WOW! SUPER BATTERY LIFE, GREAT PHONE!!! December 10, 2009

Reviewer:  JCRArizona "JCR"  (Phoenix, AZ United States) -

I got this when I first came out ,and I am sure glad I did, Verizon is out of stock! Let me share with this phone does it all-tough, rugged, but modern and all the basics needed! Let me walk through this, in order of features I love!

1. Battery Life-Hate charging your phone daily? This is FOR YOU..... A CHARGE WITH FULL USE FOR FOUR DAYSSS! WOW! I use my phone SEVERAL HOURS DAILY, and text all the time, and this phone goes down ONE bar in four days! WOW! I love it ...don't even need a car charger!

2. ADJUSTABLE SIZE FONTS FOR TEXTING AND OTHER THINGS-for us middle aged and older folks , this is great! Can adjust size of fonts for texting, wow! Quick text enables you to simply push a button and send a pre-picked phrase (running late, call me asap, etc), and you can add your own phrases and delete at will!

3. GREAT SPEAKERPHONE. works well, loud, and great voice command and Bluetooth connection!

4. Tunes-who needs an iphone and pay tons of bucks a month? Download your own tunes!! MP 3 player

5. Military Spec-water, salt , fog, altitude, shock, dust, solar, cold resistant.....this phone is a manly phone, thick, but still fits in pocket well. Rubber side grips.

6. DON'T NEED TO OPEN FOR ACCESS-can text, read texts, and check voice mail without opening flip

(BTW, lots of folks complain you cant' see the clock as it is not always on -I like that, saves battery, and you can push a button to get time if you want. You CAN leave clock always on but this will shorten battery life.

7. PTT Don't use this feature, but is a nice one.

8. VZ Nav for directions, and automatic location finder to track kids or elderly and find location of phone (and them) on Verizon site.

THIS PHONE IS SUPER.....NOT FANCY, NOT BELLS AND WHISTLES< but solid, LONG battery life, and great Verizon service!

Great Basic Phone, Could Be Easier to Use February 7, 2010

Reviewer:  John K.  (Gaylord, MI) -

A pretty rugged phone for voice and occasional texting. Although packed with many additional "features", most require extra $$$ to use. Don't kid yourself into thinking this phone is a budget version of the iPhone or Blackberry - it's a good basic phone, with some additional features scabbed on. Nothing more.

Performance is excellent in all voice-related categories. Good signal capture, great handset and speaker quality (plenty loud, too), acceptable Bluetooth performance, easy-to-read displays, and keypad buttons that a full-sized human can actually use!

So far the phone has held up well in the real world. Mine travels a lot, and is used on the job almost daily. I'd recommend an external case if ruggedness is a priority. It's built pretty tough, but won't survive many drops out of the box. I added a leather case, and expect this phone to handle reasonable abuse for quite a while.

Can't comment on features like VCast, PTT, or Internet connectivity - I don't use any of that. It's a telephone, and it does that job very well. If I want to check e-mail, browse the 'Net, or download tunes, I fire up the laptop - without incurring Verizon's additional charges. Really folks, do you think a palm-sized cell phone will give you the performance of a decent PC? You get what you pay for...

Overall, the phone is pretty easy to use. You won't need a manual to set up the basics. Good thing, since this phone doesn't ship with a manual. Don't know what they were thinking. You can download the manual online, which I would recommend.

My only real gripe is with Verizon's system software - not the phone itself. I won't list all the petty little annoyances, but the list is long. The menu options are severely limited as far as customizing to my liking - but your mileage may vary. Anyone who is used to Verizon's software will understand what I'm talking about. Not a deal-breaker, but you'd think after all this time the company would have designed a more intuitive interface with better options. Too many hoops to jump through for everyday tasks - maybe a future software update will address this.

Battery life is phenominal, in my experience. No need for a car charger on a 3-day trip. Sweet. Best battery life of any phone I've ever used. The built-in camera is surprisingly good, even without a flash. Nice feature.

