Samsung SGH-T729 Cell Phone
- Installed Memory: 11 MB
- Connectivity: Bluetooth
- Performance: Quad Band
- Design: Mobile
- Style: Slide
- Network Type: GSM EDGE
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Not quite a real blast
Pros
Lightweight, decent battery life, good reception
Cons
nearly-useless email feature, very weak browser, difficult keypad
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
NOT RECOMMENDED. The phone's features just don't live up to the T-Mobile's description. The email and web functions are surprisingly incomplete.
I purchased this phone because I wanted an inexpensive email-capable phone that could play music. According to the T-Mobile website, the Samsung Blast was allegedly e-mail capable and DRM capable. The phone did not live up to my expectations, however.
EMAIL FUNCTIONS: F
The mail problem with the Samsung Blast is that it does not allow the user to populate a SMTP server name. This means that if you use anything other than AOL and Yahoo, you can *receive* email, but not *send* email. Since I don't use AOL/Yahoo, the email feature for me is mostly useless.
What is also annoying is that there is no way to log out of an email account without having to repopulate the account information from scratch. Being signed in continuously drains the battery, but signing out is essentially the same as deleting the account.
The "notify" function seems to do nothing, as the phone doesn't actually check for new email by itself as so many other phones can. When manually checking for new email, the process is very slow and sometimes gives a timeout error. All in all, the email feature is nearly useless.
IM FUNCTION: C
The Phone supports four IM services (including Live). While the service worked fine once connected, I found that the phone took an agonizingly long time to sign in. It sometimes took 2-3 full minutes to connect to the service.
WEB FUNCTION: F
It has been many years since I've used a cell phone with so weak a browser. It's basically useful only for the T-Zones portal. Even ordinary WAP sites take either a long time to load or will not load at all. The browser cannot send passwords at all, which means that the "mobile" site for my bank cannot be used. More often than not, however, I simply received a "Bad Gateway" error.
I wanted to install Opera Mini, but the phone will not accept the software.
The data rate on this phone is very slow. While it is theoretically EDGE comparable, I do not believe it ever connected above the standard GPRS data rate.
SMS FUNCTION: B
The phone has one of the new quasi-QWERTY keypads that fits two letters per key instead of three letters per key. It takes a LOT of getting used to. It can be done, however. But it was quite a challenge to require speed on this new keypad layout.
What I find to be absolutely unacceptable, however, is that there is no option to add "slang" or "proprietary" words. Even the Nokia 5120 phone could do that! So when using a seldom-used word (like "thistle") the user has to toggle the phone off T9 mode and into ABC mode. That is very frustrating.
MUSIC CAPABILITY: C
While the phone supports DRM music, it only supports MP4 DRM, not the more popular WMA DRM. This means that the phone cannot store music from Rhapsody or Real.
BLUETOOTH CAPABILITY: A
The phone has a *lot* of Bluetooth services. In this function, the phone really shines. It supports SPP, DUN, wireless printing, OBEX, FTP, and wireless headset. The only downside is that the phone asks "permission" every time when receiving a connection request.
SCREEN: C
The screen is bright and easy to read. However, most modern phones have a 320x240 screen. I do not know what resolution this phone has, but it's certainly much lower than 320x240.
SLIDER: D
The slider function is annoying. There is no way to NOT lock the keypad. When I close the slider, the screen reads "lock keypad?". If I click "Y", it locks immediately. If I click "N", it simply waits ten seconds or so and locks the keypad anyway.
RECEPTION: A
Well, at least the phone's reception is good. I have very rarely had a dropped call on the device. The call clarity is very good. The speakerphone is loud enough to be useful, although not particularly loud overall.
BATTERY LIFE: B
The battery life is acceptable for this 36-48 hours on standby. I've used phones with more battery life, but I've certainly had worse.
OVERALL: D
I'm pretty unimpressed with this phone. It seems like it has a lot of features that are surprisingly incomplete. The email service is incomplete, the SMS feature is incomplete, and the music feature is incomplete. The web browser is terrible and the data access speed is very slow.
I cannot recommend this phone.
EMAIL FUNCTIONS: F
The mail problem with the Samsung Blast is that it does not allow the user to populate a SMTP server name. This means that if you use anything other than AOL and Yahoo, you can *receive* email, but not *send* email. Since I don't use AOL/Yahoo, the email feature for me is mostly useless.
What is also annoying is that there is no way to log out of an email account without having to repopulate the account information from scratch. Being signed in continuously drains the battery, but signing out is essentially the same as deleting the account.
The "notify" function seems to do nothing, as the phone doesn't actually check for new email by itself as so many other phones can. When manually checking for new email, the process is very slow and sometimes gives a timeout error. All in all, the email feature is nearly useless.
IM FUNCTION: C
The Phone supports four IM services (including Live). While the service worked fine once connected, I found that the phone took an agonizingly long time to sign in. It sometimes took 2-3 full minutes to connect to the service.
WEB FUNCTION: F
It has been many years since I've used a cell phone with so weak a browser. It's basically useful only for the T-Zones portal. Even ordinary WAP sites take either a long time to load or will not load at all. The browser cannot send passwords at all, which means that the "mobile" site for my bank cannot be used. More often than not, however, I simply received a "Bad Gateway" error.
I wanted to install Opera Mini, but the phone will not accept the software.
The data rate on this phone is very slow. While it is theoretically EDGE comparable, I do not believe it ever connected above the standard GPRS data rate.
SMS FUNCTION: B
The phone has one of the new quasi-QWERTY keypads that fits two letters per key instead of three letters per key. It takes a LOT of getting used to. It can be done, however. But it was quite a challenge to require speed on this new keypad layout.
What I find to be absolutely unacceptable, however, is that there is no option to add "slang" or "proprietary" words. Even the Nokia 5120 phone could do that! So when using a seldom-used word (like "thistle") the user has to toggle the phone off T9 mode and into ABC mode. That is very frustrating.
MUSIC CAPABILITY: C
While the phone supports DRM music, it only supports MP4 DRM, not the more popular WMA DRM. This means that the phone cannot store music from Rhapsody or Real.
BLUETOOTH CAPABILITY: A
The phone has a *lot* of Bluetooth services. In this function, the phone really shines. It supports SPP, DUN, wireless printing, OBEX, FTP, and wireless headset. The only downside is that the phone asks "permission" every time when receiving a connection request.
SCREEN: C
The screen is bright and easy to read. However, most modern phones have a 320x240 screen. I do not know what resolution this phone has, but it's certainly much lower than 320x240.
SLIDER: D
The slider function is annoying. There is no way to NOT lock the keypad. When I close the slider, the screen reads "lock keypad?". If I click "Y", it locks immediately. If I click "N", it simply waits ten seconds or so and locks the keypad anyway.
RECEPTION: A
Well, at least the phone's reception is good. I have very rarely had a dropped call on the device. The call clarity is very good. The speakerphone is loud enough to be useful, although not particularly loud overall.
BATTERY LIFE: B
The battery life is acceptable for this 36-48 hours on standby. I've used phones with more battery life, but I've certainly had worse.
OVERALL: D
I'm pretty unimpressed with this phone. It seems like it has a lot of features that are surprisingly incomplete. The email service is incomplete, the SMS feature is incomplete, and the music feature is incomplete. The web browser is terrible and the data access speed is very slow.
I cannot recommend this phone.
