Accessories

HORRIBLE DESIGN
This is the most horribly designed phone I have ever used. There is literally no solid way to answer the phone without disconnecting a call. As you can see from any photo of this phone, the green connect button is directly across from the red disconnect button, and these buttons are not on the TOP of the phone, they're on the SIDES! So if you hold the phone like any normal person would hold a phone, you disconnect the call as you answer it if one of your fingers is even slightly touching the red disconnect button. You can't apply pressure to the green button to answer the call because this is the place you push the top panel off the bottom panel to reveal the keyboard. If you push too hard, you snap open the keyboard and disconnect your call and risk dropping the phone because it's now too wide to hold in your hand. Also, you cannot touch anything on this phone without it beeping at you! There are multiple buttons on the right side of the panels which is where your fingers go to hold the stupid thing, so you literally can't touch it without launching something and pressing, pressing, pressing to get back to where you want to be. Horrible design and not a good option for a busy professional who needs to call and answer quickly.

worst phone experience in my life
this product represents the worst phone experience in my life !!! I won't belabor too much time on this since I've wasted so much already.
1. bought the phone, took 1.5 hours to get through that process, guess what, the internet feature wasn't turned on so none of the email and tehtering functions worked.
2. day 2 at Verizon, spent 3.0 hours and the result was:
a. still could not get access to my emails to work (simple outlook email through AT&T DSL). tried wirless synch, EZ synch, and nothing. rebooted the phone, reloaded my contacts and still no email functionality.
b. promised the tethering was just a slip the CD in and viola it work work. WRONG !!! it didn't work.

you ask yourself, maybe the wrong persons were trying to help me. Nope, I had both of the senior managers trying to make this work, the SAMSUNG guy happened to also be there and he didn't know what to do, tech support calls to Verizon and Samsung did not address the solution.

the only reason my 3.0 hour session stopped at 3 hours, was I had to leave to go out of town. they wanted me to go anyway, because there isn't any technical service or expertise at these stores anyways.

worst phone exprience in my life, bar none !!!!
bob, San Jose CA, May 4th and 5th, 2008

Not what I was looking for
Note that my 3 stars are not reflective of the phone doing what it's meant to do, it's reflective of the phone not doing what I wanted it to do.

Envious of my friends iPhones, I just wanted a phone with built in wifi so that I could be connected on the go. I didn't want to pay for data services, so I disabled them completely. I wanted to easily be able to work with my gmail email and calendar. I wanted the interface to be smooth.

Granted that this was my first Windows Mobile phone (I had a Smartphone 2004 phone for a while, it was awful). However, the phone seriously lacked what I was looking for. Most of this was probably due to Windows Mobile 6, but everything just felt slow and sluggish. The touch screen was good, but not great (compared to my usage of the iPhone). Wifi reception was great, but internet browsing (with IE and with Opera) both were lackluster. The built in stylus was a great idea but was awful to work with with big hands.

Maybe I just didn't spend enough time getting familiar with the phone, but I'll be returning it for a more basic phone soon.

Bulky, Slow, Over-Priced, Fragile Poor Customer Service,
Pro: touch screen, numbers on front

Cons:
Bulky, Slow, Over-Priced, Fragile Poor Service,

really too thick for today's smart phone; the phone is slow changing between programs compared to other smart phones with Windows 6 I have used; phone has broken twice in 6 months (1 LCD going blank white - no physical damage but samsung still charged 100 dollars for) and another hardware burn out (repaired under warranty after samsung had the phone for 1 full month).

A workhorse out of the box, invest some time and this phone shines
I bought the i760 to be a true convergence device and it has delivered on all fronts. If you are willing to invest time in finding the right software (usually free) to customize the device, you will find yourself with a very nice windows alternative to the all-powerful you-know-what.

First Impressions:

Out of the box, it is apparent that Samsung and Verizon created a phone that prefers function to sexiness. It has a heavy, grounded feel, as if every bit of space inside the case is jammed with electronics. The sliding keyboard is spring loaded and is very sturdy, as are the raised rubberized keys. With the added dialer and D-Pad, one can tell this phone was created for heavy business use and is meant to survive abuse that most touch-screen phones would rather avoid.

