Samsung Juke Phone, Red (Verizon Wireless)

A very good phone that also looks cute November 2, 2007

Reviewer:  John Palmer  (Seattle, WA United States) -

I've had this phone now about 10 days and have already utilized several features on it. I had a Bluetooth headset from my previous phone, a Motorola w/ music player, but that phone I never got the music player working so have utilized the player in the Juke and have already downloaded some songs to it and it's wonderful. I like that it simply uses Windows Media Player and it automatically recognized the phone without incident. I have also sync'ed up the bluetooth headset to the phone without incident as well.

The two biggest things are the camera and it's image quality, while not fantastic, it's OK although vertical lines do distort though. The other is that there is no direct access to the images on there without uploading to pix place for an additional fee, however once up on the website and you log in and in the gallery, you can simply copy it and paste it into your photo processing software, however, there is not a whole lot you can do to rectify the images in there but through a subtle adjustment or resizing is about it. Really, the phone can come in handy for that impromptu shot where I don't have my digital camera with me and that's all I'd use it for.

Otherwise it's a fantastic phone for it's size and I like that not only does it have bluetooth, but also has voice command so I can do hands free dialing etc while driving, and voice command is also available with the wired headset, which I'm grateful that the Juke comes with a matching stereo pair that can also double for making/recieving calls and the USB cable, which with virtually any other phone through Verizon, you have to buy the seperate music kit w/ CD, however, the Juke can use it or Windows Media Player which most of us have which is nice.

This will be my third phone with Verizon and I think the best of the 3 and oh, it's red.

If any changes, I'd allow for direct picture access via USB, it be a tad wider for better viewing of the screen and to be able to rotate open in either direction for either left or right handed operation. I know, niggling points but still, it's a fantastic phone for what it's capable of and it's reception is superb too.

Best Phone I've ever owned October 29, 2007

Reviewer:  A. Coffey  (Michigan) -

I have had this phone for a couple of weeks and already it is the best phone I have ever owned. It is very small, great to fit into a purse pocket. It looks sleek. I get very good service. If you are planning to text alot, I would recommend that this phone is best for people with tiny fingers/hands, as it is easy to accidentally punch more than one key at a time. I have not utilized the mp3 capabilites yet (I use my ipod for that), but the downloaded ringtones sound great playing through the phone. I am mildly disappointed with the camera (I don't believe it has a flash) but I never really used my old phone's camera so this was not important in my decision to purchase. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my purchase and would highly recommend this phone!

Great Phone January 1, 2008

Reviewer:  ECM "joyfulgirl9682"  (Grand Island NY) -

This phone is great. It has completely replaced my MP3 player, it holds the same amount of music. I love that you can play the music out of the speaker without headphones. The sound quality when doing that isn't the best, but it's perfect sometimes when I would have otherwise been tangled in headphone wires. And if you are listening to music with the headphones, and you get a call, all you need to do it press the button on the headphones and it answers the call and the headphones become a hands free set. It's perfect. Some people have asked me about texting on it, because it seems so small. I have not had any problems with this, the buttons are actually really nice, and texting is not hard on it despite it's size. Battery life is great, it lasts much longer than my old phone, even when it's used as an MP3 player also. Transferring music is simple, just plug it into the computer and it syncs like any other MP3 player with windows media player. I love how it flips open, although I often forget which way it needs to be facing and try to open it the wrong way. That is actually my ONLY complaint about this phone. The screen is upside down when it's closed, so you have to turn it around to read who is calling you, and then turn it back around to open it. But that is so minor, and I have figured out how to turn it around and open it at the same time, so it doesn't really bother me anymore. My only other wish for this phone would be being able to set one of your mp3s as a ringtone. But again, so minor it does not even register as a complaint for me. Overall this is a great phone and I would recommend it to anyone who hates carrying around both and MP3 player and a phone, as this will become both.

Fun, Good-Looking, and Functional! January 14, 2008

Reviewer:  Mike "Mike"  (NJ, USA) -

I received this phone for Christmas. It is my first-ever cellphone, so obviously I was very excited about it. Surprisingly, this phone is very small. I know that looking at the commercials it seems quite large, but it is actually about the size (length-wise) as the spacebar on a keyboard. Flipping open the phone in a switchblade-like fashion, you see a very simple but artistic display. By clicking the center button, you are given a list of six simple options: Music (about 1.8 GB which can easily be synched using Windows Movie Maker), Get It Now (ringtones, games), Messaging (txt, pix messages), Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings&Tools. The options, when highlighted, show well-designed graphics relating to the item (ex. CD and music note for Music).

