Samsung Solstice II Phone (AT&T)

This phone was a replacement for an old cell, and it is exactly what I wanted. Fast delivery and the cell was in a good shape.

The keyboard is very slow at typing, slower than my Samsung Solstice I, which I'd had for EIGHT years before this new one. The keyboard actually freezes up if you type too fast. The phone also turns off randomly, such that the display screen stays on and then fades out into the background. The design almost seems less durable than the Samsung I. It's nice that this phone has a Conversation feature for messaging, compared with the Samsung I where there is no way to see your messages with another person in sequence, each SMS is viewed on its own. HOWEVER, the most annoying part about the conversation feature for SMS is that it still sends messages to your inbox, so when you have a conversation with somebody and view the messages in the conversation, you'll still receive messages to your inbox, and they'll show up on your phone as unread, so you constantly have unread messages unless you view them both in conversation and in your inbox.

I've had this phone for 2 years without any major issues. I only use it to talk and text.Cons:It has only power cycled a couple times since I bought it - no where near the issues other folks seem to have.The camera isn't great, but I didn't buy it to take pics.Pros:Battery life. I use it mostly for texting and the occasional call - I haven't had to charge it in 4 days and the battery is over 2 yrs old. Mind you, I'm not playing on it all hours of the day.It's easy to figure out - I figured out where everything is in no time.Durable - I have 3 kids under the age of 5. It's been thrown, dropped, and sucked on and it runs like the day I bought it. I never bought a screen protector and I still don't have any scratches.Size - It's small enough to fit in my pocket and light enough that I don't feel like I'm carrying a weight around. I downgraded from an Epic 4G. I hated how heavy that phone was. I can throw this in my suit coat pocket and you wouldn't know I had it on me.5 stars because it does what it's supposed to.

Just got the phone pretty impressed overall. The virtual keyboard isn't bad but heavy texting isn't recommended, picture camera is decent but not great. Also the amount of hardware included on this phone is amazing for this price point and I would highly recommend the phone.Pro'sTouchscreen, user interface, tether capabilities, signal strength, customizable applications, excellent battery life, locking tab, great exterior design, Pc studio software works, included accelerometerCon'sCamera has no flash, virtual keyboard doesn't support multi touch, no headphone jack, web browser isn't that good

Its a nice phone. i had to share a samsung SGH A777 with my brother but now i have this phone and my brother still has the a777 so im not complainin. Touchscreen is great, camera is better then i expected and u can have fun with it too and make ur friends into clowns. I dont have a data plan which kinda sucks but its a good phone and ive gone on the internet and its not that fast but this aint a smartphone what do u expect. Ive tried youtube too. Its no computer but its ok for a fone. Texting is easy when u turn it horizontal but i mess up alot and need to fix it on the small touch keyboard. Also u have to buy headphones for this instead of the basic headphones cuz it dont use regular headfones. Im gonna do that cuz the phone has a good music player so yeah then i can use it as a phone/camera/MP3 player. Overall i love this phone. PS: i got a case yesterday and its hard as a tank so this phone not gon' break any time soon!

