Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Your office has never been more mobile with Saga’s Windows Mobile® Professional. You’ll be able to create, view and edit most of your documents in the latest Windows environment right on your phone.
Bluetooth® wireless technology
Bluetooth® Wireless Technology lets you connect to Bluetooth-enabled stereo or mono headsets, hands-free car kits, printers, computers and more. Good-bye, wires.
Wi-Fi
With Wi-Fi connectivity, the Saga lets you move seamlessly between your corporate WLAN, home WLAN and local Hot Spots. It’s fast, it’s easy and it doesn’t use up any of your plan minutes.
Global Mode
If you travel around the world, the Saga™ makes the perfect travel companion. Its global GSM quad-band capabilities mean you can access both GSM and CDMA networks (where applicable). In other words, you might never miss a call, a text message or the latest scores.
What people say about this phone...
from www.samsung.com
1. Saga Sensational - Date: October 22, 2009
"This is the best smart phone I have owned in the last ten years. The ease of use and the one hand capability are just a few of the numerous options this great phone features. The optical mouse and outlook mobile is well worth the price if you need a great phone for work or home. I have not had any issues with this phone other than internal memory which a quick reset and additional memory card fixed the problem."
2. I'm trying to like it! - Date: October 12, 2009
"The Saga is my first “smart phone/Pocket PC” & I've had it since Jan 09. I haven’t noticed any issue with dropped calls or connection quality with this phone, as compared to other Verizon phones I have owned over the last 10 years. Sound quality is good for me.
Initially, I had problems with it crashing & locking up all the time, which I blamed on Windows Mobile, to the point that I almost sent it back. An update was released in June09 which fixed all the issues I was having. Plus, the update unlocked the GPS.
The GPS works ok, probably around half the time with Google Maps. It sometimes receives satellites and other times it won’t. Usually when it’s not receiving satellites, I turn the phone off and back on, and that fixes it. When the GPS isn’t receiving satellites, you will get a general idea of your location from the cell towers, but not close enough to navigate with.
I have to lock the phone every time I put it in my pocket; otherwise it’s very prone to making “booty calls”.
The mouse is very user-friendly.
The mouse is very user-friendly.
I text 100+ times a day with minimal issues using the keypad. I have average size hands so the keypad works fine for me, but I could see how people with big hands/fingers could have problems. I occasionally use the touch screen keypad with the stylus to type texts & e-mail… it would be difficult to type on the screen keypad without using the stylus.
As for the touchscreen, it works ok…definitely no iPhone touchscreen. I will occasionally use it to scroll when I’m surfing the ‘net or reading a document. It’ll work with the stylus or your finger.
Battery life is not good. I use up most of my charge in a day with just a handful of short phone calls, a lot of texting and less than an hour of internet surfing.
I use it occasionally as an MP3 player. I have a 8GB microSD card installed and that’s where I store the music. I use the Windows Media Player to play the tunes. It’s not going to replace my iPod though.
It surfs the web ok. I use Opera instead of IE. You can set it up to have to website recognize it as a mobile device or desktop…if it’s set as desktop, you’ll receive most websites as they were designed, but not all. The problem though is a lot of webpages, especially media intensive ones, will bog the Saga down. Also, even with javascript enabled, I still can’t get it to work. I stick to having it recognized as a mobile device which allows for faster surfing at the expense of not seeing a lot of web content.
I like the fact I can set up multiple e-mail accounts. I have my home AT&T e-mail, gmail and hotmail account setup & they work fine.
I’ve had no issues using the Bluetooth in either of my vehicles. I was able to “beam” all my contacts in my Saga to my truck's address book.
The WiFi works great.
Getting the battery cover off can be a pain.
Haven’t had the chance to use GSM mode yet, but the June09 update allows the phone to work in a “global” mode so you don’t have to manually switch back and forth between the 2 modes, it’ll do it on its own.
Overall, it’s an average phone IMO. I’d recommend it to friends but it does have some issues. The June09 update fixed a lot of them though."
3. Great Phone - Too Bad Keypad is Unusable - Date: September 15, 2009
2. Posted by qproridr - Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:46 pm"There are not enough words in the English language to describe how horrible this phone is! Had mine for a week, and can think of nothing better to do with it than smash it to bits with a hammer.
If dealing with WinMo 6.1 weren't enough punishment, the touch screen is a total pain to use, constantly putting you into a screen you didn't select etc. You must use it with a holster as if you put it in your pocket, it will do all kinds of crazy things like pocket dial the last number you called or worse, send phantom text messages, reset functions, once it even de-selected the phone from the settings tab. I pulled it out of my pocket to see that I had missed three calls, and all of them had came in the past 5 minutes. When I went to the settings tab, there was a big red X through the phone icon. ridiculous!
