Samsung Katalyst (T-Mobile)
Manufacturer: Samsung Part number: CNETKATALYSTSILTMB
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Despite a few design quibbles, the Samsung Katalyst is a great HotSpot @Home phone with above-par call quality.
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CNET editors' review
Samsung Katalyst (T-Mobile) price range: $119.99
- Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
- Reviewed on: 12/20/2007
The good: The Samsung Katalyst cell phone utilizes T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service to make calls via Wi-Fi as well as regular GSM airwaves. It also has a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, and quad-band support. Call quality was excellent.
The bad: The Samsung Katalyst has a slippery, flat keypad. It has also a dismal amount of built-in memory, and the microSD card slot is inconveniently located behind the battery.
The bottom line: Despite a few design quibbles, the Samsung Katalyst is a great HotSpot @Home phone with above-par call quality.
When T-Mobile first launched its HotSpot @Home service in June of 2007, only two phones could support it--the Nokia 6086 and the Samsung SGH-t409. Soon after, RIM released the BlackBerry Curve 8320, which became the third HotSpot @Home device. As the year winds to a close, T-Mobile has released its fourth HotSpot @Home handset, the Samsung Katalyst. Like all the others, the Katalyst is able to make calls via Wi-Fi and can automatically switch between GSM cellular airwaves and preconfigured wireless networks. Aside from that, the Katalyst is a pretty decent mid-tier phone, with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, Bluetooth, and quad-band support. We did have a few design quibbles with the keypad, but aside from that, the Katalyst is a good choice if you wish to get a handset that supports the HotSpot @ Home service. The Samsung Katalyst is available for $79.99 with a $50 discount and a two-year service agreement.
Design
Despite its cutting-edge name, the Katalyst doesn't really look too different from other Samsung sliders we've seen. Measuring 2 inches tall by 4 inches wide by 0.7 inch thick, it has an understated gray-and-chrome design, with slightly blocky corners and a soft curve along its sides. It weighs in at a relatively light 4.1 ounces, though it still has some heft when held in the hand. We can open the phone one-handed by pushing the bottom of the slider upward with our thumbs. There's a slight bump underneath the screen that you can use as a thumb grip when sliding the phone down. The sliding mechanism felt solid when opening and closing the phone, gliding smoothly up and down but still providing just enough resistance.
The Katalyst has a generous 2.1-inch, 262,000-color display that shows off graphics and images with plenty of color and detail. You can change the brightness, backlighting time, and the background color, font size, and font color of the dialing display. The Katalyst supports T-Mobile's MyFaves, so you'll also be presented with five contact thumbnails that you can scroll through on the main screen.
Underneath the display is a simple navigation array consisting of two soft keys, a four-way toggle, a middle OK key, and a Clear key that's flanked in between the Talk and End/Power keys. From the standby screen, the top and bottom toggle keys are also shortcuts to call records and the contacts list, while the left and right are for scrolling through your five MyFaves contacts. The keys feel a little slippery and flat, but there's enough textural difference between them that it wasn't too bad. Also, the keys felt easy to the touch, and yielded just enough to pressure.
The alphanumeric keypad is revealed when the phone is slid open. Like most slider handsets, the keypad is pretty flat to the phone's surface, though there are some minor bevels in between each row to help differentiate the keys. That said, the curved keypad provides little to no textural difference between each key, and we wouldn't recommend dialing by feel for this reason. Rounding out the phone's exterior, the volume rocker and headset jack sit on the left spine, a dedicated camera key is located on the right, plus the camera lens and speaker grille are placed on the back of the phone.
