Samsung SCH-i730
Average Ratings
Disappointed with the i730
I'm going to return this phone to Verizon. Both Verizon and Samsung have been very helpful in their support however the phone stinks as a phone. The windows programming is excellent but it is a lousy cell phone. The voice recognition is poor... the phone is clumsy, speaker phone mic doesn't pick up well although speakers are good. Battery life is short, lit up display goes dim and after a while does not come back on unless battery is removed and reinstalled. While the Internet speed is good and many of the features as a PDA are good... I did buy it first off as a cell phone and it just has too many short comings as a cell phone leaving me disappointed overall.
Samsung has done a great job...everything I expected
I remember seeing the i730 over six months ago and dying to have it. I think I read every thread I could find on the internet. The anticipation of the phone's arrival was a nail-biting ordeal, but the moment of truth came on July 1st.
The build quality is great. The form factor is perfect. The accessories that accompany the i730 are a bonus. Sure, any product can be improved, but Samsung delivered on what they said, and Verizon did not disable the Wi-Fi feature as I had expected.
I'm very pleased and I will use this phone until something more remarkable comes along. I hope others have as much fun with their new purchase as I am!
great phone
I just received the I730 this morning, so far it's everything that I tought it would be. No problems out of the box like the treo 650 I am replacing, Verizon has done a good job at finally releasing a unit that works. The screen resolution is excellent multi tasking seems to go well with no hang ups.The sliding Keyboard seems a little flimsy and will slide out easily with the slide of a finger. I will also miss not having the camera. But I have 15 days to play around with the phone At this cost it will get my full attention.
But so far its works great.
Nice, Very Nice
Looks like Verizon Wireless messed up as I got two phones. I'll have to check my credit card but I think they only charged me for one so I have to send the second back. Too funny.
First and immediate impression: nice, small, good feeling in the hand, tiny screen. The instructions state to first "fully charge the phone" before turning it on but no LED indicators light up on the phone to give me charge status. So I don't know by looking at the phone when it's fully charged. Now, the wall plug does have a LED on it and was green until I plugged in the phone to which the plug changed it's color to an amber. Based on Liz's car charger that does something similar, I suspect when the phone's fully charged, the LED on the wall plug will return to it's original green state.
I've got to say, looking at this phone sitting next to me just looks really nice. Snazzy. It is thick, but that fits fine in your hand, so no biggy. The slide out keyboard is trick and very cool. It's also quite easy to invoke the slide single handed which I read some reports was difficult. The keypad appears jammed together but if you thumb-type, it really isn't that bad...and that's with your fattest finger! Again, since the phone isn't on, I can't confirm that the button pressings are accurate, but they feel like they will be.
I hope to have the phone activated by late afternoon when the battery is fully charged. I'll give a minor report on it tomorrow, hopefully, and let you all know. I can see Samsung built in a power saver feature (PDA off but the phone is still on) that hopefully will give much better results then the Audiovox I had (...) for a mere two hours before realizing it was going back to Verizon. With the better CPU and this power saver feature, I'm sure Samsung applied this thought better.
Awesome phone~Soars above all others.
I like most of the other people wanted a pda phone, but without the big bulkiness. I first got the Motorola e815 which had bluetooth. That was my first bluetooth phone. I was AMAZED. but it had problems software wise. So I decided to try the Xv6600, and WOW pda was pretty cool, camera not so cool. But the WORST part was you couldn't hear. Bluetooth was not voice activated so I took that one back and got the i730. Well I have been OVERLY please with everything BUT the voice activated dialing. I hate saying "Call dad" and it says "Call Shippensburg university" I am like they sound NOTHING alike. So I put on Microsoft Voice Command. Normally I hate Microsoft, but I was impressed with this program. You still have to hit a button on the phone and talk into the phone BUT you can leave it in it's case and it gets it right %95. Verizon forwarded me to samsung which said that voice signal has recognized this problem and are working on it. Other then that this phone is a dream. PDA, Small, just plain amazing. And I have owned ALOT of phones. This is the first one to impress me in a LONG while.
High Marks
I got this phone w/in 24 hours of ordering it from Verizon. I use to have the Audiovox 6600 that I was 'okay' with, but I wanted something smaller and with more features like WiFi and Bluetooth. This phone is great. Good feel to it. Small, but not too small. Can fit in your pocket and not feel like you're carrying a brick. I'm hard of hearing and this phones call volume is excellent... unlike the 6600!
