Samsung i897 Captivate Android smartphone. Deals

By The Black Knight (Miami) -
This review is from: Samsung i897 Captivate Android smartphone Galaxy S (Unlocked) (Unlocked Phone)
I bought this phone unlocked because i live in Costa Rica, so i needed a phone which works with the local carrier, and this phone turn to be the best purchase i could do, it works with the 850mhz 3G network of the ICE(Costa Rica s goverment carrier) and the android 2.2 Froyo installed works perfect, with a brilliant 4inch amoled and the fast 1ghz processor. I recomend to buy also an Otterbox Box Case for this device, which fits great. I bought it at $374.99 and is the best deal i could find for a phone with this technical details.

By Paul B(CA)

 This review is from: Samsung i897 Captivate Android smartphone Galaxy S (Unlocked) (Unlocked Phone)
After shopping around, I decided to go with the Captivate. I'm very glad I did. This phone is intelligently designed, versatile, has a lot of memory, and very few cons. The display is big, bright and crystal clear. I have froyo (2.2) which seems to have resolved a number of problems earlier versions had.
One bit of advice: before you download any app or upgrade, read the customer comments. They will usually tell you better than anything else whether that particular app or upgrade is a good one. Some upgrades only install more advertising. It's also a good idea to read permissions.
A lot of people have battery drain issues with this phone. Disabling Background Data under Settings/Accounts and sync seems to help with this problem.

By Gio (Tbilisi) -
This review is from: Samsung i897 Captivate Android smartphone Galaxy S (Unlocked) (Unlocked Phone)
The phone is really the best mobile I've ever had.
It has all the modern functions and runs great, smooth, beautiful..
Though AT&T is really ruining it with all the bloatware and stuff..
Runs flawlessly on ECLAIR (Android 2.1). Has some minor bugs and lags after I flashed Froyo(android 2.2)..
Overall great mobile for normal price.

Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Android.. Deals

By Dawn H. "SAHM" (MN USA) -
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Android Smartphone (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)
Let me preface by saying I'm in my early 30's and I am a mom. I am mostly home, as I work PT out of my house. I had been a loyal Sprint customer for 11 years.

My Sprint contract was coming up. This time, instead of just rolling over and accepting another 2-year contract (with new "dumb" phone), I decided to look around.
If I would have upgraded to a smartphone with data plan, my bill with sprint would have jumped by over $30 to nearly $100/mo for just my cell phone. So for someone who averages 75 min. talking and a lot of text messages, I couldn't see adding that much to our monthly bill.

Enter T-Mobile Monthly 4g. Wow! I get 100 min per month and unlimited text/data, and it's less (per mo.) than I was paying with Sprint? I can definitely work with that! So I researched all their phones and spent time on foot viewing different models. I was unable to find the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G in any store. I knew that the Galaxy SII was too large for my small hands and just didn't feel comfortable to me. The Galaxy S Blaze is basically the same as the SII, just smaller, with some weaker features (camera).

I have been using this phone for over a week now and am EXTREMELY HAPPY! We get spotty reception in our home and this phone has the capability of wifi calling. So I can have perfect phone reception inside my home. I also use wifi for data while I'm home. It's much faster than what I can get w/o.

I was able to sync the phone with my itunes and now have all music on the data card. I bought a 32gb mini sd from Amazon. That beefs up the storage space considerably. I also upgraded the firmware to Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

This phone now replaces my ipod touch and my "dumb" phone.

I couldn't be happier!

This is a great phone! Try it!

 By D. Peternel "deepeepee" (Milwaukee, WI) -
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Android Smartphone (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I bought this phone with t-mobiles $30 unlimited data/text and 100 minute per month plan for my teenager. It is his first phone and he is used to what my iPhone can do. I was not about to pay contract prices for him. He is a texter and netflix user, not a talker. I believe his unused 100 monthly minute alotment will roll over for month to month, for up to 3 months, so that may give him some extra talk time if he does get chatty in a particular month and its .10/minute after that. Data coverage is good in the area he is in for 90% of his life, but falls quickly when traveling off major interstates and highways, but he still is able to text/talk in most of those areas. He charges the phone nightly and that will get him through the day even with heavier usage. The phone seems faster than my iPhone4, screen is definitely not as good, but still adequate!!