Features
There's nothing terribly exciting about the features on the Samsung Katalyst, except for its compatibility with T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home. But before we get to that, let's start with the basics. The Katalyst has a 1,000-contact phone book with room in each entry for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, and a note (the SIM card holds about 250 additional contacts). You can save the contacts to caller groups, plus pair them with a photo for caller ID, as well as any of 21 polyphonic ring tones. As with most phones, the Katalyst also comes with several basic features that include vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a task list, notes, a calculator, a tip calculator, world time, unit conversion, a timer, and a stopwatch. Additional functionality include voice command support, voice recording, Bluetooth, instant messaging, a wireless Web browser, and a synchronization feature that lets you sync your contacts with the T-Mobile servers so you can recover them in case you lose your phone.
The Samsung Katalyst also has a built-in Wi-Fi receiver, which is used with T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service. For a nominal monthly fee, HotSpot @Home customers can use the Katalyst to connect to any wireless network to make, answer, and receive calls, just like a regular cell phone. Except all calls made within a wireless network will not be deducted from your plan's minutes, so you essentially get unlimited calling. Also, you're almost always guaranteed better signal reception when connected via a wireless network, which is great if you tend to have spotty cell service at home or at work. T-Mobile offers a special HotSpot @Home router that is optimized for voice transmission as well. To find out more about the HotSpot @Home service, you can read our review of the service.
Though it might not look it, the Katalyst also comes with a built-in music player, hidden in the Fun & Apps folder. The music player has a pretty simple interface, with two different visualization settings and the ability to play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward music tracks. It has only 5MB of built-in memory, which is pretty dismal, but it does come with a microSD card slot on the back. Unfortunately you'll have to remove the phone's battery in order to get to it. There are also no external music keys. So though the Katalyst can indeed play music, it's certainly not what we would call a real music phone.
The Katalyst also has a 1.3-megapixel camera, which can take photos at seven different resolutions (1,280x1,024; 1,024x768; 800x600; 640x480; 320x240; 160x120; and 128x96). Camera options are pretty advanced for a simple camera phone, and they include white-balance controls, metering exposure settings, ISO settings, multishot, a night mode, a self-timer, brightness, six color effects, and photo frames. You can also assign keys on the keypad to be shortcuts to different camera settings. Photo quality was pretty mediocre, with blurry and washed out images. The camera also has a camcorder option, which has two recording modes--a short one for multimedia messages, and for as long as available memory. Camcorder settings include two different sizes (176x144, and 128x96), audio toggle, white balance, timer, and color effects.
Personalization options of the Katalyst include a variety of wallpapers, skins, and alert tones that are included on the phone, plus you have the option to buy and download more via T-Mobile's T-Zones browser. The Katalyst comes with a few games, such as Forgotten Warrior, Midnight Casino, and a demo version of Brain Challenge. Again, more games can be purchased from T-Mobile if you wish.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Samsung Katalyst in San Francisco using the T-Mobile service as well as a variety of wireless networks, thanks to the T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service. Call quality was excellent and far exceeded our expectations. Callers often thought we were calling from a landline, especially when we were using the Wi-Fi to make the call. GSM call quality was pretty decent as well, with loud volume and clear and natural voices. The Samsung Katalyst's signal strength also improved considerably when it's connected to a wireless network. Speakerphone calls weren't as great, with slightly muffled and tinny call quality, but voices still came through just fine. We paired the Katalyst with the Plantronics
Voyager 520 Bluetooth headset and made calls with it without a problem.
Music quality on the Katalyst was alright, but nothing too spectacular. It's good enough for a quick listen, but we wouldn't replace an MP3 player with it. The sound from the speakers is loud enough but it did sound a little lightweight and tinny. We definitely recommend using a headset instead for better bass effects.
The Katalyst has a rated battery life of five hours of talk time and a standby time of 10 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Katalyst has a digital SAR rating of 0.662 watt per kilogram. The Katalyst has a rated battery life of five hours of talk time and a standby time of 10 days. Our tests revealed a talk time of 5 hours and 10 minutes.
User reviews
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sexy phone, lots of cool features but absolutely awful user interface
by augustballs on March 13, 2008
Pros: very good call quality, very good speaker phone quality and volume, brilliant screen, nice keypad
Cons: Absolutely primitively designed user interface; missing some useful functionality
Summary: I waited a long time to find an acceptable phone to replace my aging but excellent Sony Ericcson K700i. I have always used SE phones and I am biased in ...
