Samsung S5620 Monte Unlocked Quad-Band GSM Phone with 3 MP Camera, Wi-Fi, gps navigation, E-Mail, Stereo Bluetooth–International Version With Warranty (Black)

Before I bought this phone I spent HOURS researching smart phone and this one had 9 of 11 things I was looking for in a NEAR PERFECT phone. The good is shown below and the bad.

Good:-

1. Lightweight phone, comfortable to carry and hold in my hand – I give a PLUS ONE STAR! I detest a large and bulky phone.
2. A 3.5 jack for standard earphones! Reason that I bought this phone – I give a PLUS ONE STAR!
3. Touchscreen works great – I give a PLUS ONE STAR!
4. Easy to connect to Wi-Fi – I give a PLUS ONE STAR!
5. Internet browser is easy to zoom into, just press your finger down to enlarge the screen – I give a PLUS ONE STAR!
6. Unlocked and NO CONTRACT (I use home WiFi and local WiFi hotspots for Internet browsing) saves me money – I give a PLUS ONE and a HALF STARS!
7. Accepts up to 16gb SD Card – I give a PLUS ONE STAR!
8. FM radio and the radio records music – I give a PLUS ONE STAR!
9. Low cost smart phone compared to other smart phones with these features.
10. LONG BATTERY LIFE–I get 4 days as I turn off WiFi when I am not using Internet!

Bad:-

1. No QWERTY Keyboard. (After practicing the keyboard is easy to use and I am getting more and more used to it).A MINUS ONE STAR FOR THIS!
2. Samsung’s own proprietary operating system- I prefer Windows OS or Android, this OS on this phone is so different! A MINUS ONE STAR FOR THIS!
3. Because this phone is unlocked there are NO Internet or MMS settings (picture and multimedia messaging) and must be placed into the phone MANUALLY. It took me over 3 hours to find the settings in forums and type each setting into the phone, however, I was able to set up the phone for both MMS and Internet. The WiFi set up in just one minute with no problem, however! A MINUS ONE STAR FOR THIS!
4. Setting up email accounts is very tricky, but can be done, however, I had to research on the internet the POP3 and IMAP settings and try several times to get this to work. A MINUS ONE STAR FOR THIS!

****Total Stars I Give To This Phone: 5 STARS because of all the pros and long battery life.

FINAL NOTE: First, if you just use WiFi and DO NOT USE A DATA PLAN from your carrier or send/receive picture messages (just send and receive text messages), this phone is easy to set up right out of the box! However, if you do need a data plan with your carrier and love to send video, pictures, audio (MMS) messages, then you will need to manually place the settings for DATA INTERNET (so you can use your carrier’s Internet when not on WiFi) and MMS. However, if you want to set up these settings and you are not a tech savvy person or don’t want the hassle of manually doing these settings, I would suggest that this phone should be a NO GO for you. By the way, if this helps, I use T-Mobile and went to the T-Mobile forums on how to set-up a NON T-MOBILE phone for MMS and INTERNET and found the settings there. I had to try THREE times to get it just right on both, but now the INTERNET and MMS work great on my phone. If you need the settings for AT&T, there are probably forums on their website as well. Also, you can also call either carrier and sometimes they can send you the settings to your phone to get the INTERNET and MMS. Remember anytime you buy ANY kind of unlocked phone, it will need the INTERNET and MMS Settings put in manually or have the carrier send BOTH settings to your phone.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 30, 2011

A common question about this phone and other UNLOCKED SMARTPHONES:
Q. Does AT&T or T-Mobile make you buy a data plan on a pre-paid pay as you go phone? From my own experience with AT&T and T-Mobile and as of now (things can change), this is my answer below. Please read carefully as your own UNLOCKED SMART PHONE with prepaid no data is needed, read below please:
Answer from my personal experience using both AT&T and T-Mobile Pay as You Go (Pre-paid-NO CONTRACT):
By my own experience, my personal answer is NO as I have another UNLOCKED Smartphone and have AT&T on it. AT&T or T-Mobile does not charge you for Wifi and AT&T nor T-Mobile does not MAKE you add data on your unlocked smartphone. However, when you buy one of AT&T phones from the AT&T Store or T-Mobile Phone from T-Mobile store on MANY phones they do make you buy data plan when you buy a smart phone from them along with your regular voice plan. When I brought my own older smart phone to the AT&T store to purchase a sim card and minutes from AT&T, they activated it with Pay as you Go No Contract Prepaid and I told them I did not want data. They said OK, then just use your WiFi. As for WiFi: if you can get to WiFi hotspots, such as your home, office, cafe etc, the WiFi is free. However, if you just SOMETIMES need DATA with AT&T you can buy it for 30 days for either $5, $15, $25. And if you put more data in before you use up the 30 days, the old data rolls over. This is what I do, I rarely need data, but there are some places that I go to that DO NOT have WiFi and I just need to check something quick on the Internet. Then and and only then do I use some of my data. If I just used WiFi, I would never buy data. If you buy any UNLOCKED phone remember these important things:
1) You will need to MANUALLY set up DATA settings and MMS settings. You can look these up in google: Data and MMS Settings for non At&t phone. You will see websites that give you that info.
2) If you just use WiFi no need to set up your Data. And since this is an unlocked phone and NOT an AT&T phone, no data is ever required unless you decide to add that $5, $15 or $25 for data for 30 days. You have the choice here!

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 Comments (22)

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Jason Rieg (Mountain View, CA) –

  

My Nokia POS phone starting giving up the ghost and I was faced with either signing up for another two year contract to get a reasonable price or pay through the nose for a non-contract price.

After doing some research, I settled on the S5620 Monte. When it arrived, I popped in my SIM card and voila! Well, whatever the Portuguese word for voila is. The language was set to Portuguese and I had to fumble my way through the menus trying to find what I thought was a menu option. After fumbling for about 10 minutes, I had it switched to English and was off.

This is a great little phone for a couple bills. I don’t have to sign up for the contract, and I can kiss off AT&T and go to T-Mobile if it suits my fancy.

The WiFi is awesome. It’s sad that US carriers can get away with forcing defeatured phones down our throats and force us into outrageous data plans. Since I live in Mountain View, I get free WiFi within the city from Google, so I don’t have too much of a need for a data plan when I can use the built in WiFi.

The camera takes great pictures at 3.2 megapixels. Video quality is good as well with a decent frame rate, but not the highest resolution (QVGA). Good enough for YouTube or Facebook.

Voice quality is not the best. Also, I had to go to the UK for a case that conforms to the phone design. It also doesn’t have a Qwerty keyboard input for texting. A couple small sacrifices for a smart phone without a contract, a steep price or a monthly gouging.

Very happy with this phone.

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E. Cid (Buenos Aires, Arg) –

  

PROS:
I’m very happy with this phone. It is slim with a cool look. The audio quality of the mp3 player its very good. I use a lot the wifi connection(don’t have a 3G plan) with very good results.
In the morning I use the weather widget while I’m still in bed, via my home wifi, very usefull.

CONS:
I can not make the GPS work. I’ve tried almost everything, it still can’t get the gps position…

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