Samsung Juke Cell Phone Review - Conclusion
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Robin Liss Published on November 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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Who's It For
Business User
A business user would never want the Juke. It has bad battery life, no browser, and barely even tries to have organizer software.
Budget Callers
This will be the budget caller's iPhone. If they can't find a phone that's free with contract, or they want a cheap music player, the Juke is a solid option.
Chatty Teenager
Chatty teenagers will find the Juke hangs up on them due to battery loss. They'll love the number of songs they can store on it, but the keypad isn't conducive to texting and the camera can't capture video. It does have a certain aesthetic flair, however, and a unique form factor which is sure to catch a few eyes. For a $100 phone, the Juke might be a solid pick.
Media Maven
This is the demographic the Juke is meant for. Will media mavens like the Juke? For its cost, and for an entry-level phone, the Juke provides amazing functionality. The Juke is comparable to the Sanyo M1 in terms of internal memory, and it costs more than twice the Juke does when it first came out. If a media maven is looking for the best music device, the Juke isn't it; that designation would go to the iPhone. If they're looking for a more encompassing media device, with great image/video capture and video playback, the Juke isn't the choice either. The Juke is, however, a decent music-oriented, entry-level handset.
Conclusion
Basically, the Juke is what it says it is and very little else. We like the Juke in this respect, as it's a pretty good MP3 player with a phone tacked on. No, the phone can't handle e-mail. No, it doesn't have a Web browser. Yes, it has a camera, but no, it isn't very good. No, it doesn't support video playback or capture, either. As for the majority of the rest of the software: no, it isn't very good, either. But that's fine; the Juke doesn't pretend to be a do-it-all smart phone. Instead, it's a fun, attractive, quirky little phone with decent music software that can hold about 2 GB worth of music -- but that's it.
We do have to give the Juke respect for knowing what it is and being incredibly focused. We're actually surprised the camera was even included, regardless of how bad it is. You can't fault the phone for not having the best software when that's clearly not its focus. This is not a smart phone: it's an MP3 player that just happens to be a phone. The Juke does, however, have one major flaw: its battery life. This is a fairly large hurdle in its quest to be a music player with telephone tendencies. Normal MP3 players last far longer for music playback, and don't have the downside of killing your phone when they run out of batteries. In spite of this, the Juke is a decent, cheap music/phone combo, which performs decently in its self-assigned sphere.
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