Samsung Knack SCH-U310 Phone, Black (Verizon Wireless)

Great for low-vision or hearing impaired. No frills. January 6, 2009

Reviewer:  Sam "Sam"  (USA) -

This phone will never be stolen or used by anyone under 21 (or under 50). It is the most un-kewl device in existence. An iPhone, it is not!

For the vision or hearing impaired or for those who don't need or want the latest gizmo, this phone is for you.

Since the phone does relatively little, there are much less menus. Most of the menu options turn on or off sounds. Example option: Phone will sound out each key you press("four", "six") . Turning on each sound option will make for a very talkative companion.

Pros:

The fonts are large. Very, very large. And you can make the fonts in some of the menus even larger.

No camera. No games. No music. No pictures.

The text is very black and in some areas, the background is bright white making for highly readable ultra-high contrast text. With my 20/20 vision I can literally read the text from across the bedroom. I kid you not.

It does have speed dial but the options to set it is not as described in the manual. I found the speed dial option in a different menu.

The keys light up quite clearly and brightly.

The keys are nicely tactile.

Superb battery conservation. If you don't use the phone much, you probably can go over a week or two before needing a recharge.

The maximum sound is loud -- really loud. A person can hear incoming voices on the other side of the room at the highest setting. You might want to lower the sound for some phone calls.

I use the calendar but it could be improved. I also use the alarm clock, stop watch and calculator. The calendar, alarm clock and calculator have dedicated buttons.

Cons:

Why, oh, why didn't they allow for a blank wallpaper?

This phone is clearly designed for the visually impaired or the no-frills type of person so why wouldn't they have a white, or neutral color, background on the main menu? What were they thinking? There's no way of importing a blank wallpaper since there's no camera and no option to disable the wallpaper.

Small (tiny?) "OK" button.

Small external display. No caller ID on external display. No date on external display.

Also, the font could have been (should have been) larger on the main menu, but no, they had to have a cutesy background.

No Bluetooth. A disadvantage if you want/need a wireless headset.

Some backgrounds have other colors. No option for change. Colors reduce contrast and readability.

The voice recognition is positively awful and slowwwww. It just drives me to tears. My phone from 10+ years ago did a far better job of recognizing names. And you have to see the moronic copyright screen each time. If I wrote that software, I would hide, not show, the copyright screen. It's shameful.

The voice recognition voice prompts is played though the speaker phone which can be rather embarrassing in certain situations. I haven't found an option to disable this "feature". Again, what were they thinking or are they just stupid?

There is no vibrate before ring option. I like to be able to answer the phone before it actually rings so the ring doesn't disturb others. The vibrate feature is rather weak. [Update Feb 28, 09: I found a voice option where a feminine voice softly says 'You have an incoming call' before the phone rings. Many times I'm able to answer the phone before it actually rings. I absolutely love this feature.]

The appointment feature in the calendar is a bit lame. There's no way of alerting you of an upcoming appointment. What I do is set the appointment for several hours in advance and type in the actual time in the text field.

I don't understand why they made the power connection so small and difficult. On the power cord, there's a dark red arrow on a black background. Why not white? And the protective cover is dark red and flimsy. Good luck if you have low vision or poor finger coordination. Another insult to the disabled. On some reviews, the protective door colors are brightened so that they appear to be highly visible. Those reviewers are being deceptive.

In short, this simple phone will meet 80% of the needs of those who are mildly disabled and 95% of those who just want a simple phone. If you have a relative who needs a simple phone or is disabled or a technophobe, you can set this up for them and they'll be happily independent (except for the recharging).

The ring volume is rather low on both of our phones even though the ring volumes are set to the maximum. If the phone is in a pocketbook or a jacket, you might not be able to find your phone when it rings. I find this to be a major detractor. We miss a lot of phone calls because of this. I carry my phone in my pocket. I can never hear my phone ring when I'm in a store. We don't carry phones on a holster and we're not about to start. When other people's cell phone rings, they're so loud I jump. Mine could ring in a theater and I don't think anyone would notice.

[Update Jan 24, 2010] I've been informed that a recharging cradle is available which will eliminate the plug-in recharging problem. With Verizon, the default number of rings are 3. You can call Verizon and increase the number of rings up to 8. This CANNOT be done from this phone. Please note that some of the rings are gobbled up before your phone rings so don't expect the phone to actually ring a full 8 times.

A No Frills Phone that delivers what it promises, esp for Seniors March 9, 2010

Reviewer:  Julia Andrews "Book Junkie"  (Peoria, Illinois) -

My husband and I have been totally cellular for over 2 years and we are in our 50's-60's, so you can teach old dogs new tricks. We wanted to stay with Verizon due to the number of towers making our reception much better in a rural area. Since his contract was coming to conclusion we checked into a number of "Senior Friendly--No Frills phones". He didn't want a camera, he has NEVER texted a message in his life, he has a dedicated GPS, a computer for intenet usage and all the extra knobs just got in his way. He did need large, backlight numbers arranged clearly with a large font display, ICE features for emergencies,the phone volume had to be sufficient for 60+ year old ears, and easy enough for daily use without fumbling around. After 2 months of use, he has found this phone much more user friendly than his previous Razer. The volume (not even maximum) is so loud I have unjustly accused him of having the Speakerphone on....and it was NOT. It has a charger stand that positions the phone so you can easily see the time(thanks to large fonts) on his nightstand even with our old eyes. Absolutely NO problems with VM, freezing or locking up and the phone is used throughout the day, granted NOT by a teenager.