Bottom line is that this seems BY FAR, the best no contract smart phone that my reasearch led me to (for less than $300). Could not justify Virgin mobile's $600 iPhone plan for him. I had been putting him off for months on this purchase because I wanted to get it right the first time. There are other carriers that offer similar $30-35 no-contract plans, BUT the phones they offer based on reviews by users, I feel, were all JUNK. Based on reviews online and tmobiles user reviews, I knew I finally put this search to an end. The Blaze is a slightly toned down version of the Galaxy S2. Small enough and light enough for him to pocket it.

HE IS VERY PLEASED to have a smart phone that does it all. Many of his friends got phones months and years ago, but my patience (read: CHEAPNESS) prevailed. NOW all he has to do is take care of it and NOT LOSE IT!!!

It's a COOL phone that has, in the month he has had it, worked flawlessly so far. Thinking of replacing my wife's cheapo $50 LG800 (through NET10) with this one, it is SUPERIOR in all aspects and a perfect alternative to my BELOVED iPhone, which has spoiled me to accept NO cheap substitutes!!!

UPDATE 9/28/2012-Still happy with phone, but the 100 minutes expire at the end of each month and do not roll over, which is a little disappointing. I found the "fine print" under T-Mobile support site.

By A. Chan (LA, CA) -
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Android Smartphone (T-Mobile) (Wireless Phone Accessory)
i am not a tech guy. when people started using smart phone for few years, i was still using my dumb phone. the reason is that i have been thinking it is too expensive for data plan and not worth it (i am not that kind of person needs to update his fb status every single minute, i am brushing my teeth, i am eating breakfast now...) let's wait couple more years for cheaper plans and phones...

i have been waiting for this until 9 months ago. after my att contract ended, i started to do research and end up use TM due to better and cheaper plan. i visited few TM dealers but didnt see this blaze until i visited costco! i really couldnt find a better plan than this: 2 yr new contract with TM, no activation fee, free accessories and most importantly was i got this phone free (i opened 2 new lines so i got 2 free blaze)!

people asked me why not get a s3 (s3 was the newest at that time for being in the market for just 1 month). well, i needed to pay $249 compare to pay $0 to get a free blaze. i preferred the blaze which was released to the market for only 3 months! in fact, my wife also said s3 is too big for her. for a man usually going out without a handbag, s3 is also too big for front jean pocket.

anyway, i am happy for using this phone for 9 months. i dont use it for music or movie. i just use it to dial in/out, emailing, fb, whatsapp, wechat, etc...the phone has no problem to handle all the above tasks so far. i have been getting 4g speed all the times in greater los angeles area.

a reviewer mentioned about not able to see the screen (turn black) whenever finished talking. yes i had that problem too at the beginning. later, i found that i needed to place the phone on my palm horizontally (perpendicular to your body)after i finished to let the screen on again so that you can see all the buttons. but i agree that it is hard to see the screen under sunlight. i need to get the phone closer to my eyes to avoid reflections.

other than that, my phone only freezed 1 time during the past 9 months. i needed to take the battery out for few minutes to let it reset. after that, it worked fine again.

so far i am happy about the phone. $0 for a dual-core, 3 gig internal memory, 5mp camera, 4g speed phone, i cant and shouldnt ask for more ^__^

Samsung S5830EUBLK Galaxy Ace Android...Deals

By Jairo Nunez "Alejofly" (Cali, Colombia) -

This review is from: Samsung S5830EUBLK Galaxy Ace Android Powered Smartphone with 5MP Camera, Touch Screen, Wi-Fi - Unlocked Phone - No Warranty - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)
After a deep research on the internet about new phones, i decided to change mi Great Nokia 5800 for an android based phone. Galaxy Ace was the best Cost-Benefit choice. Big challenge for me to change my Symbian system, because use to be really stable and well done. Comparing the experience with symbian and nokia phones as a reference, the change to Android is awesome. You can feel the difference due to the best hardware set up... 800Mhz processor and 277MB RAM memory. Both, SO and processor make a huge difference.