I am certain there is a bug in the firmware as about once a day the phone will "lock up" where the touch pad works as far as moving the cursor around the screen, but the button function of the mousepad does not work, nor does any other button on the entire phone work, including the on/off button. So.when it goes into this lock up mode, the only thing you can do is to remove the back of the phone and take the battery out for a few minutes and re-install. It will return to it's normal crappy operation at that time.
The battery life is utterly ridiculous. This morning I unplugged it from the charger at 8:30 am, used it sporadically through the day, maybe 60 minutes talk time total. By 4:00 pm I was getting a low battery notification, by 4:30 pm the Bluetooth shit off and by 5:30 the phone had shut itself off due to low battery. Completely unacceptable!
Unless you like headaches and frustration, I would avoid this phone completely if at all possible.
It loks good, the screen is bright and contrasty, but it all goes downhill quickly when you start to use it."
"I have been a long time fan of Samsung as well as Windows Mobile and have had an i760 for some time. I was very excited to learn of the i770 with it's global capabilities so I ordered one. Sadly, I was extremely disppointed when I received the phone. They keypad was so small I could not read it, let alone type on it. This phone was designed for an 18-year old with perfect vision but those middle age business people that actually need this phone for our business and travel can't use it. You could have made the mouse much smaller (it's needlessly oversized) and made more room for a bigger kepad. Unfortunately, I had to return the phone and re-activiate my i760 and live longer with global coverage."
4. Awesome phone - Date: September 3, 2009 from mobiledia.com
"I purchased this phone about a month 3 weeks ago and it is the best smartphone that I have used so far. I have never used a blackberry for everyday use other than playing with in the store, and I didn't like the blackberry. I have had the treo, blackjack, and lastly the moto Q9c and Q9m and they all don't stand any comparison to the sage. I am in love with the touchscreen!!! I am in awwww with the optical mouse, the stylus pen is basically useless with the mouse feature. Not too particularly enthused with the battery life but I make sure that I have non of the features running when they aren't in use. I would really recommend this phone to anyone that is looking to buy a smartphone."
Read more @ Samsung.com
1. Posted by BKP - Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:53 am
"I couldn't disagree more with the first post/review, in regard to the Samsung Saga.
I've had mine now for approximately one month, and I'm completely enjoying the phone.
Interface: If you're moving to WM 6.1 from RIM, or Palm, of course there's going to be a learning curve. Windows Mobile has its quirks, however, it's a mature mobile environment, and getting better and faster all the time. I've found SPG 2.x (and now 3.0) Mobile Shell is an amazing interface for WM 6.1, on the Saga, and addresses most of the complaints anyone can have with WM.
Buttons: As with ANY PDA/Smartphone, that has both buttons, as well as touchscreen, the opportunity exists to 'butt call' or worse, if you keep the phone shoved in a pocket. However, I've found if you use rear-facing holster (back of the phone faces out, when snapped into the holster), such as the Samsung original holster, the chances of erroneously dialing, or entering commands decreases by an order of magnitude. If you're going to shove a device with a gazillion ways to enter commands with the slightest touch, deep into a pants pocket, then. duhhhh. learn to live with the consequences.
Battery life: A simple fact of nature with current touchscreen PDAs is that they suck power like a hoover. That applies to almost ALL SmartPhones with a touchscreen, and some applications that stay resident in memory, even when you're done using them. I've done the following: bought the extended life battery, and corresponding back cover ($43 for both on ebay), and I've more than doubled the battery life. The extended battery/cover still fit perfectly into the holster, and even fits better into my hand with the gracefully angled extension that no exists. Additionally, I set up a shortcut to the Wireless manager, which allows me to turn off either/or Bluetooth and WiFi when I'm not going to be using them for a while. I've also set up a quick shortcut to the Task Manager, which allows me to unload apps quickly that I'm not using, which both frees up memory, and in some cases kills juice-sucking connections I'm no longer using. There are other automatic connection drops you can tweak in the registry, if you search the forums. All this is simple common sense, and to be expected with a high-function Smartphone. None of it detracts from the fabulous functionality of the Saga.
Reception: Here I will pick a small bone with the Saga. While I get the same number of bars that I had with a previous Blackberry, the reception seems to be *slightly* less than perfect in certain spots in my house. Other than that, and a rare dead zone, while out driving, I'd still have to say the reception is above average, and I've had zero complaints from those I talk to, as to the clarity of my voice on their end.
