Samsung Gravity 2

I had to get a new phone this past Sunday. And when I say "had to," I mean that, since my other one broke. It had been breaking in bits and pieces over the past couple of years, mostly because I kept dropping it. The screen was cracked all over, the ringer no longer worked, and it had been well over a year since I could really see much on the screen because there was so much dust under the glass. But on Sunday I reached into my pocket at one point to check my phone, and the screen was completely dead. Ah well.

So Shannon and I went to T-Moble to get a phone, and not for the first time either. I had been there a few other times with her over the past couple of years to look at phones, because mine sucked and didn't work properly, but I never got one. I mean, it didn't work properly, but it still worked. And I don't really care about phones, which is odd I guess because I text all the time, but that's about it. I don't need it to do GPS, facebook, twitter, or play music. I don't even really use it to make phone calls.

Long story short, I got the Samsung Gravity 2. I was going to get the Gravity 1, because it was cheaper, but Shannon talked me into upgrading to the newer (and more expensive) version. I figured after three years using a cracked, dusty phone, I could afford to splurge just a little. And I do mean a little, since this was still a fairly cheap phone with my 2-year renewal with T-Mobile. Since I was out of contract, I was able to get a good deal on a smart phone, but I like my phones to just be bright, not smart. Like I said, I wanted a phone, not a webbrowser or music player. That's what my ipod is for. Also, I didn't want any features that would up my monthly rate.

So far, it's a pretty good phone. For starters, I can see the screen and it actually makes noise, although the speaker isn't as good as on my old Nokia Music Xpress. But that was a music player as well as a phone, while this one is just a phone that can also play music. Texting is easy, with better, more raised buttons on the front, and a full qwerty keyboard that slides out. I'm still getting used to the qwerty board, since I'm so used to texting with T9 on a numeric pad, but it's nice to have. It is really small, however, and I have big fingers, so it feels a little off. Also, the buttons on the keyboard don't always register, so there is a lot of hitting backspace when texting, which is a little frustrating. But I'm sure I will get used to it if I keep it up.

Transferring data to and from my phone and computer is easy as pie. I could've bought a $15 data cable, but bluetooth works just as well, although it's probably a little faster. If I didn't have bluetooth on my Mac, however, I'd be annoyed that I'd have to by Samsung's proprietary USB cable. My Nokia phone worked with the same USB cable that came with my digital camera. And speaking of cameras, the 2 Megapixel camera on this phone is way better than the one on my Nokia.

Here's a comparison of a picture I took on my old camera and one that I just took on my new one:

Sorry I didn't go to the effort of putting on the same shirt, but you get the idea. It's a pretty decent camera, which is a step up from my old one which was a really awful camera. There's also a video function as well, which I haven't tried yet. Hold on and I'll test it out...



Yeah, that's not very good, both the quality and the content. But I guess it's a nice feature to have.

As far as phonecalls go... I dunno yet. When I call Shannon's cell, she says she hears an echo. She also said she heard a bit of an echo when I called her on a landline as well. But I've called a couple other people, and they heard no echo. So maybe there's a problem there, but maybe there isn't. I'll have to look more into that and get back to you. It sounds fine on my end. I mean, it sounds like a cell phone.

It has the option for other stuff, like Facebook, email, web browsing, and even GPS, but I'll never use that stuff because you have to pay for data as you go. I'm not even sure how that works or what it costs, which is fine because I don't care. If you do care, however, there you go. And there are also all those other options that come standard these days, like a calendar, alarm clock, calculator, tip calculator, etc. No games came preloaded, however, which is also fine because games on cell phones suck and just take up memory.

Bottom line: It's a nice phone. It's not going to change my life or anything, but it will make texting easier and pictures I take on my cell look better. So far the only real caveats are that the qwerty keyboard is a little hard to use if you have big fingers and the screen is almost impossible to see in direct sunlight. But I still like it.