Samsung Intensity SCH-U450 Phone, Black (Verizon Wireless)

Excellent phone released September 8, 2009 September 19, 2009

Reviewer:  P. C. Farinella  (New York, NY) -

This cell phone was released on September 8, 2009 by Samsung and Verizon, along with the Samsung Rogue. The phone is supposed to be 'entry level'. There is no annoying 'touch screen' that drains battery life and freezes screens, but instead, has old fashioned buttons. This phone also has a slide down keyboard for surfing the internet, texting and easily storing contact names/numbers. It also stores music and has a headphone jack to listen to your music. Most importantly, this cell phone has EXCELLENT reception, no dropped calls and very long battery life. I charged this phone after buying it and am on my 4th day with battery life to spare. The phone comes with a wall charger and USB cable for easy downloading of pictures taken with the 1.3 megapixel camera.

Note this phone does not come with a car charger so I went onto ebay and bought a Samsung OEM (Original Equipment) car charger for $7 which included shipping, go ebay!

For 75% of people in this world who have cellphones, most do not spent their days sending tons of text messages and surfing the internet on their painfully slow cellphone. We have desktops and laptops for that. This cellphone is perfect for someone who wants a sharp sleek phone, large bright screen with slide out keyboard and basic functions that a cellphone should have. I want my phone to have good reception and no missed calls. Samsung delivers with their latest technology. Entry level? I don't think. It's got everything that the kids today do (texting, surfing, bluetooth, etc.) except that this phone stresses the basics. The speakerphone is easy to use, the ringtone volume to vibrate is easily accessible on the side buttons of the phone. There are about 20 ringtones to choose from. The phone has alot of cool features including world time, tip calculator, regular calculator, conversion tool (inches to feet, liters to quarts, celsius to fahrenheit, etc.) The phone has a loud alarm clock. The wall charger plugs in very easily and charges the phone quickly. Did I mention the lcd screen is sharp, big and bright!

After the $50 mail-in-rebate, I ended up buying this phone for $19.99 plus tax, since I was due for a Verizon upgrade (new every 2). So for $20, this is the best deal out there. Yes, you can spend $200 on a "better" phone such as the Blackberry Storm but who the hell needs all of that when you're not going to spend an extra $15 a month for a data plan. This phone has all of that anyway. This phone is so small, it discreetly fits in my front shirt pocket at work. You cannot do that with a blackberry or LG Dare.

Great phone, comes in two colors (black/gray and red), the latest out there as of September 2009. It will only set you back $20. I highly recommend.

Not for Me January 30, 2010

Reviewer:  Sonia Baez-An  (Virginia) -

I got this phone for my New Every Two; normally I spend a few weeks or months researching phones, lusting after one, playing with it in the store, etc., before purchasing, but I put the least amount of research/time into this purchase, getting it after only a week of knowing about it... which was a mistake, big surprise. I've definitely learned my lesson on this one. I don't think I expect too much out of a phone (if it makes calls and I can text, I'm generally happy,) but this phone just didn't deliver.

After using the enV2 for the past two years, I knew I wanted a phone with a QWERTY keyboard. This has a sleeker look than my previous phone, which I liked, and it was $50 in-store with a $50 rebate, and who can say no to free? not me, that's who.

The keyboard's layout is different from my old phone's, of course, but every phone has an adjustment period, so I wasn't too worried about that. For the most part I have adjusted to the different layout, but there are still some lingering issues. The keys on the Intensity are really small (most other phones where people claim this is an issue I don't have a problem with thanks to tiny fingers, but this one stumps even me,) and the layout of the special characters is pretty strange. Maybe it's just me, but when I see a QWERTY keypad, I expect it to be like my computer's keyboard, and the fact that the characters are just thrown wherever (the exclamation point being on the 'p' and not the '1' gets me every time) irks me.

I also have issues with this phone pocket dialing. I have it set to always lock, but it constantly becomes unlocked and pocket dials - I think this has something to do with the one-button unlock key, which doesn't seem necessary to me (it's only a two-button process to unlock it otherwise, do we really need a shortcut?) I've tried setting it to use the security code, thereby cutting down on pocket dialing, but no dice; it'll make you enter the code on power up, and if you manually set it to lock with the code, but won't just do it automatically. Prior to this phone I've had the enV2 and the Chocolate, and I never had issues with pocket dialing, so this is particularly frustrating to me.

The menu also seemed slow to scroll through (though I changed it to a less fancy, no-animations one), and the sound quality was a little iffy (a lot of breaking up, and I kept hearing echoes of whatever I'd just said,) but I'm not sure if that was the phone or random happenstance. I don't have any issues with the numeric keypad, or the send/end buttons, though some people have mentioned they thought those were too small. I also didn't have any problems with the phone being slippery, or falling out of my hands, or anything like that. The battery life is also pretty good, which is always a plus.

