Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G (T-Mobile), t679

This is a great quality phone with a decent screen size. I was initially afraid it might be a bit too small. I went from a 3.2 inch screen to a 3.7 in screen. Who knew half an inch would make all the difference! Although a 4 inch screen would be nice, I think this screen size is perfect. Not too small. It fits great in the hand. Text Messaging is buggy. If you text more than 1 page of text, it gives you an error. Looks like a lot of people have this problem. I've searched countless forums about it. The only way around it is downloading a different messaging app. The only annoyance is that I can set the new app as my default, but I can't change the icon on the dock to go to my app. The dock icon just goes back to the default messenger. There are apps that change your phone screen and it allows you to customize your dock, but I haven't found one that I like yet. Yes, the phone does come with A LOT of bloatware. I read about this before I purchased the phone. I read many forums and a group finally made the process easy. I am definitely new to the whole rooting process. I wanted to root my old Android phone but it seemed so complicated so I never went through with it. For this phone, there are some smarties out there that made the whole process so simple! Very few and simple steps. Download 2 files (USB drivers and the actual Rooting file), set phone to USB debugging, plug it in, execute rooting and you're done! Install titanium back up app, back up all apps (Just in case you delete the wrong one!), delete the apps that are not needed (List provided by the genius root people). SO EASY! I was a little hesitant in rooting because I was a newbie, but it's super easy and simple. The phone works just fine without rooting. It didn't lag or drain the battery. I went a whole day with moderate use during my work hours and heavy use on wifi when I got home. I still had some juice left the next morning. I only rooted the phone because all the extra apps annoyed me. I didn't want pages and pages of apps that I don't use. I'm still under contract with t-mobile but I wanted a newer smart phone. I had an old T-Mobile MyTouch. The very first version of the MyTouch line. I wanted to upgrade to a bigger and gingerbread android phone but I didn't want to be tied to a 2 year data plan. This is a great alternative to very pricy unlocked phones. Plus, when my contract is up, I can switch to the prepaid plan. I don't need data because I'm usually at home or at work where wifi is available so it's great that I could buy this phone, stick in my sim and I'm good to go. The only issue is that if you don't have a data plan you can't send picture messages. I have read this is an issue with Android and/or T-mobile. It doesn't bother me too much because I don't usually picture message Regarding that other reviewer that said the phone can't get network calls or texts while on wifi, I don't know what's wrong with their phone but mine works great. I was hesitant to buy the phone because of that review. I'm glad I believed it to be a fluke and bought the phones anyway. Network calls DO work with wifi on. There's absolutely no reason it shouldn't. T-mobile told that person the wrong information! This phone is definitely slippery as other have said. The full body skin helped with that (Offered as a bundle from Amazon). Installation was SUPER easy. I like the soapy water method because it's more forgiving when you place it down crooked. Now I'm just waiting for my case from ebay. Overall it's a zippy phone (even before rooting), way faster than my ancient MyTouch running on Froyo. Very few lags and no "force closes." It has the perfect screen size and customizing is so easy. Battery life is great (I was afraid it would be like other smart phones where you charge every 12-15 hours). I am still heavily playing around with it, downloading and customizing, but I would say that I could probably get 2-3 days of regular use. For now, it's what I need for a price I can afford. This is a great phone!

