Samsung SGH SGH-C300 Cell Phone

In our busy world, I allow myself two precious luxuries, which no amount of money can buy. First, I live close enough to my workplace to be able to walk in most days (although the two and a half miles home are uphill all the way), and second, I don't feel obliged to carry a mobile phone.

My statement might be an unorthodox way to start a mobile phone review, but in truth, I have little interest in these gadgets. They are intrusive and render most users rude (how many times does someone break off your face-to-face conversation to take a "more important" mobile call?).

Unfortunately, I face a losing battle in a hostile world, and even I concede mobile phones have some uses when meeting up with someone, or when trying to catch your partner in the shop, so they can bring you home a bar of much needed and deserved chocolate.

So, when my old "part time" phone had a battery that required recharging every day, it was time to take the plunge and buy a new "pay as you talk" phone. The one I chose was cheap, simple and just a little sleek; the Samsung C300.


Practicalities

The phone is a simple slide open design. Both screen and keys are bright and big enough for my middle-aged eyes to read. There are no silly controls; they are all simple press buttons with a central square with which to select the different functions of the phone.

My phone is black, and while it isn't the most exciting beast on the market, it is quite small and neat and doesn't look as cheap as it is. My phone sits happy and small in my trouser pocket, without giving any impression to colleagues in the office that I am some kind of insatiable sex pest.

Unlike my old phone, it also doesn't switch itself on in my pocket, so it should save me any further embarrassment of having to explain a confidential conversation about my father with my beloved (I had inadvertently rung through to my mother).

Text and calling

I mostly use text on the phone, and this is simple and even the intuitive text mode is easy enough for me to master. I only get a little annoyed because the phone text has the inbuilt morals of the Dali Lama; it doesn't recognise swear words. Getting the phone to learn new words is a little complicated. Another little annoyance comes when I move the phone from intuitive to ordinary text; it leaves me with a capital letter at the beginning of the word.

I can store 20 messages in my in-box, out-box and holding store. I would like a few more, as I'm lazy in clearing them out, but it's a minor grumble.

I've always found the phone to sound clear and loud when I'm taking or making calls. Unlike my beloved's phone, it is clear enough for my slightly deaf lugs to hear people while I'm a passenger in a car on the motorway. Likewise, the speakerphone function is acceptable for a couple of people to listen to a short conversation.

In terms of battery power, I'm impressed that I only have to recharge my phone about once every six days or so. However, I don't use the phone often, so I'm probably an optimum battery use customer.


Phone Book

Apparently, I can store 1000 people's telephone numbers on my phone book. As I have 982 free spaces, if anyone wants to e-mail me their mobile number, please feel free to pass it through to me. Seriously, apart from Royalty and Brittney Spears, who really needs 1,000 stored numbers? I would have preferred the memory used to store messages.


Other facilities

I'm not going to go into all the specifications of the Samsung C300. If you want them, just look at the details on the product page.

However, as you might expect with a basic phone, the Samsung C300 is no great shakes in terms of bells and whistles. It offers a dozen or so corny ring tones (my phone usually raises a laugh in the office), or you can download a better one if you want to pay. Likewise, there are a few trial games like minesweeper or Tetris. Again, one can download more games, but I'll warrant that a games fan wouldn't buy a basic phone like this. Likewise, as there is no camera, there's no pleasure for me in going happy slapping and taking the resultant photo, on my way home from work.

The only other function I use occasionally is the little organiser, with a simple calculator, alarm, note pad and the like.


Summing up

Overall, I'm quite happy with my little Samsung, but then I'm one of those rare people who doesn't require my phone to look flash, make me cool or cook my dinner for me. If you want a basic phone that is easy to use, has a reasonable battery life and works, then this is the phone for you.

Samsung history and ethics

My C300 phone comes from Korea, where Samsung is the countries largest employer with over 250,000 workers. Samsung started as a trading company in the 1930's, before moving onto sugar, shopping, newspapers, and electronics in 1969, and even more recently shipbuilding and construction.

The company is 20th in terms of brand name value. Unfortunately, it appears to have achieved this at the expense of ethics. Samsung tends to stifle competition in its local electronics market, as it controls supplies of many electronic components. Samsung was also implicated in a global chip price fixing cartel, and were fined $300m. More recently, Samsung have been investigated for such unsavoury practices as bribery and tax evasion.

On a more positive note, Samsung comes out towards the top of the pile in terms of the environment, recycling and animal testing. Phew, I knew I had a reason for choosing a Samsung product.

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cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2008-