Samsung Stratosphere User Reviews

soapbubbles54 posted on 19 Dec 2012, 21:06

8

samsung stratosphere

soapbubbles54 has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

I got this phone in March of this year and I love it. I've had some problems with it though, and I'm on my third replacement. What I love is the smooth operating system, the fact that EVERYTHING is customizable and the full keyboard.
What I dislike is that the phone likes to get very hot, very fast. It also likes to shut itself up randomly. I could also live without what I call the "laser light show" display on the startup screen. All of these cons are totally cancelled out by all the pros.

Build quality 8/10

Reception 9/10 never had a problem

Call quality 9/10

Internet 7/10

Multimedia 8/10

Camera 9/10

UI speed 7/10

Everyday usage 9/10

Text input 9/10

Display 9/10

Battery 6/10

Pros

• great camera
• good call quality
• full keyboard, easy to use
• customizable

Cons

• medium length battery life
• laser light show
• randomly shuts off

egarland posted on 13 Dec 2012, 19:45

2

Piece of Garbage

egarland has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

To put it in plain language...I WANT MY LG ALLEY BACK. This piece of garbage can't stay connected to the internet for more than 2 minutes. This is the second stratosphere I've had in less than 2wks. The original phone crapped out within 2 days...had to replace it. Now I either can't get connected or can't stay connected to the internet. There is no way in H _ L L I'd pay the $300 they say the piece of crap is worth....RIGHT!! I know why it's called stratosphere..it's because thats where you want to throw it whenit craps out on you. I will NEVER own another samsung piece of garbage again.

Build quality 3/10

Reception 2/10

Call quality 2/10

Internet 2/10

Multimedia 2/10

Camera 6/10

UI speed 2/10

Everyday usage 2/10

Text input 4/10

Display 6/10

Battery 7/10

Pros

• one heck of a camera

Cons

• everything it's supposed to do...it can't, it's soooo sllow when working on the internet or trying to log on,or stay logged on.

Preddek posted on 13 Sep 2012, 09:17

9

Excellent except for 1 or 2 minor annoyances.

Preddek has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

As my first smartphone it has far exceeded my expectations with one exception, the WiFi range is awful. When connecting to my home router (Linksys WRT54G) I get 1 of 3 WiFi bars at ~20-50 FT away, beyond that no connection and only able to get all 3 bars at ~2 FT from the router. Same happens in reverse when used as a mobile hotspot.

Build quality 10/10 Has been dropped several times without any signs of damage, not so much as a scratch. Also have never used a screen protector and thus far not a single scratch or chip, screen still looks like new.

Reception 9/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 9/10

Multimedia 8/10 Supplied music player is junk, Winamp is vastly superior.

Camera 9/10

UI speed 9/10

Everyday usage 9/10

Text input 10/10

Display 9/10

Battery 9/10 Even under heavy use have never managed to get below ~20% on it's worst day, an average day is still in the 40-50% range by the time it sees the charger for the night.

Pros

• Seemingly indestructable for a smartphone
• 4.0
• TouchWiz UI
• Excellent Battery Life
• QWERTY keyboard
• 4G LTE

Cons

• Poor WiFi range

jewbose posted on 27 Jul 2012, 15:11

7

Terribleeeeeeeeee

jewbose has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

The lies i was told about how "great" this phone was quite believable but take it from me do not purchase. Within the first couple months i had a replacement sent out, and still having problems. I have a iPhone 3G that wasnt used for the whole week and is still on a good 20% that phone is terribly old but works better on the battery and barely has any space on it.

Build quality 7/10

Reception 8/10

Call quality 7/10

Internet 7/10

Multimedia 7/10

Camera 8/10

UI speed 7/10

Everyday usage 6/10 I have to walk around with my charger all the time

Text input 7/10 Screen calibration messes up A LOT

Display 9/10

Battery 4/10 It dies very quickly, it dies while on the charger, it will lie and say 100% but when you take it off its only on like 40%, usually takes my phone a minimum 4 hours for a full charge

Pros

• The screen is beautiful
• When it actually works like its supposed to great phone
• It was the only thing a 15 year old could afford so thats why it was bought

Cons

• Have to restart it several times a day
• It will overheat when your not touching it
• The fact it dies on the charger is terribleeeeeeeee
• WiFi isnt that great for some reason
• Apps consistantly run no matter how you try and close them
• Restarts itself at the worst times
• Freezes a lot

AndroidPhoneFan posted on 23 Mar 2012, 01:41

9

Great Phone! Very few complaints.