Summary: I waited a long time to find an acceptable phone to replace my aging but excellent Sony Ericcson K700i. I have always used SE phones and I am biased in favor of them. Now, they have been pretty basic and not very sexy but they are rugged, dependable, great battery life and I especially love their common sense, intuitive menus. For me, I have really never have to read the user's manual to figure out how to use their phones (and most of their electronics products). And what is great is they are very efficient for the user - it doesn't take flipping through several menus to do something - usually one or two button clicks and it is done!
Now that you know where I am coming from, here is my review. Ok, I gave this Samsung a chance and was really excited to get it, but I have determined that it is NO FUN to use!!! Even the littlest task has been made to be more complex than it needs to be!!! Readers, I am completely serious and I am pretty tech savvy so I think I am being quite accurate. I am not too demanding and I do not ask for much to make me happy, but this phone is ridiculous. It is a lot of work and takes several steps to do anything! Want to delete smth like an sms? Several steps through a menu. Want to find out if your sms was delivered? They send you a detailed report (not just a little envelope icon that is opened next to the sent sms) so there is double the junk in my inbox. Want to check out your out and in sms boxes? Littered screens with your sent and received messages. Try deleting a bunch of them. It is so slow, tedious and you are constantly scrolling through menus. And you want to write an sms? Talk about making it complicated to add symbols, punctuation and edit a word in your text!!! Even the littlest task is more complicated than it needs to be. So I have found that this phone is plagued with a primitively designed user interface takes all the fun and excitement using this phone. For me, I want to do what I want to do on a phone fast and not take three times longer to do the same task on a phone that looks cool. How to explain the good reviews? Beats me. Maybe these folks have always used similarly designed interfaces and don't know any better or perhaps they really don't care about getting things done with your phone efficiently, quickly and easily. If this stuff doesn't bother you then you will love this phone. If you are like me then run away and don't look back.6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good Option for Hotspot @ Home
by rschauby on January 21, 2008
Pros: Decent Build Quality, Nice Screen, Easy Wi-Fi Set-up
Cons: Ocassional Difficulty staying connnected to Wi-Fi networks. Mediocre Camera,
Summary: I purchased 2 of these phones for myself and my wife. We had previously been getting poor cellular service at our home so we opted to try out the @Home ...
Summary: I purchased 2 of these phones for myself and my wife. We had previously been getting poor cellular service at our home so we opted to try out the @Home T-Mobile service in hopes that we could eliminate our need for a land line, as well as improve our cellular service at home.
The Katalyst received a decent review from cnet.com and was praised for having "excellent call quality". After several days of use, I am not entirely convinced that the sound quality is excellent, however, I am willing to give it a few more days. When conversing with my wife at home on her phone, there seems to be quite a bit more background noise than I am accustomed too. I was hopeful that a wi-fi connection would give flawless sound quality but I'm not terribly impressed. I suppose my expectations were a little too high.
Getting the phones to connect to our home wi-fi network was simple enough (although at first there were several "connection errors", persistence yielded a successful connection). I was also able to connect to my brother and parents home wi-fi networks as well with ease. Much praise can be given to Samsung in the ease of wi-fi setup. It is quick and simple. It also allows for several networks and profiles to be saved. The phone also seems to automatically switch to Wi-Fi when in range of your programmed networks.
I have had several issues with both of my phones intermittently losing connection to my home wi-fi network. I will contact T-mobile customer service to see if they can resolve this issue, but I am somewhat disappointed in this "bug". In the few reviews of the Hotspot@Home service I have read of several others with a similar issue. I am hopeful that T-mobile has a cure for this issue.
