Samsung Continuum Android Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Continuum continues to move Droid further ahead November 29, 2010

Reviewer:  Brian Rokosz 

The Samsung Continuum is a mixed bag of everything you can get in a phone.

For some reason the Galaxy S is, in my mind, the 3rd best Android device until now. My HTC Incredible has never failed me and is always impressive, the Motorola Droid X is just a beast, and then this lil Galaxy S device came around. The Continuum is pretty much the Fascinate with a smaller main screen. This is bad for those of us with large hands, but good for our eyes since it's the same resolution but on a smaller area, meaning the color and video watching is even better. The smaller screen makes up for it, tho, with the ingenious Ticker. Sure it's kind of a gimmick but when I'm watching YouTube, NFL Mobile, surfing Amazon for good deals, etc its amazing to see the ticker show me an email, be able to open the email, type, send, minimize email, and resume right where I left off. Even when the phone is hibernating I can click either side of the ticker and see if my friends texted back without wasting battery and energy of turning the phone on.

Then there are the speakers....The Continuum has 2 large, excellent speakers on the back, perfect for games, movies, songs, and even speakerphone. With 5.1 sound and the ability to use the ticker as a music player ipod-ish while surfing the web it's the best sounding device I've ever heard.

Swype comes standard, red eye and facial detection with the camera, 720p video with immediate access to upload the videos to facebook, and a whole lot more.

One other MAJOR thing...the GPS problems with the other Galaxy S phones is GONE...the system works quickly and easily found my location.

In short this phone is slightly bigger than the incredible, has great service, fantastic call quality, longer battery life than the X and Droid 2 and Incredible, bright 2 main screens, etc....

While the look of the device may not stand out compared to the X or Incredible I strongly suggest you try this phone out before buying something else. Besides not having the 2.2 update yet I have not seen anything that wouldn't suggest that this is one of the best phones ever made.

Highly Recommended, especially for email users, stocks, rabid facebookers, and of course, those crazy Twitter people. I'd say if your a girl you would be very sorry if you didn't try this lil guy out.

Great phone :) December 6, 2010

Reviewer:  mint chocolate  (Providence, RI) -

This is my first smartphone, and I am enjoying it very much. It is pretty much exactly the same as the Fascinate, only it has a smaller screen -- which for me is actually better, because the Fascinate is too large for my hands. I can navigate the screen with just one hand, holding it in one hand and using the thumb of the same to do the maneuvering.

As for the ticker screen, it is useful -- especially when you just want to check the time, or see if you have any messages or missed calls, without lighting up the entire large screen.

For the rest, it is probably the same as any other Android phone, except that Verizon has loaded it with a lot of apps half of which are quite useless -- including, I suppose, the much-derided Bing.

Battery life: it lasts a day. Because the battery size is smaller than the Fascinate (obviously, since the phone is considerably narrower), it's pretty understandable... the battery life was really short the first day, but somehow it seems to be improving. Don't know why, but it began lasting longer after the second day I got the phone. Perhaps because I was obsessed with playing around with the new thing on the first day. Now, if I fully charge the battery, by the end of the day (which is usually at 1am or 2am in the night) there is about 25% of life left.

Overall, this is a fun phone to have! I have very little (almost no) complaints. :)

Useful Ticker, But It Freezes And The Battery Sucks February 11, 2011

Reviewer:  Haila Maze  (New Brighton, MN USA) -

UPDATE, JUNE 1, 2011: Wow, did my view of this phone change in a hurry. I loved this phone at first. I did. The ticker was useful and handy. Android was easy to use and, unlike iOS, you can find really good app deals from Amazon and others. It was also a bit smaller and thus easier to carry. But the battery began having some real problems -- I eventually had to get a new one when it would drain within five hours despite almost no use. And even with the new battery it would poop out of me for little or no reason. I frequently had to charge the phone at the end of the work day, again despite little use.

Worse was the freezes. Now and then the phone would freeze up, often while I was in the midst of something important that I needed to do.

I didn't HATE the phone. It was definitely useful and had its strong points. But when I had to replace the phone after its screen shattered (it fell out of its case -- No, I didn't do that on purpose), I decided against getting another Continuum. And I decided against Android altogether, going with the iPhone and its better operating system and much better battery life. The Continuum is still a decent phone, but not at the $99 you'd have to pay at most places. And I'm sorry for the below, glowing review. The next time I'll wait a couple of months.

