Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've checked out what other reviewers have had to say about this phone, and find myself in agreement with most of them. The phone is amazing. Here's what else you need to know: a) data plan b) apps c) user manual Data Plan: you will need a separate data plan for the phone. My wife has an iPhone 3G, with an unlimited data plan from AT&T. But that phone doesn't use the 4G LTE network. AT&T is slowing building out its 4G LTE network, and it may not be available in your area. You have to buy a plan whether or not you currently have 4G LTE coverage. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that 4G LTE was available in my area, even though the official AT&T coverage map didn't include it. I bought a 200 megabyte per month plan. It seemed like a lot of bytes. Then I started using my phone. Trulia has a great app that lets you find the houses for sale in whatever neighborhood you find yourself in. You can see the entire listing, just like you can at home on your computer. You can even download pictures (bad idea!) Use an app like this, and the megabytes go down the drain. I went through 30 megabytes in the first 6 days of my billing cycle. So, unless you sprang for an unlimited data plan, I wouldn't recommend streaming movies, or even your music, off the web. And keep an eye on your usage. You can become a data how a lot faster than you might imagine! Apps: there's a ton of apps available from the Android store, and Amazon has done a pretty amazing job of providing apps for the phone on their site as well. So far, so good. The problem is that AT&T had added a number of their own apps, each of which has a low-cost or entirely free alternative. But none of the AT&T apps can be removed. They are part of the read-only memory on the phone, and you can't delete them without "rooting" your phone. This isn't a deal breaker for people with some technical smarts (and who aren't afraid to risk turning a $600 phone into a brick), but for most of us, you are stuck with these things. Very annoying. And, quite expensive. For example, AT&T offers Family Map (a "find my phone" service) $10 a month. You can find a 99¢ alternative on the Amazon app store. Yes, the other Carriers do this, too. That doesn't make it right. User Manual: This is a complicated device. It comes with a 20 page Quick Start Guide, and nothing more. I'd like to say the Quick Start Guide covers all the basics, but it doesn't tell you how to answer an incoming call. I hear you saying to yourself, "How hard can that be? When the phone sees an incoming call, it displays the standard green and red buttons. You press the green one to answer the call, or the red one to send the call to Voice Mail." If only it were that easy. To answer a call, you have to "swipe" your finger from the green button across the screen towards the red one. You can push the green button repeatedly, but you will never answer your call. If you dig around on the web long enough, you will find the missing manual for this phone (hint: it's on the Samsung web site). Answering a call is detailed on page 42 (Chapter 3, Call Functions). I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the industry when one of a product's two main functions is buried about one fifth of the way into the User Manual. To be fair, the Quick Start Guide does provide a link to AT&T's excellent Tutorials web page. I recommend you go there as soon as you have set up your phone. The interactive tutorials are short and the list of topics is comprehensive. It will take you some time to work through all of them, but it will be worth it. In conclusion, there are two types of cell phone users: those who upgrade regularly, and those who don't get a new phone until they either lose their old one or it breaks. I am in the second category. I only upgraded to this phone when my trusty Treo 680 finally bit the bullet. I don't know when "swipe to answer a call" became such a ubiquitous gesture that it didn't need to be explained, but as far as I am concerned, this topic really belongs in the Quick Start Guie. I think you will enjoy this phone. It's thin, light, and packs a ton of features. Read up on managing your battery life (hint: turn off GPS and Bluetooth when you don't need those services, and invest in a car charger). Also, watch those megabytes (another hint: use your home or a public WiFi network whenever you can, because data transferred over a Wi-Fi connection doesn't count toward your wireless data plan).