You love BlackBerry, But you don't love having to carry that big BlackBerry device. The SAMSUNG T719 is a sleek, slim flip phone - with BlackBerry Connect built-in. The Samsung SHG-T719 isn't just a software thing; this phone is BlackBerry inside and out. It has licensed BlackBerry Connect functionality and the hybrid Semi-QWERTY keyboard you already know and love. You can connect yourself to Bluetooth-enabled headsets, hands-free car kits, computers and more. Hello, Bluetooth. Good-bye, wires. If you like taking photos the T719 allows you to take excellent pictures you can be proud of. The full 1.3 megapixels and handy rotating lens, won't let you miss a bit of the action. This GSM phone has 4 bands 850 / 900 / 1800 /1900 mhz. Travel anywhere in the world with this sleek mobile phone. Talk for a minimum of 2.5 hours. This mobile phone has many other features which include instant messaging, video recording, Voice Recongnition, calendar, to do list and many more. JAVA - 2 Internal Display - Technology 262K TFT, Resolution - QCIF, Size 2.2 External Display - Technology 4 Gray, Resolution 96 x 96 Pixel, Size 1.0 Talk time - Min. 2.5 hours / Standby time - Min. 200 hours Input Device - 5 x 4 Keypad Camera Resolution - 1.3M Digital / Optical Zoom - 4x Digital Zoom / LED Flash Short Mode - Normal shot / Self shot / Timer shot / Multi shot / Matrix shot / Capture only Video recording - 3gp (H.263 + AMR) / MPEG4 / Music & Sound - 40 Polyphonic Ringtones / 3D sound technology - MP3, AAC, SMF Business & Office - Voice memo & Voice mail SMS, EMS, Smart msg / Image / Sound / SMIL / MSG Size 300KB / OTA MMS configuration vCard / vCalendar Instant Messaging - (MSN,Yahoo,AOL,ICQ) Connectivity - Bluetooth Compatible / USB - USB 1.1 User Memory - 25MB 1000 phone book entries, calendar, to do list, scheduler, clock, worldtime, alarm, currency converter, calc
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Nice phone combined with good features Comment: I bought this phone with the ~$100 money back, it was the cheapest for T-mobile >$39 service. If what you need is just a phone and phone related features--not pda or mp3 stuff--it's a great one
Pros:
1. Very handy Voice command dialing (especially when with bluetooth earphone)
2. Large display but not a clumsy looking like Motorola razors.
3. Camera can spin to facing you or facing the direction you are looking. You can take photo for yourself easily. (I don't use cellphone camera, but someone may.)
Cons:
Battery life sucks. You have charge at least twice a week if you don't use it. If you use it, charge every other day. Customer Rating: Summary: Disappointing Comment: I've owned and loved three different Samsung clamshells so a Samsung clamshell combined with blackberry functionality seemed like a dream come true. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed with the t719 and got rid of it a week later. Here's my summary. Note that I used it with my employer's Blackberry enterprise server for email and appointments and I receive upwards of 200 emails a day. I've never owned a Blackberry, but I hear that actual Blackberry products are more feature-rich than the t719. Perhaps some critical features were cut for enterprise users in favor of ease of use for casual users.
Cons:
- Text messages and email are intermingled in one view with no option that I could find to separate them. This was impractical for me since text messages generally have a higher priority than email and they weren't easy to find mixed with the email.
- The text entry functionality is the worst I've ever used. The t719 seemed to be very bad at guessing what I wanted to type and there's no way to add new words to the dictionary.
- White space isn't economized when reading email. There were big gaps of empty space which work fine in a traditional email reader, but are huge annoyance on a small screen.
- Emails longer than a few hundred characters were impractical to read since I experienced big delays while the phone retrieved more email text between pages. Seems like it could retrieve more text in the background while you're reading rather than waiting for you to click "page down."
- The calendar didn't sync wirelessly via the blackberry enterprise server. I had to plug the phone into my PC.