Concerning the rest of the Katalyst phone features, I was somewhat disappointed in the ring tones that came with the phone. There was almost no tones I would deem acceptable as a standard ringer. All the included tones seemed to be too "foo foo". Although it does seem easy enough to upload your own MP3 ringtones I am somewhat disappointed that none of the included ringers were even close to being acceptable.5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Finally another H@H phone
by analogs on January 7, 2008
Pros: sleek design, big bright screen, sturdy solid build
Cons: heavy for its size, so-so keyboard, music capabilities are a joke
Summary: Since I moved in with my girlfriend about six months ago, I've been living in a cell phone dead zone so Hotspot @ Home was a must for me. When ...
Summary: Since I moved in with my girlfriend about six months ago, I've been living in a cell phone dead zone so Hotspot @ Home was a must for me. When T-Mobile officially launched it in 2007, there were only two (rather lame) handsets available. If you don't count the Blackberry Curve or the pre-launch phones (only available in the Seattle test market), this is the third traditional handset to support Hotspot @ Home and the only slider so far.
T-Mobile has cleared up the problems with the earlier H@H handsets (like the Samsung t709) and the whole WiFi calling operation is extremely smooth. I'm still occasionally unable to connect to my wireless network at home, though strangely my girlfriend's t409 almost always stays connected.
The build quality of the Katalyst is probably its most striking feature. It's got shiny metal trim around the outside front face (possibly contributing to its heft) and the plastic parts are well made. Nothing about it feels flimsy. The buttons and d-pad are relatively comfortable and placed intelligently. If you're a heavy texter (like me), the RAZR-esque keyboard may leave a bit to be desired.
What peeves me most about this phone (and the wireless industry in general) is the rush to put half-baked features into a phone that don't really work. Here's the problem: The Katalyst has both a media player and a microSD expansion slot, leading you to believe you could conceivably use the device to listen to music. The next logical add-on would obviously be a pair of headphones. But guess what... they don't make any! If you go to the Samsung USA site and look for accessories for the Katalyst, all you'll find is a mono headset. The same is true on T-Mobile's site. Want a real hoot? Call T-Mobile's customer service line and ask a sales rep about it. So how exactly are we supposed to enjoy the musical capabilities of this phone -- through the built-in speaker? As the CNET review points out, this isn't a substitute for a proper MP3 player but come on, what the f*** were they thinking? To be fair, some of the stereo earbuds they have for sale on Samsung's official site *might* work but that's just a guess.
That aside, it's a generally very good phone. I seldom use speaker phone but regular non-speaker call quality is fine and reception on the regular cell network seems as good as any other phone I've had. I'm a pretty big fan of current Samsung software. The menus are nicely laid out and generally easy to navigate and it actually has some useful extras. The tip calculator is great -- you type in the total, tell it how many people are paying and it tells you how much each person owes. The alarm feature is better than Motorola's but could still use some improvements. For instance, it stops going off if you snooze it (by hitting any of the keys on the side) more than three times. I could be wrong about this since I'm not exactly coherent when it happens but it definitely stops after a certain number of snoozes, which seems like a generally bad idea for an alarm. And I have to believe more and more people are using their cell phones as alarm clocks, making it more than just a novelty.
One thing that's relatively easy to do is use your own MP3's as ringtones and you don't even need a data cable. If you email yourself an MP3, it can be saved to the phone's memory and used a ring tone but NOT as a message or alarm tone, which just seems odd to me. This is another bizarre Samsung oddity but there are only a certain set of message tones to choose from. You can't use the ringtones as message tones and vice versa. Same goes for alarm sounds. Again, that just seems weird. When you're in the screen to choose a ring tone, you have more options than when you're choosing a message tone.
The camera is your basic, bogus cell phone cam. No flash, no real focus mechanism, and you're not gonna get **** unless you're taking a picture outside, in broad daylight, of an object 3 to 8 feet in front of you. I hate seeing any slider phone that doesn't take advantage of the form factor as a lens cover. The lens for the camera is on the back of the phone and, like any other phone cam, is always going to be gunked up. Ideally, the lens should be concealed when the phone is closed and revealed when it's slid open.
