| Samsung SGH-T629 Expert Reviews |
| |
Samsung SGH-T629 -- by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter--November 17th 2006 |
| Full Review |
| The Samsung T629 includes many of the features of the Samsung T809, plus a few extras. Namely, there’s a way to add more memory to the cell phone and the inclusion of T-Mobile’s myFaves feature, which lets you choose five favorite people to call for free, regardless of carrier. It also ditches the black casing found on the T809, in favor of a more retro silver coloring. Overall, this cell phone is fun and fashionable; we just wish it had better call quality. |
| |
Calls and speakerphone: Call quality for the T629 is a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes callers were crystal clear, however, there were many times when we had to have people repeat themselves. Additionally, if you’re one of those people that gets so excited you sometimes tend to talk over someone, you’ll have a really hard time with this Samsung cell phone as this behavior causes hard breaks in conversation. Speakerphone quality is acceptable, but people clearly knew when we were using this feature.  .
Audio Playback: In particular, the playback capability of MP3s using either the cell phone’s included earphones or the Samsung’s speakers was decent, though it a little tinny, especially through the phone’s speakers. We should mention the Samsung T629 lacks a standard headphone jack and the existing port does double duty as the charger port. Although the cell phone comes with an earbud, if you want stereo headphones you’ll need to purchase a Bluetooth stereo headset. |
| |
Menu/Phonebook: The first thing you’re probably going to want to do when you get the Samsung T629 is change the slider tone It comes set on Tone 4; something that sounds like “Sha-Nay-Nay.” The cell phone screen is also preset to highlight T-Mobile’s myFaves feature. Basically, this service lets you pick five people (regardless of service provider) to whom you can receive and place calls for free. Yes, free. It doesn’t get deducted from your overall minutes. Sorry, the deal doesn’t apply for messaging. We should note that if you leave the myFaves screen up as the main display, you can’t hit the Send button and automatically redial the last number.
Overall, the Samsung T629 has a direct and easy to use, picture-based menu system. Staying in sync with the cell phone’s simple interface, entering, storing and accessing numbers is a cinch. Seriously, it takes two to three steps to do just about anything on this cell phone. You can include a four phone numbers, picture, ringtone, email address, and memo, but that’s it (no address slots).
Camera/Video: The 1.3-megapixel camera lens on the back of the Samsung cell phone, has a tiny mirror next to it so you can snap self-portraits. Snapping, sending and storing pics are easy to do – all steps are extremely intuitive and as long as you’re sending it to another cell phone that can receive camera phone pics you’ll be sharing photos in no time. Picture and video quality is acceptable but not stellar. However, the Samsung T629 does sport one interesting camera feature: mosaic. You can snap a pic in 2x2 or 3x3 squares so you end up with one picture that is four photos (or nine) of the same image. Think: Andy Warhol.
Music: As mentioned earlier, the MP3 playback quality is decent either via the included earphone or over the cell phone’s speakers. In our tests, we were able to send music to the cell phone via Bluetooth or by storing it on an optional TransFlash memory card. Once you have songs on the cell phone you can assign them as ringtones. (Note: The Samsung T629 will only playback MP3s and doesn’t recognize other audio formats such as Windows WMA format.) Since the cell phone shares memory between the photo, video and music apps, the amount of music you can store on the cell phone itself is dependent on how many pictures and videos are also stored in the 21MB of memory (if you were only storing MP3s, you could save about 4 songs).
Bluetooth: We tested the Bluetooth using the Motorola H700. As expected, making a connection was simple and call quality endured. Additionally, we paired the Samsung T629 with the Samsung A707 and easily sent pictures and MP3 files between the two phones using Bluetooth. We should note music takes considerably longer. |
| |
Look and Feel: The T629 sports a similar slider design as the Samsung T809. The silver cell phone is super thin and lightweight. So lightweight, in fact, you’ll barely feel the weight of it in your purse. Thankfully, its shiny silver coloring makes it easy to spot in a dark bag. Though, unlike the T809, it’s not prone to scratches. The cell phone’s display is fairly bright and easy-to-read in most lighting situations. However, it attracts face grease and fingerprints way too quickly and you’ll find yourself wiping off the front of the cell phone regularly.
Keypad: The Samsung T629’s hidden keypad is just as smooth as its exterior. Dialing numbers and typing text messages is fairly straightforward, but since the keys are flat (think: the touchpad on a laptop computer) mastering the keypad without looking takes a little time. We particularly like how easily the cell phone slides open and shut, locking firmly into place with each maneuver. |
| |
| We’d like to commend Samsung for including an international adapter in the box. A nice feature considering the T629 is a world phone. On average, we found that if we used the cell phone mainly to make calls intermittently throughout the day we needed to charge the battery about every four days. If we used the Samsung more than that and threw loads of text messaging into the mix, we had to charge it every other day. But when we weren’t using the cell phone that much, maybe to make two to three 10 minute calls a day and light texting, the Samsung T629 could last close to a week before needing more juice. Finally, we should note, that using the MP3 player or leaving Bluetooth activated drains the battery faster. |
| |
|
Samsung SGH-T629 Expert Rating
