Samsung, I Think I Love You!
Written: Jan 18 '02
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Pros: Very classy look and feel, tons of useful features, easy to navigate
Cons: Price
The Bottom Line: Definitely a must have! It's just too easy!
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| hlbirk's Full Review: Samsung SPH-N200 Silver |
In searching for better reception, wide coverage area, better plan and better price on a cell phone, I stumbled upon the Samsung SPH-N200. No, I didn't actually trip and fall per se, but yes, I did fall...in LOVE!
After regaining my regular heart rate after a small bit of sticker shock, I asked the guy behind the flashy smile to show me what a price of $159 could do for me. He corrected me right off the bat in saying, "Well ma'am the $179 is what the retail price is but we're offering $30 off." Oh, how wonderful. (What do I look like I'm made of money?) Anyway he pulled out the display model and began showing me some of the features...what could be shown without actually activating the phone. I was impressed!
"Would you like blue or silver?" Wow, different colors! I'm thinking, I'm thinking, oh too many decisions! "Gee, my husband purchased the silver one a couple weeks prior so I probably ought to go with blue." The flashy smile turned to gold as he now knew I was hooked.
Ok, some of you may be asking why I had so many questions if my husband already owned the exact same phone. You were wondering right? Well, he uses it for work most of the time so I'd never actually seen or used it. He never really talked about it, thus, out of sight out of mind.
We walked to the counter and he got my phone activated in just a few minutes and began going through the features with me. I was simply amazed at what all this phone could do. Would I even want or need my phone to do all these things? I doubt it, but it sounded good. I got to choose a password, which would be used to lock or unlock my phone depending on what I had it set to do. Easy enough. But the whole time I'm thinking to myself...setting up my voicemail is going to be a major pain in the you-know-what, it always is. He looks up from the computer and says, "Now whenever you're ready to activate your voicemail all you do is push this little button with the envelope on it. It will walk you through the entire process." What? This must be a joke, it's never that easy. Well, folks I'm here to tell you that it is. One button. Done!
There is such a large list of features on this Samsung SPH-N200 that I simply can't do them justice here. But these features aren't just for the techies in the world. Some of them are very logical and easy to navigate and understand for the common....mom! (I have 5 children, I have enough to worry about without spending hours getting my phone programmed properly.)
Voicemail When a message is waiting you get a blinking envelope on the display screen and a light beep (if you set it up) and a blinking light.
Toggle Switch This reminded me of the day of Atari. Am I old? Anyway, it's fingertip friendly and all you do is move it from side to side or up and down until you get where you want. Then just click it.
Flip Feature The phone can be set up to answer an incoming call by simply opening the flip, pressing any button or pressing TALK. This also ends the call, by closing the flip cover.
Phone Book This unit can hold up to 238 phone book entries with up to 6 phone numbers for each entry. Each entry can contain up to 12 characters. The phone book is very easy to access using the MENU button and then the toggle switch to move up and down.
Volume What happens when you're expecting a call but not in a location that should hear a ringing phone? You either have to turn your phone completely OFF or race to answer it before anyone starts grumbling right? With this phone you can choose to have the ringer on low, medium, high, 1 beep, vibrate, high & vibrate or off. Think church or movie theater folks!
Caller ID This a standard feature on most phones but what I really like is that it's displayed without having to actually open the flip cover. You can even set the tones to ring specific for callers with and without Caller ID.
Tones There are several to choose from ranging from a series of beeps or actual song tones. You can customize this feature into specific callers get a specific ring, voice messages having their own ring, as well as faxes and alerts all having their own tone. Very good idea, especially if you aren't wanting to hear from the ex-spouse!
Calendar I'm old fashioned I guess, I still carry a day planner. This feature holds no interest for me but it's nice to know it's there if the need should arise.
Voice Dial Once you have specific phone numbers saved you can set them up for voice dial, which means hands-free dialing. I do use this feature although it doesn't work as well as I expected. If you're in a background that has any other noise it doesn't recognize your voice as well. I use this rarely since it's easy enough to use the toggle switch to find the number I want to call.
Wireless Web Another feature that is useless to me. I have no desire so burning that I need Web access badly enough to pay an additional charge and try to read it through a display screen on a cell phone.
Like I said, there are tons of features and I'm sure most, if not all, would be very useful to someone else. I love what I do use and like knowing that my phone has left me some room to grow. Who knows, maybe someday I'll need that Web browser to check my stock prices. LOL
When purchasing this phone I also purchased the car charger with it, which is a great add-on sale. Ask 'ol Smiley, he'll tell ya! I can plug it into my cigarette lighter in my car, then hook my phone into and it actually charges while driving. This is a great feature for me since my parents live over an hour away and cell phone batteries on roam tend not to live long. The phone also comes with a standard desk top charger in the box. That charger has 3 indicator lights on it: red, green and yellow. Red is lit when you put the phone into the charger, meaning it's charging. Green means it's at least 90% charged. Yellow means you're a schmuck and don't have the phone sitting just right and you need to correct it.
Speaking of batteries. There is one Lithium Ion battery that comes with the phone. What the heck is Lithium Ion and what's so special about that? It means that you can charge the battery before it totally runs down. Pretty snazzy huh? The User Guide states that *the battery will offer 3.5 hours of continuous digital talk time (over 1 hour in analog) or over 100 hours of continuous digital stand-by time (15 hours in analog).
Yes, the price is a bit out there, but now that I've been using it for several months I don't regret it. The phone is clear, easy to use, sleek looking and absolutely a dream to own!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 129
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Epinions.com ID:
hlbirk
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Member: Heather Smith
Location: Olathe, Kansas
Reviews written: 126
Trusted by: 55 members
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