If you're familiar with Samsung's sofware, and are looking for a sleek slider, or you want a cooler looking Hotspot @ Home than the boring one you've got, the Katalyst is your man.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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This is a recycled Korean Phone
by keyringwest on January 17, 2008
Pros: Tested in Korea
Cons: Nothing Special
Summary: It's really sad to see the phones that get released in Korea or Japan, sent to the US with great expectations. It's time to be more demanding in ...
Summary: It's really sad to see the phones that get released in Korea or Japan, sent to the US with great expectations. It's time to be more demanding in the US market!
3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Will likely last a long while, but bad for texters
by PsyKat on August 11, 2008
Pros: Durable for being a slider, shiny, neat, nice noise options for the slide feature
Cons: Can't make ringtones apply to text messages, nice choice of IM services but terrible service, a bit bulky, predictive text annoying, difficult to use text keypad (very slippery!)
Summary: I wanted to try something new and get a sliding phone, anything was a step up from my Razr. This phone is a bit bulky and customization features could be ...
Summary: I wanted to try something new and get a sliding phone, anything was a step up from my Razr. This phone is a bit bulky and customization features could be better, but if you're looking for nice quality phone not meant for mostly texting- this is a great phone. Heavy texters will be disappointed- it's difficult to use the keypad, and you can't customizes text message ringtones with any more than the four short jingles the phone came with. That made me very sad. :( As for IM'ing, it offers the four major messaging services, but cuts out a lot of messages and stops working when it wants to.
Basically, this phone will likely last a while, but heavy texters should look elsewhere. I don't think the world is ready for this slider-phone crazy just yet.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Decent phone. Improves on call quality, that's about it.
by Ssx3000 on July 7, 2008
Pros: Call quality, especially with a good Wi-Fi connection; Bright screen; Sleek Design; Functional Dialing Buttons.
Cons: Wi-Fi is not as good depending on the router; Almost no memory; Text messaging storage is annoying; Limited Bluetooth connections; Crappy Multimedia interface; IM works half the time.
Summary: I have had this phone since March 2, 2008. I will not include my personal battles of replacing the phone on three separate occasions (constant call drops, sand in the ...
Summary: I have had this phone since March 2, 2008. I will not include my personal battles of replacing the phone on three separate occasions (constant call drops, sand in the slider, and water damage), because things happen for a reason. I am basing this review on my interaction of the phone, not the failures of functioning.
Starters, I will agree with CNET regarding the look; it is basic, sleek, but it has a bulkiness to it regarding the weight factor. I am sure if you pop someone up side the head with this phone, it will leave a dent in their skull. However, you do not want to throw this phone to mess with the nice design and leave markings all over the place. Far as looks, it reminds me of the Nokia phone they dropped in the trash can towards the end of the Matrix movie. I love the look, simple but noticeable.
This phone was promoted for the call quality, in particular the WI-FI calling. As far as that feature goes, it works very well, despite what people say on this website. For all the simpletons out there that do not understand why the WI-FI drops calls, I will explain. When you run a network, there is two types of packets that run through the router; Voice and Data. Data is for your computers, gaming systems, handhelds, etc. Voice is for the VoIP, like Vonage and certain VoIP products like the Katalyst. Most routers that are sold in the market gives priority to Data over Voice. You want that if you run multiple computers or equipment your home. Reason the cell drops calls is that your router is not set up to handle VoIP properly. If you want to use the VoIP on the phone, you need a router that prioritize VoIP. Now for those who ask ?Why does Vonage work so well?? Simple, Vonage is not running through Wi-FI , thus getting the same speed as the computer. If you are cheap and got the 54 Mbps router, than you are running half speed, thus cutting down on support. I am not saying your should go buy the best thing on the market, but at least have a good router that supports VoIP wireless. With that being said, Wi-FI works, especially in HotSpots, makes the calls clean, clear, and if you are using the WAP browser, makes web surfing faster. Plus, it is nice for those areas with bad connections to the towers.
