Samsung Convoy 2
Phone Scoop Review
Sep 22, 2011 by Eric M. Zeman
Samsung's latest clamshell for Verizon Wireless would be an ideal tool for Rambo to take into the bush for some weekend adventuring. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Pretty Good
I have had the phone for two weeks. Incredibly bright screens inside and out for use in sunlight, very loud ear speaker and also speakerphone. About the 2.5 mm headset port: works fine, and don't let others tell you this is abnormal size, it fits my pre-existing headset fine. Critics on the internet must have not used a headset with a recent mobile phone--they all seem to be this way now. Spacious keypad is good, however the directional button could have used more space. The phone is a bit thick but not heavy. I like the flip, its angle makes it easy to hold to the head and talk. Physically the handset could use an indentation on both sides to help a finger slip in and open the flip. And what is claimed to be a MicroSD card slot really isn't. It wouldn't recognize my 64MB card at all, not even to format it (works fine in my computer). So this phone really has a MicroSDHC "HC" = "high capacity" slot. Same physical dimensions but I had to buy a new 4GB card for the phone to accept it. I had some trouble storing music files. Now I have a few 0KB files on the phone that I cannot delete. Also, the Opera Mini browser has an irritating behavior: you cannot set the home page! This means it is always going to the myverizon page and trying to login. Every time I use the browser I have to make extra clicks to back out and actually go somewhere else I want to go. Next, the Contact List doesn't allow one to sort by Last Name = now I have a big mess after importing a CSV file of my Microsoft Outlook contacts. I suppose I can go back and re-import, tricking it by swapping fields, but I shouldn't have to! Finally, when I send a photo to myself by text message (goes to my e-mail), it gets resized much smaller and more grainy at the final destination. No change is made to the original stored on the handset / card so it can be transferred by USB cable just fine. I don't pay for the e-mail service so I don't know if that would also shrink the photos when sending to my e-mail account.
Great phone, Not so good voice quality
Phone is great for everything except voice. If you are speaking to someone else on Verizon, the voice is choppy and very delayed.
Convoy 2 Review
8/11/11 Received my new Samsung Convoy 2 today. In a word.... WOW! What a phone!
Samsung did a nice update to its predecessor, the Convoy. It is thinner and lighter than the Convoy and feels great in the hand.
So far, I like:
- The speakers! Loud, loud, loud, if you need them to be. No distortion. Best speakerphone I've heard yet! Your callers sound great and indeed, you can talk with the flip closed!
- Calls are wonderful. Everyone can hear my voice clear and the caller's voice is good even with the speakerphone.
- Key pad is spaced well with a blueish-white back-light. I would have liked a more rubbery feel to the buttons but they are not bad.
- The displays are bright, colorful and crisp. Time is displayed on the upper right of the main screen. Handy location.
- Ringtones are pleasant and loud, baby!
- (I love this!) The LED flash for photos doubles as a flashlight---and it's bright. Nice thinking Samsung! So, if you lose your regular flashlight, rest assured, your convoy has one in a pinch.
- Speaker button is on the right ride. Wish they had left it on the key pad or at least provided a shortcut key to it.
- Flip closes nice, not cheap sounding and no cheap feel to its hinge.
- I don't use PTT so I can't review it but if you don't utilize its PTT feature you can use the red button as an added shortcut key.
Very solid phone for those working or playing outdoors but if you just want a solid clamshell phone that won't break into 10 pieces if you drop it, this is it.
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Childhood phone
I received this phone 2 years ago in a lot. This was my backup phone for a while until I got a better backup phone. I'm writing this on it's 8th (16th in tech years) birthday. This phone is fine but it doesn't live up to my expectations anymore.
Design: Not beautiful but it's good enough especially for a rugged phone.
Camera: Pretty good for a feature phone. Definitely will be horrible in very low light places and colors will look dull but otherwise it'll be fine.
Reception: Very good! I have 4 bars on both 3G and 1X and I don't live in a major city.
Battery: Very good! It lasts a week with around 10-30 mins of usage a day and unlike most phones in my collection, I keep this on almost all the time.
Hardware features: Good amount of hardware features although I wish it supported FTP for Bluetooth so I didn't have to connect it to my computer to put files on it and a 3.5mm headphone jack especially because the 2.5mm jack is mono only, not stereo. I like the remapable side button and the interactive outer display.
Screen: Pretty good but I've seen better on feature phones. It's big enough and the resulation is pretty high but definitely not HD. (I'm a big fan of HD displays). It's pretty bright but I keep the brightness on 2/5.
Software features: This is the one I'm the most upset about. It does have a lot of customation which is really awesome but the music player is lackluster. If you put MIDI or SMAF files renamed to MP3, it will always be on the highest volume possible even if the volume is at 0. It doesn't support background play. I would have liked a more verity of themes too. Pretty good software for Verizon.
All in all, this phone is good if you want a rugged phone. It is not good for a backup phone becuase of the horrible music player. It has a good amount of features in both customation and hardware tho. Happy birthday, Verezon!
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Convoy Blues
This is the second Convoy phone I've had since Verizon sent the second one free. Problem is huge. This phone tends to suddenly 'die'; and I have purchased 6 batteries for it in a year, using 5 so far this year. I've never had so much battery problems with a phone before.
The phone just stopped ringing; it will take voicemail, but nothing I or others do has restored the ring tone.
The phone, if it actually worked, is a great little phone. I did not add any features to save money so I can not email or send photos, but I can take photos and text message which is fine with me.
The batteries add up; and the last time the phone died, I put in a new battery which only lasted one day. I had to throw that one out too, and put in yet another. Batteries are not that common and Tacoma Verizon did not carry them so I ordered them online by battery number. This is getting very tiring. Again, I just replaced the battery a month ago and it looks like this one is dying again.
Is it the phone or the batteries? It only takes a particular battery so I have to stock up just in case. I've never had this problem with any of my other phones which included a blueberry and an android.
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Died way too soon
I liked the solid heavy feel of this phone. It worked adequately. But then it died without warning when I'd had it less than a year. I'm careful with my stuff and I hadn't abused it or dropped it. Even though I was still under a 2 year contract with Verizon, since I had not purchased the extended warranty, they did nothing. So I got a used phone from a friend and waited out the rest of my contract. I really hope this isn't "military quality".
Samsung Convoy 2
I f the ratin only went up to 20 stars.
I just activated this phone on 12/31/2011 from my local Verizon store and all I have to say is quite simply "WOW!" I love the ruggedness of this unit since I work at a UPS truck facility in the Bay Area of California.
I also love the 2-way radio functionality.
If you are looking for a "tough" yet functional phone, I recommend getting this phone.
