Why You Can Trust CNET Samsung SGH-T369 - black (T-Mobile) review: Samsung SGH-T369 - black (T-Mobile)
Samsung SGH-T369 - black (T-Mobile)
Samsung SGH-T369 - black (T-Mobile)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Although new smartphones are raining down every day for major carriers, the prepaid market is one of the fastest-growing segments in the mobile handset industry, and feature phones like the Samsung SGH-T369 for T-Mobile make up the bulk. You could do a lot worse than the T369, too. It has a compact design and a sturdy sliding mechanism on the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It also packs in more hardware goodies than the simple shape and stock black color would suggest. By this we mean the camcorder, the music player, and the microSD card slot, of course.
Yet, there are also some forehead-smacking design flaws. The shared Micro-USB charging port/headphone jack is a no-no in our book, and we've gone blue in the face stating our preference for expandable memory slots to live anywhere but behind the back cover, where the T369's microSD card slot is located.
Still, the $79.99 price tag isn't bad for all you get with this prepaid phone, and usability is good. In addition, you get T-Mobile's playful carousel interface and access to its responsive customer service.
Design
"Bland" was the first word that came to mind when we laid eyes on the Samsung T369 for T-Mobile. The phone is matte black with rounded corners, with subtle matte gray and metallic gray accents. If you peer closely, you can see fine ridging on the black face. There's also an understated design on the back cover. "Compact" was our second impression. Not that the slider phone is the most petite we've ever seen. In fact, at 4.5 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, it has the exact same dimensions as Samsung's Gravity family, and in particular the Gravity 2. Yet there's a certain efficiency that the T369 conveys, with very little wasted space. There's a 2-inch LCD display that supports 240x320 pixel resolution and 262,000 colors. We had no problem with the brightness or color saturation, though we wouldn't recommend viewing it in direct sunlight if you're outdoors and have the option to step into the shade.
Below the screen is the navigation array with the Talk and End buttons bookending two soft keys, a Clear button, a shortcut button that you can program to one of four functions, and a central OK button that's also surrounded by a four-directional control. The buttons are on the small side and a bit cramped; those with thicker fingertips may have a harder time making precise selections. Apply that sentiment of smallness to the numbered dialpad as well. The backlit keys are wide and narrow. While fully separated, we find them overly slim and sometimes difficult to get around.
On the right spine there's a dedicated camera button and a shared port for both the Micro-USB charger and the headset jack. We have two complaints with this setup. The non-standard jack requires a converter for most headphones, and the shared port means that you can't listen to music while you charge your phone. The volume rocker is on the left side, and on the back is the 1.3-megapixel camera that also doubles as a camcorder. There is a microSD card slot beneath the back cover, with room for up to 16GB expandable memory. As we've mentioned above, we find the placement inconvenient, and also perplexing given the T369's uncluttered spines.
Sliding open the phone pops out the QWERTY keyboard. You also can program the sliding action to trigger a communication function, like opening the text message composer. The sliding action itself feels sturdy and tightly constructed. Although the phone's keyboard buttons barely rise above the surface, the keys are wide enough to get around comfortably, and the button response is mostly accurate. However, typing wasn't as fast on the T369 as it is on other QWERTY devices. As on many of Samsung's keyboards, there's a dedicated emoticon button and four directional arrows surrounding a central selection button.
At 3.9 ounces, the Samsung T369 weighs enough so it doesn't feel cheap, although it always feels on the light side when we first pick it up. It's also comfortable in the hand and on the ear.
Features
The T369 has a few more features than you'd expect. The 1,000-entry phone books fits multiple phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other details like group calling, e-mail, a picture ID, and notes into each entry. You can also pair a contact with one of 13 default ringtones, or with various additional sounds or music from your personal collection.
Tools inside the T369 include a calendar, an alarm clock, a to-do list, a notepad, a calculator, a tip calculator, a world clock, a unit converter, a timer, and a stopwatch. Also on board are T-Mobile's Web2Go WAP browser, three Java games, and an online storefront for downloading more games, apps, ringtones, and wallpaper--though the app downloads are on the sparse side.
Fitted with a QWERTY keyboard, the T369 is a natural messaging phone, with support for text, audio, and photo messaging. In addition, you can easily set up Yahoo, AOL, and Windows Live Messenger chat networks. We'd like to see inclusion of other popular instant-messaging services like Google Talk and ICQ. We won't hold you in suspense--there's no e-mail onboard the T369. That isn't mandatory for a decent phone of this caliber, but it's always a bonus. The same goes for Wi-Fi, which is also absent. That's no demerit for the T369. There is, however, Bluetooth support.
The music player comes empty on the T369, but you can fill it up with songs from your phone or memory card. There's no T-Mobile music store, however. There are simple playback controls on a cramped interface, but you can play, stop, skip, and shuffle songs in MP3, WMA, MIDI, AAC, and WAV file types. There's room for 50 songs in a total of 10 playlists. Again, the Micro-USB headset jack is a drag since it requires you to get an adapter and share the port with the charger.
A 1.3-megapixel camera does single, mosaic, and multishot modes in five resolutions (1,280x960; 1,024x768; 800x600; 640x480; 320x240). There are three timer modes, five lighting presets, and five color effects. You'll find three shutter sounds and various other settings. Photos are a bit blurry and unfocused, which is about what you'd expect for a 1.3-megapixel camera. They get the job done.
The camcorder records video in three resolutions (176x144; 160x120; 128x96.) You optimize video for multimedia messages; they'll last about 30 seconds, give or take. All other video settings are identical to the camera options. Video playback is choppy on the T369, which is expected for a 1.3-megapixel recorder. There's 50MB internal memory on board and, again, an option for 16GB expandable memory--you'll need to buy your own.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 800/900/1800/1900) Samsung T369 in San Francisco using T-Mobile's network. Call quality was decent. Calls were often slightly muffled, with volume but not clarity. We found ourselves increasing the volume in search of distinct sounds, and then decreasing the loudness. We sounded crisp to our friends, but with a slight echo. Speakerphone was perfectly adequate on both ends, though audio quality is always lost any time you place the phone down on its external speaker, which is usually in the back.
2.5G EDGE data speeds on the T369 contributed to a more plodding Web experience than we're used to on 3G and 4G handsets, but in all fairness the phone was never intended for heavy-duty surfing. You'll get to your site eventually.
The T369 has a rated battery life of up to 5 hours of talk time, with up to 13 days of standby time. According to our tests, the talk time was 5 hours and 34 minutes. The FCC measures the T369's SAR at 0.52 watts per kilogram.