Looks great, big screen (quick response, sensitive), Light, fast... really fast, with the android market ant thousands of apps, many of them free.

Only one big issue: battery life. I have been trying to configure it to get the best battery performance, but until now... no more than One day using randomly the wifi to be synchronized and using the web. For me, is not a big deal because i use to work close to my office, so i have the opportunity to recharge it during the day easily, but for those people working without an energy outlet close, and forced to use data connection all the time, this phone will be a problem. . That is why i am not giving the 5 stars; but could be a nightmare for another kind of phone users. That problem is suppouse to be improved with the new Gingerbread firmware, which i am waiting for (samsung announce it few days ago).

If you get this phone, charge the battery for the first time at leas 12 hours. Does not matter if the phone announce the full charge, that issue makes a huge difference with the battery life. For some reason, even with the full charge activated on the screen, the battery will continue receiving charge and increasing the usage of the battery.

I am impressed about how easy is the synchronization with google software: calendar, gmail, docs, etc and also with facebook and tweeter accounts to get information of your contacts.

Very nice and powerful phone.

 By A. LaVita (Billerica, MA) -
This review is from: Samsung S5830EUBLK Galaxy Ace Android Powered Smartphone with 5MP Camera, Touch Screen, Wi-Fi - Unlocked Phone - No Warranty - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I purchased the ACE for myself 8 months ago and it is so easy to use. It does drink the battery if you are doing alot of internet and application access during the day. All in all this is a great phone with good features and able to run all the Android applications. I love the WiFi because it saves on my data plan. My wife like my phone so much, I purchased a second one this week.

By hundredrabh "whacky" (Portland, OR USA)
This review is from: Samsung S5830EUBLK Galaxy Ace Android Powered Smartphone with 5MP Camera, Touch Screen, Wi-Fi - Unlocked Phone - No Warranty - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I have had this phone for a week or so. Almost everything works fine out of the box.
Android market is full of some good apps. Plus if you are adventurous you can build your apps with Android SDK. They have plenty of documentation and examples.

Only issues so far. The battery seems to last (less as per my expectations) only for 1.5 days with little (1.5hour) wifi and 2 hour talk time (I use loudspeaker so this might be more if you don't) and 2.5 hours of games. Could not get gingerbread installed via Kies (might use 3rd party ROM flashers, Odin??, which seem to be available in plenty)
Note this phone ships from outside US. As advertised you have no warranty and US Samsung customer support won't help as it is a non-us device. So wrt tech help you might be on your own. Or buy the warranty version.
Could not get GPS to work as of now. Need to understand all the settings.

Pluses.. awesome screen with no lag. Android community for support and development.

Love it and would recommend if you are looking for a cheap unlocked phone.

Update:
Got gingerbread update from Samsung using Kies, so no unlocking or rooting required (will have to see what happens for later Android upgrades). Now the battery has improved significantly. So no qualms for the money spent. 3G speeds from Att&t in my area are decent, tried gtalk and youtube and multiple app download with no noticeable lag.
And writing apps for android is fun!! Wish I had more money to upgrade to more powerful newer phones :(. But no regrets from this one so far!

Update: Almost 1 year now after purchase. Upgraded the firmware to 2.3.6 (I know no ICS or Jelly bean). But it does make the phone feel more responsive and snappy.
Loving it so far.

