My SCH-i730 Review

[SCR32]

Hello everyone on board,

I just signed up for this forum and wanted to say Hi. I bought Samsung SCH-i730 device recently and so far I am mostly satisfied. For those who care, here's my version of review:

Good buying experience
I had a TMobile phone before & the service transfer to Verizon network was fast. Sales rep told me 1350 min + unlimited data was $129/m but gave me a deal for $79/month. With car charger (knowing PPC is battery hog), I ended up paying less than $0.6G. Battery was charged out of the box, so I walked out of the shop with the already up-n-running phones. Wow.

Thumbs up for Network
The feature I like the most is actually the network service via Verizon. EVDO is lightening fast & Wireless Sync works with my company email without any help from IT department. Always-on is so addictive and now I cannot live without. I get company email as it happens, and I do google, mapquest, news, etc all the time.

Thumbs down for memory
The biggest complaint I have now is size of memory (57MB). I also use hp iPAQ 5555, so I didn't use to worry about memory being an issue, but after installing popular spb Pocket Plus (along with Verizon's Wireless Syn running all the time) on i730, I have already experienced occasional crash and hang, which I cannot afford with my main phone. I do have 256MB SD card slapped in, so all of my documents & media files are stored externally. Still I miss 128MB of iPAQ 5555. After using PIE, I delete the temporary internet files everytime (a must since I use PIE all the time now - can I automate this somehow?).

Hardware issues
I have a mixed feeling about keyboard. I am a native-graffiti writer (been doing it for a loooooong time), so I have no problem writing on the Block Recognizer. Slide-down keyboard changed my habbit and I think it's growing on me. However, I discovered even my down-to-finger nails are almost always on their way. I have pretty small hand, but still this keyboard is tad bit smaller than I would like it to be. Also, each button requires hard & firm action everytime. I find myself trying to press the keyboard and accidentally pressing side button (record, volume, etc) while supporting the device with other fingers. Other complain - sometimes the "1" button is stuck down, so while typing, I see "11111111111111111111....".

I don't like the external antenna. Samsung introduced this concept of "INtenna" that hides bulk out of way. I don't know why the latest & greatest device like i730 still has it. Only time it is usable is picking the device out of my pocket.

Other than that, all the promised features I bought (WiFi, Bluetooth, EVDO, speaker phone, etc) work well so far.

Software glitch
I found Sprite Backup very helpful in keeping things safe, but when "PIM Mirroring" is turned on, sometimes after soft reset, device hangs at the first screen (Verizon logo) with about 150 contacts saved. I had to reset several times to get the OS to load. I just turned off PIM Mirroring.

When using hardware keyboard, it always suggests a word or two. I can't find the way to select a suggested word using keyboard (not stylus). Does anyone know? I sometimes want to turn suggestion off but I can't. Also, in Pocket Word and PIE, it pops up the empty suggestion list at top left corner of the screen (a big white box...) and it stays there until I tap it. So annoying...

When running spb Pocket Plus, my Bluetooth headset (BT250) still worked but when I tapped Bluetooth property button at Today screen, it said "Bluetooth device not found on this device". When I uninstalled spb Pocket Plus, this problem went away. Must be some conflict between 2 software...

This can go on and on but I believe I mentioned something not mentioned earlier by other members. I hope you find this helpful.

[SCR32]

Hello everyone on board,

I just signed up for this forum and wanted to say Hi. I bought Samsung SCH-i730 device recently and so far I am mostly satisfied. For those who care, here's my version of review:

Good buying experience
I had a TMobile phone before & the service transfer to Verizon network was fast. Sales rep told me 1350 min + unlimited data was $129/m but gave me a deal for $79/month. With car charger (knowing PPC is battery hog), I ended up paying less than $0.6G. Battery was charged out of the box, so I walked out of the shop with the already up-n-running phones. Wow.

Thumbs up for Network
The feature I like the most is actually the network service via Verizon. EVDO is lightening fast & Wireless Sync works with my company email without any help from IT department. Always-on is so addictive and now I cannot live without. I get company email as it happens, and I do google, mapquest, news, etc all the time.

Thumbs down for memory
The biggest complaint I have now is size of memory (57MB). I also use hp iPAQ 5555, so I didn't use to worry about memory being an issue, but after installing popular spb Pocket Plus (along with Verizon's Wireless Syn running all the time) on i730, I have already experienced occasional crash and hang, which I cannot afford with my main phone. I do have 256MB SD card slapped in, so all of my documents & media files are stored externally. Still I miss 128MB of iPAQ 5555. After using PIE, I delete the temporary internet files everytime (a must since I use PIE all the time now - can I automate this somehow?).