AndroidPhoneFan has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

Well I've had this phone for 3 months now and I have to say it just about fulfilled my expectations.
The 1GHz processor in this device allows the phone to run pretty smoothly. Reading the other reviews I think some of the bad comments are extreme cases because in my 3 months with this phone I have never had freezing problems or have had to restart for any reason.
I expected the phone to be a little faster in 4g areas but that could be because I've never had a "smart" phone before. However it still loads data-intensive web pages pretty quickly and faster than my mom's Droid Incredible 2 even in 3g.
My only complaints with this phone are the speaker placement (on the back) and the size. In order to actually hear your music, video, or even a phone call on speaker phone mode, you have to either flip the phone over, or hold it yourself. If you lay it down on your bed or a table, the sound will be muffled.
While the phone does have an AMAZING physical keyboard, I find myself using the virtual keyboard more often because of its ease of use especially with the swype keyboard. Sometimes I wish I hadn't got a phone with a physical keyboard. However, sometimes typing with the virtual keyboard can become pretty frustrating and I return to the physical one.

The camera is decent and has a fair amount of settings. The screen resolution however could be better. It's hard to find a good looking wallpaper because unless you have a super high res downloaded photo, or you are using a picture taken...  

Well I've had this phone for 3 months now and I have to say it just about fulfilled my expectations.
The 1GHz processor in this device allows the phone to run pretty smoothly. Reading the other reviews I think some of the bad comments are extreme cases because in my 3 months with this phone I have never had freezing problems or have had to restart for any reason.
I expected the phone to be a little faster in 4g areas but that could be because I've never had a "smart" phone before. However it still loads data-intensive web pages pretty quickly and faster than my mom's Droid Incredible 2 even in 3g.
My only complaints with this phone are the speaker placement (on the back) and the size. In order to actually hear your music, video, or even a phone call on speaker phone mode, you have to either flip the phone over, or hold it yourself. If you lay it down on your bed or a table, the sound will be muffled.
While the phone does have an AMAZING physical keyboard, I find myself using the virtual keyboard more often because of its ease of use especially with the swype keyboard. Sometimes I wish I hadn't got a phone with a physical keyboard. However, sometimes typing with the virtual keyboard can become pretty frustrating and I return to the physical one.

The camera is decent and has a fair amount of settings. The screen resolution however could be better. It's hard to find a good looking wallpaper because unless you have a super high res downloaded photo, or you are using a picture taken with the phone in 5 megapixel mode, it will look horrible.

This phones battery will last me a whole day with moderate to heavy use. This includes being in High School buildings with reception blockers. (My phone literally expends most of its battery while searching for service... so annoying.)

Everything else about this phone is great!

Build quality 10/10 I've dropped this phone about a handful of times and all it has is a few scratches on the chrome rim around the screen.

Reception 9/10

Call quality 8/10

Internet 9/10

Multimedia 8/10 Being my first smart phone it was tricky to get used to the differences between Samsung's multimedia interface coming from iOS on an iPod touch

Camera 7/10 5 megapixels works just fine, but with a phone this size I think 8 megapixels would be a better fit.

UI speed 9/10

Everyday usage 9/10

Text input 10/10 Many stock options. I never feel stuck in an option. If you ever get tired of using the touch screen you can always use the physical, and vice versa.

Display 8/10 Everything is colorful thanks to the AMOLED display but a lot of times when viewing pictures from the web they look extremely grainy and pixelated.

Battery 7/10

erikquinn posted on 02 Mar 2012, 16:59

9

Good Phone, Weak Battery

erikquinn has owned it for less than year before publishing this review

Built well... It seems a bit big, but is really not a problem, and very durable, especially considering the slide-out keyboard (this usually makes phones flimsy, but here, it didn't).

4G LTE is cool stuff. Blazing fast wherever you have it, but also blazingly battery-hungry when you use it. 4G and GPS are known battery killers, and no phone out there has been able to support heavy use for a full day. This phone will support moderate use for a day- maybe. I've had some troubles.

Build quality 10/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 7/10 Native music player is ugly, and the headphone jack has hardcore static noise, for reasons I can only guess at.

Camera 9/10 Good. Quick capture, reasonable quality

UI speed 9/10 Almost never fails to keep up

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 10/10

Display 9/10 Small text can sometimes be hard to read, otherwise all is well

Battery 5/10 If you plan on using your smartphone for "smart" tasks, like other than texting and calling, on a regular basis, you will likely need the extended battery, which adds size and weight (and $$) to the package.

