The first review of the first LTE phone in America. Can the Samsung Craft on MetroPCS answer its WiMAX rivals in the marketplace today? Read more to find out.
As you may know, we’ve moved to a more fast-paced review format. As such, this may be our shortest review ever. Don’t buy this phone. Period.
The Samsung Craft is purely a test mule phone for MetroPCS. It’s a great device for helping MetroPCS engineers establish protocols, make sure activation systems work, and get their 4G network up and running. However, it also gives LTE a horrible first impression with the United States.
This is a BREW feature phone, with just about everything interesting neutered. No tethering. No apps that deliver a compelling 4G experience. Not even an Opera Mini-grade web browsing experience. We’re not sure why Wi-Fi made it into this phone.
The lack of fallback to EVDO is even more sickening. MetroPCS’s 4G network, from our experiences over the past 24 hours, means you’ll be falling back to 1xRTT-only… a lot. All the time. Walking across streets. It reminds us of AT&T Wireless’s GSM network rollout. It’s really dismal.
Don’t get us wrong, there’s nothing technically defective about this resistant-touch screen feature phone. Calls work, Bluetooth works, apps work. But there’s nothing that justifies this phone’s existence either. You’d be much better off buying any other phone on MetroPCS right now. With no contracts, there’s no need to suggest getting this phone just for the better network. And, we expect the price on this phone to crater as soon as there is a compelling LTE device on MetroPCS.
Like we said, this was going to be a fast review.
Pros: It has LTE
Cons: It has no reason to use LTE
Rating: Editor’s Choice – Good Buy – Mediocre – Do Not Buy
As an investor I had to get my hands on this phone to compare it with Sprint’s Wimax in Las Vegas. The phone is mediocre at best, however the network is nothing short of pathetic. If you think ATT’s network is bad then I suggest you use Metro PCS. From what I understand their network is running on a 1G and 2G platform for most of their coverage. If this is the LTE that is going to destroy Sprint’s Wimax then I suggest you load up with Sprint stock before it goes through the roof.
Sprint already has 53 markets covered compared to Metro PCS’s single market. By the end of the year Sprint will have 80 markets with 120+ million POPS of 4G compared to Metro PCS’s 3 to 4. Currently Sprint’s 3G network covers twice ATT’s and 14 times TMo’s 3G coverage and where Sprint lacks 4G they still have an excellent 3G platform to fall back on which is not the case for PCS.
Any doubts I had regarding Sprint’s Wimax has been completely erased with this LTE 4G from PCS. I just can’t wait for L.A., S.F., D.C., N.Y., Denver and Miami to officially launch their 4G Wimax networks in the next one or two months.
PCS’ LTE 4g is a joke, if this is what LTE 4g is all about, then ATT is wise to hold back on its 4g layout. I must say Sprint appears to be on the right track with their Wimax. Wimax is here with a muture eco-system and plenty of spectrum, whereas LTE still doesn’t have a uniform spectrum and is at least two year lagging behind Wimax. Other than it being a standard chosen by the major Telcos it still has a long way to go before it becomes standardized. In the meantime Sprint’s Wimax will evolve into Wimax 2 with download speeds guaranteed to exceed 100 mbps.
PCS did no justice to LTE by being the first to launch LTE 4G.
this review is pretty rough for a phone that has only been out a few days. I do argree sprints wimax is a better 4g path, but as far as this review goes it really didnt even talk about the phone it was more an lte review then anything for metro. I think the person who wrote this needs to do the phone some justice and do an actually review of the device itself. just my 2 cents
I love how everyone is slamming the 3 day old release of Metro’s LTE. Why don’t we all relax and give it a chance? Do people slam a 1 year old taking his first step when he progresses from crawling? No, it’s def not perfect but give it a few weeks or a couple of months so they can work out the bugs. As far as the phone, I have to agree that it’s not what I would have liked to have seen for a first LTE phone which is why I won’t bother, but I have full faith in Metro that they will perfect the LTE experience and release phones that will be more worthy of the LTE connection they were built for.
Oh, and the comment about “The lack of fallback to EVDO is even more sickening.” It is widely known that Metro never implemented their 3G network and skipped right over it for their LTE, so why would that have changed?
