A Rockin' New Phone...

Okay... I got REALLY fed up with my E-815. I was tired of having full bars and it sounding like popcorn coming over the line. So seeing as I had the opportunity to renew early with Alltel (which will become part of Verizon at the end of December, BTW), I decided to get a new phone.

After some searching on-line and with the help of my friend Kelli at Pro Cellular in Madison, I settled on the Samsung Alltel "HUE".

Looking at it at first, it looked a little too simple... but that's the beauty of it. In the few days I've had it, I've been very impressed with its versatility. Here's my unofficial review... take it for what it's worth.

The Good...

1) Options. I haven't gone through all the features yet but I have a phone, world clock, GPS, tip calculator (very handy Thursday night at the Hillside Resort), and mp3 Player. In fact I use the mp3 player quite extensively, but more on that later.

2) Durability. I haven't had to test this out yet, but from what I've read and talking to Kelli, you can pretty much slam this thing against the wall and drop it in the toilet and it'll work like a champ. And seeing as I've been burned not once but TWICE on the Motorola RAZR, this was one of the first questions I asked Kelli when I was looking at it.

3) Multimedia. Like I said, I really enjoy the mp3 player on here. With the multimedia pack (that came at extra cost), I really am able to enjoy a lot of the features on here. The mp3 player is quite stable and with the earbuds, it produces a very nice sound. I use it during my workouts and it performs beautifully. The viewscreen had extremely good resolution which I like. And with that mulitmedia pack, I can actually download pics from my phone to the computer easily.

4) Appearance. You can change the appearance of the skin of the phone, which I like. Also it's a lot slimmer and more compact than the E-815 so I can put it in my pocket and not have any "bulges" sticking out!

The Issues...

There are a few minor inconveniences. For starters, I had purchased a couple of Axcess ringtones for the E-815. I could not transfer them to my new phone, which sucks.

Also, I'd like the option of a button or buttons on the outside of the phone to change tracks on the mp3 player. The volume buttons are a big help, but I'd like to be able to change tunes too!


The Verdict...

With my rebate and plan renewal, the phone comes to about $30. For the flexibility of a RAZR with a helluva lot more durability, I think I'm going to stick with this phone for a while!