Customer Reviews

Samsung B2710 Solid Immerse Sim Free Mobile Phone - Black (Water & Dust Proof)

This is the best tough phone available. It has some flaws, but no other robust phone is anywhere near as good, and most of the alternatives cost a lot more. If you are happy to have a fragile phone, then you'll get more functionality elsewhere; but if you want tough, this is the one.

I am a farmer without mains electricity, and bought a Solid Immerse a few months ago as a big-battery robust phone which would do a bit more than the basics. I am very pleased with it: it is tough, has great call quality, big and easy-to-use buttons, excellent predictive text, and a very crisp and bright display which works well even when outdoors in bright sunlight. As a voice-call-and-text phone, I give it 19 out of 10, and I love its handy little built-in LED torch. The smartphone functions are not so well implemented, and can massively reduce the otherwise-excellent battery life.

BATTERY

Some reviewers have criticised the battery life, but that depends on what it is being used for. If I just do texting and voice calls, it lasts for many days without a recharge, and there are plenty of accounts of it lasting on standby for well over a month. If you want a phone to take the wilderness for emergency calls, this is your only choice: there is nothing else which will stay on standby for longer.

However if I start using the 3G functions (email, web browsing, Facebook etc) I can flatten the battery in two days, and occasionally in one. That seems to be an endemic problem with smartphones too, so I guess those functions use a lot of power. This is a chunky phone, rather than a svelte prop for fashion victims, so it wouldn't have hurt to have made the battery much bigger. Samsung also needs to work on its battery-level indicator, which remains on 5 bars for ages, 4 for almost as long, 3 bars for a lot less, and by the the time its on 2 bars it's almost over. I quickly got used to this, but it would be much clearer to have each bar representing one fifth of the total battery life.

ROBUSTNESS

I have dropped this phone in all sorts of places where I didn't think it would survive: off buildings, into mud, into ditchwater, and it was completely undamaged. No other phone that I could afford would do that, so I am delighted with my choice. I did succeed in damaging the phone: it fell 3 metres (10 feet) face-down onto a sharp piece of builders crushed-rock, and the result was a small hairline crack in one corner of the screen's hard plastic cover. The actual display is fine, and the crack doesn't impede my usage, whereas any other phone would have been an expensive collection of broken bits. The display cover is some sort of very hard plastic, which I have found impossible to scratch, but it's a good idea to remove the supplied soft plastic screen protector, because it's not needed and makes the screen a bit blurry.

CAMERA

The camera is nothing fancy: 2megapixels, no zoom, only 320X240 video. However it's fine for quick snaps, and it's very easy to email the photos or upload them to Facebook. To have that sort of functionality in such a robust phone is brilliant.

SOFTWARE

The downside of this phone is the rest of its software. The Facebook application is a bit crude in design, which I can live with, but I don't like the way that it frequently fails to load the page. This seems to be linked to some combination of the quality of the 3G signal and the load on some severs: it can fail entirely at peak times in poor signal areas, but it's much much better in the middle of the night where the signal is good. The phone would be much more useful if this software was improved, because for now I find it easier to use Facebook through the web browser, which is not an approach well-suited to a relatively small screen.

The built-in email is pretty good, but needs some tweaking. The input uses the same excellent predictive text as the SMS system, with choice of words displayed in a pop-up menu. This is much easier to use than the one-alternative-at-a-time system on old the Nokias I used to have, and I got quite fast at typing emails. The emailer handles multiple accounts quite smoothly, and copes fine with attachments, but it is let down by poor memory management. Firstly, it limits the size of emails to 2K characters of text, which is enough for most purposes but is woefully inadequate when replying with quoted text. A much higher limit would make the email a lot more useful.

The second problem with the email is that it stores all the messages in internal memory, and there is no way of changing this to use the memory card (none supplied, I bought a SanDisk 16GB microSDHC Memory Card for under �15). Photos, internet downloads etc can all be directed straight to the memory card, but emails cannot even be moved there. This is a nuisance, because the internal memory is only about 32MB (shared with SMS, contacts list, wallpapers, etc), and it fills up very quickly when emails have attachments. The only solution is to purge the mailbox frequently, which should not be needed.