Optical Mouse: Excellent. I don't know what else to say. It's simpler to use the optical mouse on the Saga, than the touchpad on my laptop. This is switchable with standard 4-way dpad-like navigation, with a touch of a side button. Again, SPG Mobile Shell 3.0 allows you to even enter whether you're using the device right or left handed, and sets up the touchscreen commensurately.
Screen: Bright, adjustable, easy to see, even outside.
Keypad: Small QWERTY buttons, however, they're spaced, so I'm much more accurate than I was on my previous BB, which had slightly larger buttons, which were placed bordering one-another.
Internals: Slot for a micro SD (highly recommended), and comes with a GSM card, if you're going international (uses standard Verizon CDMA domestically).
I've had mine now for approximately one month, and I'm completely enjoying the phone.
Interface: If you're moving to WM 6.1 from RIM, or Palm, of course there's going to be a learning curve. Windows Mobile has its quirks, however, it's a mature mobile environment, and getting better and faster all the time. I've found SPG 2.x (and now 3.0) Mobile Shell is an amazing interface for WM 6.1, on the Saga, and addresses most of the complaints anyone can have with WM.
Buttons: As with ANY PDA/Smartphone, that has both buttons, as well as touchscreen, the opportunity exists to 'butt call' or worse, if you keep the phone shoved in a pocket. However, I've found if you use rear-facing holster (back of the phone faces out, when snapped into the holster), such as the Samsung original holster, the chances of erroneously dialing, or entering commands decreases by an order of magnitude. If you're going to shove a device with a gazillion ways to enter commands with the slightest touch, deep into a pants pocket, then. duhhhh. learn to live with the consequences.
Battery life: A simple fact of nature with current touchscreen PDAs is that they suck power like a hoover. That applies to almost ALL SmartPhones with a touchscreen, and some applications that stay resident in memory, even when you're done using them. I've done the following: bought the extended life battery, and corresponding back cover ($43 for both on ebay), and I've more than doubled the battery life. The extended battery/cover still fit perfectly into the holster, and even fits better into my hand with the gracefully angled extension that no exists. Additionally, I set up a shortcut to the Wireless manager, which allows me to turn off either/or Bluetooth and WiFi when I'm not going to be using them for a while. I've also set up a quick shortcut to the Task Manager, which allows me to unload apps quickly that I'm not using, which both frees up memory, and in some cases kills juice-sucking connections I'm no longer using. There are other automatic connection drops you can tweak in the registry, if you search the forums. All this is simple common sense, and to be expected with a high-function Smartphone. None of it detracts from the fabulous functionality of the Saga.
Reception: Here I will pick a small bone with the Saga. While I get the same number of bars that I had with a previous Blackberry, the reception seems to be *slightly* less than perfect in certain spots in my house. Other than that, and a rare dead zone, while out driving, I'd still have to say the reception is above average, and I've had zero complaints from those I talk to, as to the clarity of my voice on their end.
Optical Mouse: Excellent. I don't know what else to say. It's simpler to use the optical mouse on the Saga, than the touchpad on my laptop. This is switchable with standard 4-way dpad-like navigation, with a touch of a side button. Again, SPG Mobile Shell 3.0 allows you to even enter whether you're using the device right or left handed, and sets up the touchscreen commensurately.
Screen: Bright, adjustable, easy to see, even outside.
Keypad: Small QWERTY buttons, however, they're spaced, so I'm much more accurate than I was on my previous BB, which had slightly larger buttons, which were placed bordering one-another.
Internals: Slot for a micro SD (highly recommended), and comes with a GSM card, if you're going international (uses standard Verizon CDMA domestically).
Ringtones, flexibility, etc.: All what you'd expect. Very customizable. The key is to learn the phone, and learn WM. Once you do that, you're hooked.
Great phone."
Great phone."
If dealing with WinMo 6.1 weren't enough punishment, the touch screen is a total pain to use, constantly putting you into a screen you didn't select etc. You must use it with a holster as if you put it in your pocket, it will do all kinds of crazy things like pocket dial the last number you called or worse, send phantom text messages, reset functions, once it even de-selected the phone from the settings tab. I pulled it out of my pocket to see that I had missed three calls, and all of them had came in the past 5 minutes. When I went to the settings tab, there was a big red X through the phone icon. ridiculous!
