Samsung Replenish Good for a Teenager?

[dorelse]

My daughter will be getting her first cellphone shortly. Wondering what people's impression of the phone are for a Android beginner?

Things I like:

Price $0 (that's a must for their first phone actually)
No Premium Data change ($10/mo)
No Slider (ie durability)
Still Android, so Apps are there
Reviews are mostly positive

Dislikes:

She wants a 'feature flip phone'...ie Kyocera Milano, Samsung Trender. (Normally, no prob, but...she's gonna have the phone for 2 years, and I know that a feature phone will soon outgrow her needs.)

There are some troubling reviews, screen seems really low res comparatively..

Color choices...seems trivial, but its something I know she'll like.


So...tell me the good vs. bad...a Transform Ultra is another choice of hers.

 

[GPOT]

Its a piece of $#1T

Bad: Cant even play angry birds without lag. I would go for another phone. I am in high school and I have it and I really dont like it.
Go for the transform ultra

Good: No premium data charge, QWERTY keyboard

 

[dorelse]

I've read this forum pretty extensively, so I am hearing about the performance complaints...Thanks GPOT

 

[GPOT]

I've read this forum pretty extensively, so I am hearing about the performance complaints...Thanks GPOT

Glad to help!

 

[fencerjared]

For myself, it works perfectly. I just want to be able to get online on the go, stream music, etc; also, I like the physical keyboard. Despite my age, I'm not interested in all the hip crap people want from their phones nowadays; I play no games whatsoever on this device, nor do I load a lot of apps. From what I've seen of every teenager's phone that comes into Best Buy for repairs, they are the exact opposite. I'm thinking lack of power and lack of storage space (Facebook app alone is 20mB, I think) will leave her very unhappy with this phone. Don't forget, this is actually billed by Sprint as a "feature-phone" as well.

 

[dorelse]

For myself, it works perfectly. I just want to be able to get online on the go, stream music, etc; also, I like the physical keyboard. Despite my age, I'm not interested in all the hip crap people want from their phones nowadays; I play no games whatsoever on this device, nor do I load a lot of apps. From what I've seen of every teenager's phone that comes into Best Buy for repairs, they are the exact opposite. I'm thinking lack of power and lack of storage space (Facebook app alone is 20mB, I think) will leave her very unhappy with this phone. Don't forget, this is actually billed by Sprint as a "feature-phone" as well.

Well...for comparison, my 14 yo son has an LG Optimus S...and he doesn't do a lot on it. Part of the reason I like the Replenish as her first phone is it is a bit underpowered. I don't want her on FB (actually not permitted yet by Mom & Dad), I'm not paying the extra $10/mo fee, and she has to prove she's responsible and can take care of this one before she'll get a better one.

Really, she'd be fine with some of the more basic feature phones, but the Replenish would allow some apps as well.

Thanks guys!

 

[patchs]

I just got my 11-year-old daughter the Replenish last week.
She loves it, plays Angry Birds, texts her friends, etc. It's easier for her to type with the keyboard.
So far, (knock on wood), no problems.
And not having to pay Sprint an extra $10 helps us too.

 

[dorelse]

Honestly...that's exactly my thought as well. Free phone, no $10/mo smartphone fee...still Android...seems like win-win to me.

 

[cathyv]

I have read tons of bad reviews about the replenish. Most of it is about the screen locking up, limited apps running on it and battery life.
But seeing how you get a 14 day return on it, I decided to give it a try. Well, I'm giving 4 of them a try. One for me, one for my 20 college student, one for my 18 college student, and one for my 15 high school student.
My kids have had phones for 4 plus years. But it has always been just phones and texting. I wanted to step up to Data without a high cost, so we went with the Replenish.

We are seven days in to our testing and I can say,
1) it does freeze on some apps.
2) You will have to charge it nightly. (This is the biggest problem we have. Our blackjack 2 would keep a charge for three days. I kept the factory setting on my replenish for the first three days and the battery lasted for 2.5 days.)
3) Running apps and playing games using alot of battery (My daughter puts her phone on the charger in the car, so she can play games without using up the battery. BTW: Playing games on my motorola Q eats battery life too. I think this is true for all smart phones.)
4) You have to make sure you close and background apps or your battery will not last 4 hours. (Again: Some problem with all smart phones.)

Personally, we are still testing but it's a great phone that you can get easy data with. Cheap data that will meet our needs.
I will say if your daughter really wants games and the "HIP COOL" things get her the replenish and take the $240 that the extra data would cost you and get her an ipod touch too. (Hey if you get the ipod touch now at target it's only $135. Making it alot cheaper to have a phone and a device to do the cool hip things with.

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