My New Samsung Intercept
About a year ago, my family gave me an iPod Touch for Father’s Day. I’ve been using it heavily on the bus for e-mail, Twitter (via TweetDeck), and music. It’s sort of hit-or-miss on whether the bus will have wi-fi (and if it will work), but I really enjoy it when it’s available. The problem, of course, is that the iPod is always limited to wi-fi availability. I’ve been dragging my feet for awhile, but I finally realized that I needed a smart phone.
When the HTC EVO was released, I thought it might be the phone for me, until I went to the store and saw its size. I’ve been carrying my Sanyo Katana flip around with me for years. It’s been a true workhorse and I especially loved how it fit in any pocket. The EVO would probably have been fine in the pockets of my work clothes, but there was no way it was going to be comfortable during weekend activities. I enjoy gadgets, but I’m also big on practicality and convenience; the EVO is just too large.
I waited several more weeks and discovered the Samsung Intercept.
The Samsung Intercept is the perfect size. It’s slightly longer than my Katana, but it fits in a pocket just fine. I purchased the Intercept a couple of weeks ago, have taken it on a major business trip, and am using it everyday on the bus. Although my time with it has been relatively short, I’ve decided to list the negative and positive elements of my current Intercept experience.
Negative
PC Connection – I’m still having trouble connecting to my Windows 7 64-bit PC. When I connect the device I usually receive a combination of USB device errors (“USB Device Not Recognized”). I was able to connect it once after going into Settings>Applications>Development and unchecking all of the options. I then restarted the phone and it was recognized. That was the time I was able to move my music over. I just tried to connect to my PC again and it failed. This is a major issue, and I hope it can be resolved soon.
Pocket Action – I’m used to a flip phone. I never, ever had to worry about accidentally activating a phone function while the phone was in my pocket. This has been a constant issue with the new phone. I found that if I put the phone into sleep mode and wait a few extra seconds before putting it in my pocket, that seems to help. I still think there may be an issue when I receive a call and the phone is in my pocket. If a call goes unanswered, I think it still pops up a dialog box that overrides the phone lock. This problem still bothers me a lot and I’m going to continue to search for ways to limit the possibility of accidentally activating the device.
Music Player – The default music player seems to play music at a slower-than-normal rate. It’s almost like the batteries are running down, even when I have a full charge. I downloaded the doubleTwist music player and my music plays normally on it.
Twitter Clients – TweetDeck on the iPhone/iPod Touch is great, it’s even better than TweetDeck for the PC. For Android, I haven’t found anything that’s quite as good yet. I’m currently using Seesmic, but I haven’t had a chance to try many others.
Dialing – I know it’s not a popular idea, but I still think these phones should first and foremost be great at making phone calls; the Intercept isn’t. The dialing application feels like any other application. It doesn’t feel like a special application with bulletproof hooks into the internal system. The End Call button takes forever to end a call. The dial pad is hidden by default, which means you have to hit a button first before hitting other buttons during a touchtone session. It’s a phone, why would I ever want to hide the dial pad?
Startup – The phone takes a long time to boot up. I’ve learned to have patience, but I wasn’t expecting this.
Positive
E-mail and Twitter Access – I love having access to e-mail and Twitter wherever I go. Even when I’m on a bus that doesn’t have wi-fi, I can still stay connected. This is fantastic. The only problem I’m having now is I have to force myself to put down the phone and get back to my book.
Music – While I do still like my iPod, I love not having to carry two devices. I just plug my Skullcandy headphones into my Intercept and I have full access to my iTunes playlists (via doubleTwist).
Text Messaging and the Keyboard in General – The slideout keyboard works really well. For me, this is a major advantage for this handset. I love how the keys work. It makes typing very easy for texting, e-mail, and Twitter.
Battery Life – I don’t make a lot of phone calls and I’m not doing things with my phone all day. I’m probably not a typical user. I read a lot of complaints about battery life on the Android phones in general. What I’m finding is that I use about a quarter of my battery in the morning and another quarter in the afternoon (while I’m commuting). I could probably go two days without charging, but I’ve been charging daily just to be safe. Although I wish the battery lasted longer, it hasn’t been a problem. Even during the weekend business trip that I took, I never completely ran out of juice.
Overall “Happy”
I’m still getting used to many things and exploring a lot of new uses for the device. There are times, though, I just want my old Katana back; it did one thing and did it very well. These devices are still evolving and I’m sure we’ll get back to a place where they feel as comfortable as the old phones. Overall, I’m very happy with the purchase.
P.S. – My wife purchased the pink Intercept. She’s still struggling with the advanced features (also coming from a flip phone), but the really important thing is that it’s “very cute.”
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Thank you for you update on the Samsung Intercept. I just purchased 2 of them today for my husband and myself. They should arrive by Monday, so I have been searching the internet to get “a feel” for them. I, like you wife, purchased the pink one for myself, and I have to agree with her, being “very cute” is a big deal! LOL.
Thanks again for all the info. I bookmarked you!
Thanks for the comment @Bridget. I hope you enjoy your new phones.
Thanks for the review. We too are looking into a couple purchase of these phones, and I’m coming from a “flip,” which I think I’ll miss. Working as a phone is a big deal for me, and being cool and cute and sexy is a big deal for her, so we’re still on the fence.
Thanks for this article. I just got my Intercept yesterday (upgraded from Sanyo Katana II) and I’m loving it so far. It’s a huge step up from a flip phone.
My biggest issues are PC connectivity. My Dell Inspiron 1525 can’t seem to detect the phone at all when plugged in, but I can use the MicroSD adapter to move files. Thing is, for some reason, I have to reboot my laptop before it can detect the SD card again if I remove it. It only started doing this after I got my phone.