ALTERNATIVES

The bottom line for me is that no other phone which would survive my usage has anywhere near as much functionality or usability. The previous model Samsung B2100 Solid Extreme Sim Free Mobile Phone is robust, but has a lousy display; the Land Rover S1 costs almost �400 and the Sonim phones start at over �275 for the Sonim XP3 2.0 Quest Sim Free Mobile Phone - Black, while the JCB Toughphones are 2G only (no email, no Facebook, no web browser). Some reviews elsewhere recommend the �250 Motorola Defy, a toughphone that runs Android and sounds great, but the earpieces on the Defy stop working and Motorola doesn't seem to want to fix them.

So if I lose my phone, I'll buy another Solid Immerse. But Samsung ... please please please please please please improve the email and Facebook software, and fix the battery level indicator. Oh, and do supply a USB cable with the phone, to save us having to go off and buy an Izzibuyer Usb Data Cable for Samsung Solid Immerse.

this is a very good phone. i have broken many a phone and the ones that wouldnt die didnt make calls properly. this one is exellent. it gets good reception, has good call audio (i am a sound engineer), it will film video underwater, it has survived a pint of guiness, opening a bottle of beer, and a six foot drop so far. it also does google maps quicker than my friends blackberry, email etc. if you are a clumbsy big fingered fool who works in a dirty wet dusty and loud enviroment and your sick of fancy phones that dont call people when you really need to, then get this phone. its a keeper

I had a Samsung Solid. the M110, before which was about 3 years old. Rugged though it was it did not completely survive me falling over and using it to break my fall although the only damage is a small faulty area of the display.

I bought the B2710 not really knowing what I was going to get but hoping it would be as good as the Solid and a bit more up to date. The verdict is that it is superb! The B2710 is just as rugged as the M110 with the same watertight, dust proof case and good chunky, reliable keyboard. It is physically slightly larger than the M110 but not much. However it is also a fairly smart phone which gives me internet access to Google, Facebook, Twitter and all my email, a versatile multimedia player and other possibly useful features like a compass, pedometer and a torch as well as the usual games, FM radio etc.

Getting used to the slightly different text input methods with the B2710 compared to the M110 is taking a little time but is no problem. This phone has a 2M pixel camera as opposed to the 1.3M of the M110 which may be a benefit to some. It records video in addition to still photos. You can add a microSD card to increase memory capacity. It also has a very large loop for a safety string or chain if you need one.

In short, I love it, as I do most Samsung products. Falling over clutching my M110 may have done me a favour because I now wonder how I managed so long without a superb smart phone like this. It is unlocked so drop your SIM in and off you go! Buy one without delay.

Bought the phone for my wife as other phones don't last her long. We have horses so she spends a lot of time outside in the yard, she also runs a guesthouse so the mobile is key to her business.
With this in mind I decided to go for a tough phone after she had dropped two other phones in buckets of water and others had been blocked with hay dust and dirt.
She has a contract with 3 so the criteria was;
- 3G capability
- Water proof
- Dust proof
- Bluetooth
- Must have keypad
- Simple to use (she's technophobic!!!)

anything else is a bonus.

I'm glad to say that this phone has met this requirements with flying colours and she is realy pleased with it so far (4 weeks on ). Google maps with GPS is great just like my smartphone although she is unlikely to use it.
If you want a phone to use AS A PHONE, this is it.

The Solid Immerse (catchy name) is advertised by Samsung as one of the most rugged phones on the market; being waterproof, dustproof and drop resistant whilst containing a variety of features for the outdoor type.
The first thing that you realise when taking the phone out the box is that it is not going to win you any cool points amongst your iPhone wielding friends, but of course that isn't the point of this phone. The thick dimensions of this phone and the fact it is relatively lightweight due to the use of mainly rubber and plastic as materials, often makes this phone feel like a TV remote when it is sat in your hand.
The 240x320 pixel screen is not particularly impressive but of course the larger screens are known to break easier. The rubber coated keypad is easy to use apart from the one criticism of not having a dedicated delete button. The main navigation control is ergonomically considerate and sensitive to use without the feeling of fragility.
The keys along the side feature and up and down arrow, which controls both volume and zoom depending on the circumstance and a dedicated button for the torch. The small rubber cover that covers the charge and headphone socket is just below this.
The top features a sturdy indent created a loop for the attaching of ether a loop or lanyard type system and a rather impressive torch.
The back reveals the poor quality 2 megapixel camera, which has no flash and also a 160x128 video recorder which is so poor it is pointless. The compartment of the battery, sim card and memory unit is covered with a single piece of plastic with a hefty turning locking mechanism, an aesthetically poor choice put dose the job very well.

