Samsung :) Smiley - black price and reviews

T-Mobile is sending me my third phone since July. I've had problems with dropped calls, sudden loss of audio, and malfunctioning Bluetooth. In addition, the slider is rather flimsy and poorly designed. I'd give it an extra star if it could get through a month without having an issue.

I was choosing between the Gravity Touch and this Smiley. I chose this based on the price, and while I wish I'd gotten the touch scrren, I do really like this phone. The keys seem really small at first, but after sending a couple dozen texts, I've gotten used to them. I like the menu setup, which is very similar to my previous phone, the T349.

My mom had this phone and making/receiving calls were nearly impossible. She downgraded to an older model and had way better connectivity and coverage than this phone. This phone is ideal only for people who are heavy texters, but that's about it. If you have more money to shed, I highly recommend investing in another phone.

I do like this product, getting it at $150, the phone is not bad at all, but then again it really didn't come with any additional stuff. It is so loud and clear which I Iove. The camera pictures are very grainy to me and can be slow on the shot you want. The internet is of course is not as fast as an iphone or android, but its good enough, i'd say anywhere from 2-6 seconds to get on and to any site when I use it, not bad at all. Very clear on the internet. I hate that I cannot utilize the wallpaper well at all with the photos I capture or download. It doesn't make it any better that I cannot change my phone's background color except for the dialing display. For a pretty basic phone if that is what its targeted for, I'd say this phone is top notch, one of the finer basic phones. Text messaging isn't that bad. Small keys, but you do get the hang of it after a while. Oh and I have a baby boy who loves to throw my phone and put it through a real test...and I would say this phone definitely passed. I'd figure it would get scratched already after it being thrown on and against the metal/granite/glass table, against a wooden crib, on the floor, and banged up against with an other phone...but it actually held up well, with not any scratch at all, not even the screen. However. one problem which I'm not sure minor or not is that I had a few drop calls...I do live in a five story apartment which can get bad coverage here and the weather has been a bit weary. So not sure if that could account for anything. But only about five drops in one day, and that one time (day) only.

I propose this phone if you are someone who can deal with basic features, do not utilize photos much, and are not creative...in the sense of lavishing your screens and so forth.
I propose this phone if you have trouble scratching phones or cannot hear well lol. This has 3 alarms by the way.
I propose this phone if you like a blackberry's style or like slider phones and neeed one on a budget, brand new.

I suggest you not get this phone if you care about taking good pictures, really want a touch screen, and are a very passionate person with decorating your phone internally or have very wide fingers, want super fast internet

But for the most case, the texting is quite easy, I didn't think I could handle the texting well, but trying it out...and now owning it its easy to get a hang of.

Just test the phone at a store before you get one, reading reviews help, but its best to see for yourself. Like taste buds, everyone has different preferences and tastes and some things amaze you.
Do not get a two year contract for this phone, you'd most likely be wasting your money. Do the math on any phone you get. (If you get a TM phone with a 2 year contract as of this date...get a phone for free worth over $270, don't budge for any less or you'll be losing money, unless you have to pay month by month on a budget)

I really love this phone. It was very affordable and it's super easy to use. I love the compact size because it fits so nicely in my front pocket. I don't mind the small key board at all. Hopefully they can come up with some good apps for it.

good phone... buy it.... nuff said....

I actually have large hands and though the keyboard buttons are indeed tiny, within just a few texts, my thumbs got a good feel for the full qwerty. Currently I mainly text and call, so I don't have the internet hooked up for all the social buzz capabilities, but it's nice to know that when I choose to, that all those features will be standard smiley features that will be ready for me to use. Used the camera at a party, and pic came out pretty clear and when sent to my email, blown up was a bit grainy, but fine enough for spur of the moment pics on the fly. The call quality I've found quite clear on my end and from my callers end. The smiley is just a fun phone, it's not an android and it doesn't have a touch screen, but at this price and with features some expensive smart phones have, I think I picked a winner. Oh, and BTW, though this phone is supposedly marketed towards the "young" teens and 20's texters who are always checking they're twitter and facebook pages, I'm 48 yrs. old and don't want to be like everyone else with an super touch face computer phone, I'd rather be different and have something to "SMILE" about! HA, LOL! :)

Updated on Oct 27, 2010

I don't know, I really did want to like this phone but it really doesn't show me much. I got it last night and I will be returning it due to the fact that after sending not that long of a text, I could feel my hands cramping. I am a moderate to heavy texter and that's the primary use of my phone. I don't like the layout of the keys, they are squished and pretty flat. The number/symbol buttons make it very confusung. Overall, I'm very dissapointed and therefore I will be on the hunt for a new phone......

I have had just about every T-mobile blackberry ever made and had a love/hate relationship with each. Mostly I loved the keyboards and texting/email ability while hating the internet browser, price of internet, and size (I like to carry in my pocket). Between Blackberries I always go back to my Samsung T629. Hate the T9 texting and the reception is not great (It is several years old) but loved the small size and I knew the shortcuts inside and out...they just made sense and made things a lot easier. Along comes the :). Easier on the pocket, both in price of internet and being able to put it in there, yet it has a full keyboard set up like the blackberries! And the internet, while slow, is actually easier for me to use than the blackberries as well! I am absolutely loving this phone. I would recommend this to anyone wanting a small profile phone that is really easy to text on, grabs your emails for you and gets on the internet with a full html browser very inexpensively!