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Samsung Smooth Reviews – basic handset from Verizon Wireless

writer2 June 29, 2009 Cell Phones 12 Comments

samsung-smooth The Samsung Smooth aka SCH-U350 is a basic handset from the manufacturer. The handset is aimed at the users that don’t need flashy looks and ultra-high-end features in their phones. The Smooth offers all the basic features of a phone along with some extra, and all this for an affordable price of $29.99 with a contract from Verizon Wireless.

There is nothing much to talk about the design of Samsung Smooth and the overall design of the handset is solid. The handset looks like any other budget flip phone but it feels comfortable as well as solid when you hold it in hand. The flip phone handset is designed with graphite blue front while the back panel is designed in muted black. The outer shell houses 1-inch external color display and the camera lens is located just above it. The external display can be customized with the wallpaper and it shows all the necessary information like battery life, date, time and signal strength, photo caller ID. The external display also doubles as self-portrait viewfinder.

Flipping open the handset will reveal the internal display and alphanumeric keypad. The handset sports a 1.9-inch color screen, which is good enough considering the caliber of the handset. You can change the dial font, change the wallpaper, choose from list and icon menu, and can change the theme. You can also adjust the keypad and display backlight. The keypad is as unimpressive as the internal display but it also gets the job done. The keys look flush but they are very large and easy to press. The navigation array consists of the two soft keys, five-way toggle surrounding the central OK button, back/clear key and Talk and End/power keys.

The left spine of the handset houses the volume rocker, while the right spine houses dedicated camera key along with speakerphone control, 2.5mm headset jack and charging port. It is quite disappointing that like most Samsung handsets, the Samsung Smooth also lacks standard headset jack.

The most attractive features of the handset include text messaging with predictive text, MMS, chat, e-mail, VGA camera, Web Browser, Bluetooth, calculator, calendar, voice dialing, voice commands, personal organizer and speakerphone. The camera features include self timer, self-portrait mirror, and night mode.

The Smooth allows you to use the GPS as it supports Verizon’s VZ Navigator app. To use VZ Navigator, you will have to pay $10 per month and the main features offered by the service include POI database, maps and voice directions.

The Samsung Smooth has a rated battery life of 5 hours talk time and 14 days standby time.

