Samsung B2100 Solid Extreme Sim Free Mobile Phone

Bought to replace a smart-phone (never again!!). I used to have one of these before my smart-phone. I remember it being almost indestructable. I dropped it down a mountain ledge about 25 feet, I dropped it in a lake, I used it in the shower, and the battery life ... 3 weeks between charges!! I also liked the powerful LED torch with dedicated button, which has proved so useful to me in the past.So when my smart-phone finally gave up the ghost, I was delighted to find this model still available. It took a severe power surge during a lightning storm to finish-off my old B2100, or I wouldn't have needed a new one!Samsung seem to have updated the phone since I last had it, as the hardware is identical but the software is different. The battery life is improved. I now get a month between charges, based on light usage, or maybe a couple of weeks if I talk a lot. The phone now comes pre-loaded with rudimentary facebook, twitter and browser "apps", that one could use if absolutely desperate, but be aware that these apps are significantly more basic and slower than their smartphone counterparts. They also rely on your network's slow GPRS/Edge data service, as the phone doesn't have 3G or WiFi.On that subject, please be aware that a 3 sim-card won't work in this phone (I have tried, just to confirm). This is because the handset is not 3G-capable. Other sim-cards work just fine though. With a good signal, data isn't that slow - it's adequate for urgent purposes - although that's not what this phone is designed for. With a good signal, I have successfully used this phone as a "mobile broadband" modem by connecting it via a USB cable (available elsewhere on Amazon) to my laptop (running Ubuntu Linux, but I'm sure you could do it in Windows too - I did with my old B2100). Browsing was slow - but perfectly adequte for checking e-mails and even online banking. Forget streaming videos and the like, though!I only have a few criticisms with this phone, and it's mostly due to usability. My old B2100 allowed the left softkey to be used as an "enter"/"view"/"OK" key, in addition to the button in the centre of the arrow-keys. Unfortunately, the revised software on the later edition of the B2100 does not allow this, so as a result the little square button in the centre of the arrow keys gets a disproportionate amount of use. I do worry that this will wear out quickly, rendering the phone unusable. On my old B2100, the failure of either of these two buttons still allowed the use of the other with no loss in functionality.The sound quality on the new revised phone also seems a little worse than on my old B2100, although this could be related to issues that my phone network have been having recently. The old B2100 had very effective noise-cancellation, which appeared to function both for the speaker and the listener. On this phone, people sometimes report that they can't hear me in a noisy environment, which I didn't used to get much on my old B2100. That said, for the most part, sound quality is extremely good for both speaker and listener.In short, if you want a good, solid, reliable, almost-indestructable phone that just does what a phone does, this B2100 is perfect. I've tried the Facebook app and Opera web browser on it, and if you're not addicted, they're both more than adequate for the odd update.Alternatively, if you want a mediocre and confused device that doesn't quite know whether it's a computer or a phone (so attempts to do both functions... very badly), has diabolical reliability and no battery life whatsoever (but looks sooooooooo trendy), get a smart-phone.

After the contract ended on my Blackberry I wanted a simpler phone, and went for this due to it's alleged durability. As far as I can gather, the other options for a rugged Samsung phone (the B2710 and C3350) are also really good, more sophisticated, and offer some quite desirable features like maps, better internet & data storage & so on. However, these extra features are inferior to what you'd get on a smartphone, whilst the B2100 is the smallest, cheapest & maybe the toughest option, and its basic software is more reliable (doesn't crash).It is certainly as solid & waterproof as claimed, the torch is bright, speaker is good, & the battery lasts ages. I had low expectations for the software & applications, but it's actually great to use and there's more to it than meets the eye. You can get an 8gb memory card in it (costing less than £5), the browser & email are ok for occasional use, and the 1.3 MP camera & phone setting options are fine. It has some useful stuff like a world clock, unit conversions, voice recorder etc. I've managed file transfers by bluetooth - although you can use a USB cable (bought separately). A negative comment in other reviews is how the main central button is set to operate the internet browser. This is so, and as far as I know you cannot change it, but you can set a different internet profile so that the internet is never activated (preventing data charges if you accidentally press this). This button is used for everything else once you're in the menus, texting etc, and you get used to it - also the keypad lock is effective (and has an automatic or manual option). Other negatives I've heard of are the quality of the screen, but again I really don't think it's that bad compared to what I was expecting, I've watched videos & photos on it fine. Plus, for this type of phone it's far more relevant & impressive that the screen is almost break-proof.