When I bought the phone the vendor mentioned she doesn't see a lot of these come back, and apparently it's a very popular phone, so maybe it's just me, but I'm definitely returning this and going back to my enV2. Maybe I'm just set in my ways and next I'll start yelling at kids to get off my lawn, I dunno.

So basically, it's not a terrible phone, but it annoyed me too much for me to keep.

Pros:
+Good battery life
+Sleeker than the enV2

Cons:
-Pocket dialing
-Keyboard is poorly laid out, with teeny-tiny buttons
-Sound quality is strange
-Slow menu

very bad sound quality, difficult qwerty keys December 12, 2009

Reviewer:  Sarah 

I rely on online reviews for all of my purchases, and chose the Samsung Intensity for my "new every two" upgrade because I read good reviews online and I wanted a qwerty keyboard. I am so frustrated with this phone after one week of having it -- the sound quality is very poor -- the voice on the other end is muffled, not clear to me, and people say I break up during conversation. The sound quality with my three year old Motorola Krazr (which the Intensity replaced) was much better. Also - I was excited about the qwerty keyboard but the keys are difficult. I am a women in her 20s with slender fingers so I'm really not sure for whom these keys would work. They're tough to push down, somehow. Overall, the phone just does not look that cool either - it's clunky and big. Don't get it!! I'm working with VW now to exchange this one.

Not practical January 17, 2010

Reviewer:  Teresa Gallagher  (Shelton, CT USA) -

Why on earth do they make cells that:
1. You cannot hold or use because it's more slippery than an eel;
2. The battery dies in one or two days without usage because the buttons are exposed and keep making the screen light up even when locked;
3. You need to purchase accessories just to use the phone, such as screen protectors and rubberized cases so you can actually hold on to the darn thing. Even then, there are apparently NO accessories available to protect the keypad so it doesn't keep light up the screen.

My previous phone was a great flip-top and the batteries would last a couple weeks. No accessories were required. I got this one for "free" when we added a 3rd line. OK, it's got a texting keypad, but I rarely use it. For the most part I'm just constantly plugging the *&&*& thing in because the batteries go dead EVERY DAY.

Get a different phone February 17, 2010

Reviewer:  ss "sspradley"  (Moraga, CA USA) -

I agree with the other reviews - I got this model as the 2 year 'free' upgrade. It had a keyboard for texting and seemed 'strong' and easy to use. My other phone is a Blackberry and the keyboard on the BB is much easier to use than this one. The Intensity's keyboard - which it looks like it'd be easy to type on - is NOT. The keys are hard to press down - so you find yourself having to retype on a key which causes miskeying - it really slows me down. I can do a long BB text in seconds. This thing takes a minute to peck out a short message. The phone does not bounce well. I drop phones - sorry - life happens. This phones drops into pieces. The back comes off, the battery goes flying - and it's a hassle to put batch together. Again, the BB takes a fall pretty nicely. The sound quality on the Intensity is ok and it detects blue tooth devices quickly. Another thing about the keyboard, there is no intuitive way to select a menu item from the keyboard. So when you text someone, you have to keep the phone upright and select contacts, the name, options, sms text - then flip the phone around to type. Too much work. If you text a lot, this is NOT the phone you want. If you only text a little - create a few templated text messages and you should be ok with this one. Though - it's highly priced and there is probably something better out there for you.

Okay, but not well designed. September 24, 2009

Reviewer:  Campbell "EAHC"  (G-burg, MD USA) -

Had this phone for a week, and with my small, girl fingers I thot the small button design wouldn't be a problem, but it's turned out to be a regular pain.

PROS:
sleek, attractive look.
QWERTY keyboard is a nice feature
takes good photos
good battery life

CONS:
face buttons are difficult to push
call and end call buttons are too small (major flaw when trying to answer the phone!)
a bit bulky
texting keyboard keys often need pressing twice to register the letter
auto lock can be easily unlocked if jostled in purse or placed in pocket (another major flaw! i found my butt made more calls than i did!)

New Owner Loves It February 28, 2010

Reviewer:  Billy Rubin 

I have had this phone for about two weeks now and even though I am still going through the adjustment period, I have concluded I love this phone. This is my first phone with a QWERTY keyboard and so that took some getting used to. The keys are VERY small but I am able to use them with a little more focus than usual. I write this off to just getting used to it. I like the fact that so much of the phone is adjustable for my personal liking. The menus are quite flexible although I wish I was able to get a few more options on the "directional menu" selection. (e.g. I'd like to press one button to get to the calculator function instead of the 3-4 it takes). The battery has proven to be long lasting although I need to balance this with the fact that this is a new battery.
Overall, I really like this phone and am very happy with it.


(The reviewer was compensated for posting this review. However, the opinion stated in the review is that of the reviewer and the reviewer alone. Further, the reviewer independently selected this product to review and has no affiliation with the product maker/distributor, Amazon or the review requester.)