The interface consists of a scrolling menu upon initial start up featuring your selected shortcuts, such as email, SMS and contact list; the screen layout is very clean with ease of use in mind. The user can then access the menu from which they can access every aspect of their phone.
The phone features many useful applications; it allows the user to access social networking sights using the phone's inbuilt 3G or using the mobile internet but I found using this type of application drains the battery incredibly fast, if the headphones are connected they can be used as a aerial and allow the phone to pickup FM radio, the inbuilt image editor includes many basic features for editing your photos, the voice recorder is of a very good quality and great for those nights out, the phone also features Bluetooth allowing the sharing of files and the use of most headsets and hands free devices, the inbuilt timer and stop watch are very useful when ether running or timing things such as command tasks, the inbuilt pedometer is not great quality but can be used for very rough distance estimates or a basic step count, I found the compass to be of a good quality but nowhere near a good enough level of accuracy to replace carrying a standard compass.
I personally have this phone on an Orange contract, only after purchasing the phone did i realise the use of Orange maps comes at a extra fee, of course this is no problem if you have internet access as the Google maps application is compatible with this phone. Whilst using Google maps the phone gave me a rough estimate of my location accurate to 1600 metres, the actual dot was approximately 500 metres from my actual location. The application allows zooming in and out using the 1 and 3 keys whilst along the map to be viewed as ether a hybrid overlay onto of a Google earth image or as what looks like a standard map. You can search the map and get directions just like you are using it on your pc.
I found the web browser to be incredibly slow at loading any web pages but of course this is not what this phone was designed to be for.
Whilst on the phone the voice is clear on the speaker and after asking the people I'm talking to they find no problem hearing and understanding me talking even with acceptable levels of background noise.
The phone claims to be waterproof and dustproof and i confirm whilst submerged in hot water the phone still worked.
The main problem I have with this phone is it often freezes and requires the battery to be taken out to restart the phone; it normally happens when I am sending a text or using an application and then receive a text. I have sent an email to Samsung and am yet to get a reply.
I have managed to find the phone for around �100 sim less, I personally have the phone on a �15 a month contract with 50 minutes voice calls, unlimited texts and 250mb internet, which meant the phone handset itself didn't cost me a thing.
In conclusion the phone is well suited to the outdoor type and includes many useful applications and features for use out in the field, it may get a few laughs of your mates but can their phone be and their combat pocket without a worry of it getting crunched, smashed or flooded?

(i own all rights to this review as i have posted it on another website and simply copied my original unpublished file here)

I had a Nokia 6230 for about six years. Then I went jogging in the rain and the speaker stopped working.

I thought about getting a smart phone, but I wanted a low-maintenance phone with a long battery life. Smart phones seem to need charging at least once a day.

The Samsung Solid Immerse tickled my fancy. I watched the videos of it ringing in a pint of beer, and being run over by a tractor.

My first reaction to this phone was: gosh it is rather large. Does a phone that is only a phone need to be so big?

Battery life is about a week - same as for the old Nokia. But it's a bigger screen so there is more power usage I suppose.

It is quite true that the flashlight cannot be locked, and it has turned itself on in my pocket on numerous occasions.

I find the interface a bit annoying to use. Samsung needed to do much more user testing.
To lock the phone you press '*' for a while. But it doesn't always notice, and you may have to hit the * several times.
Because the phone is slow, I commonly hit buttons too many times. If you do this when reading an SMS message, you end up hitting "reply" and then "send", which sends a blank message. Grr.
I was looking forward to a smarter predictive text system, but although this one does guess words sooner than the Nokia, they are rarely useful. And if it fails to know your word, it is cumbersome to turn off predictive text, type the word, then turn predictive text back on (it is different menu item numbers).
Also, when a text message fails to send for lack of signal, it disappears. I spent a lot of time retyping the same text when I was in the alps trying to get a message out. It was only some time later that I found all the unsent messages in the Outbox.
It took me a long time to figure out how to set the text message font, which defaults to tiny-unreadable. Instead of being in the "settings" menu with the other fonts, it is on the text-message reading menu.

I bought a micro-usb cable for the phone, but the phone's usb socket is so rubberised and recessed that the cable won't fit. So I resorted to Bluetooth, which is fiddly.

I was pleased to see that Samsung Kies downloaded easily and synched all my contacts and appointments easily from my computer to the phone. However, the *second* time I synched, the software found hundreds of imaginary duplicates. I deleted all these, but then noticed that the "notes" section of each contact, where I often store quite a bit of information, had been truncated to 40 characters or so. Luckily I had had the sense to back up all my contacts, so I deleted everything, restored the backup, and will no longer synch using Kies.