Samsung Galaxy Ace S5831 - Factory... Deals

By Brian H. -
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy Ace S5831 - Factory Unlocked GSM 3G 900/2100 Smartphone White (Wireless Phone)
Compared to the Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830, there is no significant difference. Basically it is an entry level smart phone with 2G network and limited internal memory. This product was made in China, but there no Chinese language input. The headset and microSD card will not be provided when you purchase Phone here, even the phone has the build-in FM radio function. You can spend less money to get the phone without accessories, but with extra order for all those standard items such as （ head set, micro SD card, etc.); or you can spend a little bit more to get the whole set from S 5830 type. Your money and time, your choice.

 By victorb -
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy Ace S5831 - Factory Unlocked GSM 3G 900/2100 Smartphone White (Wireless Phone)
After switching from my old phone (a blackberry) this phone is a breeze, It has apps I use all the time
It's quick and it does everything I need, I love everything about it.

By Santiago Morel Berni -
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy Ace S5831 - Factory Unlocked GSM 3G 900/2100 Smartphone White (Wireless Phone)
easy to use, a little small, is the minimum of the smartphones, the only downsize is 3g isn't unlocked only 2g

Samsung GT-S7562-BK Galaxy S Duos Android Smartphone Deals

By Bob -
This review is from: Samsung GT-S7562-BK Galaxy S Duos Android Smartphone with Dual SIM, 5MP Camera, A-GPS support and LED Flash - No Warranty - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)
Got this phone about five days now,did not want to make a review until i played with it a bit.
I must say, if i loved this phone anymore i would have to leave my wife and marry it...well joking there a bit, lol, buy i do love it.
Only reason i gave it four stars is some minor things, like the flimsy looking charger cable, looks real tiny as if it will soon break and the white headset for a black phone.
My last phone was the bb 9860, got this instead as i wanted a dual sim with android and led flash and been able to work as a remote for my smart tv, so far i love it and would buy another if anything happened to it.
It does take a little time to get used to and if you are impatient you may not like it at first as it has so many features and different ways of doing things.
Great phone.

Ok, have this phone for little over two weeks and not liking it that much again for the following reasons(good thing i did not leave my wife LOL),

(1) It is not the kind of dual sim i am used to, it is dual sim STANDBY and not dual sim ACTIVE as was with the lg ks660 that i used previously.
The difference is that with st/by both sims are on st/by waiting for a call, once a call is active the other sim is inactive (well not entirely), will explain. With dual sim active both sims are always active and works as if two phones are in one. This is really what i wanted.
Now to explain the above, this phone tries to remedy the situation by using call forwarding (a paid service on my network)so it has an option for dual sim always on, this option attempts to enable call forwarding for both sims and if it fails (as in my case) then even if i would pay for forwarding,i can not have both sims active at once.
In my case forwarding fails because both sims have group calling service on them. Most dissapointed as this is one of the primary reasons for buying this phone.

(2) Phone can be a bit slow, but i am used to the ks660 LOL.

(3) If i looked up a contact there is no way to use the secondary sim to call from the contact list so i have to use dial pad where the option is, this is so not good.

I would give the phone a two star for the above but the other features are great (well it's android) hence the new rating of three stars. So here i go again, off to sell this phone for what i can get and once again start a lengthy search for the dual sim ACTIVE android that i need. Soooo not a happy camper.

 By Ben Aissa -
This review is from: Samsung GT-S7562-BK Galaxy S Duos Android Smartphone with Dual SIM, 5MP Camera, A-GPS support and LED Flash - No Warranty - Black (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I got really excited when I get this phone, it looked cool and sleek... BUT, guess what, it was locked and the default language on this phone was some type of Polish, Russian or some weird East European Language. This made me believe that this phone was stolen by a clerk working for a Russian T-Mobile service provider or some East European National Wireless provider... anyway, I figured out to switch it back to English, to my dismay, the phone is LOCKED and can NOT work on US service providers.