Some folks complain about the unit's bulk, but this isn't an issue for me. Even with an external case, the phone fits in the pocket of a work shirt. It's a bit on the heavy side, due no doubt to the large battery. This, in my opinion, is a fair trade-off. If you want a little toy phone for yakking on the city streets, there are many other models to choose from.

If you need a phone that will send and receive calls under all conditions, this is a great choice. Seems to be solidly-built, so I expect several years of service. It's not a swiss army knife - just a solid little phone that will be there when you need it.

Verizon good/bad, Samsung good July 5, 2010

Reviewer:  J. Donaldson "Cal-diver"  (Redding, CA USA) -

I've had this Samsung Convoy U640 phone on Verizon for two weeks. I am pleased with it and would recommend it.

This is a basic phone to be sure, exactly what I wanted. No extra cost data plan or text plan for us. In fact we had Verizon block all data so we wouldn't incur any surprise charges due to accidentally selecting a menu option that uses small amounts of data. We just want a phones that will last and that work well. Having a camera was a bonus, in the past I've found a couple of good uses for quick shots (pictures of things in stores on which to do more research, car accident photos) so it is nice to have one handy all the time.

Pros:
- Solid feel, good construction and materials
- Large backlit buttons
- Plastic external display - I've broken glass displays in the past.
- Large (for this type of phone) bright display on the inside - also plastic.
- Camera button is inside - I've had phones with side mounted camera buttons that took pictures in my pocket!
- Large numbers displayed front and inside for my old eyes
- Functional, if a little picky, voice controlled menus and calls. This was a bonus because I didn't have to program anything. Every contact in my list is a potential voice call.
- SD Micro memory card slot for extra photo, video, or mp3 files. I can pop it out of the camera and into my computer for file transfers. This is simple and quick rather than using a manufacturers USB cable and special software.
- MP3 player
- Bluetooth, seems to pair well and stay connected.
- Speakerphone, loud and clear.
- Camera with still or video capability - quality seems okay for a phone. If I want real quality photos I'll bring my camera.
- Very good battery life that has improved as the battery has matured over these two weeks.
- Speaker phone works quite well and is activated by a side button that has to be depressed for a couple of seconds. I find this much better than a menu option and soft key.
- The durable aspects of the phone were a big attraction to me. I use it on the boat with less concern for having wet hands when handling it.

Cons:
- Verizon menu system. I wanted a Samsung Convoy, not a Verizon Convoy. Verizon's menu system isn't too bad but there are customizations that are not allowed or provided. For example I wanted to replace the main screen "Message" soft button with "Recent" (calls) but that was not an option.

- 2.5mm earphone jack. Since I never use a wired headset (that's what Bluetooth is for) I'd like to listen to music with my standard 3.5mm earphones but can't without an adapter. When are phone manufacturers going to get this right?

- Voice call system can be annoying. If it doesn't understand my command it starts to offer other choices (some quite dumb) and is too persistent. I wish it would simply give me another chance and not offer other names or options for me to say "yes" or "no" to. I understand one can do some voice training to improve it but I haven't bothered as it works well for the few people I call often.

- It is a little thick, especially considering it isn't a fancy feature phone requiring a lot of electronics. However it isn't as thick as I thought it was going to be and I don't mind it in my pocket.

On the general subject of Verizon: We just switched from 11 years of having AT&T wireless service to Verizon. On AT&T my wife complained of lack of coverage and dropped calls. My problem with AT&T was poor call quality, so bad I really didn't want to use the phone. Over 11 years we had various phones and there are three of us on the plan but the call quality problems persisted. Now that we are on Verizon we are so pleased with the call quality; it feels like we have useful service for the first time. I just wish they would leave the manufacturers operating system and user interface alone.