I love how people agree with us that a $300 BREW4 phone is a bad start for LTE on MetroPCS, then attack us for being quick to coming to the same conclusion in our editorial.
We could have this phone for the next 25 years, our opinion isn’t going to change. We’ve been in this industry for over seven years now, we know how to review a phone. I’ve yet to see anyone else give a favorable review of the Craft, and the LTE reception is certainly as-described in the review. We know how to review that too… we use the same tools the industry does in making these devices.
Quite the contrary, I agreed with your review of the phone and said it would not be a phone I would bother with and wouldn’t have attacked you for that, but I still don’t think a review of a brand new network 3 days after it’s release is giving it a fair chance.
However if you can, would it be possible to allow for another review of the LTE network after it matured a bit? Would your site do Metro some justice and critique their 4G network in say, 3 months time?
Of course we’ll be reviewing future LTE devices from MetroPCS.
However, Clearwire waits months to launch their 4G networks, just to make sure it really does work everywhere.
Why MetroPCS didn’t, I suspect, was to inflate stock prices by shaming Verizon during Verizon’s LTE announcement at their conference this week.
MetroPCS shouldn’t get a pass for a poor launch. They should be criticized for it, and we’re happy to be one of the first (if not the first) to call them out on it. Their LTE network should work reasonably well from day one. AT&T Wireless learned that with GSM the hard way, and it cost them their company. If anything, we’re trying to keep history from repeating itself.
Mr Price the title of this post reads review samsung craft. I dont not feel that you did a good job revewing this phone as it was more based on the network then the phone itself. rename the title of this post to review of metro’s lte network. then ill be ok with what has been written(by they way I do agree with most of what was written) there was no talk of waht the PHONE could do or not do no specs laid out no camera review, no os review,nothing on why there needs to be a im card if the network does not need it to id the phone and so on. thanks
Mr Price doesn’t represent the views of PCS customers. The reviews from the customer base has been overly positive. They like the phone. What Mr. Price doesn’t undertsand is the PCS customers aren’t iPhone or Android users. This Craft is right up their alley. His only desire was to make fun of the 1st LTE handset, because it wasn’t up to his expectations.
The other reveiews of how superior WiMAX is to LTE is laughable. Please explain why CLear is already talking about a move to LTE? That’s right! The limitations and costs of WiMAX.
With the rollout of LTE by other companies and the roaming agreements that will occur, PCS is in a prime spot to steal more mind share and customers in the years to come. Better handsets are on their way shortly, along with more cities. People fail to realize that this is a Regional Carrier that does business better than the big boys. Good job metroPCS in being the 1st to launch LTE! I have faith you will continue to grow, as your business model is proven! Boo!!! to the bloviating Chris Price and his unbiased views. Chances are he will hate whatever Android phones they come out with as well.
JD, where did we attack LTE as a platform? We said nothing about LTE not having a future in America… your attack of our review is based on the false premise that we are making claims about MetroPCS in the future.
If anything, we hope this convinces MetroPCS to fix their network and roll it out in a responsible manner. That’s what we’ve been doing for seven years, and we’ve seen companies like the legacy AT&T Wireless fail due to botched rollouts.
So where arethe handsets or networks that you all have developed that are so dynamic? Inventor, engineer,
technician? it is a continuation of a process maybe? then again i am sure that many of you have more than one device and no doubt from more that one provider. I am also sure that the compnay is doing something right, Otherwise you wouldn’t need to waste you valuable time complaining.
Hey “customer”… you need to take a logic class. You wouldn’t know a false premise if a straw man smacked you with a fallacy on the back of the head.
[…] the Craft along with a $55 or $60 monthly plan. Before you do, though, make sure to check out the PhoneNews.com review of the Samsun Craft. I honestly have no idea why they didn’t load Android onto […]
I disagree with this review. Nothing is going to be perfect in the beginning. There will always be some kinks to work out. Considering that a 1x regional carrier like MetroPCS became the 5th largest carrier in the country and has now jumped to 4G, I say they are doing excellent! A repeat of an AT&T situation wont happen most likely because MetroPCS started at the bottom so theres really no way to go but up. As far as all the apps, I’d rather NOT have. Nowadays people demand so many extra things that are not needed for a cell phone.