Now that I have that out the way, lets get to the bad features. My two biggest gripes with this phone is the Bluetooth connectivity and the memory feature. First, the Bluetooth. This phone was advertised with Bluetooth capabilities, but they neglected to tell consumers the lack of profiles like file transfer, stereo Bluetooth, object push, printing, dial-up, and serial port. All you have is headset and hands free. They could have added more, but Samsung wanted to be cheap and proprietary like Microsoft and Apple, so they dumb down that area. Made me mad when I got my adapter for my computer, only to find out that it cannot connect via BT. With the memory issues, phone has plenty of problems with that area. Starts out at a sorry 5MB, but with deleting everything pre-installed it can go up to 8MB. They really did not want you to do any customization cause a couple of pictures and videos and there goes your memory. A micro SD card will solve the lack of capacity, but you have to manually move every photo, video, and song to the card. That is the real pain in the rear end, taking all those files and putting them on the card. A storage selection option would have been nice, at least you have freedom to choose how you want to save those multimedia files. Sucks when you get pictures, videos, and music from your friends, you have to save it to the phone first before moving it over to the card. Just a waste of time. Shame on you Samsung, I have seen you do a better job in that department with your previous phones like the MM-A920.
There are additional features that are a pain. The instant messaging feature (Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, and Windows Live) functions half the time, but I think its do to T-Mobile's network more than the phone. When it works, it works. User interface could of function better and look more colorful considering the screen and color quality. T-Zones interface capability should have been added to the phone out the box or updates. Speaking of updates, why in the world you have a software update function if you are not going to release any updates?! Come on Samsung, be real with your customers, we are the ones putting money in your pockets. At least screw us over with some dignity. 3G should have been a feature, especially if you already have WI-FI on the phone. As far as multimedia, they should have had WMA or AAC and they needed to have more functionality with the video. If your going to have it, do it right. Lastly, I did not want to mention the camera because it is a phone and camera function is extra, but they could of added flash on the phone, because the night scene function sucks.
Overall this phone is average, it does improve on one area that most cell phones struggle, and that is better calling quality. However, you sacrifice so much with other areas within the phone. Not saying that it is my main focus, but when people spend their hard earn dollars on a phone, they should get the best. Not saying that this phone is bad, but you get what you pay for in dollars.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Decent phone. Improves on call quality, that's about it.
by Ssx3000 on July 7, 2008
Pros: Call quality, especially with a good Wi-Fi connection; Bright screen; Sleek Design; Functional Dialing Buttons.
Cons: Wi-Fi is not as good depending on the router; Almost no memory; Text messaging storage is annoying; Limited Bluetooth connections; Crappy Multimedia interface; IM works half the time.
Summary: I have had this phone since March 2, 2008. I will not include my personal battles of replacing the phone on three separate occasions (constant call drops, sand in the ...
Summary: I have had this phone since March 2, 2008. I will not include my personal battles of replacing the phone on three separate occasions (constant call drops, sand in the slider, and water damage), because things happen for a reason. I am basing this review on my interaction of the phone, not the failures of functioning.
Starters, I will agree with CNET regarding the look; it is basic, sleek, but it has a bulkiness to it regarding the weight factor. I am sure if you pop someone up side the head with this phone, it will leave a dent in their skull. However, you do not want to throw this phone to mess with the nice design and leave markings all over the place. Far as looks, it reminds me of the Nokia phone they dropped in the trash can towards the end of the Matrix movie. I love the look, simple but noticeable.