Great "simple feature" phone February 17, 2010

Reviewer:  R. Lytle "Rob"  (South Carolina, USA) -

I know the younger crowd wants (and probably uses) every feature they can get in a cell phone. My primary - and usually only - use for a cell phone is as a phone. For this, the Convoy is great. The battery life is several times longer than my previous LG phone and the phone is rugged (I dropped it on a hard floor the first couple of weeks I had it - not a scratch and the caller was still on the line). Reception and sound quality are good. My only complaint is that the carrier has locked most of the internal storage and the two main providers of PIM software for phones - BitPIM and DataPilot - aren't supporting the phone yet (despite what DataPilot says at this point). Contacts can be backed up and maintained via VZW's Backup Assistant, but this this application is only designed for use with one phone at a time (and we have three in the family). Looking at the big picture, though, these are just irritants and not show-stoppers. I'm very happy with the phone for my purposes.

Convoy is Junk July 23, 2010

Reviewer:  Cappy124  (Ocean County, NJ) -

These phones do not hold up after a while. Mine, and everyone I know that has one, thinks they stink, Lots of glitches, turning off by themselves, locking up.

great audio and reception, strong battery June 6, 2010

Reviewer:  D. L. Starkey "Author of Grief's Untold Stories"  (Southern California) -

If you are mostly interested in a rugged phone that has great sound quality,good reception and a super long lasting battery. this phone is the one. No, it doesn't have all the bells that other phones do but this is the best phone I've ever owned. And I've owned the Droid Eris and two Blackberrys.

susie February 18, 2010

Reviewer:  susie q 

Got the phone the other night. So far it is so easy to use. Little bit on the heavy side, but okay. Feels like a phone. The only thing is the Alarm.. No Snooze. No button on the side for calls coming in to silence. Nice grips on the side so the phone won't slide or drop out your hand. Like it!

Tough guy, eh? February 16, 2011

Reviewer:  TOny 

I had this phone starting last spring when I renewed my Verizon plan. Loved it so much. Towards the end of the summer I went swimming with it in my pocket accidentally for about an hour. Phone was completely soaked, water built up inside the screen and everything. I took it apart and tried to dry it out, but nothing. I started using my girlfriends old phone as a replacement while the Convoy lay dead in a box in the basement. Until just last week (about 7 months later) i found it, turned it on and a miracle! IT WORKS! I guess I just needed to give it more time to dry out, but the phone works just as good as ever. I dont really understand it, but it just doesn't want to die.

Great battery life, real buttons, and easy to use November 21, 2010

Reviewer:  Michael C. Haensel  (Fresno, CA United States) -

The short version:
This phone is loud, easy to use, has actual physical buttons and great battery life. If that's what you want, I recommend this phone!

The long version:
How good a phone is depends on what you use it for. I wanted my calls to be good quality, the phone to be straightforward to use, and an end to the constant plugging-in-the-phone act. Cel phones used to have batteries that lasted for days, not hours! Smart phones claim long standby and talk times, but I have not seen that in practice.

This is my first week with the phone: the battery lasted 6.5 days from initial full charge. I'm a light phone user, but I do use the phone daily for texts, photos, and calls. It's easy to take pictures. It's easy to email them. Texting is a little awkward without a QWERTY keyboard, but I can cope. I rank this above the iPhone for texting; virtual keyboards are a very bad fit for me.

Verizon has a web-based contact manager that only opens about half the time for me. However, since you really only need to set up contacts on this phone occasionally, it's a huge bonus and much easier than entering everything by hand.

nice phone March 26, 2010

Reviewer:  Robert L. Lyman 

this phone does everything i wanted in a phone. the battery life is awesome. if you need a phone that is just a phone without all that fancy crap this is the perfect one. it is a little larger size than some so think about that before you buy,

fatal flaw October 24, 2010

Reviewer:  Funnelwebmaster  (Honolulu, Hawaii) -

I have owned this phone now for about two months. For the first week or so it worked fine. Then, it began to turn itself off. It powers itself off instantaneously after ending a call. I'll say" bye," close the flip top, and the thing just goes dead - I have to power it back on. Sometimes it stays on after the call ends, but after a while I'll reach for it to make a call and find that it's dead.

I have been missing calls due to this, obviously. In my line of work that's a very big problem, not just an annoyance.

So I took it back - the Verizon dealer told me that he needed to update the operating system, which he did. That did not solve the problem. I'd find the thing dead five-ten times per day. And I will clarify here that the battery was either fully charged or showing four out of five bars. I was plugging it into the charger every other night, without fail.

