Got Intercept yesterday. First impressions

[nashmarkt]

After andriod 2.1 update on my HTC Hero slowness of the dialer was killing me. So I went to Sprint store and they offered to replace it with Moment or Intercept. I liked Moment but Airport mode issue was a deal killer for me so I opted for Intercept.
Here are a few first impressions:
Screen resolution definitely is inferior to the Hero or Moment. You can see that details are not clear on the screen.
Reception has been normal and nothing different.
Home button does not take me to home all the time. In many apps I have to press the back button a few times to get to home screen.
Mail app has a black background and is a little hard on the eyes. No way to change that.
I will report more as I find out.

 

[swrstock]

Would love some Intercept owner to tell us how it is going.

Is Rev 0 slowing you down?

How does it do with youtube and sprint tv?

Is the resolution preventing any apps from working?

Screen plastic or glass? Durable or are you screen protecting it?

What cases are you using to put on a belt?

Tell more about the mail app being black. Is the other apps to manage mail?

This phone seems like a great match for me since it is smaller than the evo and epic and does not carry the extra $10/month charge.

Your feedback would be a great help since I will have to live with it for the next 2 years.

 

[nashmarkt]

Is Rev 0 slowing you down? I do not understand the question

How does it do with youtube and sprint tv? It is no different than Hero. Hero had a flash player of its own in addition to youtube app.

Is the resolution preventing any apps from working? The resolution is one of the main differences. If you like to see very crisp screen then you will be bothered by it. But I (who am a perfectionist) found out the hard way that there will be few flaws in ANY phone I get. Screen resolution allows for you to read fine but clearly you will see pixelation with finer/smaller font.

Screen plastic or glass? Durable or are you screen protecting it? Screen is plastic. I never screen protect. So far after a week there are no scratches.

What cases are you using to put on a belt? I do not use belt clips.

Tell more about the mail app being black. Is the other apps to manage mail?
See attached image of the mail app. There are other apps like K9 that do a very good job and are free. There is also the built in gmail app or downloadable Yahoo mail app. Each has its pro and con.
Needless to say that HTC provides better UI (Sense UI) and better apps in general. But if the performance of the Phone hardware does not do what you want it to do then nothing else matters. This was the case for me adn HTC Hero after updating to Android 2.1 . I need a phone to be a phone at any given time. Everything else is extra and nice to have.
It seems to me that if you must stay with Sprint and you must have an Android phone then HTC EVO is your best bet from Hardware performance and screen size and software that comes with HTC. But like you I am unwilling to buy the phone and pay $120/year extra just because Sprint says so. I think Sprint's strategy is equal to extortion.

 

[swrstock]

Any new reports now that you have had it for awhile?

 

[xgrewellx]

about the rev0 question: I was very worried about this when I got the phone, but it is worlds faster than my blackberry with revA was. I think the faster cpu and smoother browser just make up for it. I can stream HQ youtube videos in seconds, little to no stuttering (and I only get 3 bars of service at my house). I was a little shocked at the performance.

 

[KiKz]

I have had the intercept for a week now and really enjoying it. Sprint and youtube as well as other sites like gametrailers are no prob to stream videos with 2.1 in high quality over Rev0.
Apps and games run good with a little hangtime to close on some but not most. I am a gamer at heart and love what the intercept is capable of for 2D and 3D for a low/mid-range droid phone. (no 3d problems yet gaming but 3d benchmarks another story.)
Battery life impressed me(heavy user) as I play, talk, text, surf the web most of the day and only charge once when going to bed. I do have my brightness/screen timeout all the way down which may help with that.
I was a little worried about the phone before I got it with the sketchy reviews, bugs and such.(seems if I hit the square under the on screen basic droid keys they light up and work first time. still a bug.) I am a happy camper with the phone and optimistically hoping 2.2 will fix the problems with the benchmarks.
Oh ya, I am using a third party black rubberized case and screen protector (no belt clip)

 

[xgrewellx]

Link to the case?

 

[RhoyalEnigma]

Hi! I've had the phone since yesterday, and while i love it for the most part. there have been a few things that have been making me mad. One the round about way I have to go in order to set the ringtones, (which i wouldn't had known about if not for the forums here) and what i just found out today, apps don't go onto the memory card. which is HIGHLY irritating. I kind of don't understand the point of the memory card if you can't put apps on it... or really much else. Some of the apps close for no reason, *sigh* and i don't really like the phonebook application, but i found another one that is working great right now addressbook (and its free) so i'm back to loving my phone. If they had an app or a way to move apps to the memory card it would be utter bliss.

I still love my phone, oh and ebay has cases for the phone (some come with chargers) since the sprint store doesn't have really anything for it yet. Still waiting to get a screen protector, and waiting for skins to be available. I had the exclaim before, so its taking a lot of getting used to, but i LOVE it!

