "recently dialed calls" list.
The same problem applies to the caller ID screen that appears when a friend calls. Even with called ID, I find myself asking friends who call me, "Are you calling from home or from work?" because all my caller ID reports is that "Joe" from my phonebook is calling.

* [minor] It's currently difficult to find accessories for this phone--in part because of Samsung's questionable decision to use a completely non-standard jack for the headset connection.

I'll leave it at that. All in all, an excellent performer and a great, fun phone. But a phone at this level should have its user interface thought through a little better.

Rating:
Summary: Cute Phone, Bad Sound Quality
Review: I wish I could keep this phone, but the sound quality is so bad that I have to return it.

It has some great features- it's very small, great display, the numbers are very BIG when you type them in on the screen...but the sound quality is awful. I really have to press the phone up to my ear to hear and even then, the other person sounds like they are in a tunnel. At first I thought that my earpiece had blown out or something - the way that your car speakers can blow out- but now I think the volume is just lower on this phone than with others.

Otherwise though, it's a nice phone.

Rating:
Summary: Problems with "hide number" in caller id
Review: Overall no major problems with the phone. Some difficulties with sound quality, but I don't know if it's phone vs. Cinguular.
One major glitch is inability to switch into "hide number" in caller ID. When you do that, the phone stops dialing out after an hour or so. I thought it was a problem with a particular hand set, got a new one and same thing happens.
Will have to exchange it, since I like to keep my number private

Rating:
Summary: Bad sound
Review: The sound quality is horrible! I purchased my brand new samsung e317 on ebay. I first assumed that the seller had jipped me. Reading these reviews, now I know differently. If I had it to do over again, I would have purchased a different phone.

Rating:
Summary: Efficient, useful, high tech phone
Review: This phone is better than the other camera phones out there because it's easy to use, while being very capable. The features it provides are useful. The design is very modern and not too complicated as well. I would recommend it to anyone out there.