So I took it back to the dealer again. This time they replaced the phone (but not the battery). After five days I got my replacement phone via UPS, and tried it out (with a freshly charged battery). Same problem.

So I took it back a third time. They told me it might be the battery itself. Again, I waited a few days and got a replacement battery delivered to my door. I charged it. Same problem.

I am totally mystified - I haven't dropped the phones. They haven't gotten wet. Two separate phones, two separate batteries, and the thing just self-powers off. I have no alternative but to ask them for a different model/brand of phone altogether, which is a pity because overall I like the Convoy very much, this power-off problem notwithstanding. I'll try that tomorrow and see what they say.

A Good But Bulky Phone December 12, 2010

Reviewer:  Veil_Lord 

My wife picked this phone out for me and I've been mostly satisfied. The memory card system on this phone is extraordinary. Other phones for you have to take out the battery just to get at the memory card always annoy me. In this case not only can you take the memory card (micro SD card) out easily from the side of the phone while it's still on, the phone automatically changes your settings to reflect the fact that the memory card is no longer present. I wish all phones could have that kind of feature; it makes me happy.

The phone makes a decent music player, not requiring you to change the format of MP3s in order to put them on the phone. My last one required that I change the format to Windows media audio, which was time-consuming and annoying. The only downside is the MP3s take up more space because their actual songs like I would play on my computer, but if you don't mind the loss of quality which you probably won't even notice since it's a phone you can always downgrade the software to a lower bit rate. I don't count this phone down for it, but I would've appreciated software that would let me pause a song and return to it. I like to listen a lot of talk radio podcasts and very annoying if I have to go in fast forward to find the spot I was listening to before. If the phone saved its place like my MP3 player does and I could just listen to it on my phone without carrying a separate device. The phone has a built-in camera obviously, which is average just like any run-of-the-mill cell phone camera. It performs adequately, but there's nothing special about it. You can take a picture of yourself if you want with the cell phone closed which was kind of nice. You just have to play with the menu options.

I really appreciated the charger that came with the phone. I wish all phones came with the same type. The power cord and the actual transformer (fat end with the plug) are two separate units. The power cord is actually a USB cable which let you connect to your computer to transfer data and to charge the phone. The plug end is a USB charger which you can use to charge any USB charging device. Charges I've seen like this are about $10 in the store and data cables on my past phones have been sold separately. This is simply wonderful approach. I can use the charger and a to charge my MP3 player, my PDA, or my portable game system without tying up the USB connector on my computer. I hope all phone manufacturers start taking this approach.

I could be a little happier with the phone. Having such a big speaker is nice, especially when I want to play music out of it or use the speakerphone, but it makes this phone vibrate a little bit when volume is high. I was worried something is can a shake loose eventually and the speaker stop working. I don't know if it's the speaker or the call quality, but sometimes I'll hear a little pop or a hiss when I'm talking. It wasn't enough for me to return the phone when I still could and isn't that much annoyance. I really don't even notice it anymore unless I listen for it.

The only thing I can really complain about this phone's appearance, is that it's pretty fat. I had to get a new cell phone case just a hold it. I'd estimate it some more about 1 1/2 times the bulk of my old Samsung Smooth, but it's really not a big deal.

BEST BASIC PHONE EVER! October 2, 2010

Reviewer:  Alan Gurney  (Fairfield, CT United States) -

This was an excellent deal on a super phone. It is easy to read. Has a loud ring tone and super voice quality. If you want an excellent basic phone that is built solid this is the one.

Everything I hated with the Moto V750 is fixed with this phone. September 8, 2010

Reviewer:  hoosiertoo  (Indiana) -

And I was really miffed at the V750.

Great battery life. Easy to use. Can actually sync with Windows Media instead of the detestable Rhapsody interface. Best of all, it hasn't melted down in my pocket yet. Can't recommend this one highly enough. I still love to hate Verizon, but they got this one right.

Great phone.

