Samsung Haven U320 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

To get money back

The phone was purchased as a replacement for a broken unit. Works perfectly and allows me to read texts again!!

This was perfect for my relative that was an able to have a camera phone

This phone is marketed towards those who do not want a camera on their phone, and towards senior citizens. It is a rather large phone, although thin and light in weight.DEDICATED ICE KEY AND SPEAKERPHONE KEY: The dedicated ICE key is nice, and the speakerphone key is nice and large.DEDICATED 911 KEY: A dedicated 911 key, while potentially good, is dangerous, as it can be easily hit by mistake.NO CAMERA: I did like the fact that this phone has NO CAMERA, as I totally dislike camera phones in general. It is very hard to find JUST A PHONE---NOT A COMPUTER, CAMERA, INTERNET, MUSIC MACHINE PHONE COMBINATION. There are still people out there who JUST WANT A PHONE!!BATTERY CASE: The battery case is impossible to remove once you get a battery inside. One must "push down while sliding the case down and off" according to the product manual. Good Luck with that without breaking the phone. One is tempted to attack it with a screwdriver, but then that would make a real mess!! Personally, I also like to keep an extra charged battery on hand for my cell phone. No way you can do this with this phone. The battery must be in the phone to charge it, and there is no external battery charger available for this model from Samsung or Verizon. MAJOR oversight!!BATTERY LIFE: The battery life is about 1/2 of what the specs say. My standard battery lasted 2 days normal use. On my old Samsung cell phone (a sch-a630) the standard battery lasted 5 days and the extended battery lasted 8 days with normal use.RINGTONES: Ringtones need a lot of work. They are, for the most part, disgusting, jarring, and embarassing. A wider variety of beeps, rings, and other such tones would be welcome.ALARMS: The 3 alarms are nice, but the alarm tones are restricted to 3 of the included ringtones. They are pathetically polyphonic and jarring. A simple loud beep option would be welcome, or at least access to the other ringtones, which is not possible.EXTERNAL DISPLAY THAT ISN'T: The external display on the outside of the case is visible only as long as the interior keypad is illuminated. So, if you want to REGULARLY utilize the outside display, your keypad must remain lit constantly, draining the battery even faster. No separate control for the external display is a big oversight.SPEAKERPHONE AND VOICE RECOGNITION: The speaker phone feature is very good, but the voice recognition feature is not. The phone fails to recognize even basic commands and reverts to what it thinks you must be saying, which are not necessarily the same thing.KEYPAD: The keypad is large and easy to use, but is a little sensitive. If you have a heavy hand with buttons, look out!Samsung really missed the mark here on marketing towards those who prefer no camera phone and have limited vision and dexterity.My advice to Samsung: Go back to the design table on this one, it's a dud!

My elderly mom has used this phone for the past six or eight months or so. Before that she had the Samsung Knack which is virtually the identical phone. Both phones work well and are fairly well suited for the person who wants a no-frills, basic, easy-to-use phone.For the most part, the display is easy to see. The ability to adjust font size is very helpful, however, the largest size isn't quiet large enough for an elderly woman with limited sight.The buttons are easy to use. Occasionally the menu requires the user to hit a button twice for confirmation which can be kind of confusing. For example, in order to listen to a voice mail message, you need to select the message, then select it AGAIN to "listen."There are two glaring problems with the Samsung Haven, both of which were carried over from the Knack. First of all, the side-mount buttons are on the main body of the phone rather than on the flip-up display. It's virtually impossible to handle this phone without pressing one of the side buttons by mistake. The only way to keep from pressing a side-mount button by mistake is to hold the phone by the display, and I don't know of ANYONE who holds their flip-phone that way!Due to this poor design, on several occasions my mom has inadvertently lowered and/or turned off the volume to the point that she missed important phone calls. It's very disconcerting to check in on my mom and get no answer, which leads me to think something is wrong, when in fact, the ringer was just turned off. I just hope if she ever CAN'T answer her phone because she's hurt or something, that I don't shrug it off assuming the ringer is turned off again.The other big problem is the fact that the battery just doesn't last. The only reason she got rid of her Samsung Knack is because the battery died and it would have cost more to get a new battery than to get a new phone! The same goes for her Samsung Haven. She's had her Samsung Haven for not quite a year, and here I am looking for a new phone for her again because her battery is about to die!Now that I'm in the market to replace her Samsung Haven, I'd really like to find a better, more well-designed phone for my mom. Unfortunately, having to learn how to use a new phone would be so difficult for her, that she'd much rather overlook the problems and have me buy another Samsung Haven, than find a phone better suited to her needs.

As one of the minority of people who still like a cell phone to just be a cell phone, I find there are fewer and fewer options as time goes on. Was happy with the now-discontinued Samsung Knack and hoped the Haven would be comparable; it is.The size is fine; not too big or clunky and fits easily into a pocket or string wallet. Like the layout of the keypad and the font size options. Was concerned about the ring tone choices based on other reviews, but found one I actually really like called "Breezy"; gets your attention without being obnoxious. Would like a few more sound options for alarm settings, but that is not a huge deal.Got very good reception when traveling out of state and staying in a remote area. Use the phone mainly for work so the battery life is just fine; the charge indicator rarely drops below three bars and the phone recharges quickly.Decided to buy some cell phone covers since the constant grey/black/silver of electronic devices gets old; enjoy changing the covers for a little variety now and then, and found some fun colors on line.If you are looking for a basic cell phone with no bells or whistles but reliable reception, this is a good one. Definitely recommend.