Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
So Near and Yet so Far..., 5 Mar 2008
I examined this phone in the shops and read plenty of reviews about it before eventually buying it. I discounted all the whingeing reviews written by people who had clearly handed over their money first and asked questions later - what possesses anyone to buy something like a mobile phone without first checking what it can and can't do ? I also discounted those written by my new pet hate - people who 'review' a phone they don't actually have ("This phone is brilliant - I'm getting one for my birthday next month."). I can summarise the ones that were left as follows. The phone is well built and looks more expensive than it actually is (TRUE). It doesn't have any of the bells and whistles that we see on most phones nowadays - no radio, no camera, no MP3 player, no Bluetooth, etc - so it's a phone for talking and texting only (ALL TRUE). The sound quality on calls is excellent (TRUE).
Since I only want to talk or text, and I don't really like the idea of paying for cameras and things I never use, I thought the C300 would be the best thing since sliced bread. And it nearly was. But then I started to text with it. I had seen one or two complaints about the text facilities among the reviews but didn't think there would be much of a problem - it would simply be a matter of getting used to a new interface. Wrong. In a nutshell, if you prefer to use predictive text you will be OK with the simplest of messages. But if you do slightly more complicated things, like insert a symbol in the middle of a sentence, the system will start to irritate you. If you prefer to multitap you will be irritated all the time. The problem lies in the fact that the phone defaults to predictive text with an initial capital after you insert a symbol. Put an ampersand in the middle of a sentence and for your next word you will automatically be thrown onto predictive text and the first letter will be capitalised. If you're a multitapper you then have to press one button to get off predictive text, and then press another button twice to get back to lower case letters. And there seems to be nothing you can do about it. Some other phone manufacturers manage to get their phones to 'remember' settings and return to them after a symbol has been inserted. Not Samsung. In addition, capitalisation at the beginning of sentences appears to be governed by some random process that I have yet to work out. Sometimes it does capitalise and sometimes it doesn't. It surely can't actually be random, but it's not at all clear what the rules are and I've lost interest in trying to work them out. Instead, I have given the phone to my wife, who doesn't even know what a text message is, so it is now used for what it is VERY good at - voice calls. I dare say that if I had never used the Nokia texting interface I would have just accepted the Samsung system for what it is. But when you know it could be so much better, it eventually starts to wind you up. Not only that, the number of keystrokes required just to send a message you have (eventually) typed is enough to give you repetitive stress syndrome in your finger. Oh, and the ENTIRE User Manual is on a single sheet of paper, so don't expect many clues from that if you get stuck with anything.
For someone like me who wants a phone WITHOUT bells and whistles that does only the basics, the C300 scores highly in every department except one. If only it had a decent texting interface...
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Some frustrating aspects, 23 Jun 2008
This phone has a number of annoying design faults & bugs:
Terrible sound quality - the call quality is simply bad, it's frequently hard to hear what the other person says.
Text Messages: There is a bug in the text message system. Quite often a text message will arrive on the front screen, but when going to view it, the phone will show a message the sender sent previously, sometimes a message that is over a month old. This is bad enough that I need to buy a new phone as it is immensely frustrating and hassles people that send me messages.
Text Messages: Once you have sent a message it puts you back at the main menu. This means if you remember at the last sec you want to send the same msg to someone else it is too late. Have to type it all in again. Nokias put you back at the msg.
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8 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Simplicity in style, 20 Sep 2007
I remember when cell phones didn't come with any luxury. We always struggled with the fact that it was more convenient to keep a full size plantain than a phone in our bag! At least we could eat it and throw away the bulky weight! C300 is definitely one of the best options to substitute the yellow fruit with. Its sleek design and simplicity would definitely charm any of us who grew up in the 'banana-like cells' era! Just ask your Mom!
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