 

[KiKz]

Link to case: Black Rubberized Protector Case for Samsung Intercept M910 - Samsung Intercept Protector Cases, Samsung M910

also I am getting 2.9MFlops average with linpack.. this is weird since the moment gets around 10.(hope 2.2 update will fix along with some bugs) hopefully in time the phone will be what it was meant to be when it was released just like other phones..

 

[Bigprimo]

My wife got this phone the other day and it is by far the worst sprint phone out. Home button just plain doesn't work. Internet goes out at least 10 times a day for no reason. Reception is horrible. Volume doesn't work half the time. You cant assign ring tones individually without going through mad loops and I believe a market app.(didn't want to even try). Those crappy on screen soft key buttons. I want to get the epic 4g when it comes out I sure hope those button don't suck on it as it does this phone.

Good points- Keyboard is nice, battery life is decent on her device.

For a phone that is supposed to be the Moment 2 why did they regress? My moment is still 100x better than this paper weight phone. Move over behold Intercept just took your place as worst Samsung phone. My wife isn't picky on her phones as she just upgraded her Rant after like almost 2 yrs and she hates this phone, its going back to the store!!! People stay away!!!

 

[KiKz]

I'm happy with mine and that's what matters to me. I admit the phone has its faults for the "in my opinion" minor bugs. For my first smartphone and being open to trying to fix/get around the bugs, I'm hooked

Onscreen buttons including home occasionally wont respond, thus hitting the square scrollable button under them makes them light up and work as they should. I have never had a problem online either it be rev0 or wifi which I get 12mb/s down and 2mb/s up with the speedtest app. I keep my memory free with the task killer app. and have yet to have my phone slow down or force close an app. My girl loves to call me while she is working and talk my head off and I have great call quality and no issues so far.

I don't mind keeping my phone tidy as I do with my laptop, learning droid sys, a good theme, a couple of good performance apps, and the willingness to try to work with the phone as it works back for me, makes me really enjoy my first smartphone.

 

[VICKYC]

I bought a samsung intercept yesterday and I am ok with it but I have tried to download live wall papers live koi pond etc and they will not open, gives me error messages does anyone know if this phone does not allow live wall papers?

 

[VICKYC]

do you know why live wall papers live koi pond does not work on this phone?

 

[MahaloCat]

Do you have VM or Sprint?
Did it come with 2.1 or 2.2 ?

 

[GAMESHARQ]

I've had mine for about almost 2 weeks now. So far I'm very pleased with it. I got mine from Virgin Mobile - not sure if it's any different than the one from Sprint. The only difference I know of is that the one from Sprint has Sprint TV.

This phone does everything I need it to do and expected it to do. I use it for the following things:

1. Streaming Music. I listen to Pandora Radio while I'm at work and it works great.
2. Checking Email. It's very convenient being able to stay on top of my email even when I'm away from my computer.
3. Games. The market has a good game selection, but I'm especially happy with the emulators like SNESoid and Gameboid. With Rom Gripper, I have access to hundreds of games for free and without the hassle of having to search for Roms online.
4. Web Browsing. It's always nice being able to access the web on the go. The sites that I normally access work fine on this web browser. And the pinch-to-zoom feature is really neat.

Plus, all of the other features it comes with like a calendar, alarm clock, camera, etc are all very useful.

I've read some people complain that the buttons are unresponsive. I haven't had any problems with them yet, so I'm not sure why others are having trouble.

Before I bought this, I was skeptical. I read that it was considered a low-end phone and not as good as the other Android phones. I wasn't sure how well it would work, but I took a chance since they offer a 30 day return policy. For $25 per month with unlimited data, I have no regrets. Plus, I got the phone on Cyber Monday when it was on sale and saved $75.

 

[harvickchick]

It was fun reading everyone else impressions!!

I've had the phone for two weeks but it's only been activated for one. I was waiting for AT&T to let me out of my contract. I have it through VM because I can't afford data and texting any other way. I was getting a "business discount" through AT&T and my bill was still $60 a month and it was getting hard to pay.
Where I live, the Sprint/VM service is WONDERFUL. Coming over from an inferior carrier in this area I was SO EXCITED to actually have bars wherever I go. Also, the speed of the phones internet and apps is amazing. Again, I'm comparing this to my boyfriends Iphone that takes 3 minutes to load twitter hahaha. He is jealous of this phone!

The only cons I've noticed are sometimes like you guys said the home button doesn't work and I have to push it a few times. It also seems like the phone doesn't have very much room on it. I've heard that if I root it I can move apps to SD and such but I'm very new to android and i don't know how dangerous rooting is and I don't want to end up with a brick lol.

All in all for a first android phone, I think this is wonderful. I'm in love with all the features and apps and most of all the price...hahahah

 

[harvickchick]

Oh, and I am also using it for tethering while I'm here at work and it works PERFECTLY. I used to have a 12 foot usb cord with an adapter running out the window just to pick up some crappy wireless from down the street...not anymore!! It's way faster than I thought it'd be and I'm thrilled.