samsung phone blog|samsung phone review

Communication
I had some concerns about the wireless functionality of the Conquer, especially relating to the 4G aspect of the device. I was never able to connect to the 4G network anywhere around my office, though I was generally able to connect at my house and at various points around the city. Other phones I have tried in the past seemed to perform much better at my office, even though they only connected to the 4G network about half of the time.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work well, however, and I didn’t have any connection issues at all when the 4G feature was turned off. The Sprint Hotspot feature worked perfectly, allowing me to share my mobile data connection with other devices.

Call quality is one area in which the Conquer truly stands out. I made quite a few test calls inside and out, and none of my callers could tell that I was on a mobile phone. Even when I was outside my office, with a busy street a few yards away and a full lawn crew with riding mowers and leaf blowers on the other side of the street, they couldn’t hear any background noise.

And this wasn’t just due to an overactive noise cancellation feature, since those tend to “clip” the higher and lower ranges and make people’s voices sound flat. I sounded normal to my callers, and they could hear every word I had to say, and I could do the same when it came to hearing them. They sounded just as good as when we use a landline connection, which was far better performance than I had expected for a phone being positioned as a bargain device.

Social networking is an experience that you’ll have to set up yourself, because the Conquer doesn’t come with any social networking apps installed — neither custom apps or even the basics. Facebook and Twitter are on the Android Market of course, and they’re free, so they’re easy enough to download and install. But it’s disappointing that they’re not included right out of the box.

The email experience is pretty standard for what you’ll get with an Android phone, though I did notice that I had to do a bit more scrolling while reading my messages because I wasn’t able to see as much text on the screen at once. It wasn’t a huge problem, and might not even be noticeable for someone used to using a phone with a smaller screen, but it is something worth pointing out — especially if you’re considering “downgrading” from a phone with a larger display.

The web experience is good but not unbelievably awesome, again due to the slightly smaller screen and slightly slower performance when compared to some of the more expensive phones that are out there right now. This isn’t due to any particular fault or shortcoming of the Conquer, just an observation of a performance “issue” that most folks won’t notice if they’re not in the habit of constantly switching phones like me.

Productivity
The PIM experience on the Samsung Conquer is pretty much the standard experience you’d expect from an Android smartphone these days, with the Calendar and Contacts apps included. There is no task manager or notepad included, however, so you’ll need to find your own in the Android Market.

One thing I noticed about the Conquer’s Calendar app is that it works a bit differently than the one on the EVO 3D, for example. The EVO has some extras thanks to the Sense UI, such as weather forecasts for each day listed at the top of the calendar. But I was surprised to see that all day events and untamed events do not show up on the single day calendar on the Conquer, but only in list view. That’s the sort of “gotcha” that can get you in trouble if you tend to use all day events as reminders for important things you need to get done.

ThinkFree Office is included to manage your Microsoft Office files, and it works with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF files too. You can also access your ThinkFree Online account through the app if you like to keep your documents in the cloud. Free activation is required, but it all works just fine.

Navigation is based solely on Google’s services; there was no Sprint navigation app bundled with the phone. That’s fine with me, because Google Maps is generally my preference anyway. Tap Navigation to get started; you’ll be prompted to turn on location services if they weren’t already. You can speak or type your destination, and choose either driving or walking directions. I found all of the suggested routes to be reasonably accurate, and I really liked the default streetview presentation, so that I could actually see the turns and the surrounding points of interest as I stepped through the route.

Entertainment
You won’t Orlistat Online find much here beyond the standard apps bundled with every Android phone, which is either a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. If you’re the type who enjoys trying a lot of apps and demos when you get a new device, you’ll likely be disappointed. If you’re the sort that spends your first few hours with a new device getting rid of all of the bloatware/crapware that seems to infest just about every single device these days, you’ll probably feel like jumping for joy.

The standard Music app is fine if you just want the basics, and the external speaker does a good job when you don’t feel like plugging in headphones. Other than that, you won’t find anything else at all on the Conquer when you first take it out of the box — no games, no game demos, and no eBook reader apps.

Everything is left for you to customize, though the overall look and feel of the device can easily be customized using the Sprint ID app. We’ve covered it before in other reviews, but the short answer is that the service allows you to specify an interest like beauty & fashion, or sports, and choose an ID that includes several apps (both free and demos of paid apps) that are automatically downloaded to your device as part of a bundle. It’s a great way to get started if you don’t already have your favorites.

The Conquer comes with a 2GB microSD memory card for holding files, which is fine for a device in this price range. But if you want to use it as your MP3 player you’re probably going to want to get a card with more capacity.

Camera
The Buy strattera online camera is something of a disappointment for an amateur shutterbug like me. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly isn’t in the same league as what you’d expect to find on a more expensive top-of-the-line smartphone these days.

It does a good job under the right conditions, taking shots that are good enough to share with your friends for random daily stuff, but not for really important events like graduations, weddings, reunions, family trips, etc.

Battery Life
Battery life is pretty good, though there’s a noticeable difference between what you can expect when 4G is on compared to when it’s off. When it’s on, I’m only able to get two and half full days of use, with the phone dying sometime in the afternoon during the third day. Turn off 4G however, and battery life is much improved, with the Conquer easily making it through a full work week without a charge.