The Samsung SCH-u340 Lacks Compare to Other Verizon Cell Phones

As the weather slowly starts to get better, it's times to start calling friends and family to make plans. But perhaps your wireless prepaid plan is eating away at your wallet. Often times you'll see several cellular phone companies offering new deals such as lower text messages rates and early free nighttime minutes. Recently Verizon Wireless has introduce a prepaid plan that allows users to only pay for calls on the days you use your phone. No more daily access fees. One of the older plans was a fee of $0.99 for unlimited mobile to mobile Verizon network calling, $0.10 a minute and free nights starting at 9:01pm. Now to have free nighttime minutes, you need to pay $1.99 per day while you still have unlimited mobile to mobile and $0.05 per minute for domestic calls. International rates vary depending on where you are calling to. I was going to stick with my old plan but unfortunately was stuck buying a new phone due to a phone charger refusing to work. I originally had purchased the Verizon Wireless CDM 7075

I went and used another person's charger who had the exact phone model as mine and it worked just fine. Unfortunately though you can't borrow someone else's phone charger every time you need to re-charge. I went to the local electronics store and was surprised at how much a new charger was going to cost me. With tax the price was $31.00. After paying for the charger, I had realized that you could buy a new phone with $10.00 of airtime and the charger for around $40.00 in Wal*Mart. When I went to try my new charger, it flashed the blinking green light indicating it was an invalid charger. I tried with another phone of the exact same model and it was invalid again. I returned the product for a refund and was informed the young man made a mistake and they didn't carry any tips that would work in that phone model.

Still stuck with no way to re-charge my phone, I decided to go and buy a new Verizon Prepaid cell phone figuring $10.00 in airtime included would be the same as paying for the charger alone. I decided to go with the Samsung SCH-u340 camera phone in the shade of blue. I charged the phone and turned it on only to be displeased with the new phone. I started to compare this phone with the previous one. Both had cameras and a speaker phone. All the standard items such as text messages, preloaded ring tones and most tools were included. But the Samsung phone lacks in some areas.

Such as you don't have any access to the mobile web. Nor do you have access to your account information. Now when you want to find out how much of a balance you have, you need to dial a number directly to Verizon to hear how much you have. It doesn't cost anything to do this but is less convenient. Now instead of being able to check discreetly via the keypad, you need to wait and listen. Also missing is a stopwatch under the tools section. The phone lacks having the ability to download games and other extras that are offered in the previous phone. While the menu gives you the option of colorful icons used to show your options, when clicking under a section, it's quite dull color wise. You have the basic colors of red, black and white along with no icon picture.

The main screen doesn't appear as crisp and clean. It has the same items as the other Verizon Wireless CDM 7075 model such as battery network strength, date and time, menu, contacts and messages. The keypad color is a faded teal while the other Verizon phone had a bright brisk blue dial keys. This phone will have to due but not having the option of mobile web is a bummer now. And needing to switch to one of their new plans may now become costly for those who used to be able to have unlimited nights for only $0.99 a day. While they have changed being charged only on the days you use your phone, refill cards still are needed regardless if you have money every 30-120 days depending on which refill card you use.

This phone is okay for someone looking to take a few pictures here and there and make calls. The camera itself takes average quality photos. Make sure when looking for a prepaid plan that you check everything that is and isn't included. Check out reviews of the service, cost and quality of the phone before purchasing one.