The Samsung T369 may not be much to look at, but it's a decent prepaid messaging phone.
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Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Thought Leadership, Speed Desk and How-To. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds.
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If you're looking for a prepaid phone, you could do worse than the Samsung T369 with T-Mobile. The phone conveys a sense of compact efficiency with its rounded edges and QWERTY keyboard.
Though we like the phone's portability, the dialpad keys on the T369 are long and narrow, which makes them harder to press than keys on other phones.
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Subtle flair
The Samsung T369 is mostly black with gray and orange accents. We like the subtle hexagonal design on the back cover. However, we don't particularly like having to remove the cover to get at the phone's microSD card slot.
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Sparse sides
A volume rocker, camera button, and MicroUSB charging port make up the hardware buttons on both spines. We're disappointed that there's no separate standard headphone jack.
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Flush keyboard
We generally liked the phone's QWERTY keyboard. Although the keys are flush, they're also responsive. However, we have typed a bit better on other keyboards.
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The shooter
The T369's 1.3-megapixel camera is rimmed in orange. Photos are fine, but naturally not as clean as those taken on mobile phones with higher megapixel cameras, flash, and so on. The camcorder is a nice bonus, however.
There's much more to learn; read our review for more details about what's inside the Samsung T369 for T-Mobile.