I am certain there is a bug in the firmware as about once a day the phone will "lock up" where the touch pad works as far as moving the cursor around the screen, but the button function of the mousepad does not work, nor does any other button on the entire phone work, including the on/off button. So.when it goes into this lock up mode, the only thing you can do is to remove the back of the phone and take the battery out for a few minutes and re-install. It will return to it's normal crappy operation at that time.
The battery life is utterly ridiculous. This morning I unplugged it from the charger at 8:30 am, used it sporadically through the day, maybe 60 minutes talk time total. By 4:00 pm I was getting a low battery notification, by 4:30 pm the Bluetooth shit off and by 5:30 the phone had shut itself off due to low battery. Completely unacceptable!
Unless you like headaches and frustration, I would avoid this phone completely if at all possible.
It loks good, the screen is bright and contrasty, but it all goes downhill quickly when you start to use it."
from phonearena.com
1. What a disappointment.......... - 8 May 2009 by JDG
"Well, I thought the Saga would be the phone that broke me of my Blackberry...but no. I did my best to research this phone before my purchase and the only global complaint was about the battery life. There were several people out there who really knocked windows mobile 6.1 but I wasn't swayed so I made the purchase. I used the phone for a little over 2 weeks before returning it. Here's some things you're gonna want to know if you're looking at purchasing this phone.
1st. The ringer volume is pathetic. The loudest it will go is barely audible in the car with no radio on, and forget about hearing it if you're in another room in your house. This was unbelievable to me b/c who would make a phone that you can't hear when someone calls you? This still baffles me and I don't even own the phone anymore.
2nd. Battery Life is also pathetic. You make a few calls, browse your email, and check the weather and you've drained the sucked to half power. After a full night's charge you can barely make it to 3 o'clock without having to plug it back in. Everyone was right about this one. Please consider this before purchasing...I understand there's an extended battery available...
3rd. Windows Mobile is very sluggish. I had never used Windows mobile before this phone, but I had heard lots of good about it and some bad. I didn't really mind it, in fact i enjoyed the way the contacts were set up and how the text message conversations were like chatting on the web, but dang it if windows mobile is not the slowest OS on any phone I've ever used! I mean seriously, you select an icon or push the button for contacts and you have to wait several seconds before anything happens. This was very frustrating. The most frustrating thing about windows mobile though is having to individually close applications every time. Every time you open your contacts, or a web browser, or email, or anything else and then change to something different, the application is left open and running in your task manager. Imagine on you computer opening up five internet browsers and not knowing that they were running until you check the task manager. Yeah that is what is going on with this phone. You have to manually go to task manager and individually close apps if you go from one screen to another without ending an application. This was extremely annoying and poorly designed. This was probably the deal breaker for me.
4th. If you plan on placing this phone in your pocket you will be very disappointed. So the phone obv has a feature that lets you lock the keys and also a button that turns the screen off. This is all well and good, but if you put your phone in your pocket like me these feature are completely useless. All you have to do to turn the screen back on is hit any button. Any button. So, when the phone's in your pocket and say you sit down then 9 times out of 10 the huge center optical mouse button is going to get clicked and ta da, the screen's back on. This used to happen all the time and I'm convinced that this had a lot to do with the poor batter life.
Overall, the idea of this phone made me purchase it. I really liked the keyboard, touchscreen, and a few other features, but the cons heavily outweigh the pros. I'm thinking that if you're used to windows mobile and plan on using a holster for this phone you might could make due, but for someone like myself this device is completely impractical. I was very disappointed with this device simple because it seems like samsung did not do adequate field testing before releasing it. Maybe this is the reason the phone is only available on verizon's website and it's not in stores?...."
2. Still horrible after using for about 3 weeks - 18 Dec 2008 by astrocramp
"I really wanted to like this phone, since it's my only option to sync with Exchange over the air while global roaming on Verizon. Sadly, it's a miserable device, and the most ill thought out implementation of WM6.1 i've ever seen. The batter life is terrible, the touchscreen doesn't disable while talking, so when you're done you have 25 different apps open doing who knows what, the screen turns on every few minutes for no reason (probably the reason for the poor battery life), and it takes a ridiculous amount of clicks to do anything. The lack of d-pad navigation really makes this a horrible experience - the optical mouse in d-pad mode requires you to swipe multiple times to go down menus (ie if there are three headings to navigate down, you need to swipe your finger 3 times, much more annoying than simply clicking 3 times). I grew to like mouse mode, or at least found it incrementally less punishing than using d-pad mode."
Read more @ phonearena.com
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