The camera is definitely better than my old Nokia's, though like any tiny camera it tends to blur and have poor contrast. Also, memory fills up fast - you need to buy an SD card.

I have not used the internet or 3g stuff.

My Nokia came back to life after about a week, when the speaker dried out. But I have not switched back.

I believe there is a niche for an indestructible, small phone with a long battery life. This Samsung partly fills that niche.

I have had this phone for a about four months now, also had the previous model the B2100.
The new version has better web browsing capabilities, what I don't like about the new B2710 is that the flash torch can be turned on with one long press of a side button this can be done when the phones keylock is on and there is no way of disengaging the light in the menu system, so the phone could be in your pocket or rucsac with the light on draining the battery and you could find youself with no power, not an ideal situation considering most people who buy this could be outside in the wilds with no power in the phone and in an emergency situation, the previous verion B2100 would only operate the light with the keylock off.

The back cover on the new version has also been modified from the B2100, the new version having a smaller screw and plastic section which it is easy to damage if you are not careful and help it with some finger pressure when closing the back, I damaged the back on mine and Samsung Support services are hopless, their email services are terrible, I had to write and three times they sent the wrong part to replace the back cover still not resolved since buying the phone in January four months back.

Really good phone - easy for a thicko like me to use, I don't find it chunky and fits easily into my shirt pocket. I have a hearing problem and was a little concerned at the volume but it is very clear and I can hear both the ring tones and phone calls. Am delighted with it. Excellent battery life.

I am really happy with the Solid Immerse. Its a really well-designed tough cellphone. If you want big phat touchscreens and surf a lot on the net while youre out and about - this phone is not for you. Instead what you get is a tough no-nonsense cell with a lot of neat features. There are no moving parts for starts so no sliding, swiveling nonsense anywhere - one less thing to fail. It feels good and weighty in the hands. It is a toughphone and is very well sealed up. There is only one opening on the side and thats for the charger/headphone/computer connection (one port for all three). Of course it too is sealed up by a tough rubber door.

At last Samsung has sorted out its predictive text and typing on this is much more fun and easier than my past Samsung cells (the Soul was awful). The buttons are easy to press and give good tactile feedback. The battery life to me is amazing. I charged it 6 days ago and its still got 70% charge. And this is with continuous use. Oh yea even the battery compartment is sealed in with a screw!

Its got some neat apps - GPS, Facebook, Twitter, digital compass (woot!) and all that good stuff. The intergrated flashlight is awesome and is such a good idea you wonder why more companies dont do this. Its a bright LED. The sound is excellent with a crisp loud speaker. Its a very good MP3 player as well.

Being a toughphone you can safetly jabber away on this during a rainshower while everyone else around you runs screaming for cover before their smartphones get wasted :P (Unless you have a Motorola Defy which is a hardened smartphone!)

The camera - well dont expect award-winning pictures but it takes decent shots in daylight and with good interior lighting. Its only a 2MP job. But then again - people dont buy this phone to take good pictures. If thats what you want go for the Sony phones.

Downsides to this phone:

1. The camera lens stays exposed (wish it had its own rubber lens cover) so if youre very outdoorsy - take care
2. There is no flash for the camera.
3. I might be mistaken but I dont see a way to assign a custom *TEXT* tone to a contact. You can of course assign a custom RING tone to any contact but I wish you could do the same with a text tone. This was a feature on the Soul so Im wondering why they got rid of it. It was a really useful feature. Again not a big deal.

I highly recommend this phone. It wont win beauty awards but it will serve you well and you can truly use it while camping, trekking etc without worrying if you get soaked or if you drop it in a puddle!

Had this phone for about 3 weeks now and i must say it is a great bit of kit.If you work in the building industry or any like that type of enviroment where there can be harsh work or play times.Then this is for you.Very solid feel about the phone, great battery life.Read lots of reveiws about other phones even looked at the new jcb ones but cannot compete for what you get for price,this spec is top of the jcb range spec for over �200.need i say more.Very good reviews on you tube.NOT at all dissapointed at all.Easy phone layout,text,calls,3g,thats all you need.Camera not brill so i use camera if i want a better photo.Added a micro sd card too, extra songs on now.You wont have to worry about dropping this baby like you do with other ones.A must buy.5 + stars from me.