During my first few phone calls I noticed that voice quality wasn't very good, but that might have been because I was in a 'bad' area. All seems to be okay a day later.
The keyboard can be revealed easily by a springloaded slide. It's very easy and can be done with one hand. The Audiovox 6600 required the user to hold the device in one hand and slide open the keyboard with the other.
The contects included a holster, charing cradle, usb cable and an extended (fat) battery.
A great phone but beware!
I have had the phone for a little more than a week and it has been very frustrating. I had trouble getting wi-fi to work correctly and found out from VZW that that had been reported in other support calls. The one thing that was the hardest to deal with was the phone going to sleep and not waking up. I didn't have this problem initially but by this weekend I was having to do a soft reset every time I wanted to use the phone. The support that I received from VZW was good, but this threw them a curve. One tech thought there may be a conflict with some third party software and this turned out to be the cause. Removing the software and doing a soft reset didn't help. I had to remove the program and do a hard reset and start over to get past this. I believe that the Norton anti virus was the real culprit, but there was another program that is also suspect.
Do yourself a favor and go slowly when installing other software so you don't have the same experience. I have found that ACT for PPC seems to work fine and I reloaded Mapopolis and it is working ok.
A good PDA and phone that works in the real world!
I purchase a Siemens SX66, the PDA was great but the phone volume (ringer and voice) made it useless in pubic places. The email attachment and internet download speeds was like watching plants grow. I return the phone and purchase a VX6600 (same phone with camera different carrier) that solved the data speed issue but not the phone volume issues.
I couldnât believe with today technology I couldnât get a good phone with PDA, so I tried the Samsung i730 and itâs a true working phone and PDA.
Pros:
Phone volume is good (ringer and voice).
Data downloads are rapid (email attachment and internet)
Bluetooth output volume adjustment (works great at highway speed with BT car kit, you car hear it!)
Easy key lock with slide answer and disconnect (great for pocket use)
Fast PDA, (out performing my HP stand alone it replaced)
Extend life battery supplied with phone (it makes it through a full business day)
Usable size (fits in pocket with one hand phone operation)
Works as remote control (works my VCR, DVD, Sat receiver, TV and Home Theater)
Great Wi-Fi (syncs without wires).
Nice rear speakers (music quality surprised me and the speaker phone works great).
Very Good overall signal reception (equal to my V series Motorola replacement).
Key board has positive feel (I still use the one on-screen, my old HP usage habit)
Cons:
Screen is a little smaller than standard PDAâs. (but understandable based overall on size).
No made to fit car kit changing cradle available yet. (would be nice)
Extendable antenna seems to have no effect in low reception areas. (although overall reception is very good)
Summary:
It everything I would expect from a good phone and PDA plus some.
cool PDA, horrible phone
I got this phone on friday and its tuesday now, been using for a few days and all i hear from people who talk to me on the phone is "i cant hear you very well!!" also the email function doesnt seem to work very well, i set it to automatically check my yahoo pop3 email and my work pop3 email every 15 minutes and when i log in a few hours laters from a pc to see why i havent gotten an email in hours, i find emails waiting that the phone never picked up. Bluetooth is flaky too i connect it to my plantronics m2500 and i hear my earpiece beep that it connects to the i730 and when i start a call I hear the first 3 words someone says in my earpiece than it beeps and disconnects the earpiece and i gotta pick up the phone to keep talking. Its pretty flaky and for a business phone for me it doesnt cut it, plus the software hangs a few times a day when doing simple things with no third party software on it even. Be careful this phone isn't ready yet.
I love this phone but.....
I do love this phone I have had it for a week and a half.Verizon wireless sent it to me within 24hrs of ordering it. Gotta love that Verizon service! The only issues I have had with this phone is the voice mail notification I don't receive any notification that I have voice mail. I have set the notifications in the settings menu correctly but that doesn't seem to matter. I love the WiFi, and EVDO, and all of the PDA features. The only thing that disappoints me is the fact that this phone doesn't have the camera that was initially designed with this phone. I do love the fact that I had the i600 and all of the car chargers and home chargers are compatible with this phone! Saved some more mula with that. Over all its great. Samsung keep up the great work.