Honestly, before I continue rambling on, this is a great phone. Just take my word for it and buy it, and you won't regret it. Having to turn it upside-down to open is not a nuisance; it becomes second-nature.

Advice:
- Listen to the pre-set ringtones before buying any from the shop for $3. This phone actually comes with some cool techno/hip-hop beats.
- Purchase the phone shell from Verizon Wireless. Believe me, with a phone this nice-looking, you won't want to get it scratched.
- Don't purchase any games other than Tetris, Pac-Man, or other simple arcade games. The screen and keypad are too small for more sophisticated games.
- If you want to listen to music using a standard pair of headphones, you will need to buy a 2.5mm-3.5mm headphone adapter. I got this one: Headphone Adapter for Samsung SCH-A890, and it works like a charm.

Second Only to the iPhone for Audiophiles July 22, 2008

Reviewer:  Daniel Bjorndahl  (Sunny, CA USA) -

If you're a music lover, the Juke is for you. Granted, it only has 2 GB storage, so if you want more, the iPhone is the best thing for you. On a similar vein, if you use iTunes it would be a good idea to buy an Apple products - it took me hours and hours to get past Apple's copy protection used in iTunes (I had to burn CDs of my music, then import them as MP3s...). One final issue before I shower my praise upon this miracle of a machine: The headphone jack is not the standard MP3 player size (3.5mm) - it's a smaller size meant for phone headsets (2.5mm). Thankfully, a 2.5mm to 3.5mm converter is cheap. But these are really the only drawbacks I can think of for this phone. I can't complain. Everything else on the phone is straightforward and intuitive. The Juke is a minimalist's dream; so simple, yet so powerful.

The impetus for my purchase of a new phone was the need for bluetooth support. California law required that I have a hands-free headset while driving, and so I set out looking for a phone to work with that. I didn't have restrictions on the phone carrier because my contract had conveniently and coincidentally just ended. This phone is everything the average cell phone user needs and, at the risk of being redundant, even more to the audiophile.

The built in camera is nice - 640x480 pixels is relatively good for a phone's camera. I've used it a bit and definitely appreciate the ability to take pictures at a larger resolution than the small screen itself!

I've never had a problem with reception, sounding too quiet or any such problem with communication itself. Actually, texting is a bit slow compared to a phone with a built-in keyboard, but I only use texts sparingly anyhow. And now that I've learned how to use t9 I can text at an average speed.

It's a nice phone - I highly recommend it to the average audiophile. However, if you need to text or store a freakishly large amount of music, maybe this isn't your phone.

A decent cell phone - good work, Samsung! August 30, 2008

Reviewer:  Halloween Mania  (Fairfax, VA) -

This is my third Samsung phone, and I trust this brand as my previous ones were fairly reliable...unlike my very first LG phone 12 years ago, which was worse than a walkie-talkie even though I supposedly had the best wireless network in town.

I was more than happy with my simple and built-to-last Motorola RAZR V3 for 2 years (God knows how many times I dropped it to the floor) and wasn't even in need of an upgrade until my 2-year contract with Verizon was about to be expired and Verizon tried to get me renew the contract by giving me a new free phone! My sister's Motorola KRZR stopped working for no reason whatsoever after a couple of month, so I decided to look for another brand - and my only alternatives were LG Chocolate and Samsung Juke. I believe you all read enough bad reviews about LG Chocolate already.

My two previous Samsung phones worked fine until I dropped one of them to the cement floor. It looked ok outside, the camera was intact, and calls were made without a problem...only the volume went down so much and never came back up so I had to act like a person with hearing impairment for a year. Other than that, those phones were great with cool features.

Samsung Juke is more than enough for someone uses cell phone as a phone, not everything-in-one device. Here's the good side:

1. works well as a cell phone itself
2. very small and light - just like a candy bar
3. MP3 player with 2G internal memory which comes with USB cable/earphone so you don't have to buy anything extra or download anything as long as you have the MP3 file in your computer (it even charges your phone when you connect the USB cable to your computer)
4. a short-cut key for vibration mode! (This was my biggest complaint for Motorola RAZR.)
5. Awesome battery life!!! I listened to the MP3 almost half of the day and made calls all day long and the battery lasted 2 days without charging. Just make sure you fully charge the phone before you use it for the first time (don't turn it on while charging) and use it up until the battery dies off for the first time. Afterwards, you can charge whenever you feel like to.