Nath
This is a decent phone. However I regret buying this phone; the alarm clock does not function reliably. My wife too has this phone and hers too has the alarm problem.
Don
Do not buy this phone! It should be renamed as Samsung “Screwed,” because it will drop you on every phone call over 5 to 10 minutes. My friends and family are tired of calling my cell because of the hassle of being dropped several times in one conversation, so now they will only call my home phone. Thank “God” for my home phone. I wanted a basic cell phone with no added features so I would not have to pay Verizon’s $10 monthly data fee. This was the only phone that my premium store offered without a data fee. I tried to upgrade this phone at other premium and corporate Verizon stores, but they said they could not help me since it has been just over thirty days and that I did not sign a contract with them. They said come back it two years and they would be glad to help me then. I have three of these phones and there is nothing wrong with them, so a warranty would not help. With a $50 Verizon warranty I could replace the same phone that I have. Without a warranty they want $160 each to replace them. I could get out of my two-year contract for only $150 each or just wait 22 1/2 months and find a “consumer friendly service provider” that does not sell junk. Wal-Mart offers this phone for only $19.95 each with a $10 prepaid phone card. That right there should tell you the real value of this phone. Verizon must be really proud of this phone, but for some reason they do not want them back. PS: The alarm on this phone will not work at 5:00 am, but it will work at 4:59 am or 5:01 am, but not at 5:00 am. This phone has a lot of problems.
Bob
I have this phone and the first problem I ran into is the alarm clock problem that Nath and Don described. As Don said, if you set an alarm clock to go off on the hour – 8:00, 1:00, etc – the alarm will not sound.
If, as Don also said, you set it to a time that is not on the hour – 8:01, 12:01, 6:45, etc. – the alarm sounds normally.
It was Don’s comments on this review which gave me a work around for the problem – thanks Don.
Verizon employees were of no help about this. They exchanged the phone – “There are no incidents in the system so it must be the particular phone.” but, of course, it was not that phone, it is every Samsung Smooth ( model sch-u350). I just called the store where we got our new phones and told them about the alarm clock problem and the work around. I asked them to put an incident into their computer systems so that, hopefully, the next time someone complains about the alarm clock, Verizon will be able to at least tell them not set times on the hour.
The second thing I ran into is the bloody “voice dial” feature because it is activated by the bottom exterior button on the phone when the phone is closed. When the phone is open, that same button turns the speaker phone on and off.
The problem is that there is no way to turn off the exterior button so that you don’t accidentally get into the voice command mode.
I went to the grocery store a couple nights ago, around 11:15 PM. I got home around 11:45 PM. The shirt I was wearing did not have a breast pocket so I had put my phone in a front pocket of the jeans I was wearing.
Somewhere in my gathering up the food bags, getting out of the car, and then unlocking the house door, the bloody voice command system got activated. It decided that all of the noise it heard was my wanting to call my 92 year old father. By the time I got the phone out of my pocket, my father had already gotten out of bed and answered the phone – at nearly midnight!
There should be a way to disable any or all of the exterior buttons so that the phone doesn’t do something you don’t want – such as interpreting noise as a request to call someone.
In the Settings & Tools menu, there is an entry “Phone Settings.” If you select that item, you go to the Phone Settings menu. If you select the “Voice Command Settings” menu item, you will go to the “Voice Command Setting” menu.
The first thing in that menu is “Voice Dial” and if you select that entry, you are presented with a “Voice Dial” menu which contains three options:
Voice Key Only
Voice Key/EarMic
Voice Key/Flip
If the bloody systems analyst and programmers had thought about the options a bit longer, they could have put in a fourth menu item: “Voice Key Only.” The Voice Key on the Samsung Smooth is the zero key – if you hold it down, it starts the bloody voice command system. Since it is non the keyboard, it is unlikely that it might be pressed when the phone is closed.
If that option was available, I would not be documenting the fact that the Voice Commands can be turned out accidentally in your pocket, purse, what ever, and can make calls on its on!
That menu sequence is: Settings & Tools -> Phone Settings -> Voice Command Settings -> Voice Dial
That is where the option to disable the exterior button should be provided by allowing you to set “Voice Key Only” That would prevent the voice command exterior button to activate the Voice Commands by accident.
Speaking of exterior buttons, I have taken some very good photos of the inside of my pockets when the exterior camera button was accidentally pushed
There has to be a way to disable each and every exterior button on any cell phone. Either a “Disable All Exterior Buttons” (I had a phone which had a menu item “Disable all side buttons”) or provide a means to disable/enable the buttons selectively.
Cid
I have the prepaid version of this phone. Had it for about two months I think. Phone overall isn’t bad, especially for the price and usage isn’t bad as long as you really don’t use it daily which I don’t. My real beef is that verizon has the bluetooth file transfer disabled. If you take pictures with the camera, the ONLY way to receive them is by using verizons network placing said pictures in your photo album or by sending them by email… also getting charged. Guess they have to scam you somewhere, I’d say that’s how verizon intends to make back it’s money: with picture handling.
Kristen
WORST PHONE EVER. I rely on the alarm clock to get up for work. At first i thought that I wasn’t hearing it or something, but it become a pretty regular thing. I’m a light sleeper, so I knew the alarm wasn’t going off. So I set it and sure enough, out of the 3 alarms only 1 of them went off. I did this several times and half the time- none of them went off. I know it’s a cheap free phone- but at the same time, a dysfunctional alarm clock is a little ridiculous. Also my front screen went out on it as well. I’ve only drop my phone a few times (on carpet) but one day my screen just exploded into many colors. It was laying on my bed, so I know that I didn’t break it. I took it to a Verizon store and they said it was my fault. I would not recommend this phone to anyone. It’s a piece of junk.
meh
Crap phone, all above problems AND no Bluetooth file transfer…even if free would avoid
Charlie
Same comments as the others regarding the exterior buttons…ridiculous! Also, exterior ergonomics are poor. When the charger is plugged in it is right where I want my hand to be. same problem when the headphone is plugged in. I used to have a cheap LG phone with the charger plug on the bottom and the headset jack on the left; I wish I had it back now.
The camera is worthless: VGA quality? Really? is that the best they could do, even for free? If this is the best phone Verizon has to offer at the entry level then look elsewhere.
Jule
This isn’t a great phone. I’ve only had it for a few months and im already having problems with it. the side buttons go off in my pocket and will sometimes call people using voice commands when i havent even said anything. Also, mine has stopped being able to charge. I plugged it in last night to charge and it only charged a little bit. Then i tried to charge it this morning and it started out charging then it said no charger. Now it doesnt respond at all when i plug it in. The phone still turns on though, but im almost out of battery. I’ve never had this problem before either, so i dont kno if its a problem with the phone itself or the charger that came with the phone. The one thing i like about is that it has good signal just about everywhere, and its pretty tough. i wouldnt recomend this phone, but it’s not the worst one out there.
http://www.travisuped.com Retl
As someone who has had a phone of this model, I can safely say it is a good phone.
If all you want to do is call other people on the same network. The alarm, calculator, camera, bluetooth utilities, games, web browser, VZ navigator, and most other features of the phone except for the clock are subpar. If you keep the phone in a pants pocket and move around a lot, it will frequently kick itself into voice command mode. There is no simple way to get your photos out of the phone without sending them through Verizon’s system with an extra fee short of buying an additional data cable for the phone, and even then the photo quality is lacking.
But if all you need to do is call a handful of people for only a few minutes per day, it will work and it will work well. Don’t expect much else from it.
Chellz
I can place calls out of the phone, but I can not hear nor can the person on the other line hear me. Does anyone know of a solution for this problem. It is not the TTY mode, that is turned off. Everything else works on the phone. Just no voice connection. I am not sure how I can resolve this issue. Help Please!
Dennis
PHONE SUCKS!
Paul
whats with verizon and/or samsung knowing they have a faulty fone AND not doing anything about it … not even warning customers. at first I thought it was my mistake, but now I see verizon withheld this information to my loss. i’m talking of the alarm clok that doesn’t work.
the realy sad part is my experience is with another samsung phone (the gusto), prooving that the issue is cleary a poor manufacturer.