... so I called my provider (T-Mobile) hoping to get help... after 30 minutes of being on-hold, the T-Mobile folks did not recognize the iemei number on the phone (it's Russian); and could not help me. They suggested that I call Samsung. 45 minutes of wait, someone sends me to an online web site where they have instructions to download a bunch of software.

I follow the instruction, I plug the phone onto a USB connector, then download various files, pay $19.95 to European SIM unlocking services, then another $14.95 to make it work on US providers, then I paid $4.95 to make sure that the phone is NOT black-listed... I still can't make it work. I wasted about 8 hours on this piece of junk.

I am returning it... don't make the same mistake if you are a busy person and value your time.

I am highly disappointed.

By J. A. Calder "jaycee_jm" (Jamaica)
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy S DUOS S7562 Unlocked GSM Phone with Dual SIM, Android 4.0 OS, 4" Touchscreen, 5MP Camera + Seconday VGA Camera, Video, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Stereo FM Radio, MP3/MP4 Player and microSD Slot - White (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I could not disagree more with the previous reviewer. It sounds more to me like he sucks at the skill that typing on a phone requires, probably not patient enough or has pretty big fingers. It has been a joy for me to use for the last month of having it. I am coming from a Black berry and this has been vastly superior. The touch screen is not only very responsive but you have the built in option of just sliding your fingers from one letter to the other to type which makes if much more effortless than the typical input method and i didn't have to download an app to do taht.

Its feature rich and beautiful to hold and look at. Matter of fact just about every one who has seen me with it and played around with it wants one. If you are looking for a dual sim, go no further but even if you are just looking for a single sim its def worth the buy. There is one serious down side but I would still have bought it when I think of all the others pluses - the HSPDA is only a mere 7mbps. Way way too small for a phone of this price and design. The other downers like battery capacity is pretty typical for these smartphones so I won't discredit this model for it but it's really drains too fast no matter how I try to save power. Overall a def 4 stars for me.

Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Deals

By marcony -
This review is from: Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked Android Smartphone - White (Wireless Phone Accessory)
It is a great phone. Here are some highlights:
- It has a regular size SIM card, therefore no need to cut it. When you travel abroad usually you get a local regular size SIM and save on roaming.
- it has a beautiful screen, just the right size. I wish Galaxy S3 had this screen because the one it has is way too big and can't be operated with one hand.
- Battery life is impressive, with just the voice and WIFI turned on it managed to run close to 4 (four) days on one charge. You can see that complaining on short battery life is not productive at all since it is not just phone's fault. There are many factors that contribute to short battery life: wireless coverage in the area you live, whether you have all possible social gimmicks turned on that keep draining your battery, running apps in background that are poorly written and waste CPU cycles, amount of time the screen is on and so on.
- Jelly Bean is easy flowing

I am not a app junkie and mostly use the phone as a phone with occasional use of apps when I am in WiFi hotspot range.
By achieving 4 days on a charge with no wireless data on, tells me how power hungry 3G and wireless data can be, and multiplied by horrific cell coverage, where instead of 5 towers we have just one, blasting at full power, we get this sub par battery life on the smart-phones. I believe LTE should be worse and drain you battery even faster, just in stand-by. Therefore we should blame the carriers and not the phones in 98% of the cases.
Hope this review is helpful. I am happy with the phone and would recommend it to my friends.

 By Justin W. Bancroft "Justin" (Tajikistan) -
This review is from: Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked Android Smartphone - White (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I had an S2 and loved it, then a nexus, also good, but both had poor battery life and were too big (especially the nexus). The mini is the right size for a phone you hold in your hand and talk on mostly, or send text, and occasionally surf/use for google maps, etc. If you need a smart phone, and mostly use it as a phone, this is it. Jelly Bean system, good graphics, enough power, expandable memory. But, its not an S3, its an S3 mini, which means smaller processor, not as fast with apps, etc. Battery lasts longer though, especially if you put juice defender or something similar on it.