However, there're reasons for giving it a 4-star:

1. Unlike other folder-type cell phones, this one is shaped like a bar and it's a little difficult to keep between my shoulder and head when my hands are full.
2. Although Bluetooth helps with that problem, my Bluetooth worked better with RAZR than Juke somehow. Others told me they heard noise when I used Bluetooth with Juke.
3. It opens only one-way and I get confused.
4. This phone is very small and so the keys and the screen are. I think this is mainly for girls with small fingers. Also, the jack for earphone and the charging slot seem to be fragile and I'm afraid one day my tiny but clumsy fingers will break them.
5. Voice Commands software is somewhat dumb and does not recognize many of the common names if you say it too fast. It understands some foreign names pretty well but what's the point if it understands a Chinese name at once and gives me three different choices when I say "Call Jane"?
6. No video feature (just camera) but I won't complain about it as I never expected such thing from a cell phone. I do not take quality pictures or videos with my cell phone for two reasons: 1. I have a very good digital camera for that function, 2. why should I pay for every single picture I take?????

Overall, I am satisfied with Samsung Juke. I can use this for next 2 years.

An absolutely amazing phone! July 23, 2009

Reviewer:  M. Spangenberg 

I got the juke 2 years ago when my old contract expired. At the time it was free with a 2 year contract, so I just went with it. It was an awesome choice!

This phone is small and slim, which to some is unatractive. I found that it was actually very convinient; I didn't have to worry about it not fitting in my pocket.

The music player is wonderful, sounds just like any iPod. And when you put the music on speaker, while the sound quality goes down, you can raise the volume level very high. Once you get used to the small keyboard it is totally fine.

One of my major concerns was that mayube if I swung it open too often the top would eventually come flying off. I have sat and played with it by swinging it for hours on end and it is still attached and hasn't even loosened.

I have also dropped it on countless occasions, even into snow and pouddles, and while there are scratches, it still works great! The only problem is that sometimes if you litne to music for more than a few hours it will freeze, and you have to remove the battery pack and tunr it back on.

This phone is great and not just for a kids phone. 5 stars all the way!

Great, great phone. July 9, 2009

Reviewer:  Charlene G. Connolly "Beren"  (Florida) -

I had this phone for a year-and-a-half, and it never let me down. The battery lasted for around 3 days of casual use and charged within 5 hours. I have dropped it out of multiple moving cars, hah, and barely a scratch. It was just right in size, I never lost it, not too small to lose, not too large as to be cumbersome. The keypad is perfect for texting, with big buttons. The MP3 player is very good, except for the headphones, you can't use regular ones, and the ones they sell always hurt my ears; but since I had an iPod, it didn't matter much to me. The camera was superb, I took 77 pictures within 5 minutes once. But, in May, I was on a field trip with my National Junior Honors Society to Universal, and on the Hulk ride, it slipped out of my pocket on the first hill. Eighteen months of bliss turned to a second of blustery blunder. Hah, I loved it, great buy:))

Cute phone March 15, 2009

Reviewer:  MyHomeZoo  (Overland Park, KS) -

This is a very cute phone: it is small and gets a lot of comments from people. As a cell phone, it is very reliable. I used this phone for almost 2 years with no problems. As an MP3 player, it is barely tolerable. The sound quality is relatively poor and the volume at its highest level isn't loud enough to use on a plane. I bought this hoping to eliminate the need to carry an iPOD with me when traveling, but this is no substitute for an iPOD. However, if you're just looking for a small, reliable phone and don't care much about features, this is a good option.

Even an old man loves this phone! February 18, 2009

Reviewer:  D. Ward "LandInvestor"  (Jacksonville, FL) -

When I went to buy a new phone I wanted something compact that would slide easily into my pocket. I am tired of lugging around a large phone on my belt. I am a bit old school (48 years old) as I wanted a simple phone and did not need alot of features (like text messaging and email). I was nervous at first the capabilities of this phone. I have been pleasantly surprised how well the phone operates and how simple it is to use. I am never used an MP3 player before (I told you I was old school) so I decided to give this a try. The MP3 player was surprisingly easy to set up and use. Now I have all my favorite songs at my finger tips. The player interacted with Windows Media Player perfectly and quickly. I like that I can answer the phone without having to flip open the phone. The alarm works like it should and the font is large enough for my young eyes. I have owned it for 8 weeks and I honestly cant find a down side to owning this phone. The features were well thought out and easy to use. OWN THIS PHONE!