Samsung i700 PDA Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Rating:
Summary: Great complete solution
Review: I've owned this device for 3 months now and love it. As somebody that is frequently out of the office, it's been great to have my PDA and my phone in one device.

Rating:
Summary: If you value your Outlook data, do not buy this phone!
Review: If you value your outlook data, do not buy this phone!

I purchased this phone from Verizon to make my office more mobile. I'm an attorney and rely on my MS Outlook and cell phone to manage my practice; I'm also a fairly computer savvy person. So it was a shock to me that it took 5 hours of phone time with Verizon data services to attempt to configure this device to work with my MS Outlook - a feature touted by the cell phone manufacturer. I finally decided to return the phone after its Active Sync program erased two weeks of sensitive Outlook data on my computer, a "bug" in the program confirmed by a Microsoft technician.

To cap it all off, the audio quality is much worse than my two year old Motorola!

On the plus side, I did like its handwriting recognition. But without the ability to sync it safely with my computer, or to hear or be heard on the telephone, this device should be relegated to the scrap heap of bad technology design.


Rating:
Summary: Annoying peice of
Review: My LCD screen cracked. I think this was due to taking it from the cold Chicago winter to the warm inside. Or maybe I dropped it. Either way, you can imagine how fragile this giant screen is. Now, it looks pretty sweet. But in reality, combined with the very very poor product called Microsoft Pocket PC, it couldn't be more annoying. The thing is constantly waking up as it's in my pocket, and then random buttons are pushed, causing all manner of idiocy, including calling people without my knowledge and adding appointments with reminders that wake me up. And now that my screen is cracked I can't turn off the reminders. I can only press "snooze" so every 5 minutes the reminder comes back, buzzing and dinging. I think they made mine out of stupid. And this is the best phone Verizon makes? Incredible.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, Flexible, Complex
Review: The user experience with the i700 starts out at about 2-3 stars as some minor annoyances appear right away. However, its offsetting power and flexibility soon become evident, bringing it up to a full 4 stars after a week of normal use.

Consider the supplied case, which nearly doubles the thickness of the phone: Once you have the i700 snapped into its plastic holder, the phone becomes difficult to pry free without great effort and accidental key strikes; Let the phone dangle from the wrist strap as you walk and your index finger gets caught between the strap and the antenna; Try to speak with the case open and it closes against your forehead. Phew. Add the cost of an aftermarket case to any comparison shopping calculations.

There is also a potentially expensive "gotcha" new users should know about. If after surfing the Web you forget to tap the `disconnect' icon (you must tap another icon to even see it), you remain connected -- even if you switch to another task or, worse, forget about it. Yikes. The phone bill that might result boggles the mind. Imagine the absurdity of a cab driver returning with a $500 bill the next day because you "forgot" to tell him to turn of the meter!

Unfortunately, a hard copy user manual is not included, though a PDF version is included on disc. Considering the complexity of the device, this economy seems ill-advised. A small lightweight reference guide would have helped.

The phone works well overall. Voice mail is very easy to set up by following voice prompts. For what it's worth, reception is strong in my service area, and Verizon has an extensive network. Dialing a new number requires both hands and your nearly undivided attention, which makes driving and dialing a worse idea than ever. As the form factor suggests, this is a powerful PDA that happens to have a phone.

The pocket versions of Excel and Word are nothing special ("Hey, what happened to my formatting?"), but they have the advantage of being immediately familiar to users of Microsoft Office. You can tap out a letter or email (the screen renders text crisply), but for serious mobile productivity, don't kid yourself; you still need a laptop.

About the flexibility: Consider for example how many ways you can manage battery consumption. A battery gauge in the settings menu shows remaining charge and battery type. You can: 1.) Set the CPU mode to the default Normal, up it to Turbo (useful for video files) or drop back to Low Power; 2.) Adjust backlight brightness; 3.) Adjust the auto-shutoff from 1-5 minutes; 4.) Set it to not receive any incoming IR beams; 5.) Limit use of vibrate mode; and 6.) Use the browser more or less sparingly. Just the way a manual transmission appeals to a good driver, this lets you fine-tune to your heart's content. Most people these days just want an automatic, though.

The 240x320 pixel active-matrix LCD screen with 64,000-color capability can display subtle gradations of hue lesser screens can't. It is "transflective," which makes it is readable in both low-light and bright sunlight, while the long screen means you don't have to do the squint-and-scroll routine familiar to users of square-screen PDAs get through a document.

The processor is fast and more than adequate for every program I threw at it.

The clock lets you switch back and forth between home and visiting time zones with a tap of the stylus in the settings menu, which is handy for travelers. You can set up to four alarms by time and day of the week (Who would do that? I guess just knowing you could be that organized is the thing).

Another nice touch is a word suggestion window, which uses a predictive algorithm to give a best guess about what word you are typing (it appears to gather clues from context, but does not learn). For example, if you type c-o-n-f-l, it might suggest "conflict." Once you get used to its limitations, using this feature speeds up the hunt and peck with the stylus on the graphical keyboard -- it is not a pointless feature or gimmick.

The camera lens rotates on one axis via knurled thumb wheel so you can point it screen side, battery side, or any point in between. It folds back down to avoid scratching the slightly recessed lens, but does not lock in place. There's a slightly jerky videophone quality to the viewfinder display (Setting the CPU to turbo mode didn't increase the screen refresh rate), but this is no big deal. Picture quality is VGA (640x480), or you can select 320x240 or 160x120 to keep file size down.

A side-indented expansion slot accepts Multi Media Card (MMC) or Secure Digital (SD), which makes it easy to swap memory cards in or out. Using an aftermarket memory card and periodically backing up your files guards against data loss from draining both the main and backup internal battery.

Synchronizing with Outlook is more difficult than it should be. The box promises "Do it yourself without the help of the IT staff," but that is a bit like a bicycle "you can assemble yourself in 5 minutes."

CONCLUSION
Balancing the power and features against some quirky user-unfriendliness, I'll give the i700 four stars. However, if you are a phone person and don't use a PDA much, there are better choices.