Samsung u420: Did I just buy a very sexy peice of crap?

Visualy this phone is top notch, It's small sleek, big bright screen, the sliding mechanism is very fluid, and sound quality is pretty impressive. But in the end that's it.

It's got Bluetooth, but it only works for headsets. I can get it to descover and connect to my PC but then that's it, there are no services offered by the phone to do anything with like file transfer. That's like having a Ferrari just to drive to the corner store for milk. I can't pull off pictures, or upload homemade ringtones, or wallpapers let alone use it as a modem for my laptop. (it really may be a software issue on the PC side, but i can connect and transfer data using my friends Nokia flip phone that has bluetooth.)

What really urks me is that it looks like they originally had plans of allowing the phone to connect to a pc because in the menus there is a setting for PC connectivity where you can choose between Bluetooth, USB, or none. Heck they don't even offer a USB Data Cable for the device. There's no real support over on the Samsung website other than there "FAQ's" which is just a reiteration of the user guide that came with the phone.

I know the phone is still fairly new, so some of it may just be lack of support needed on my part, but i really just feel like I bought a state of the art 2 year old phone.

If some one else has this phone and is having better luck with it please help.

I'm feeling the same way, got it this week and I went out and got all the bluetooth stuff to go with it - get home and can't make any of it work.

Find out that the bluetooth is only for headsets

I mean, the phone already had a few bad thigns against it: No video playback, no headphone jack or MP3 player, and no memory slot...

I've moded my girlfriends RAZR that had all the stuff blocked, but this looks like It's too new to even think of doing that yet. We don't even have a dang Data cable to try and mod the FLEX or something.

Any help on how to fix any of this, or if there is a data cable that will work with this phone, please let us know.

I did read a post somewhere on the Brew forum about someone buying a u420 that came with a data cable, but on Samsungs Website when you view inbox details it only says the charger, phone and user guide. The packaging even has a place for a media card. It's like the developers and the marketing people never got together on this one.

Here's the link to the thread on the Brew Forum.

BREW Forums - Samsung USB Drivers - U420 and A645???

I ordered an package deal off ebay for my u420, it had the USB cable, car charger and wall charger all for about $10 shipped.

I tested the fit of a d807 (one of the phones listed to work with the ebay stuff) cable and it's the same type, so it should work fine. We just need to find drivers to work with it.

I've done tons of mods to my girlfriends V3c razr, with programs like PST, MPT, and the P2k programs.
But I have no idea what software to use for modding a Samsung phone, can you guys let me know what's out there?

Here's the link to Samsungs desktop software. I've tried using it with bluetooth to no avail. but it does have a USB connection option if you want to try it.

SAMSUNG's Digital World - Support

I had a VK phone with no connectivity... For months I just emailed myself whatever I wanted to transfer, and picked it up off my phone...

Yeah... that's an option... but I don't reccomend it...

Well, I got the package with the USB and other cables. Now all we need are some good drivers and a seem editing program =/

I really, really wish P2Kseem would work with this phone.

I installed some Samsung USB drivers, but I have no idea what they were from O.o No matter, though, it still worked
I've been playing around with bitpim and some other software. I can see the files on the phone but all the files I would want to mess with are blocked ("Access to this file/directory has been blocked on this phone by the provider")

So that means we're going to have to unblock them.
Who here knows of good seem editing software for Samsung phones? Something like P2Kseem would be nice

Man I'm soooo happy to see progress on this...
You're the freakin man, and as always if there's anything i can do to my phone to help out let me know.

Also got any links to the usb cables you bought or a brand name, something to go by, I want to get some ordered up.

bolverkchaos, you may want to check out this forum

Samsung - Mobile-Review.com Forums

They seem to have a lot of activity on the forum, although I couldn't find anything on the u420 there. I would have posted something on there but you know way more about what you're looking for than I do.

This is where I got mine. eBay: For Samsung T809 D807 T519 USB Cable+Car+Home Charger (item 250040168805 end time Oct-18-06 19:10:26 PDT)

The seller has lots of those kits in the store. I think it's all ending today though, so be quick! No telling if they'll have more soon.

If not, there are other sellers with the very same thing.

And thinks for the link, I'll see what they have to say.

Any updates bolverkchaos?

You know the one thing that really urks me about this phone... not that bluetooth is just for headsets, not even that PC connectivity was originaly built into the phone only to be pulled by Alltel so they could force the customer to use there Expensive service. But that they failed to include something as simple as a way to rotate a picture you've taken to allow you to fill the entire background without having to have white bars at the top and bottom. that's just recockuless

Eh. No real updates yet. I've been real busy with other stuff lately.

What we really need are drivers for the phone and something to make seem edits with - at least that's my best guess thus far.

I just hope some other people are working on this, need all the help we can get.

One sad thing I did find out though, the phone has already been discontinued, so the likely hood of samsung making anything else for the phone is very slim... That means, no drivers, data cables, or built in support in software. =/

makes me wish I was still in Alltel's 15 day trial period, this sucker would definitly go back.

of course on second thought this will be a nice phone when and if we get access to it.