Upon turning it on, you will quickly see this is a pure Windows Mobile 6 device. There is no sluggish performance to be seen when navigating the device and screen rotation is usually handled smoothly. While Verizon was nice enough to include ZERO bloatware on the phone, it is also a very bland experience. Included are a few basic themes, Pocket IE, and Windows Media Player. All menus and features on the phone are meant to be used with the stylus. There are no finger-friendly nifty programs included, no finger-scrolling contact menus or anything of the sort. Just plain old Windows Mobile. Fast, but plain.

Everyday Use:

I got the i760 to be a do-all device. It needed to be an MP3 player, portable movie player, internet radio player, game player, web surfer, and package it all in a finger-friendly device with easy access to news, weather, messaging, contacts, and all that wonderful media. Basically a laptop in my pocket.

Out of the box... the i760 does little of this. Pocket IE is sluggish and best used with a stylus, Windows MP can't play mobile youtube and stinks as an MP3 player, and there is no ease-of-use experience to speak of.

However, if you are willing to invest a few nights a week for a few weeks into finding the right software, the device is VERY willing to provide this experience. WM6 has a multitude of freeware options for customized today plugins, media players, iPhone-wannabe apps (love those finger apps), game emulators... you name it, it's available, and the i760 handles it all with relative ease.

On a typical day, I listen to internet radio on the way to and from work, mix in some mp3 playing, watch some youtube videos, visit full-version websites like espn and cnn (minus flash... sad), play some emulated video games, check my email, make some calls, and send some text messages all from the i760. Win.

The best part is, once you find the right mix of software and customizations to provide your desired functionality, you can simply sync up your device with your desktop PC and never worry about it again. I've had a static set of programs for about a week and I do not imagine spending much more time customizing this phone.

Battery life is okay on the slim battery and a little better on the extended battery. I typically use the slim battery and charge it while I'm at my desk or at home. If you're going on a day-trip or a plane flight, the extended battery seems to be sufficient for a day of use.

IMPORTANT to note is that you WILL have to "customize" this device for it to accept 4gb minisd cards. This is extremely easy to do, but understand it only accepts 2gb out of the box.

Performance:

While it is barebones out of the box, this device shines if you put in some elbow grease and hunt out the right apps for it - and the i760 handles everything you can reasonably expect. This is thanks to a combination of a proven chipset (put in production in 2003 by Samsung) and the addition of a 400mhz CPU, which is standard on most high-end WM6 devices. Although is has less RAM than some competitors (only 64mb) and lacks 3D hardware acceleration, Samsung has put together a very peppy device. There are no weaknesses in any areas of performance, including multitasking. You can listen to music, surf the web, and handle incoming calls with ease.

Video performance is above average. Properly formatted divx (320x240) plays without issue in high quality. Mobile YouTube runs quite well. Music plays great too. The integrated speakers are loud enough to fill a small car with sound on a roadtrip, but plug the device to the aux port on your car stereo and enjoy your movies with full, high-quality sound.

16-bit console emulation also performs quite well, with sound, but expect some occassional slowdown.

Finally, above all, call quality is good on the phone. Unlike a certain competitor with fancy commercials, this phone makes no sacrifice of voice quality on either end.

There are some issues with the device:

*Touchscreen Sensitivity - the device doesn't work so well with fingers. It will work, but not consistently. Use the back of your fingernail instead.

*Sleep Functionality - once asleep, only a tiny button on the top of the device can wake it up. Most devices seem to allow customization on how to wake the device up.

*Weight - your hand(s) will fatigue after a lot of continuous use.

*D-Pad - the D-Pad is okay, but may not live through a lot of gaming.

*No GPS - and the Google Maps "My Location" feature does not seem to work, either.

Conclusion:

With some extra love and care, a tech savvy consumer can turn this device into a do-it-all powerhouse with no apparent limitations. The dated chipset may show some age in the next generation of mobile apps, but with the way the mobile market is accelerating, this is unavoidable.

All in all, this is likely the best all around Pocket PC available and thankfully it's on Verizon's excellent network. If you can get past the pragmatic feel and appearance of the phone, you will find this phone to be a real winner.

KB