Samsung - Messenger SCH-U450 Cell Phone review

The main reason we were drawn to the Intensity when we were shopping for new phones was the slide out full keypad on the phone. I thought this would be great for my partner and he thought it was a good idea too. Another reason we picked this phone is because my partner did not want a flip phone and the Intensity if your typical "brick" phone. It measures about 4 inches in height, 2 inches in width and a little over a ½ an inch in thickness. It weighs in at just less than 4 ounces. So the phone really isn't bulky or heavy. It can easily slide into your pocket without any problem.

As just a cell phone, we haven't had any real reason to complain about the Intensity. It has had better reception than either of the AT&T phones that we had and it also has better reception than the older Verizon phones we were using before we had switched to AT&T. Clarity on the calls is very good too. In good reception areas it almost sounds as if you're talking to someone on a landline. The only negative as a phone is that the speakerphone with the Intensity is pretty weak.

You would think that the slide-out full QWERTY keypad would make texting a breeze, yet 99% of the time, my partner ends up using the alpha-numeric keys on the front of the phone because the navigation tends to be a bit difficult with the keypad and because most texts are only a few words long. That said, I think if we had data services on his phone and he was using services like Twitter, Facebook or email on his phone, the full keypad would probably be a lot handier.

The 1.3 megapixel camera that comes inside the Intensity is at the low end of cameras that are available in phones today. Unlike a lot of other phones, the Intensity won't be taking any videos.

We have both been really disappointed with the battery life of the Intensity. Samsung claims you'll get 5 hours of talk time on a charge and 300 hours of standby time, but in the real world you're lucky if the phone can hold a charge for a day.

However, given all that, my biggest problem with the Intensity is the fact that the keypad lock doesn't really work. Time after time we have set the keypad lock on and then my partner takes the phone out of its pocket and he's connected to something. Now it's always funny to butt dial, but this has cost us money because the phone has managed to connect to the Get it Now services and download stuff. I ended up having to call Verizon and telling them to turn off the ability to even get on the Get it Now services to stop the accidental downloads.

My Take

I really wouldn't get this phone if we had the choice to do it all over again. I wouldn't even really recommend it to others considering how many other phones are available from Verizon without these problems.