This phone was promoted for the call quality, in particular the WI-FI calling. As far as that feature goes, it works very well, despite what people say on this website. For all the simpletons out there that do not understand why the WI-FI drops calls, I will explain. When you run a network, there is two types of packets that run through the router; Voice and Data. Data is for your computers, gaming systems, handhelds, etc. Voice is for the VoIP, like Vonage and certain VoIP products like the Katalyst. Most routers that are sold in the market gives priority to Data over Voice. You want that if you run multiple computers or equipment your home. Reason the cell drops calls is that your router is not set up to handle VoIP properly. If you want to use the VoIP on the phone, you need a router that prioritize VoIP. Now for those who ask ?Why does Vonage work so well?? Simple, Vonage is not running through Wi-FI , thus getting the same speed as the computer. If you are cheap and got the 54 Mbps router, than you are running half speed, thus cutting down on support. I am not saying your should go buy the best thing on the market, but at least have a good router that supports VoIP wireless. With that being said, Wi-FI works, especially in HotSpots, makes the calls clean, clear, and if you are using the WAP browser, makes web surfing faster. Plus, it is nice for those areas with bad connections to the towers.
Now that I have that out the way, lets get to the bad features. My two biggest gripes with this phone is the Bluetooth connectivity and the memory feature. First, the Bluetooth. This phone was advertised with Bluetooth capabilities, but they neglected to tell consumers the lack of profiles like file transfer, stereo Bluetooth, object push, printing, dial-up, and serial port. All you have is headset and hands free. They could have added more, but Samsung wanted to be cheap and proprietary like Microsoft and Apple, so they dumb down that area. Made me mad when I got my adapter for my computer, only to find out that it cannot connect via BT. With the memory issues, phone has plenty of problems with that area. Starts out at a sorry 5MB, but with deleting everything pre-installed it can go up to 8MB. They really did not want you to do any customization cause a couple of pictures and videos and there goes your memory. A micro SD card will solve the lack of capacity, but you have to manually move every photo, video, and song to the card. That is the real pain in the rear end, taking all those files and putting them on the card. A storage selection option would have been nice, at least you have freedom to choose how you want to save those multimedia files. Sucks when you get pictures, videos, and music from your friends, you have to save it to the phone first before moving it over to the card. Just a waste of time. Shame on you Samsung, I have seen you do a better job in that department with your previous phones like the MM-A920.
There are additional features that are a pain. The instant messaging feature (Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, and Windows Live) functions half the time, but I think its do to with T-Mobile's network more than the phone. When it works, it works. User interface could of function better and look more colorful considering the screen and color quality. T-Zones interface capability should have been added to the phone out the box or updates. Speaking of updates, why in the world you have a software update function if you are not going to release any updates?! Come on Samsung, be real with your customers, we are the ones putting money in your pockets. At least screw us over with some dignity. 3G should have been a feature, especially if you already have WI-FI on the phone. As far as multimedia, they should have had WMA or AAC and they needed to have more functionality with the video. If your going to have it, do it right. Lastly, I did not want to mention the camera because it is a phone and camera function is extra, but they could of added flash on the phone, because the night scene function sucks. In addition, offer the same accessories like the ones with the Samsung Beat
Overall this phone is average, it does improve on one area that most cell phones struggle, and that is better calling quality. However, you sacrifice so much with other areas within the phone. Not saying that it is my main focus, but when people spend their hard earn dollars on a phone, they should get the best. Not saying that this phone is bad, but you get what you pay for in dollars.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great ordinary cheap phone!
by thebigz198506 on December 5, 2009
Pros: Simple, easy to text, loud and clear calls, decent camera, good at taking non-still photos. WIFI and easy to use WIFI. TOUGH durable phone
Cons: Call quality is only ok, nothing spectacular. lack of internal memory cant fit many pictures games or contacts. Cant record unlimited video even if you have a sd memory card.
Summary: I liked it alot until i broke it 18 months into owning it. Very tough, it took alot of abuse while i was at work in an auto shop which ...
Summary: I liked it alot until i broke it 18 months into owning it. Very tough, it took alot of abuse while i was at work in an auto shop which makes up for the weight. Think of those old nokia indestructables, update it with camera/video/mp3 and this is what comes out. Very practical, and the whole reason im now a true samsung customer.
