Samsung Intercept on Virgin Mobile
I've been using the Samsung Intercept on Virgin Mobile since Dec. 2010. I thought I'd take a little time and writeup my experience with the phone and the service.
This is my first smartphone. I've always been fine using a "feature" phone since my primary use was calls with an occasional text. I was using a Samsung T401g and the Net10 service. It worked great for me. The problem was that I was carrying an iPod touch and the Samsung phone and decided I was tired of carrying two devices in my pockets all the time. I use Google services heavily and thought it would be handy to be able to enter items in my Google calendar as they are setup. Previously I would enter items into my Google Calendar on my computer and then have text messages sent to my phone to alert me. That worked great but I wanted the ability to add them on the phone. That and going down to one device was also appealing.
My problem was that I didn't want to pay at least $70/month for service. At the time, Sprint was the least expensive of the big carrier options. Going from spending $15 to $20 per month for service to $70 just didn't agree with me. Last year my son discovered the Virgin Mobile service. Their plans start at $25/month which includes unlimited messaging and web. The big drawback to their service is that it runs on Sprint's network with no roaming. For a year that held me back from switching. I thought I wanted the truly nation wide coverage I was getting with Net10. Then I began keeping track of where I was for a year. I soon discovered I was rarely in an area that would not have coverage using Virgin Mobile and when I was, I was with someone who had a phone with coverage. With 99+% of my time covered I figured why not. During that waiting period, Virgin rolled out their first Android phone to the USA market, the Samsung Intercept.
The reviews for the Samsung Intercept on Virgin are pretty good, if you remember what you are getting. You are using a prepaid service and a lower-mid level phone. I don't expect a perfect experience from this setup and so far I have not been disappointed. I have not had to deal with Virgin Mobile customer service so I can't comment on that part of the equation. So far, I've been very happy with my experience.
First thing to note about the phone is that this is not an iPhone/iPod Touch. The user interface on the phone can react a bit slowly at times. If you don't have the patience for you phone on occasion to take 5 to 10 seconds to respond then don't even consider the phone. I rarely have the phone slow down like that but it happens maybe once or twice a month. Usually I just wait it out and my phone begins responding. On occasion I will simply power off the phone and power it back on to get it responding again. Another thing I'm discovering is that you don't want to have a ton of applications all running and trying to pull data, update, etc on the phone at one time. I used to use Google Voice on the phone but decided to ditch it recently. I've noticed since that time that my phone appears to be a bit more responsive at all times. I've also changed update times for Twitter to be 30 minutes. Really, do I need to have info flowing in any faster? I've turned off some of the auto update features on other apps and take care of them when I remember. Basically I'm a light user of data services. I check Twitter, FB, and email 3 to 5 times daily each. I have had the phone completely freeze up on me twice in two months and am not sure what caused the freeze. I can see the update icon each time so I'm assuming it had something to do with auto updates on the phone. Once again, no big deal for me. I simply shutdown and restart the phone. Also, startup times on the phone are long. From the time I push the power on button to the point I can use the phone is about 2 minutes. Doesn't bother me but if you have to have instant access to your phone upon power up, move on.
The Virgin Mobile service itself has gone out since I've had the phone. I noticed it one evening while at home so I simply turned on the wifi mode for the phone and was able to use data services. Didn't bother me but might annoy some people to lose data services at all. Once again, put it into perspective, it's a prepaid phone with monthly service fees of $25(that's the plan I use). I don't mind an occasional issue.
You can now pickup the phone for less than $200. I've seen some people complain about the initial cost of the phone but that's easily outweighed by the cost of the monthly plan. Do the calculations of the cost over 2 years(typical contract length at a large carrier) and the savings are huge even paying full price for the phone. The phone currently(Apr 2011) sells at Best Buy for $169. I've also seen Virgin Mobile phones discounted around Father's day, the Christmas season, and especially on Black Friday.
The phone currently(Apr 2011) comes with Android 2.1. This is not the latest version of Android but it is in the 2.x series which is considerably nicer than the 1.x Android series from what I've read. I never expected the OS on this phone to be upgraded given how inexpensive the service is but they recently announced on Twitter that Android 2.2 is coming to the Intercept this Spring(2011). As of this writing, I should be getting the update in the next couple of weeks. Android 2.2 provides better speed and the ability to store applications on the removable SD card, in case you are the type to download a ton of applications.
I'll post an updated review when I get my Froyo(Android 2.2) update. So far I'm satisfied with the phone and it's performance. It's not a perfect phone by any means but it does what I want and the total price of the phone and service is great.