All in all, though, I’m very happy with the Intercept, and I don’t think I could go back to having a normal flip phone.
I have this phone (in pink, yes very cute) and I love it. I’m 16 so my main problem with it is the battery life. I get about 3 or 4 hours of media out of a full charge. :\ not enough. Over all: I like it.
my sister has the intercept in gray,and my father got the samsung momment (MUCH like the intercept, but is actually the first version. It has a higher resolution but is abit more bulky.)
P.S- I read and replyed to this all on my intercept.
@Richard – Did you take the plunge?
@Jason – That’s a good idea. I keep forgetting I can remove the SD card. I continue to have sporadic connectivity to my Windows PC.
@julya – Yes, the battery life is pretty bad. If I’m at the computer I try to plug it in so that it always has a charge.
hey, shay-shay. great write up. thanks for the insight. i just bought this for my son with virgin – great deal, that. i will most likely get the intercept also, but really hoping virgin will pick up the pink model. anyhue, hope you’ve figured out the pc connection. if not, it’s looking like you forgot to unmount the SD card.
btw, do you sometimes feel you’re just a step outside “the loop”? i bought the ipod touch for my b-day last feb…
@karen – Finally found out how to load the right drivers and the connection is working. I’ve been meaning to post a link. The key is to avoid the setup.exe program and just point Windows at the setup location.
i can tell u how to fix the pc connection problem. download and install the pdanet application for windows 7 64 bit with your phone unplugged. at the prompt plug in your phone and click check. it should start installing android adb interface. your phone should work now. also using pdanet u can use your phone’s data connection as internet for your computer. this is how i got it working on my laptop. if you still have trouble send me a email insectdude1258@yahoo.com ill see if i can guide you through it.
READ ” Recall the Intercept ” in Sprints Forum !! Beware, Dont Buy the Intercept !! Return it A.S.A.P. !!
DONT SAY WE DIDNT TELL YOU. WAIT TILL SAMSUNG AND SPRINT FIX THE PROBLEMS WITH IT. WAIT FOR THE 2.2 UPGRADE AND SEE IF THAT RESOLVES THE PROBLEMS.
I found if you go into the settings/applicatons/developement and uncheck debug mode when connected usb. Then I found a usb icon in the upper right of the phone when I plugged it in. Pull down the notifications menu and select mount with usb. It seems to work fine now.
Thanks for this– I’m debating this exact thing right now! Your article helped tons.
Please, at all costs STAY AWAY FROM THE SAMSUNG INTERCEPT. It’s the most problematic phone on the market.
If you have this phone and your fed up or you just want to see what other users have to say about the phone, click on the link to read the petition to have this phone recalled.
http://www.petitiononline.com/SPHM910/petition.html
I agree. This phone doesn’t work properly. I was satisfied when I first bought the phone, but things have gotten worse over time. I wouldn’t recommend it, and I signed the petition to ask that it be recalled.
I gotta say, I just got the phone about a month ago. I skipped all the apps except IM+ which sucked up a lot of battery so I deleted it. That said, I do have the 2.2 Froyo (updated from the 2.1 a week after buying it). Besides battery life and the phone shutting down 2x on me (in the middle of the night a few minutes after plugging in the charger so I didn’t really care), I haven’t had any issues. I will have to say I do restart my phone every now and then only because of my experience with PC (you can’t leave it 24/7 for like more than 1 week or you see some crap start happening). Anyway, I apply the same concept to this particular phone since with innovation comes bugs like memory leaks or memory hog (typical of Windows OS) so a restart would refresh this type of issues and let the phone run “fresh” again. The phone having a lot less RAM than my computer, I do it a bit more often. Just my 2 cents about technology and it’s hiccups these days. My main reason was to switch to a cheaper plan since I was paying $30 at t-mobile just for 500 minutes, no text or data. Now I get the best of both worlds and go on facebook way too often. Do note, as you load more apps and put them on the “dashboard” or quick links, you are loading up the memroy as well so if you have a lot, don’t just expect speeds to stay the same because it won’t. Just like putting too much on your desktop in windows slows down your computer’s boot time into the OS.
Overall happy? Really? The USB lack of connection is a major flaw. You need to consider why they even released this phone if you can’t even use the USB Connection.
I bought the phone 2 days ago; It was a choice between the Optimus V by LG and this phone (I dropped my optimus and it crakced). I got it because of the keyboard, and I already miss the Optimus.
I’m returning it tommorow for a different phone. The virgin plan is the best plan on the market but you have to be careful of the phones you get. I’m returning mine tommorow to get a different one, and will now have to ask the question “Does the USB Connection work with Windows 7?” Never had to ask that question before and it makes me wonder why a phone like this is even produced.
Hi @Steven. Check my last comment. I returned the Samsung a long time ago. I am really happy with my HTC Arrive (Windows Phone). I’ll avoid Samsung in the future, even the phones that have been well-reviewed.
I am surprised at a lot of the comments. I bought my intercept 1.5 yrs ago and I absolutely LOVE it. I upgraded from a blackberry that was SO annoying because it would always have problems on it. IIve used my phone for everything! Surfing the web, email, lots of text messaging, downloading documents and albums, listening to mp3s and pandora, and of course lots of phone calls. My typical battery lasts me 2 days and if I’m using a lot of data or roaming the about 1 day. The only time my bbattery dies within a few hours is when the phone is in a weak service spot where it roams on and off the network frequently. I came upon the site because I’m trying to figure out how to use my phone to connect to the internet on my computer. Don’t know if that’s possible without the usb?