A comparison to Sprint’s 4G network isnt really a good one because Sprint has been around for years, and have 3G to fall back on. MetroPCS is somewhat the rookie without much to fall on. But they will get better very soon. They have an android device coming and they’re pressing forward. They’ll work things out, and maybe even end up on top.
yes i agree with isaac, even though metro wasnt that big when they first came out, there makin a difference now. they started with nothing but sometimes thats what u have to do to get where u want to go. look at aAT&T, sprint, T-moble that charges so much for phone service and all these other taxes that people never even heard of. they charge to terminate a service ($200 just to make money on u after u tried to run). its like joining a gang and trying to leave, they hold u for ransom and than they let u go after u pay everything off.
forget u guys; i love metroPCS theyre my bubby. ive been with metro for 6 years and i will never leave. especially when they have a 4g network now. holla.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My problem with the the Craft is mainly its touting of 4G LTE. Initially we heard that LTE was going to kill Wimax, LTE was better than Wimax, LTE had speeds similar to the speed of light, LTE this and that. Why? Because Verizon’s Spin Machines just couldn’t stomach Sprint or anyone else trumping them in the onward march of technology. So when a LTE platform was finally lauched without all the miracles it was to bring, the Verizon Spin machines suddenly went into remission by disseminating the truth about LTE and its practicality. In essence we found out that LTE and Wimax are essentially 85% similar technologies, with similar download speeds. We also learned that Wimax 2 (802.16m) easily met the minimum threshold required by the ITU and would be ratified in November of 2010, making it commercially ready for deployment in 2011.
The truth of the matter is Wimax is a thoroughly tested global platform with a mature ecosystem while LTE is in its infancy. Beceem, recently purchased by Broadcom, a leading 4G chip manufacturer has developed a 4G chip that enables Wimax and LTE to work in conjuction with one another. This being said it won’t matter which platform is final winner. What matters is that 99% of those so called 4G networks are currently using Wimax and LTE won’t be as pervasive for at least another 3 to 5 years. If LTE’s ecosystem truly appears to be better then all the Wimax carriers, thanks to the likes Beceem, will make the transition with little cost in dong so, however at this moment Wimax is evolving very well and continues to lead as a platform. Last but not least one should not forget the Spectrum holdings of each and every company touting their 4G platforms, without sufficient spectrum none of these platforms will optimally function as well as they claim. Metro’s limited spectrum is their main handicap.
[…] have the handsets to back it. Right now it is limited to the Samsung Craft, which was met with a scathing review from PhoneNews.com. That won’t always be the case, of course. In fact, as Maisie Ramsay of Wireless Week […]
Samsung craft is a big big joke. I’m not an export at reviewing electronics but I’ll try to explain my experience with the phone to the best of my ability. I had my samsung caliber stolen and bought the craft instead but in my opinion its worst than the caliber. I’m unable to return it since I’m not a new customer. You can’t enlarge texts to your liking so if you have bad eyes you won’t be able to see the words correctly, and this also causes you to constantly open the wrong page when using the touchscreen. I have to tap several times and although it appears as if I’m tapping on the link I want to open, it doesn’t seem to work accurately. On the caliber you can enlarge the page sufficiently so the tapping is accurate. I constantly get “metroweb is currently unavailable” and this never happened with the caliber. Its just a slow as the caliber when browsing the web. Video is very, very pixelated and choppy. I constantly have to reload webpages because it freezes. The only thing better is the sound and brighter screen. There’s no way to attach a stylus or loop. I wish I hadn’t bought it.
The phone is a good strart for metro and is the best its done so i say buy it. Thats what im going to do
@taymetro: The only reason I’ll say you should not buy this phone right now is because there is an Android 4G phone coming out at the end of this month with Metro. So if I were you I’d wait just a bit longer. Unless you prefer this phone.
[…] Another factor that will contribute to this growth, which Cisco overlooked: More and more feature phones (non-smartphones) will be operating on faster wireless networks. The new LTE network from MetroPCS is already handling traffic from some feature phones, such as the Samsung Craft. […]