Samsung SPH M540 - Red (Unlocked) Cellular Phone

The Samsung Rant is a powerful and extremely versatile Sprint cell phone. This mobile phone does almost everything from music playing to video capturing to email sending/receiving. The Rant is marketed as a messaging phone and it’s well suited for text-a-holics since it has two keyboards, a standard alphanumerical on the outside and a full QWERTY keyboard on the inside.

The Rant is a great phone for teens because it is exceptionally affordable with a two-year Sprint contract agreement and is perfect for texting, the main form of mobile communication enjoyed by teens. However, it is also actually a very functional phone as well, so all age groups may find this cell phone attractive.

Design and Features

This sideways type slider type cell phone comes in red, black and purple and includes a 262K color TFT screen that can change orientation based on whether the QWERTY keyboard is slid out or not. It is a little heavy at 130 grams; however the iPhone 3G is 133 grams, so the Samsung Rant is not exceptionally overweight for such a capable mobile phone. One break-from-the-crowd feature included with this cell phone is the ability to have its memory expanded up to 16GB, which makes it a good Sprint alternative to the iPhone 3G 16GB.

The Rant is an extraordinary messaging phone. It not only has an easy to use QWERTY keyboard for fast texting but it can also send all types of messages, including SMS, MMS and IM through AOL, Windows Live and Yahoo.

This Samsung cell phone is a competitive music phone that can play MP3s and is compatible with the Sprint Music Store and Sprint Radio. The Rant can multitask by playing music and running other functions of the phone at the same time. This cell phone is also compatible with Sprint TV, Sprint Exclusive Entertainment and Sprint’s made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video programming network. Of course, it also works with advanced stereo Bluetooth wireless technology, so music sounds great and is hands-free.

An interesting addition to this phone, that you don’t see in older cell phones, is the Live Search for Sprint feature, powered by Microsoft that provides access to directory information, GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call. These features are extremely helpful and set this phone ahead of basic music cell phones.

What’s Missing

This phone, odd as it may seem, is not WiFi compatible. It would also be nice if it could IM using GoogleTalk. The screen resolution is also not too exciting at only 176 x 220 pixels and it would be a better music phone if it could play more audio file types.

Summary

The Samsung Rant is an excellent Sprint music cell phone.

My old phone was on it's way out so I figured it was time to buy a new phone. Since my contract still has a year and a half left with Sprint and couldn't get enough money for a while to save on a new phone from Sprint itself, I decided to look on ebay. I searched the web for popular sprint phones and looked into several. I came across this one and it sounded really good so that's why I looked into buying one if the price was right. The one thing that I don't like about this phone is the fact that it doesn't have an outbox for text messages. So for example if a text doesn't send, you'll have to retype it all out and that's a pain. Otherwise all the other features I do believe I like. It's nice with the slide out full qwerty keyboard as well. You can either text as you would on a normal cell phone or use the slide out keyboard. The camera on this phone is actually really good as well. You wouldn't expect many cell phone cameras to be this good, but this one is. Battery life from what I can tell is good also. I use it mostly to text and it lasts for quite a while for me. I've only had this phone for about 2 months so maybe it's too soon to talk, but we'll have to see and hope for the best. Overall I like this phone. I would sugguest if you're looking for a new Sprint cell phone, you go with this one as it comes in 3 different colors (black, purple, and red). It's a nice phone. Buy it today. :)

This phone was a hopeful replacement for my bad luck with the LG Rumor.
I was happy with this phone for the most part.
It was definitley more functional than the Rumor, with a better overall quality and design.
I chose purple- which was a great color. One of my favorite features of the phone.
The keyboard was a great feature.
I think that this is a decent phone, especailly for one that enjoys texting.

It's blissful from screen to touch keys; and, it slides!!! This slider phone is enjoyable for the business or young folks out there who love technology abled cell phones. I bought a 4gb memory microSD upgrade for the phone for all my favorite MP3 songs and photos. The personal carousel feature is perfect for scrolling left to right or right to left and email and messages are accessable in one click. I recently used its GPS navigation to drive 3hrs out of town. Everything about it is flawless. Nothing better than this phone!

The Samsung Rant has a full QWERTY keyboard, a megapixel camera, EV-DO, stereo Bluetooth, music player, GPS, and access to Sprint's 3G services. It also has the easy-to-use One Click interface from Sprint.