The Samsung Juke is a tiny, tiny phone. It’s a good phone, too. Hell, it’s a great phone. The call quality for such a small phone is impressive. If you’re looking for a great, pocketable phone that’s capable of making and receiving calls reliably, this is a great option at $99 with 2-year contract.
Problem is, the Juke’s being marketed as a music phone and as a music phone, it’s merely adequate. The most glaring omission from a feature standpoint is the lack of over-the-air V Cast music downloads. You’ll have to use your computer to download the music first and then transfer your songs to the phone using a USB cable. You’ll get 2GB of storage to play with, which would hopefully be enough for most people, but there’s no way to expand that because there’s nowhere to put a card slot on such a tiny phone.
Another quirk is that when flipping the phone open from the closed position, the phone will be upside down. And if you have the phone open and you want to listen to music, you have to close it again and turn it sideways. I found myself holding the closed phone in my hand and always trying to push the screen to the right to get it to open. You have to push it to the left and the force by which it flips open often made me feel as if I were about to drop it. This might be something that you’d get used to after awhile but it’s definitely not intuitive at first.
Lack of over-the-air music and the weird upside-down thing aside, the Juke performs admirably at as a phone. Call quality is very good and the battery is an impressive 3.5 hours talk time and 250 hours standby (I mistakenly said 500 hours in the above video — that’s for the extended battery). The speakerphone is okay, not great, and I was able to pair three different Bluetooth headsets without any problems. There’s also a VGA camera (photos only, no video), a smallish scroll wheel, a somewhat above-average keypad (especially given the size of the device), and a decent (albeit tiny) 262,000-color 1.5-inch display.
All in all, it seems like the Juke is suffering from an identity crisis. If it had been positioned as a regular old cell phone that just happened to play music that you transferred from your computer, it’d be a good deal for a good phone. But since it’s positioned as a music-centric phone, the lack of 3G and direct-to-device downloads coupled with the limited storage capacity makes it somewhat of an underachiever.
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I like that it doesn’t use over-the-air V Cast. I can just upload right from iTunes! Much better…f**k a V Cast.
no you cant. at least not to the phone. itunes has their own unique format.
U cant use no f**king iTunes b*t*h
Yeah you f**kin can…. you just have to know how to convert your music in itunes to mp3’s…
or if you have a brain, you can upload any itunes music that you’ve ripped yourself (or purchased drm-free versions of)
can you provide me with the instruction to convert iTunes to mp3
The music you download, can it be used as a ringtone for someone calling you??
no it cant be. thats a down side. however, using phonezoo.com, you can do that using music on your computer or a cd, etc. to create your own ringtone and send it to your phone. i have an account there and i swear it is 100 percent free
Yes, sorta. You have to send it to yourself in a picture message then save it as a ringtone. OR: go to mobile17.com and follow the instructions there on how to do it.
You can also go to Tonzr.com and set a ton of ringtones to your juke via a picture message. Its free!
No, not full songs. You can choose from preloaded ringtones that come with the phone or purchase ringtones from Verizon but you can’t select a full song (that you’d play using the phone’s music player) as your ringtone.
you are pretty picky man calm down
I’m fixing to take mine back on the mere reason that you cannot create or use any of your own ringtowns… You can have the 8 or so crappy preloaded or PAY to get more…. What the HELL!? The phone would be fine (for me) otherwise, but this whole ringtone delima is enough for me to trade this thing in.
Google Mobile 17…You can MAKE your own ringtones there for free from any song you have on your computer and send them to your phone!
thats not the problem (making ringtones), the problem is, there isnt a way to get it in the phone and have it be usable as a ringtone
i know how you can make them work
all you have to do is go to get it now
tunes
my sounds
then record the sound
then send it to yourself
then in the options use it as a ring tone
i record my own all the time
Brilliant!!!
is it free for those who dont have taxting?
Ha HA that is brilliant and it works!!
To those trying to make a silent ringtone for those unwanted calls: Instead of recording silence for several seconds, just push play and stop really fast in sequence. This will result in a truly silent ringtone.
For someone who isn’t interested in wasting money on v-cast, it looks like a great phone. My only hesitation is that you can’t add any memory. :(
my reply is would i be able to get the phone with out a plan and that i could then i would buy it i don’t care if the songs are full but i would still buy it if i knew the price.
This is the phone I’m looking for. 2GB is plenty for my Lionel talk show podcasts. I don’t care about watching or recording low resolution video. I read on cnet that it also receives FM…is this true? If so, how does it compare to other small mp3 players with FM tuners such as the Sansa Clip and m200 series? I’m a radio broacast engineer and this phone has exactly what I need (if it receives FM radio).
its such an awesome phone - love it!!! problem is that my parents want to add a line to their family plan and its at&t not verizon. wish i can get the phone and hook it up w/ a at&t plan.
What’s the deal with the camera pix? Can’t get pix off Juke w/o PAY for email or vcast?
Why no direct download to PC like the audio? Is there a another way?
OTW, a pretty kool little phone / music player !
What’s the deal with the camera pix? Can’t get pix off Juke w/o PAY for email or vcast? Why not direct to PC, like music? Is there another way?
OTW, a pretty kool phone / music player !
This phone, like most others only plays WMA format songs so you can’t simply transfer from itunes; you would first have to convert to WMA.
It actually uses mp3s. I just dragged mine over straight onto the memory card.
not only is it one of the few that doesn’t require a conversion to wma, it supports mp3, and m4a (the itunes default format), although not m4p, which is the itunes protected format, and as we know, only playable on an ipod (unless you’re a leet hacker)
I just got a Juke a few days ago and I love it. This reviewer had an unreasonable set of expectations for the device. No, it doesn’t download over the air. I don’t want it to. That’s not what it was DESIGNED to do. It was designed for people like me who have no problem managing their music on their computer, and want to add that music to an mp3 phone without having to download the songs all over again through v-cast.
