request for reviews on the Replenish?

[AndroidSPCS]

Could Replenish owners please chime in with reviews of this phone?

I'm very interested in getting this phone for a friend. Thank you.

 

[Little Darwin]

My Replenish is on the way, I will be glad to post a review once I have it in hand.

My previous phone was the HTC Hero. I am not expecting any better speed... I am just looking forward to the hardware keyboard. I have realized that I like my work Blackberry for text input, so I think I will enjoy the keyboard even though I will be giving up some screen real estate with the smaller screen.

I also ordered the solar charging battery cover, which I hope extends the useful time between charges.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Hi David - just wanted to let you know I read your blog, watched the videos - very good info. Thanks for doinig that!

And Little Darwin - looking forward to your review!!!

 

[AndroidSPCS]

So I went into a Sprint store and held the Replenish dummy in my hands. It's surprisingly sturdy and solid feeling, and keys are great. I'm a small LCD screen snob, but this thing actually seemed like it is very very good.

Hmmmm it's a very very interesting phone for sure!!

 

[Little Darwin]

I received my Replenish yesterday, and here are my initial impressions.

As background, my previous experience with Android phones was my Sprint HTC Hero, which has the same processor speed, so I was prepared for some lackluster performance...

Executive Summary: This phone is an awesome smart phone as long as the limiting factors aren't a concern.

I have loaded most of the apps that I used on my Hero, and I am seeing no lag in anything, In fact, I decided to download Angry Birds which barely ran on the Hero and discovered that it performs much more smoothly on the Replenish.

Downloads and updates happen faster than they did on the Hero with the same wireless network.

The little bit of testing I have done with the phone shows it to be reliable and clear.

I played a little with Sprint ID and find that it is a nice feature if your desires fit in with one of the ID packs.

I think that performance is exceptional for this level of phone. If someone is spoiled with one of the higher end phones, they may find it slow, but the speed is definitely acceptable to me.

A plus in my book is that it doesn't use Visual Voicemail, so people I share my plan with can reply to my messages... but this is probably important to people who exchange voicemails with non-smart phones on Sprint.

The keyboard is very nice to use, and is comparable in feel to the keyboard on the Blackberry that I have from my workplace.

The interface is generic Android, nothing special like is found on a few other phones, but I find it very usable.

There has to be some down side right? Basically, the only major issue I have with it so far is that it doesn't come loaded with Sprint Navigator which I like a lot. It does however come preloaded with the Google Navigator (which is still in beta) Does anyone know whether I can get Sprint Navigator on this phone, and if so, how?

One major weakness (not a big deal to me) is with the camera. I haven't done much, but I did read a review somewhere that said the phone wouldn't even read barcodes, so I checked. I wasn't able to scan most barcodes, although a few worked. The issue seems to be related to poor focus on closeups, and I saw it intermittently clear up but not enough... Perhaps a software fix down the road may correct this.

The form factor might be a little big for some people's taste, but it fits well in my big hands.

I miss the better screen of the Hero a little bit, but the screen size seems adequate for my use, and the reduced screen real estate makes the phone size from getting ridiculous.

I also miss some of the widgets that came with the HTC Hero (HTC specific) but I got most of what I missed by installing Beautiful Widgets from the market (I am running the purchased version).

I will post more as I spend more time with the phone.

 

[ritchea]

Maybe you've already seen them, but the Sprint site has 29 user reviews posted. I found the info helpful.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Maybe you've already seen them, but the Sprint site has 29 user reviews posted. I found the info helpful.

Welcome to Android Forums!! Yes I frequent that site but didn't see the 29 reviews. I guess I need to look closer!

 

[crazydriver1]

Have any of you that have this phone had any issues? I've read the sprint reviews also and it seems like there are issues with the phone freezing? My son is eligible for an upgrade July 1st and he wants this one but I don't want it if there are major issues.

Thanks!

 

[Little Darwin]

I have had no issues with the phone freezing on me. So far, so good...

 

[NightAngel79]

Specs?

 

[Little Darwin]

Specs?

This site seems to lay out the specs pretty thoroughly:

Samsung Replenish specs - Phone Arena

I confirmed on that site what I just discovered yesterday, that there is a proximity sensor. This makes the phone nicer for voice calls than the Hero, I would accidentally hang up with my cheek once in a while with that phone.

 

[verngator]

I'll post once our daughter has lived with it a bit...

 

[moxieluv]

I bought this phone for my mother in law, her first android. I currently have a evo 3d and I had this phone for a day customizing it for her and I have to say at times I wish I had a simple small phone like this. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love my 3vo but this phone is so easy to use, it doesn't seem to lag like I it thought it would. It is the perfect first smart phone for her. The keyboard is a little small but she uses it pretty well with her nails, and the screen is the right size for her. I am not a fan of sprint id so I set up launcher pro for her and it works flawless for her. It seems to hold a charge pretty well, she works in a roaming area and still has a good amount of battery at the end of the day. I got her started with a gmail account and she loved that she can complete sync the contact and calendar and view it at work as well. She loves it and only complaint so far is that there is no flash for the camera!

 

[androidtechrep]

I work for Sprint in Android tech support and I cant, for the life of me, understand why a phone these days would come without a flash for the camera. When we have to exchange a customer's phone for a different model that is the first thing I ask them. "Do you want a model with or without flash?"