OLD REVIEW:
I really like this phone. I've had it for two weeks, and this is my first smartphone, so take this review with a certain grain of salt. I don't know about the phone's reliability (a big deal to me), and as I'd had normal phones until now I don't have a frame of reference for smartphones in general.

That said, the Android system on which this is based doesn't seem that different from iOS, which is used to run the iPhone and iPod Touch (I have the latter). It's easy to use. I'd prefer that this phone use Google search and Google Maps and Navigation rather than Bing, but it took me a few minutes to find those applications and replace them on my various home pages accordingly. In addition, to unlock the phone or answer a phone call, you have to insert a puzzle piece into an empty space, which takes some getting used to.

For the most part, the phone is identical to the Samsung Fascinate, which is bigger and more expensive. The screen on the Continuum is smaller and narrower than the Fascinate and many other phones (such as the Droid X), and small size can make typing more annoying, though I've found that it works fine when you have the phone turned on its side. The screen size is not that much different from my iPod, and I've found that surfing the web is fine. If you want to use your phone for a lot of video, you might want something different -- though the video player and camera on this phone work well. Indeed, it's now become my primary video camera.

The most unique part of this phone is the ticker, which is awesome. The ticker shows your new e-mails, calendar items, text messages, Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds, and you can browse them with the touch of one button. I love this feature for e-mail alone -- I have two e-mail accounts and can check new e-mails from both at the same time. If you're surfing the web or using another application, the ticker will show if you get a phone call and you can answer it on the ticker without turning off your application. You can also control your music player. HOWEVER, one STRONG RECOMMENDATION is that you do not use this for Twitter. In theory, the ticker is great for Twitter users, but the number of new Twitter posts means that the ticker constantly runs and drains your battery even if you don't touch the phone. I found this out pretty fast, as a Twitter user. I went into the settings and turned off the Twitter feed, and my battery lasts much longer now (seriously, it would drain in less than a day ...).

Of course, like most smartphones you have to charge the battery daily, which I do every night. I don't feel the need to carry multiple batteries like my niece, who did so for her Droid Incredible. Still, I'd highly recommend downloading the App Killer and using it regularly.

The phone runs Android 2.1, like the Fascinate, and I'd prefer it run 2.2, but from what I've read it should get the update in time. As for applications, I've thus far found Ringdroid (which enables you to make ringtones from your mp3s), Pandora and Barcode Scanner to be the most useful and fun. And, of course, Angry Birds, though don't expect to get your phone back from family members if you download that one.

Most unreliable phone I've ever owned, and stuck on an ancient Android version. December 15, 2011

Reviewer:  Jay Neely 

Frequent freezes, random reboots, and lots of lag. I can't count how many times I've had to pop out the battery just to be able to restart it. Verizon isn't any help; "try a task killer" they've said. No difference. This phone has rebooted in the middle of calls and froze in the middle of the night and missed alarms. It's the most unreliable phone I've ever had.

It has frozen while I'm writing this review. Not kidding. The screen is dimmed but I can still see text message bubbles, pressing home / back / power buttons does nothing. Holding down the power button does nothing.

This was my first smartphone, and frankly I don't think I'll be buying Samsung again. If another service ever catches up to Verizon's network, I'd like to not buy from them again either. I've called Samsung, and they tell me the Android 2.2 update for this phone was given to Verizon months ago -- Verizon's just not updating it. Being stuck on Android 2.1 sucks. No Adobe Flash, no tethering, no speed and performance improvements.

I hate this phone.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEAAASSEE!!!!!!!!! October 5, 2011

Reviewer:  triciej99 

The Samsung Continuum in my opinion is the best phone verizon has made yet.This phone is loaded with many apps, has a new ticker display and swype keyboard no other phone has which sets it apart from all the others. The only problem is that it is no longer in stock on amazon as of right now and they don't know when it will come back. And I am DESPERATE for this phone to be back in stock because it is my dream phone and i have worked very hard in school for the day to come so I can buy it. So PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE put this phone back in stock will ya!?