This cell phone is good for those wanting a simple, yet up-to-date model. You can make calls easily, store, modify and recall #s easily. The bluetooth connectivity is good. When you close the phone, the front displays the time and date, which I love, since I don't wear a watch. The numbers and characters are generally large enough. Changing settings isn't so easy, as the menus aren't really designed so well. However, the defaults are almost always ok, so it's not a big deal. One big exception is ring tone, which is a pain to set because of the cruddy menu design in that section. The ring choices are also pitiful. A smaller nit is the menu sequence to turn on the camera is pretty convoluted, however I think there might be a button to push to do it. With a bit of hunting, you can turn off the default silly T-Mobile sounds when turning on and off the unit. So, those are the basics, which is what I bought this cell phone for mostly. For those interested: The camera is adequate. You can take pics and movies. Uploading (say, to T-Mobile "My Album") is fairly simple. There are many "features", like calendar, timer, stopwatch, calculator, (unit) convertor, web access, email, GPS via maps. The more demanding apps highlight the limitations of the unit, but you wouldn't buy it for those kinds of things really.
This phone replaces a Motorola Razr V3.
I bought this phone because smartphones along with their plans are simply too expensive. Frankly, I have enough ways of wasting money.
With this phone, unlike my old Razr, I can actually access the internet via WebToGo for browsing things such as gas prices, weather and Google maps (It has a Google maps app included). Be aware though, that at least in my case a $10.00 per month ($15.00 in some cases) 3G data plan was needed before these internet sites were realistically available. And also note the sites are drastically simplified versions of what you'd see on your laptop. Still, if I'm traveling in say, North Carolina and need gas, Google maps (using the phone's internal GPS) will tell me where I am and gasbuddy.com will alert me to the least expensive gas station. Another plus for me is being able to access a weather site in real time along with an accompanying radar map.
A handy feature with this phone is call blocking. I have some company calling me several times a day only to be silent when I answer. With this phone, I am never interupted by a ringing phone with nobody on the other end. I do see a missed call when I open the phone, but that's no big deal.
As for general use the calls on my end are nice and clear, even when using speakerphone -which I do a lot. Additionally, I was even able to pair up my old Jabra BT 125 headset for even more clarity. The handset has just about any feature a person could want, including an app for social networking (FB, T, MS same data plan caveat as with web browsing applies) and a method for getting email. I like the calendar even though I can't sync it with my Outlook or Google calendars. The alarm clock is fine too. The included ringtones are generally, well, either youth or OF oriented, but I found one that wasn't quite as offensive as the others. The keys are large and well lit, even if the bottom row extends a little too far south for truly comfortable one-handed dialing/text insertion. The screen display is bright and sharp enough for my middle-aged eyes. The camera works and gives a pretty good rendering which you can then send in an email, to your online album at T-Mobile or to a cloud site like Photobucket (I don't know what fees doing this might entail). I didn't try the camcorder, but the same options are available.
I read a review where the writer disliked the shape of the phone's exterior, complaing that it was too squared off in one dimension. After years of getting the Razr in the wrong orientation due to identical front and back surfaces, I disagree. I can, using only tactile sense, tell front from back on this Samsung T259, and I can therefore have the right part of the flip-phone in the palm of my hand in order to open the phone the way it was designed to be.
I text very little, but I found getting to the ABC text insertion option pretty easy. Once you're in a text entering mode, you simply press the R (right-hand) soft key (horizontal bar under the screen) until you have the mode you need, be it numeric, ABC, predictive or special character.
Bottom line? I have a 1000 minute 2-line family plan with 3G data (200 MB) on one phone for just under 80 bucks a month. Adding data to the other line would be an additional 10 bucks per month. That's a LOT cheaper than unlimited voice/data on an Android device ($139), and at least my wife can use the Samsung flip phone.
Buy Samsung T259 Phone, Blue (T-Mobile) Now
I wanted just a very basic cell phone from T-mobile and so choose this model. Actually I originally choose the T249 which is not 3G and didn't work most of the time but that is another story. I have really not been happy with this phone. Whoever designed it must own a smart phone because some basic functionality isn't there. I attribute most of the issues to the phone as opposed to the T-mobile network as my previous Motorola PEBL worked great.
In a nutshell:
Pros:
Main display is fairly bright and the numbers are large font easy to read.
Menus are easy to navigate.
Cons:
-Battery life is poor. With moderate usage you get two days at three bars, 1/2 day at two bars and 30 min at one bar. It dies fast so talk quick.
-Battery has also been fading quickly. If I were to keep the phone it seems I would have to replace it soon (after owning it for about 6 months)
-Front display is useless. The clock only displays as an analog clock (you can't change it) and it only displays when you first flip the phone closed. You have to reopen the phone to turn it back on.
-When someone calls you the number slowly scrolls through the front display (it isn't big enough to display the whole number), by the time you can see enough of the number to figure out who it is it has gone to voice mail.
-After a few months the phone occasionally behaves strange. When you select someone to dial it pauses, says connecting and then goes back to the main screen. Even though reception is shown as great.
-Intermittent dropped outgoing audio. Callers on the other end will all of sudden no longer hear me although I can hear them.
-No way to sync contacts from a computer.
-I bought the Samsung HM1000 earpiece but had to abandon it as the volume was never loud enough with this phone. It was OK with the T249.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung T259 Phone, Blue (T-Mobile) Here
I had my last phone for almost 8 years so it was very old by cell phone standards, but it was still 1,000 times better than this Samsung. 1) The voice sound is horrible. It sounds like I am talking in a tin can. The same with the ring tones. It sounds like the music is coming out of a tin can. 2) Battery life is absurdly short. My 8 year old phone had much longer battery life. 3) Getting it set up to email photos to my email account was a nightmare. Again my 8 year old phone was a snap. I just programmed in the email address into my contacts and hit Send after I took a photo. Not so with the Samsung. I tried emailing photos for hours. After several weeks, it is still sending me error messages that the email did not go through. Can't figure out how to tell it to stop trying. 4) It has a speakerphone but it does not work well, so I end up holding the phone near my mouth which defeats the whole purpose of a speakerphone. 5) I lost many numbers when the T-Mobile employee transferred my contacts to this phone. I don't know if it was because of this phone (although I've seen others complain of this too; or if the employee didn't know what he was doing; 6) But, the thing that truly makes this phone a piece of JUNK and infuritates me is that when the battery is going dead, there is little or no notification. In the 2 1/2 months I've had this phone I cannot tell you how many important calls I've missed because the phone had gone dead but there was no notification sound. My 8 year old phone would beep loudly for quite a while when the battery was low. But, the 1 or 2 times I've heard the beep on this Samsung, it was so faint that unless I was within a few yards, I would not hear it. In addition, I have never heard it beep more than once, so if you missed that one beep, the phone goes dead and you won't know unless you just happen to check your phone. DON'T BUY THIS PHONE.
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Some basic capabilities that were on my last 2 phones would make this one nicer. My last phone was a Motorola RAZR and was much easier to personalize, and had many more ways you could personalize it.
Here is a link to the owner's manual so you can see what you will be getting...
"" (without the quotes).
It is a PDF. Just click where it says "SGH T259 User Manual.pdf".