To Start off, I was very excited to get my first touch screen phone. My previous phone had been a flip phone(which have always been very loyal and faithful to me) but I was ready to leap into the newer generation of phones and be apart of all of this new technology that was being offered to me...but that was the problem.The technology was too new for the likes of Samsung, and in an effort to compete, they released this Model(Solstice II) prematurely and without enough testing.Upon buying the phone, I inquired about the functionality and speed of the phone and I was assured that the touch screen alongside the processing power would be sufficiant enough for my needs and that slow speeds and laggy connections would be a thing of the past. Also upon buying the phone I ran into someone who was actually returning the phone to get a replacement because of an issue with her 'contacts' feature...which I later would have a problem with.I was also told that the phone would be able to play music and record audio as well as long as a purchased a Micro-SD card which I did. I was very excited, but would soon find out even those feature were lacking major abilities and standards that most music/audio would have...which I will explain below.So after a few weeks of having the phone, I would soon see a pretty consistant problem--slow processing speed alongside laggy Apps and random phone freezes. The phone would even glitch and turn off, which quickly became an annoyance and very frustrating when I needed to check the time or to see if anyone had called.Although this phone looks sleek and is one step above the Sostice 1, this Smart-Phone substitute hardly fulfills the hype of the phone...in fact I would suggest that the marketing was outright deceptive in it's advertizing.As a consumer who has invested a lot of time and energy in making this phone functionable, I find it an insult to consumers everywhere to have to spend hours on the phone with Customers Service representatives who don't have adequete English speaking skills to assist people in an appropiate time and talk like robots at times.Both the software (even with the updates as of Jan. 2012) and hardware are faulty and are in need of a massive overhaul so as to meet the needs of the average phone user in the 21st century.Having to order a replacement was a waste of time. The replacement phone still did not fix the problems. It's the processor that is the major issue at hand. if the phone is to have the ability to hold multiple apps and to have music running it should have a processor worthy of multi-tasking, except it wasn't.Also the proprietary headphone Micro-USB jack does not respond with other MicroUSB-to-3.5 audio headphones. Even with the mono-headphone it came with stop working after about 10 hours of usage.I also want to review some of the Apps that came with the phone1.) Music PlayerGood:-Has basic functions like placing songs in playlists and viewing the artist, track, and album in live modeBad:- Can't quick jump(A-Z jump) or quick search artists.- Album screens takes forever to load up- Can't edit name of artist, album, genre...etc- Can't edit audio levels for individual songs and keep them saved.- Can't reorder songs efficiently- Can't favorite, or rate songs- Shuffle feature in App doesn't shuffle well- Other Apps lag while music is playing- music Library lags while music is playing- Can't add images for albums after the fact- Volume levels do not have a smooth enough gradient from mute to very loud(NOTE TO SAMSUNG--USE iTunes as a reference...argh)2.) TextingGood:- Easily accessible- Sleek look- Tracks conversations- Saves Drafts, Inbox, and Outbox- offers IM from multiple online outlets- mobile e-mailBad:'initializing...wait I couple minutes, then try again' screen pops up sometimes and phone will not allow me access the Texting feature (even after minutes have gone by after phone-startup)- slow processor - lags texting abilities and response.- lags- lags- and lags3.) Camera(Still/Video)Good:- Video capabilities- can edit photoes on phone- has timer for taking photos- can adjust white balance- can rename and manage photos somewhat- video resolutions can be adjusted- Camera adjusts resolution and places lens upright when phone rotatesBad:- Photos are horrible resolution.- lens does not absorb nearly enough light- video is significant;y darker than still images- Video is quite laggy and slow with processing- takes forever for processor to store and reopen photos4.)Video PlayerGood:- can watch large-size videos if you have enough memory- plays videos without freezing mostly- Video Player adjusts resolutions when phone rotatesBad:- Volume levels do not have a smooth enough gradient from mute to very loud- skipping around through the video is quite unresponsive at times- Phone only accepts a couple different video file-types and resolutions5.)Contacts (Address Book)Good:- Organizes contacts alphabeticaly- You can quick jump A-Z with a side-scolling feature(very nice)- You can make groups and organize contacts- select favorites- put in multiple #s in each contact's file- place a photo for each contactBad:- AT&T Address Book Registration (online feature) does not stop trying to access the server...this is very frustrating as this nonsensical screen pops up almost every time I access my contacts. There is no option to opt out of this AT&T online Address Book..in fact I totally disapprove of the idea of registering my contacts info as I see it a violation of my privacy. i in NO WAY want my Address Book to held in a server where 3rd-Party entites can possible gain access to that information.- 'initializing...wait I couple minutes, then try again' screen pops up sometimes and phone will not allow me access My contacts (even after minutes have gone by after phone-startup) I usually am forced to restart my phone which is a huge inconveniece.Overall the phone is a lie. It looks sexy and sleek but it needs major overhauls, both for hardware and software. The fact that the phone doesn't have a 3.5 or even 2.5 audio jack is just nonsensical. The processor is horrible and does horrible with multi-tasking. The Apps it offers you mostly require an internt connection. The phone shuts down and restarts randowmly and even freezes on me. I do appreciate having the personization features and the security features it offers but this phone just falls too short. I am on my second Sostice II and am having the same loading issues and processor issues. No wonder this phone is not offered anymore. Hopefully they come out with a newer version soon and actually address some of these core issues.My score: 2.5/5 Stars