For the price, this is a fairly decent phone. I switched from Blackberry, so I miss the physical keyboard, and small size of my BB. Size: As Android phones go, this phone is one of the smaller ones. It is almost the exact same size as the iphone, and even has a larger screen than the iphone. Screen size to phone size ratio is among the best around. Weight: Average Speed: Web browsing is fast. The phone sometimes takes 3-4 seconds to load the page with my corporate email - seems like a long time when you are staring at the screen. Other than that it seems ok. Battery: Terrible. But as I understand, all newer phones are like that - wish they would take a page from Blackberry and get a clue Internal memory: I've downloaded a few apps and seem to have more than enough memory left. Software: Phone installed an update the second day I had it, so it runs Gingerbread. It came with all sorts of preloaded software I don't want, but since I seem to have plenty of memory left on the phone I'm not worried about it. Other: You have to download stuff and tweak settings to get it to do what you want, and it does not always comply. I'm usually quite technically adept, but I set this thing to receive push email, and now for some reason it is not downloading new emails from my gmail. So there is some setting messed up. It is not like a blackberry, where everything just worked, but I think that is Android, not this particular phone. Accessories: Phone did not come with a memory card, but has alot of internal memory. Came with a USB cable and with a very nice (very small) wall charger, and a SIM card. Delivery: Took Amazon 5 business days to get the thing out of their warehouse - it just kept stating status was "shipping soon." But once it shipped, it arrived in less than 18 hours. 7/21 EDIT TO ADD: I am using this prepaid phone on a regular post paid TMobile plan, and it works just fine. Just put in my own SIM card, called TMob and asked them to change my plan from Blackberry to regular data (no cost difference on my plan), and it works. This was the least expensive option for me; TMob wanted $329 to buy the phone outright from them; Amazon was $189. Edit 7/21: Have had the phone a little over 2 weeks now. Battery life is MUCH better if you physically turn off the device each time you are done using it - press button on upper right side. I was not used to having to do this, as my Blackberry either turned itself off, or somehow did not use as much power. Physically turning it off, I can get through a day on the battery. Part of saving battery life is setting display brightness to about 5%, screen time out to 1 min, and touch key light to 6 seconds. The 5% brightness is more than sufficient inside, but I cannot see the screen when outside. Will have to find an app that adjusts brightness when outside. Also, this particular android model has no LED light, so the phone lacks the visual notification that there is a new email or voice mail (ie like the BB blinking light). I solved that by downloading an app called "NoLED" which is terrific, and even shows the time on the screen. I'm getting used to the size of the phone; it is not as much of a problem as I anticipated, but still larger than my BB Pearl. Other issues are all Android issues, but I'm getting used to them or solving them. Gmail problem is solved, and a free app called "SMS Unread" can be downloaded and configured to show the number of unread emails in each gmail account. Update 12/22: At the five month mark, I'm reasonably satisfied with this phone. Biggest complaint about this phone is it's ridiculously terrible battery life. I think this a shortcoming of non-Blackberry phones (ie all Android & Iphones) and not this specific phone. A colleague who went from Blackberry to Iphone has the same problem. As a result of the poor battery life, my screen is set to the absolute lowest brightness, so I can't see anything on the phone when in the car or outside (anything subject to natural light), which is the second worst thing about the phone. I probably use less than 45 minutes a day of cell, and check it occasionally; battery really should last longer and allow for brighter screen setting so it can be seen in a car. Third on list of gripes is that it is not as fast as my friends Iphone5, but it is not a $700 phone either. I'll keep the $520 I saved and wait a few seconds for the phone to respond to certain commands. I'm told this is because the memory is filling up; I'd like a way to get rid of all the preloaded programs for which I have no use. Rooting will do this, but the root procedure for this model supposedly breaks it's ability to call 911, so I'm not interested in that. On the ok side, the picture quality is better than my BB, not stellar, but not bad enough to change phones. Seems lately to have developed a problem connecting via USB to the computer to download pics, but that might be Android, not this model of phone. I've also had an issue where I try to dial a number and it immediately disconnects. I pull the battery and let it restart and everything works fine. I don't know if this is caused by the phone, the OS or Tmobile. On the plus side, I've dropped it numerous times and the screen does NOT crack like iphones do. I find this one of the major advantages. The other advantage that I LOVE is the TMo Wifi calling - as long as I have a wifi connection, the cell part of the phone makes and receives calls regardless of the strength of cell coverage. Third advantage (silver lining in the cloud?) is that even though it does not have a hard keyboard (which I miss), it comes preloaded with "swype" for entering your text/numbers. This works pretty well, and makes entering text bearable, and apparently a feature like this does not come preloaded on iphones, because a few iphone users have marveled at this feature. I have no issues with sound quality on the cell, both regular and on speaker phone, and internet connection seems to work at a nice clip. Web pages are displayed crisply, so screen resolution is good. Overall, I'm pleased with the phone and pleased with the price.