This is my first smartphone. I've always been fine using a "feature" phone since my primary use was calls with an occasional text. I was using a Samsung T401g and the Net10 service. It worked great for me. The problem was that I was carrying an iPod touch and the Samsung phone and decided I was tired of carrying two devices in my pockets all the time. I use Google services heavily and thought it would be handy to be able to enter items in my Google calendar as they are setup. Previously I would enter items into my Google Calendar on my computer and then have text messages sent to my phone to alert me. That worked great but I wanted the ability to add them on the phone. That and going down to one device was also appealing.
My problem was that I didn't want to pay at least $70/month for service. At the time, Sprint was the least expensive of the big carrier options. Going from spending $15 to $20 per month for service to $70 just didn't agree with me. Last year my son discovered the Virgin Mobile service. Their plans start at $25/month which includes unlimited messaging and web. The big drawback to their service is that it runs on Sprint's network with no roaming. For a year that held me back from switching. I thought I wanted the truly nation wide coverage I was getting with Net10. Then I began keeping track of where I was for a year. I soon discovered I was rarely in an area that would not have coverage using Virgin Mobile and when I was, I was with someone who had a phone with coverage. With 99+% of my time covered I figured why not. During that waiting period, Virgin rolled out their first Android phone to the USA market, the Samsung Intercept.
The reviews for the Samsung Intercept on Virgin are pretty good, if you remember what you are getting. You are using a prepaid service and a lower-mid level phone. I don't expect a perfect experience from this setup and so far I have not been disappointed. I have not had to deal with Virgin Mobile customer service so I can't comment on that part of the equation. So far, I've been very happy with my experience.
First thing to note about the phone is that this is not an iPhone/iPod Touch. The user interface on the phone can react a bit slowly at times. If you don't have the patience for you phone on occasion to take 5 to 10 seconds to respond then don't even consider the phone. I rarely have the phone slow down like that but it happens maybe once or twice a month. Usually I just wait it out and my phone begins responding. On occasion I will simply power off the phone and power it back on to get it responding again. Another thing I'm discovering is that you don't want to have a ton of applications all running and trying to pull data, update, etc on the phone at one time. I used to use Google Voice on the phone but decided to ditch it recently. I've noticed since that time that my phone appears to be a bit more responsive at all times. I've also changed update times for Twitter to be 30 minutes. Really, do I need to have info flowing in any faster? I've turned off some of the auto update features on other apps and take care of them when I remember. Basically I'm a light user of data services. I check Twitter, FB, and email 3 to 5 times daily each. I have had the phone completely freeze up on me twice in two months and am not sure what caused the freeze. I can see the update icon each time so I'm assuming it had something to do with auto updates on the phone. Once again, no big deal for me. I simply shutdown and restart the phone. Also, startup times on the phone are long. From the time I push the power on button to the point I can use the phone is about 2 minutes. Doesn't bother me but if you have to have instant access to your phone upon power up, move on.
The Virgin Mobile service itself has gone out since I've had the phone. I noticed it one evening while at home so I simply turned on the wifi mode for the phone and was able to use data services. Didn't bother me but might annoy some people to lose data services at all. Once again, put it into perspective, it's a prepaid phone with monthly service fees of $25(that's the plan I use). I don't mind an occasional issue.
You can now pickup the phone for less than $200. I've seen some people complain about the initial cost of the phone but that's easily outweighed by the cost of the monthly plan. Do the calculations of the cost over 2 years(typical contract length at a large carrier) and the savings are huge even paying full price for the phone. The phone currently(Apr 2011) sells at Best Buy for $169. I've also seen Virgin Mobile phones discounted around Father's day, the Christmas season, and especially on Black Friday.
The phone currently(Apr 2011) comes with Android 2.1. This is not the latest version of Android but it is in the 2.x series which is considerably nicer than the 1.x Android series from what I've read. I never expected the OS on this phone to be upgraded given how inexpensive the service is but they recently announced on Twitter that Android 2.2 is coming to the Intercept this Spring(2011). As of this writing, I should be getting the update in the next couple of weeks. Android 2.2 provides better speed and the ability to store applications on the removable SD card, in case you are the type to download a ton of applications.
I'll post an updated review when I get my Froyo(Android 2.2) update. So far I'm satisfied with the phone and it's performance. It's not a perfect phone by any means but it does what I want and the total price of the phone and service is great.
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