Samsung Trance SCH-U490 Review

Verizon's Samsung Trance SCH-U490 seemed like a good idea at the time, but after using it for a while I have changed my opinion about it. It makes a good mp3 player, but that's about it.

There is very little documentation other than the manual when I search online. I bought an 8GB SDHC chip to upgrade the memory for it, and for some unknown reason it doesn't always recognize it. When I read the manual to try and solve this problem it is very generic and only describes how to insert a SD chip. Surprisingly, that action is very easy and I had already figured that out by the time I read about how to do it.

I have been able to get the USB Mass Storage feature to work with Windows Vista, XP, and 7. When I first plug in the phone using the included USB cable, Windows tells me there is a drive but it doesn't have any data and asks me to format it. I have found that if you use Windows to Safely Remove Hardware to remove the device and on the phone restart USB Mass Storage mode the drive letter will appear and the data will be there as well. I haven't found any documentation on this quirk anywhere.

Additionally, the phone does not always recognize the 8GB memory card. It does sometimes. I have a 128MB SD card and it always works so I don't really know if it is the phone or the 8GB memory card. I suspect the phone because I can always read the 8GB using the micro SD to SD adapter in my computer's SD port.

I have read about some phones not supporting SDHC but from all the documentation I have been able to find the SCH-U490 does support up to 16GB. I believe the Trance has a design flaw when it comes to recognizing SD memory, but I don't know enough about them to really be able to say for sure.

Aside from the memory problems, the phone does work as a phone. I am more than a little upset that Verizon has removed all games and apps, stuff that used to be free. I mean seriously, couldn't they have at least left solitaire on there? I find this very hostile toward customers.

I am leaning towards getting a new Android phone when I am capable of doing so, but for now I am locked into a Verizon contract. This is something else I am displeased with. The entire cell phone industry seems to be way overpriced and they lock you into their contracts by charging you for discontinuing the service. Verizon said it would cost over $350 dollars for me to cancel my contract. Are you serious?