May 14, 2010 10:08 AM
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Overall, this is a good handset to use. It has the range of features we look for but don't find, especially in CDMA phones.
On the positive side, the phone really looks good. Not just in the pictures, but in reality too. Quite slim and with a reasonably large screen size, it allows for a good, large font-size too.
The music play back was quite sharp and sound quality is good as well.
Internet browsing is also good and the net speed is much, much better as compared to some of the other older phones I have used. The free add-on memory card was a welcome surprise.
On the negatives - First and foremost, the changeover of the SIM to the OMH type. My service provider(Tata Indicom) had no clue that something like this was required. They actually redirected us to Samsung's regional service centre informing us that Samsung needs to do a "software upgrade" to the handset, which Samsung flatly refused and almost laughed off. After this we went back to the Indicom store and the service rep at the store and the Indicom call centre got into a heated tangle on how the change could be made resulting in them sending us to Tata Indidcom's regional centre, where after further poor service interactions the regional operations head finally resolved it for us.
Next, the key pads - while they are versatile offering handwriting recognition(one character at a time), QWERTY and mobile type keypads, using QWERTY is a bit difficult for people with large fingers like me:-) . I constantly have to "take aim" for the correct character and type.
Thirdly the jack/ socket for the headphones is of a pin type while the actual socket on the handset is a USB style port. I probably have missed something but I need to escalate this to Samsung. Also, what is irritating is that the USB port has a completely different styling and I cannot interchange other data cables with this handset.
Finally, for a handset that advertises out of the box connectivity and Internet access, I think Samsung has made some serious goof-up. For one, the browser quality is extremely poor! Gmail does not render well and in fact I got an error message from the Gmail error page saying that it is not compatible with the Samsung SGH35. Another of my favourite site - Cricinfo - renders VERY poorly on the Corby. The display on other lesser models is far, far superior. I also have difficulty in connecting to other WAP sites like NDTV and BBC. This is something Samsung needs to look at.
The biggest one of them all. In all ads, Samsung talks about how using social networking(read: FaceBook) is easy. Beware - the out-of the box URL is WRONG! I had to manually correct it and save the correct link as a book mark.
All in all, like the Indian cricket team. Good on paper and terrific in parts, but when it matters, it fails!
