Impressions of the Samsung SCH-U620

I was contacted the other day by one Ori Katzin, who shared his detailed impressions of the recently released Samsung SCH-U620. With his permission, I am going to share his thoughts with everyone here, as it is an interesting real-world perspective of the handset. Click below to view the full text. If you wish to contact Ori, please send your message to me through the usual means and I will forward it to him.

Ori says:

I am a business owner in Northern NJ with 23 Verizon Wireless phones. Many of them are the Kyocera SE47 Slider, which I think is one of the best phones that Verizon has ever carried.

I have been waiting for a long time for Verizon to come out with a new compact, durable slider. I did not like the Chocolate and was happy to see the Samsung SCH-U620 with all of its features. After reading the following pros and cons you can decide if having a TV in your hand is worth the trouble.

I would like to thank Rudy, the Verizon Wireless manager of the GSP store in Paramus, NJ for his help.

Pros

• Well built slider with spring action
• Many tasks that do not require the keypad can be done without opening the slider. These tasks include: answering calls, dialing recent callers, viewing text messages (see negative comment about ‘direct view’), watching TV, viewing missed calls, taking pictures, and more. You must ‘unlock’ the face keys before performing these tasks to prevent accidental operation. This is an advantage over the limitations of the SE47
• Nice display with vibrant colors, though it is a battery drainer
• Live streaming TV – this is a great feature and the quality is excellent, but again drains the battery
• I know that the signal in the NYC area is not yet at full strength, but I get good reception in many places in Northern NJ, except inside the Verizon wireless store on Rt. 4 west in Paramus
• Loud speakerphone and sensitive microphone
• Nice large keypad compared to the Kyocera SE47 for easy text messaging
• Large fonts
• Easy to navigate the menu and get used to the features
• Side buttons are easy to operate and do not interrupt normal operation if accidentally pressed

Cons

• No “Backup Assistant” in Get-It-Now, so you can’t transfer the phone book that you saved online. I had 250 contacts and more that 800 saved numbers. Thanks go to Darryl at the Paramus store who took my advice to use the data cable from the Samsung SCH-A930 and my old SE47 and was able to transfer all my contacts and most of my numbers. This is a major screw-up by whoever put the software inside this phone
• While charging the phone the display is always on, this slows down the charging time and possibly prevents the phone from ever reaching a full charge. The display is so bright while charging that I had to turn the phone over so I could darken my bedroom at night
• Extra small font when browsing the net with Mobile Web compared to the large fonts on the same page if you are using the Samsung SCH-U740 (thanks again Rudy). I am 44 years old and see 20/20, but the fonts are too small to get used too
• Many ‘security errors’ on the browser while viewing my ‘Mobil Mail’ on Go Daddy’s secure site. I view the exact same page with the U740 and did not get one error. The error kept on coming over and over and only after refreshing three times per email for the first five emails was the problem gone, though it kept coming back with every new session
• No external buttons for the music player. Only the standard V CAST music player
• While playing music the V CAST red screen is on at all times and drains the battery. There is no way to turn it off, so expect less than two hours of playing time before you need to recharge.
• The menu lacks basic features like ‘Direct View’ for text messages; this is a slider with one front display so why not make a direct view like the one on the SE47?
• There are weird icons that are not in the icon glossary – this morning I setup the phone for a data call, and while setting it up a notification appeared explaining that the phone will switch to data mode for the next 10 minutes. When the call was done I had an icon on the display that looks like two ‘A’s for about three hours, and then it was gone
• Battery life is bad. Even though it says 1000MaH on the battery, it holds less charge than the 800MaH of the U740 and much less than the SE47. In today’s connected world, when a company comes out with products for people ‘on-the-go,’ they need to accommodate those users. Selling a phone with a battery life of less than two hours of use (calling, Mobile Web, text messaging, and music playing) and less than one hour of TV is irresponsible to customers. An extended battery is not officially sold by Verizon, though eBay has them
• My biggest disappointment came Tuesday night at 8pm when I was away from home and wanted to watch American Idol on this gadget, but all I found on FOX was LA Law re-runs for the next 2 hours. I checked the guide and there was not even a scheduled American Idol show. This is an issue with V CAST TV though, not the handset itself
• On the ‘Send Text Message’ screen when selecting ‘Add Recipient’ with the soft key one of the options is ‘Recent Calls,’ but not ‘Recent Messages.’ You can only see those who called you last or outgoing calls but not any of your recent text message transactions. If you want to send an SMS to the last person that sent you an SMS you have to find that person again in the contact list or go to the ‘Inbox,’ find the SMS, open it, and reply (so much trouble for a simple task). This is so simple on the SE47

My overall impression of this phone is that it was well built, well equipped, but poorly planned, poorly engineered, and overall performs poorly.