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ok for wi fi, but ponderous user interface
by axelfraxel22 on November 14, 2009
Pros: Nice screen and better reception than earlier samsungs
Cons: Inflexible awkward interface. No flexibility to make shortcuts to your frequent functions. Calendar funct appears to be buggy
Summary: T-Mobile needs to get better phones for its HotSpot capability. Don't get this one unless you only want to dial and talk.
Summary: T-Mobile needs to get better phones for its HotSpot capability. Don't get this one unless you only want to dial and talk.
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Great features, major fault for battery usage!
by ivanho469 on September 14, 2009
Pros: I love that it has the hot spot at home, I use the conversion calculator, the tip calculator, the texting is great, call quality is fantastic, but it has a major flaw.
Cons: Eectronics drain the battery so that it only lasts 12 to 14 hours. Had 2 different phones & 3 batteries & same thing nightly I get a low battery warning every single night. It should be recalled, Samsung will not even admit there is anything wron
Summary: If this phone held a charge, and got better reception, it would be the number one top selling most expensive phone because although it is a little big for a ...
Summary: If this phone held a charge, and got better reception, it would be the number one top selling most expensive phone because although it is a little big for a cell, it feels very sturdy, has great call quality and has lots of built in apps.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Part number: CNETKATALYSTSILTMB
- Description: The SGH-t739 provides great coverage utilizing its WI-FI ability to transition between Wi-Fi calling and T-Mobile's wireless network. Capture those fleeting moments with the embedded 1.3 megapixel camera and use your existing instant messaging service to keep in touch with friends.
General
- Product Type Cellular phone With digital camera
- Service Provider T-Mobile
- Width 2 in
- Depth 0.7 in
- Height 3.9 in
- Weight 4.1 oz
- Body Color Silver
Cellular
- Technology GSM
- Band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband)
- Phone Design Slider
- Antenna Internal
- Vibrating Alert Yes
- Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Voice Dialing Yes
- Call Timer Yes
- Caller ID Yes
- Speakerphone Yes
- Wireless Interface Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b
- Additional Features Intelligent typing (T9), GPRS support
Communicator Features
- Synchronization With PC Yes
Messaging & Data Services
- Short Messaging Service (SMS) Yes
- GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Yes
- EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution) Yes
- Internet Browser Yes
- Messaging / Data Features VoIP client
Multimedia Features
- Downloadable Content Sounds, Voices, Wallpapers
Digital Camera
- Sensor Resolution 1.3 megapixels
Organizer
- Alarm Clock Yes
- Calendar Yes
- Reminder Yes
- Calculator Basic
Display
- Type LCD display
- Technology TFT
- Display Resolution 176 x 220 pixels
- Color Support Color
- Color Depth 18-bit (262000 Colors)
- Display Illumination Color White
Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Hands-free headset
Power
- Type Power adapter
Battery
- Technology - Lithium ion
- Capacity 960 mAh
- Talk Time Up to 300 min
- Standby Time Up to 240 h
Accessories
- Samsung WEP870 (33769487)39.95 - 54.03
- Samsung WEP200 Bluetooth Headset (black) (31995314)21.35 - 41.94
- Samsung SBH500 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones (black) (32674689)34.99 - 60.66
- Jabra BT8010 Stereo/Mono Bluetooth Headset (32327768)18.99
- Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones (red) (32363768)38.99 - 45.99
- A-Data Speedy Series flash memory card - 2 GB - microSD (33795596)8.99
- ATP SD Trio Professional PLUS card adapter - flash: microSD - Hi-Speed USB (32128464)17.00
- Centon 2GBRSD3-1 - flash memory card - 2 GB - microSD (33503634)11.84 - 13.29
- Centon flash memory card - 4 GB - microSD (33362243)16.74 - 70.99
Manufacturer info
- Samsung
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Samsung products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.samsungusa.com/
- Address:
105 Challenger Road, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 - Phone: 1-800-726-7864
- Fax: 1-973-601-6001
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