Fantastic battery life June 21, 2010

Reviewer:  FUBK "FUBK"  (Cincinnati,OH) -

This is a great little phone if you only need to use it as such. No bells and whistles just a solidly built phone with exceptional battery life. Easy to use and carry around in your pocket.

A really good phone January 31, 2011

Reviewer:  Judith Taylor "Judith"  (down south) -

I'm a returning college student and although I think smart phones are very cool I just wanted a phone that gives me good signal and great battery life. The Samsung Convoy U640 does both. And despite being a military grade phone I find it sytlish and and attractive. It does what I want it to do without requiring any extras such as a data plan. I have a Zune HD, iPod Touch and a laptop to do that for me. Verizon Wireless is a fantastic cell carrier and I always have signal. Overall I really like this phone and highly recommend it if you're looking for a phone that does what cell phones were intended for, making and receiving calls.

Great Utilitarian Cellphone January 23, 2011

Reviewer:  Michael Stevens  (New York, NY) -

I have always opted for fairly basic cellphones without too many unnecessary bells and whistles, and the Convoy does not disappoint. A great "utilitarian" device in the true, form-follows-function format. I do not send or receive text or pix messages, and although the phone is certainly capable in both areas, heavy users of these services are probably better served by the current crop of "smart" phones. But in terms or making and receiving voice calls comfortably and efficiently, the phone is the best I've ever had. I should also mention that the Samsung Convoy is the first non-Motorola cell phone I've had, and I could not be happier. As other reviewers have pointed out, the Calendar function is a little weak, so if that is an important part of your cellphone usage, it would probably behoove you to once again consider the "smart" phone lineup instead. Perhaps not as "sleek" or "slim" as some of the other offerings, this is a great phone with a heavy-duty look and feel.

WENT DOWN HILL FAST December 1, 2010

Reviewer:  E. Zweiger "Hopalong60"  (PHX. AZ) -

Convoy worked great for about 3 months. Then battery life shortened and lots of dropped calls.
Went back to old Casio GZ oneS and no dropped calls.
Ive noticed a trend. Phones that do 3G high speed drop calls more than phones that do not.
I think they have trouble shifting multible tower sites when on the highway.
If you dont need high speed stick with a basic phone that doesnt do 3G.
It would be slick if you could turn 3G off like on the IPhone. But lets not open that can of worms.
AT&T doesnt work even with 3g turned off. Stick with Verizon and get a non 3G for highway travel.

Love it and abuse it... May 21, 2011

Reviewer:  Mary Harper  (Cowley, Wyoming) -

I am a mechanic and I cannot tell you how many phones I have broken crawling in/under/around vehicles and equipment but not this great phone! I realize it is not fancy and does not do all the stuff I could frankly, care less about. I want a PHONE...nothing more and nothing less and the Convoy is perfect. My wife is a veterinarian and I know hers has been stepped on by a cow, "slimed" with lube, dropped at least 40,000 times and even flew out of her shirt pocket out the window of her truck going 40 miles an hour when she hit a huge bump in the road...and it kept right on working!!! We have had these phones about 2 years.

Paired with EZ voice mail set-up & retrieval, the longest lasting battery of any cellphone I have ever owned and numbers and buttons you can actually see (I am over 50 so that is a big deal!) there is nothing I don't like about it and both my wife and I will hate having to go to another phone when these have lived out their phone life and we can no longer buy this model.

There are a lot of us who don't need data, video, pictures or unrelenting texting...just a phone...a tough, easy to use phone and the Convoy more than fits the bill.

less than one year to death April 22, 2011

Reviewer:  bayareakirk  (Bay Area, CA) -

Okay basic phone. Great battery life. Sound quality good. Speakerphone easy to turn on and off. Big and bulky compared to many.

Main problems: In the first couple of months, the front screen broke while on a bicycle ride. It could only have bumped something while in my pocket. So much for rough and rugged.
Now at the one year mark, the earpiece stopped working. It only has sound from the "speakerphone" speaker. Now I have to purchase another phone only half way through a two year contract set in place by purchasing this phone. Next time I'll try the monthly "extended warranty".