Jan 01, 2006 01:59 PM
3262 Views
(Updated Jan 01, 2006 02:03 PM)
I bought my Samsung A-100 in 2000 for 14.5K! I had a Samsung SGH-600 (the God phone for 13.5K earlier). I was generally impressed with Samsung phones as their price/features ratio was better than most other brands in India. Very well designed, the phone bundle consisted of 2 batteries (slim & fat), Hands free, Charger, Jewel case, Strap etc.
The phone performed well as expected. After 2 years, the problems started that have resulted in me blacklisting Samsung in my brands list.
I had sold the SGH-600 to a dear friend, who reported that after about a year (2.5 years since purchase), the phone started dropping calls. Voice would break down to static. Eventually, the phone worked but couldnt make or receive calls. The final curtain call came when he accidentally (?) dropped it into water.
The A-100 I bought suffered similarly. Calls would drop, friends would accuse me of keeping my phone switched off. After about 2.5 years, the display went blank. The Indiglo back-light was on but the LCD played dead. The slim battery refused to charge but miraculously recovered after 3 months in clod storage. With the LCD dead, there was no way to operate the phone. Data-cable for the phone couldn't be sourced from the market.
My brother's Samsung (similar to SGH-600) suffered the same fate as my SGH-600 and had to be gifted away as paper-weight. He bought another Samsung.
My FIL's Reliance Samsung handset (N100?) suffered a display outage. After about 2.5 years. He got it repaired for 200/- but it failed after 3 months again. He traded the phone in for a Nokia basic model available from Reliance.
I bought myself a Motorola E398 (read my review). Its been a year and no problems absolutely.
Has Samsung programmed a bomb in their Firmware code that causes the phone to stop functioning after 2.5 years? or is it a silly 3/- component thats causing a 14K phone to fail? Samsung of-course wont repair their defective product for free.