Hardware issues
I have a mixed feeling about keyboard. I am a native-graffiti writer (been doing it for a loooooong time), so I have no problem writing on the Block Recognizer. Slide-down keyboard changed my habbit and I think it's growing on me. However, I discovered even my down-to-finger nails are almost always on their way. I have pretty small hand, but still this keyboard is tad bit smaller than I would like it to be. Also, each button requires hard & firm action everytime. I find myself trying to press the keyboard and accidentally pressing side button (record, volume, etc) while supporting the device with other fingers. Other complain - sometimes the "1" button is stuck down, so while typing, I see "11111111111111111111....".

I don't like the external antenna. Samsung introduced this concept of "INtenna" that hides bulk out of way. I don't know why the latest & greatest device like i730 still has it. Only time it is usable is picking the device out of my pocket.

Other than that, all the promised features I bought (WiFi, Bluetooth, EVDO, speaker phone, etc) work well so far.

Software glitch
I found Sprite Backup very helpful in keeping things safe, but when "PIM Mirroring" is turned on, sometimes after soft reset, device hangs at the first screen (Verizon logo) with about 150 contacts saved. I had to reset several times to get the OS to load. I just turned off PIM Mirroring.

When using hardware keyboard, it always suggests a word or two. I can't find the way to select a suggested word using keyboard (not stylus). Does anyone know? I sometimes want to turn suggestion off but I can't. Also, in Pocket Word and PIE, it pops up the empty suggestion list at top left corner of the screen (a big white box...) and it stays there until I tap it. So annoying...

When running spb Pocket Plus, my Bluetooth headset (BT250) still worked but when I tapped Bluetooth property button at Today screen, it said "Bluetooth device not found on this device". When I uninstalled spb Pocket Plus, this problem went away. Must be some conflict between 2 software...

This can go on and on but I believe I mentioned something not mentioned earlier by other members. I hope you find this helpful.

[Jason Dunn]

Thanks for contributing your review, and welcome to Pocket PC Thoughts!

[natecorbitt]

Originally Posted by SCR32

Software glitch
I found Sprite Backup very helpful in keeping things safe, but when "PIM Mirroring" is turned on, sometimes after soft reset, device hangs at the first screen (Verizon logo) with about 150 contacts saved. I had to reset several times to get the OS to load. I just turned off PIM Mirroring.

When using hardware keyboard, it always suggests a word or two. I can't find the way to select a suggested word using keyboard (not stylus). Does anyone know? I sometimes want to turn suggestion off but I can't.

I recently purchased an i730 and I have the same issues with the keyboard and the word suggestion. If anyone out there knows how to choose the word with the keyboard instead of the stylus, I think we would both appreciate it.

Also, I have the same problem with the device hanging at times. How do you turn off "PIM Mirroring"? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by SCR32

This can go on and on but I believe I mentioned something not mentioned earlier by other members. I hope you find this helpful.

Thanks for the review! How's the battery life?

--janak

[SCR32]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Thanks for contributing your review, and welcome to Pocket PC Thoughts!

Thanks for welcoming, Jason. As for contribution, I don't think I (or anyone for that matter) can beat you.

I recently purchased an i730 and I have the same issues with the keyboard and the word suggestion. If anyone out there knows how to choose the word with the keyboard instead of the stylus, I think we would both appreciate it.

Also, I have the same problem with the device hanging at times. How do you turn off "PIM Mirroring"? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I still haven't figure out what keyboard is mapped to Word Suggestion feature yet. As for PIM Mirroring, you have to change the Sprite Backup to Advanced Mode (Option -> Switch to Advanced Mode) to make necessary changes to settings.

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Thanks for the review! How's the battery life?

--janak

Battery life has been good. The standard battery is what I am mostly using (for its smaller size), and PPC (WM2003) warns at 30% level, which happens pretty soon with my (over)usage, yet it has not been an issue for me so far. Having 2 chargers (1 home, 1 office) is definately necessary though. I do keep the backlight at "Low Bright".

[CoreyJF]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Thanks for the review! How's the battery life?

--janak

Battery life is very dependent on your network coverage. I normally get great battery life, far better then I had expected. But I live near Washington DC which is thoroughly blanketed with an EVDO network. When I have traveled outside the DC area into 1x networks, I notice a significant decline in battery life.

[CoreyJF]

Originally Posted by natecorbitt

I recently purchased an i730 and I have the same issues with the keyboard and the word suggestion. If anyone out there knows how to choose the word with the keyboard instead of the stylus, I think we would both appreciate it.

Also, I have the same problem with the device hanging at times. How do you turn off "PIM Mirroring"? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I am not sure about the keyboard, but you can select the word selection with the D pad. Arrow down and use the blue center button to select. I also find data entry to be quicker if you go to setting/input/word completion (second tab) and change the setting to suggest after two letters and suggest 4 words.

[Squid]

Hello SCR32,

When using hardware keyboard, it always suggests a word or two. I can't find the way to select a suggested word using keyboard (not stylus). Does anyone know? I sometimes want to turn suggestion off but I can't.

You can turn the suggestions on and off under options where you choose the input method you want to use. You can also get more suggestions if you want. I think the most you can select is four.

Regards,

Squid