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Samsung Beat-SGH-T539 Review - At a Glance

Samsung Beat-SGH-T539
Published on 3/6/2008
By: Noah Kravitz, Senior Editor, Consumer Products and Services
 
Editor Rating: 3.8
3 
3 
Samsung beatWhat’s Good: Compact, solid flip phone with front-mounted music controls/speaker, stereo Bluetooth support and straightforward music player; Includes 1GB memory card; Good IM support; Inexpensive.

What’s Not Good: Signal strength issues; Low-res display and less-than-pretty UI; Wired headphones require use of proprietary adapter.

Bottom Line: Beat is a simple flip with a pretty good music player and low price tag.  The phone’s design didn’t do much for me, and the display is low-res, but for a basic phone with music player, Beat’s not bad.  Just make sure you can get good reception with it where you live and work.

Specs:

  • Make/Model: Samsung Beat (SGH-T539)
  • Network: GSM Quad-Band
  • Data: EDGE (2.5G)
  • Carrier: T-Mobile USA (Locked)
  • Size: 90 x 46 x 17.8 mm
  • Weight: 77 g
  • Form Factor: Clamshell
  • Display: (Main) Color LCD, 128 x 160 Resolution, 65,000 Colors; (External) Color LCD, 96 x 96 Resolution
  • Memory:  18 MB built-in, microSD card slot, 1 GB microSD card included
  • Notable Features: Music player with background play and equalizer; Front-mounted music controls and speaker; myFaves support; AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ Instant Messaging support
Next: Introduction »

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Samsung Beat-SGH-T539 in-depth review - Introduction

Not everyone wants a smartphone, a phone with 30 buttons on it, or a phone that costs $400.  But lots of folks want phones that play music and handle text and IMs, or so it would seem from a glance at the major carriers’ current handset lineups.  The Samsung Beat for T-Mobile caters to folks who want a compact, easy to use phone with a good music player and pretty comprehensive messaging support — all at a low price.  You...

Samsung Beat-SGH-T539 in-depth review - Design & Features

Beat is a small, thick-ish clamshell handset built out of plastic.  It’s glossy black with a green ring around the front-mounted, circular speaker, and feels amazingly light when you first pick it up.  Though the all-plastic build doesn’t exactly scream “Luxury,” the phone actually felt pretty solid throughout my testing.  I didn’t worry about breaking the hinge or otherwise damaging Beat during normal use including the occasional...

Samsung Beat-SGH-T539 in-depth review - Usability & Performance

Beat worked very well as a phone provided that I could get a signal.  Its quad-band GSM radio had some trouble pulling down strong signals, but when calls connected they sounded very good over the internal earpiece and not bad at all over speakerphone.  Actually, the external speaker is much more useful as a speakerphone than boom box.  On the other hand, music sounded surprisingly good over the included earbuds (with in-line mic...

Samsung Beat-SGH-T539 in-depth review - Conclusion

Beat isn’t my favorite phone, but it does offer a quality music experience at a low price.  The inclusion of a 1GB memory card, stereo earbuds, and a headphone adapter make Beat ready to rock right out of the box.  Unfortunately, between the low-res displays, signal strength issues, and somewhat wonky keypad, Beat’s got a few issues to overcome. If you’re on T-Mobile and like Beat’s styling and price tag, it’s certainly worth a...
We got the beat: Samsung and T-Mobile release T539 beat music phone

We got the beat: Samsung and T-Mobile release T539 "beat" music phone

Samsung hit the wire today with specs, pics, and words regarding their new T-Mobile clamshell, the SGH-t539 "Beat."  Looking kind of like a Muziq or flip-form Chocolate with that external display and circle o' music controls, Beat features a 1.3mp camera in addition a bunch of music-oriented features like stereo Bluetooth support. What sets Beat apart - aside from its lime green accents - is that it actually includes a stereo headset,...
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Samsung Beat™ rocks with easy-to-use music features including external controls and high quality sound DALLAS — October 1, 2007 — Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung) announced today the availability of the Samsung Beat™ (SGH-t539). The Beat, a slick black flip phone, features a host of the most wanted, user-friendly mobile music features and provides a robust out of the box music experience. Available exclusively from...

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