The End of a Love Affair?
I’ve been a Samsung fan since I purchased the D307 after my Siemens S66 froze up and died. The D307 was my first time using a Samsung device, and admittedly, I was impressed. It has a T-Mobile Sidekick-like design and still has amazing battery life and standby time after two years. Granted, I don’t use the phone as much as I use to since going with Sprint Nextel three years ago, but I do use it several times per week. The D307’s sharp colors, graphics, and reliability made me such a fan that I chose to upgrade to the Samsung UpStage, Sprint Nextel’s “iPhone killer,” in May of this year.
I love the UpStage’s two-face design, slim look, and features. I don’t use the phone’s capabilities to its full potential, mainly because I don’t believe in using my phone as a music player; that’s what my Zune is for. Initially, the two-face design was a little hard to get use to as well as the “finger sweeping” motions, but I quickly adapted. While it’s no iPhone, it is a head turner and inspires gadget envy from friends and associates whenever I have whipped it out. Too bad it’s a dud.
In early July, my UpStage experienced problems when I attempted to send text messages and/or surf the web. I started experiencing a lot of “network failure” errors, so I figured a “reboot” was in order. Unfortunately, the phone didn’t turn back on and stubbornly refused to do so, despite having a full battery life. I contacted Samsung’s customer support where they promptly had me to send the phone to them for repair. After about two and a half weeks, I received my phone back. The cause of the issue was “battery failure,” according to Samsung. Thinking that I just had a faulty battery, I didn’t allow this one incident to affect the high opinion I had of their products. It would have stayed that way…had not the exact, same incident that led to my phone’s failure occurred again.
I received my UpStage back from Samsung about a month and a half ago yet found myself staring at yet another blank screen nearly two weeks ago. This time around, my love affair with Samsung has taken a hit. I’m convinced that my UpStage is just plain old defective and needs to be replaced, something I insisted on since this is the second time the same problem has occurred and within such a short span of time. I have heard from others, including Sprint Nextel store associates, that Samsung can be hit or miss when it comes to cell phones. While the UpStage is a hit in terms of looks, it’s a miss when it comes to reliability for me thus far. In fact, I’m ready for a break up but will have to settle for a separation for at least another 7-8 months; I’m definitely planning on upgrading to something else. Once I get my phone back and if this issue occurs again, I would definitely be inclined to divorce Samsung cell phones, maybe even for good. Perhaps the UpStage, or my phone in particular, is a fluke in terms of quality, but if not, I wonder if this product was rushed to market just so Samsung and Sprint Nextel could have an iPhone competitor. I don’t really know the answer to that, but I do know that I need my phone to work when I need it to work. And Samsung has let me down.