- Won't run downloaded java apps that need network connectivity so I couldn't run the nifty gmail client that google offers. Not sure why Samsung disabled this.
- The annoying camera click that you can't disable is a good second or two off from the actual capture of the picture. Cheesy.
Pros:
- I think Samsung's interface and menu's are the best and the prettiest. It's very easy to navigate options. Too bad there aren't enough of them.
- The phone's camera flash doubles as a flashlight. This is pretty cool and extremely handy.
- Samsung phones are always very durable and the t719 is no exception. In comparison, a couple of accidental drops for my Razr resulted in dust under the screen. I've never had any durability problems with a Samsung. Customer Rating: Summary: Pretty good phone with one exception. Comment: This phone is reasonably sized and not too thick for a flip-phone, which I wanted because my previous phone (choc bar) screen had got scratched and cloudy. Also I was fed up with dealing with external buttons getting pressed accidentally. I also wanted bluetooth (for the car) and a reasonably good still-shot camera (it does video too) with more than 1Mpixel, as video-only resolution cameras are really not very good quality. Unlike some phones, there is no external button to turn on its camera with the case closed - a really good thing. This phone seems to fit the bill, except because of all the extra functions, doing basic operations is somewhat more complex than I would like.
My biggest problem with this phone is the decision to use a QWERTY keyboard. If a company gives a number like 1-800-XXXHELP, how do you readily translate the letters to numbers? When I use a QWERTY keyboard, my finger memory allows me to use it efficiently. This does NOT translate into correct finger memory when holding the phone in one hand and using one or two fingers with the other hand. It would be much easier to use the old-style keyboard in this case. I guess its the Blackberry influence ;^(
Finally, if you use a bluetooth connection with your car for so-called hands-free operation, then when the car is started or the phone first switched on in the car, then the phone prompts you to confirm if you want to make a connection to the car. This is a real pain - you start driving and the phone starts to beep at you until you get it out of your pocket (not always easy when driving), flip it open and confirm. This may not be a safe thing to do while driving, but the alternative is to try to ignore the beeps, or to pull over and do the deed safely. Why can't they have a mode that just establishes a connection automatically for selected devices? Do other phones do this? Customer Rating: Summary: Great phone with few concerns... Comment: This phone reminds me of Samsung's 715 phone which was absolutely superior. There are a few upgrades from that phone though.
The voice recognition feature is cool. You can say a certain command and the phone will take you to that screen or call a certain person for you. Haven't used it much, but nice to have if I want to.
You can access corporate email or other email with its Blackberry feature. I bought the phone for that feature and then ended up not using it. Again, very handy to have.
This phone can receive the myfaves promotion that T-Mobile is offering, but you don't get the five icons downloaded on your phone because this phone doesn't support that. Really not an issue for me, because it takes away from your ringtones (so I've been told) if you do choose myfaves.
At first I didn't care for the text message t9 mode, but figured out how to maneuver it, it's a cinch now. The keyboard on this phone is the qwerty type, but not full qwerty, qwerty on the numbers. Still not bad, and keeps the size small while being highly functional.
The front LCD shows a colorful display of a blue sky with green grass upon turning the phone on or shutting it down. The phone will dim after a few seconds of flipping the lid, but the time, date, and battery life remains. I also love the fact that if you've missed a call, the external LCD will tell you the last person that called and whether or not you have a voicemail. If more than one person has called and left messages when you open the phone, the screen will show you each person that called along with whether they left a message. Samsung has the best call records screen I've seen. It tells you the date and time someone called, as well as how many times that person has called you.
I do miss the service light that blinked when you had a new text message or a new voicemail from the Samsung 715. Hey, overall, I would say this is the best phone T-Mo offers. I have very minor complaints and would purchase it again; however, I must admit it isn't the cheapest phone if you aren't a new customer. I had to pay 249.99 and extend the contract for 2 years, but I don't mind because the myfaves plan is the best deal going!