Pros

• Fast & Powerful
• Nice Screen Size/Quality
• Well Built
• QWERTY slide-out keyboard

Cons

• Battery
• Battery
• And Battery

Shawnfernholz posted on 04 Feb 2012, 11:52

1

DONT BUY THIS PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shawnfernholz has owned it for less than 3 months before publishing this review

I have had this phone for less than 2 months and have been to store 4 times and customer servive I lost count Locks up , kicks you off internet until you restart phone and now having problems with calls and keyboard! 2 words DONT BUY!!!! Save your money. So disappointed and frustrated, want to throw it at the wall but cant do that!!!!!!!

Build quality 9/10

Reception 1/10

Call quality 9/10

Internet 1/10

Multimedia 1/10

Camera 10/10

UI speed 1/10

Everyday usage 1/10

Text input 10/10

Display 10/10

Battery 3/10

Pros

• Good when works but that is rarely

Cons

• JUNK

ghobbsdk posted on 26 Jan 2012, 18:42

5

Beautiful phone but...

ghobbsdk has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

My husband and I bought this phone at a local Verizon store as a Christmas gift for our daughter; this is her first smartphone. I played with it a little and liked the way it felt in my hands - not too heavy and sturdy enough. I loved the beautiful AMOLED pictures - so crisp and clean. I started shopping around for a phone for myself since I was due for an upgrade. So, when I saw that Best Buy had this phone free, I had to get it. Well, I've had it for 8 days and have already had to restart the phone pretty much every day at least twice and have had to take the battery out a couple of times because the phone would freeze up! Also, sometimes I get screen notification that there is no service or internet connection even when I'm in wifi area at home and at work. I don't understand how this could be. I asked my daughter about her phone and she said the same thing happens with hers - the constant screen freezing up. It's too late for her to return her phone because she didn't speak up about it in time. I'm looking to return my phone and am not sure which to go with next. I haven't really bothered with the cameral (back or front). And I got aggravated with the texting since the dictionary needed to be added to each time I typed a word using the virtual keyboard. When I tried plugging in my earbuds, sound didn't come thru at first because I wasn't pushing in the connection into the jack firmly enough. Shouldn't have to push it in that hard... I don't know which phone to get next...  

My husband and I bought this phone at a local Verizon store as a Christmas gift for our daughter; this is her first smartphone. I played with it a little and liked the way it felt in my hands - not too heavy and sturdy enough. I loved the beautiful AMOLED pictures - so crisp and clean. I started shopping around for a phone for myself since I was due for an upgrade. So, when I saw that Best Buy had this phone free, I had to get it. Well, I've had it for 8 days and have already had to restart the phone pretty much every day at least twice and have had to take the battery out a couple of times because the phone would freeze up! Also, sometimes I get screen notification that there is no service or internet connection even when I'm in wifi area at home and at work. I don't understand how this could be. I asked my daughter about her phone and she said the same thing happens with hers - the constant screen freezing up. It's too late for her to return her phone because she didn't speak up about it in time. I'm looking to return my phone and am not sure which to go with next. I haven't really bothered with the cameral (back or front). And I got aggravated with the texting since the dictionary needed to be added to each time I typed a word using the virtual keyboard. When I tried plugging in my earbuds, sound didn't come thru at first because I wasn't pushing in the connection into the jack firmly enough. Shouldn't have to push it in that hard... I don't know which phone to get next but am contemplating the Droid Charge. Previous phone: first Moto Droid

Build quality 10/10

Reception 5/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 7/10

Camera 5/10

UI speed 10/10

Everyday usage 5/10

Text input 3/10

Display 10/10

Battery 10/10

Pros

• beautiful AMOLED display w/gorilla glass
• good battery life
• phone seems sturdy
• playback thru headphones while listening to downloaded books was clear

Cons

• screen freezes quite a bit; had to restart the phone after only having the phone for a couple of days
• aggravated at having to add words to dictionary for texting
• reception/service was spotty even in wifi zones
• need to insert firmly the headphone jack into the phone or else there was no sound coming thru

kittiemissy posted on 12 Nov 2011, 18:34

10

Great phone!!

kittiemissy has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

This phone is amazing... (a bit heavy due to the extended battery) I love the keyboard. The bright screen, good size screen, and it has auto answer! FINALLY samnsung. I was going to get the Charge, but it did not have auto answer with an ear piece. This is essential while I drive, due for safety reasons & its the law too - hands free.... The extended battery is amazing! I don't have to charge it all day even when I used the apps. Its a must to get the extended battery on just any smartphone when you are a heavy user, or even medium user....Pictures are clear,and colorful...

Build quality 10/10

Reception 9/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 10/10

Multimedia 10/10

Camera 10/10

UI speed 10/10

Everyday usage 10/10

Text input 9/10

Display 10/10

Battery 7/10

Pros

• great key board,Colorful screen,versital

Cons

• Ok battery battery w/ the standard,the extnded battery is much better