Love My Knack February 19, 2010

Reviewer:  D. Plachta "thdave"  (Cleveland, OH USA) -

I love this phone. I was going to get the Alias, as it also has a large font, but the new $10/month data fee was a deal breaker. I use the phone for calling and texting. I took only a couple of pictures with my previous phone, so I didn't care about that feature. I didn't want email or internet. I had a Razor, which had a short battery life and very small font. Texting is easy and better than the Razor, in that rarely does the wrong word show up. The numbers-letters are easier and more reliably pressed. The display is bright and large. The phone works great--its earpiece is clear and the numbers have a nice feel. The speakerphone is high quality. The contacts are simple to save and they all came over from the previous phone, unlike the warning I read here. Also, it does ID the caller, with the contact name or the phone number. The recharging cradle makes it easy as pie to recharge the phone.

Beware the Knack July 27, 2009

Reviewer:  E. Brown 

On May 4, 2009, I finally broke down and bought cell phones for all five members of my family, opting for the Samsung Knack because it was a no-frills phone and I didn't want to open Pandora's box with my three teenagers. I went with a one year contract with Verizon just in case the expense of a family share plan was too much. We immediately began having problems with the phones. One phone had to be exchanged within two weeks, and since then we have had to replace three others for a total of four replacement phones in less than three months.

Needless to say, I contacted Verizon about the "lemons" and was told that we were stuck with them. According to our contract agreement, we could only replace phones with the same phones, so now I am getting reconditioned Knack phones, and based upon their track record thus far, I can expect to have 16 replacements before the contract expires.

My two kids who have been the heaviest users have had the most problems and required the replacement phones; however, there is no disclaimer that accompanies the phones indicating they are incapable of heavy use. The actual problems with the phones have run the gamut from not turning on, freezing, scrambling messages/data, menu functions that do not work, etc.

If you are over 50, you might not have any problems with the phones because you are using them on a limited basis. I would not recommend this phone to anyone who uses one throughout the day.

NOT impressed. Glad it was free. April 4, 2010

Reviewer:  critters 

I don't need a foo-foo phone, but I would like reliability. This, however, is not present with the Samsung Knack. The little screen on the front quit working the first week, and the battery's been wonkers since shortly thereafter; a full charge, while not being used, lasts 2 days tops. I've just ordered 2 new cords for the stupid thing so I can charge it everywhere, which is necessary since it constantly needs charging.

The best thing about it?? I feel like I'm on Star Trek. Beam me a new communicator, Scotty!!!

edit: The battery began to hold a charge longer, so I upped it to 3 stars. The little screen never fixed itself, though.

Unreliable calendar/alarm function July 9, 2009

Reviewer:  pj5  (Houston, TX USA) -

Got this phone because it can be taken almost anywhere (no camera, no internet, no memory cards, no notepad...). No problems making or receiving calls. Have not had any issues with it freezing. HOWEVER, the calendar and alarm functions do not work consistently. Don't even bother trying to set recurring events or alarms. Other reviewers bear me out, but you have to dig a while to find them. We are talking basic functions that have been on phones, PDAs, and Pocket PCs for years, how the heck do you screw them up?! It wasn't even on my radar that there might be issues with the calendar and alarm on ANY current cell phone model. And on top of that, when the alarm actually *does* go off, dismiss and snooze BOTH snooze it. Have to turn the alarm off to keep it from going off every 5 minutes indefinitely. Means I will need a separate watch with an alarm function IF I decide to keep this phone.

Bad Phone October 19, 2009

Reviewer:  Hansen Bow 

I have had the Samsung Knack for around one year. While the phone is easy to use, I have had several problems with it. 1. The phone constantly tells me that I have voicemail messages. However, there are no messages when I call voicemail. I have contacted Verizon Wireless twice by phone and once in person to resolve this issue, but all of their efforts have been unsuccessful. They tell me it's a problem caused by my phone, rather than their network. 2. The phone ocasionally alerts me that the text message memory is full. I rarely use text messaging, and I see no saved messages. 3. There are only 6 wallpaper backgrounds available, none of which is blank. It is difficult to read what's on the screen with so much unnecessary distractions in the background.

In summary, based on my experience I would recommend against buying this phone.

This phone is junk!! Don't buy it!! December 15, 2009

Reviewer:  veryberry "berry76062"  (NY) -

THis phone stopped working properly just after 2 weeks. I could not return it because of the time. They can only offer an exchange. The phone continues to fail. I don't get my messages, there is a severe keyboard response delay and there are times it freezes so I have to take the battery out to reset it. Don't buy this phone!