By Tabin -
This review is from: Samsung I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked Android Smartphone - White (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I felt that my Samsung phone was a defective one. I have three phones in the family and mine gets dropped calls/inability to text/missed texts etc. I attempted to return this defective phone only to receive an email saying I can't because it's pass the 14 day period. If you review the return policy, you will see it's EXTREMELY difficult (if not impossible) to make any kind of return even for a defective product. If you used the phone for more than 30min, you can't return it without a 50% restocking fee. Wow. Chances are, you will use it for more than 30min. Honestly, I wouldn't buy a phone after reviewing the policy. It is my fault for assuming amazon has a standard 30day return policy and for assuming amazon takes care of their customers. I would rather pay full price at a legitimate store for the warranty alone. Cell phones are never guaranteed to function properly. Do you want to take that $300 risk?

Here's the important stuff that I quote from the return policy:
"All International phones are not USA manufacture warranty, and no our store warranty neither, including the accessories
If there is returned and refund needed, has to be return item within 14 business days from the delivery, and with buyer own expense. After 14 days there is no returned and refund acceptable no matter what problem on the phone.
Our 14 days return period only effect for defective phone, or ShopEbest sends out wrong order. Any other reasons would cost buyer 20% to 25% of restocking fee.
50% restocking fee will be charger, if buyer returning phone not as brand new condition and not in resell able condition , such as missing plastic bag, phone's life time minute has been used more than 30 minutes, writing on the box, screen protector is missing on the screen, missing accessories, etc.

All unlocked phone's feature is not 100% guarantee suitable to all locked same network frequency carrier. Due to every carrier has their own network frequency and setting on their features. Please kindly check out if the phone's 2G, 3G or 4G suitable for your phone carrier, before place the order."

UPDATE: Don't get this if you plan to use T-mobile. T-mobile runs on a different frequency band that this phone doesn't support. Your phone will WORK but it won't be as good as a phone that also works with ALL of T-mobile's frequency bands.

Samsung GT-I8190 Galaxy S Deals

By Foglifter (Bay Area, CA USA)
This review is from: Samsung GT-I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked Android Smartphone - Blue (Wireless Phone Accessory)
This is a truly unlocked international phone, the UI can be set to any language from the long list. It's sad and understandable why Samsung won't sell it in US as it is twice as cheaper than its big brother Galaxy S III. The screen is gorgeous, the phone is very fast and responsive. The size of this baby is perfect for both men and women, unless one prefers all those "bricks" with huge screens. I love this phone!

 By shell -
This review is from: Samsung GT-I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked Android Smartphone - Blue (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I've heard a lot of back and forth reviews on this. I love this phone. I live in the U.S. and i have consumer cellular as my phone provider. I bought this phone, stuck my sim card in it, and had no trouble at all setting it up. All i had to do was go through initial set up steps like language settings (it was in English (ireland) and i changed it to english (united states)). Connected to our WIFI and the WIFI at my work without any problems...this phone amazes me with what it can do in a phone that's not overly bulky. My brother got one of these as well and i set it up exactly like mine without a single problem.

By DIEGO CIRONE (MIAMI, FLORIDA United States)
This review is from: Samsung GT-I8190 Galaxy S III Mini Unlocked Android Smartphone - Blue (Wireless Phone Accessory)
I love this smartphone, it has the optimal size, not too big as the SIII and not small as others smartphones.
The dual core CPU gives the correct performance and speed to this phone.
I must really say that I'm impressed with the touchscreen, sensitive and smooth.

I bought the International version, sold by Amazon due I read some "1star" comments of different buyers; like users received an used phone, with logos of AT&T or others. This one, sold by Amazon is almost USD 40 more expensive but you'll receive what you want. A new phone, unused, without logos.
The only thing I need to mention is when you turn on at first time, the Languge is in Hungarian (or something like that), I used google traductor to change it to Spanish, the one I need. So this is not a big matter, but I need to mention it.

Until now, I am 100% satisfied with this phone. Hope this satisfaction last for a few years.