Wonderful December 31, 2012

Reviewer:  Truthswhispered 

I just got the phone yesterday and it is working great. It is super fast and easy to figure out, easy to work, easy to manage. It is a bit on the large side ( as it fits from fingertip to the heel of my palm) and so is the slider keyboard but that might be because I have smallish hands :/ otherwise the keyboard is also good. The keys are close together and not to flat or bulky. (it is a little difficult to slide open but easy to slide shut) The screen does like to change views at random when I set it down but you can fix that by picking it up and taping the side. I am disappointed that my ringtones can't be used for when a text is sent to me but I can live without that unnecessary luxury. Graphics are really good and the camera isn't half bad either. Skype works well on it and my calls have been clear. Battery life is really good too as long as you lay off the heavy stuff like movies and games. Apps work smoothly. I really can't find a thing wrong with this phone so far.

Great phone - very fast and fun February 19, 2013

Reviewer:  Steven  (Boston, Ma) -

Before starting the review, I would like to say that the Strato II has only been out a few months. - starting on the holidays (thanksgiving, Christmas)2012. Starting with a 4G simm card and the new "ice cream sandwich" android ver 4 op sys. I understand the first version was not to great..

I am a android user of over 2 years (droid II global) and find the new strato II to be very good indeed. It not only has all the features the the droid II has but is super fast and has many added features.

- Starting with the sliding out keyboard. The keyboard slides out easy with a nice smooth snick. I have found it is easy to hold the phone in my left hand and push the screen out with my thumb - easy to close. What I like about the phone keyboard is if I slide it out, this bye-passes the lock/swape screen. The physical buttons are placed just right and not to many to clutter up. I like the feel of the on/off button, it take you to the power-off with a longer press, with just a light press it takes you to the lock screen where a swipe is needed to unlock. I like the idea that the unlock/swipe screen can have a different picture (settings -> wallpaper) then the main/home screens.

- The battery for a smart phone is always a concern, with the strato II it is less of a concern being 1800 mAh compared to the 1390 mAh on the droid. I have found the battery life to be good - using moderate internet the phone is charged every two days. What I like about this smart phone is that the internet can be turned off by simply dragging down the action bar at the top of phone and turning off the 4G. For those that absolutely have to have internet then there are some great appl/killers. Two I recommend: "easy battery saver & easy task killer" (play store). The task killer is very good and is handy for gamers, where the easy battery saver can be put in "intelligent mode" which turns of the internet when a person goes to bed. Here is a appl few think about - GPS power sucking appl that comes with the phone that most folk do not even consider: GPS, this one runs 24 hours a day unless turned off when not in use. easy to do:(settings -> location services) or action bar at top of screen.
- Charging the phone I have found is quick when turned off first - this has two good advantages 1) those 10 or 20 appls that are constantly running for that user that expects the phone to kill appls if they forget too. 2) complete charge in a little over a hour compared to hours for a user that is running 20 appls sucking up power while the poor phone is doing its best to recharge.
- Overall the battery performs well about normal life with proper care, I would agree that the battery would not need to be charged for 5 days if the phone had little or no use - easy battery saver would turn of the internet when not used. For heavy gamers the life would be shorter of course - internet sucks up juice heavy.

There are some really neat feature that may only be available on the galaxy: 1) s-beam, you may have seen someone put a smart phone against another to transfer a picture... to do this go to settings -> more settings -> scroll down to s beam - this is were you turn on s beam. 2) I really like the face recognition feature, it can be used to unlock a locked phone, but then you the owner do not need a password the smartphone recognizes your face. For those that are interested in this go to: settings -> lock screen -> tap on screen lock and get a number of options. My favorite is: face unlock.

- I will discusss other features at a later time.

Best Phonw ByFar March 10, 2013

Reviewer:  Terry 

LOVE this phone. Always had a basic cell, so this took some studying, well worth it. Very easy to undestand and use. Photos, video are fantastic!!

Fatal Flaw May 2, 2013

Reviewer:  Bargain Finder  (Los Angeles, CA) -

This won't matter to most of you. But this phone has a major security flaw..as most other devices have, also. In the ongoing NOTIFICATION selection, it contually displays a WI FI OFF notice. If you touvh that NOTICE in an attempt to delete it, it turns ON your WI FI. And if you have crooks or malicios hackers in your vicinity as I had, they will "clone" your phone and do anything they want with your phone. Look up "phone cloning" on "Google".

finally! a statosphere that works April 10, 2013

Reviewer:  NY METS 

Had the first version.worst phone ever. this phone is good.only thing so far is the space bar on the keypad. I notice after typing a sentence that most words have no space.

Keyboard and fastest software. what else do you need? March 31, 2013

Reviewer:  E. Levy "Eliav Levy"  (New Jersey) -

This phone has a keyboard and operates on Android's Jellybean software thing, so it's really fast and when you type stuff it actually comes out as you intended it. I don't know what else there is to look for in a phone these days. I had the first Stratosphere and it was SLOWWWWW. This one is a massive upgrade over the older model. The battery life is also outstanding (by smartphone standards).

Never have I hated an inanimate object as much as this phone. May 7, 2013

Reviewer:  Nathaniel V. Graham 

I had a gravity T phone and loved it, I liked the slide out keyboard so I bought this one. Huge mistake. This phone fails on every imaginable level, its extremely complicated to configure the simplest of settings. Its as if for every feature of the phone they sat down and said "OK what is the most difficult, non intuitive, and time consuming method can we use for this?" I found myself talking on the phone, and unable to hang up. Honestly I had to go through 7 menus to END THE PHONE CALL. I have now spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to stop it from making sounds and vibrating and flashing a nonstop light every single time someone likes something on my facebook. I find the best way to figure out how to change the setting is to think "what is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to do?". For example, I wanted the phone to stop vibrating seemingly at random. I spent 15 minutes going through the settings but thought to myself "What is the opposite of vibration". Ahh sound, its in the sound settings of course. One of those radio shack bag phones from the 1980s would be preferable to this one.

can't find skins for this phone February 28, 2013

Reviewer:  Seance 

We just bought these phones yesterday and cannot find skins (decal type, not the hard or rubber cases) for them. I can find skins for the I-405 model but not the I-415 model. Anyone out there know where I can find them? Thanks!

worst phone ive ever bought February 7, 2013

Reviewer:  tooschoolforcool "-A-" 

The sweet sliding screen broke twice in the same way...all in 6 months. Battery life is short must be charged minimum every night. Randomly shuts off an glitches. Majorly regretting the cash i dumped into this phone.