The phone was designed for people like me who only need 2 gigs, because they have no problem moving files in and out of their mp3 player using their computer as a “home base.”
Basically, this reviewer wanted a different phone and took points off this one for not having his specific (and completely irrelevant) desires. It’s like criticizing a hammer for not being a saw.
It looks like a great phone. I am getting it as my first cell phone but I only have one concern… Tuna monkey said it could play itunes music but everyone else is sayin it can’t. Can it, or if it can’t how can I?
The only way to do so..Is to go to phone zoo and “text” it to your phone
ignore michelle (below), as I replied to someone else, you can drag m4a (itunes songs) right over to the device (or use the vcast music manager thingy) and play them with no conversion. the only weirdness i ran into, was that i originally had to transfer the first few songs with the aforementioned music manager. after that, i can put music on it, just like a memory card, even from linux, woot.
agree.
I’ve had my eye on this phone for awhile.
How easy is it to transfer songs from your computer to the phone (I tend to be a little technically challenged).
Quality of pictures? The only good thing I can say about my current P.O.S. phone is that it takes pretty clear pictures. I can’t find much describing the picture quality of the Juke phone… anyone?
@Geoff - What desires are irrelevant? Just the no V-Cast thing or the fact that the phone opens upside-down and music can’t be played unless it’s closed again?
Look, it’s a great phone and the music feature is nice. My biggest problem is that it’s being marketed to people as a music player first, phone second. And the lack of actual music features — no MP3 ringtones, no V-Cast, no playing music unless the phone is closed — are things that people wanting to buy a music-specific phone would likely find disappointing. I don’t understand why those are irrelevant reasons for criticizing a phone.
So for the record, if anyone here wants a phone that happens to be able to hold 2 gigs of music, this is a great choice. But for people who see the Juke commercials promising “an ultra-sleek MP3 player that flips into a phone” and run out to the store thinking you’re going to buy a kickass device that you can use to dance around in an alley with your buddies because you’re really into music like the floppy-legged dancers on TV, you might be a little disappointed.
Doug’s not exagerating about the marketing. I’m sitting here with a full-page ad in one of DC’s newspapers. The Juke is prominently featured, and “Music player” is the first thing mentioned. The word “phone” is only at the bottom of the fine print.
But here’s a silly question. WMA only? I mean, the songs on my ‘puter are all MP3 and AAC. I’m either out of luck or I need to do a burn-and-rip workaround - I can’t just load up my songs as-is? If so: blimey!
To Uncle J, it also plays MP3. All the music I added to my Juke is MP3 format. And I don’t know what some other people use it for, but 2GB is alot to fill up with music, so I don’t think the lack of upgrading the memory is as big a deal as some people make it. Plus, since I have a bunch of music on my PC to sync to the phone, I would have never used V Cast anyways, especially with it’s monthly price. So, again, there’s something alot of people are complaining about, but I don’t see the big deal. I bought the Juke because I consider it a cool and cheap alternative to buying a camera phone and an iPod separately, which would have had a much higher price tag than my Juke did ($53 before $50 mail-in rebate!)
And to Doug, the music CAN be played when the phone is open. It just needs to be STARTED with the phone shut. Once the music is going, you can open it back up and do stuff in the menu and the music will be playing in the back. You can actually type and send text messages with the music playing. It will automatically pause when calls are placed or received, and resume once the calls are completed. I’ve had time to fiddle with mine, and there’s alot more than some critics are showing you.
I don’t see any questions regarding this, so I’ll ask it myself. I was thinking of a way to get around the non-expandability regarding the 2GB memory, since the phone has USB support, you could also load up a flashdrive (with MP3’s loaded on the flashdrive) and attach that to the phone, if so, would it play music from the flashdrive? Thanks!
No, you wouldn’t be able to do so because the juke has no usb port on it. Yes, you can hook it up to the computer via usb, but on one end of the cable is a usb, and the other end is the juke’s own type of plug….which means that the juke’s receiving end would not fit into a flash drive’s plug.
This case is the same with virtually all phones. Most would figure that the portable micro SD or mini SD would be a more convenient alternative. In the case of the juke, however, this useful feature is not present.
does it come with a usb cable for your computer and headphones? do you have to download any software to get music on it? if so do u have to pay for the software?
thanks for the help.
Yes it comes with headphones and cable. All you need is windows media player, which you prob already have. It is sooo easy to sync music!
comes with usb cable and headphones. no software needed! just hook it up to the computer. i luv my juke!
2.5 mm jack requires clumsy adapter sticking out sideways for any decent headphones you’ve already spent money on. Jack cover is flimsy plastic, would break quickly.
No special software needed to mount or copy files, though it has annoying habit of disconnecting the mount (in Windows XP) after each copy. Even mounts on Linux!
I copied over a directory from an audio book, track files beginning with 01, 02, etc… It got the sort order wrong (something my ancient USB 1.0 iRiver gets right…), so you have to create a playlist. Playlist can only be created on the device, and it’s a very tiresome and tedious interface to sort the tracks out, moving one track ‘up’ or ‘down’ in the playlist at a time. I checked out the playlist ‘tfs’ file via the Linux mount (Windows XP wouldn’t let me view the file, feh!), and it’s a binary format. Not unhackable, for creating a playlist without the device, but why bother with all this trouble?
Returned it after one day. Now I see why Verizon Wireless was offering ‘buy one, get one free.’ What a lemon! Why can’t anyone make a useful and usable device? It’s not that hard!
You can make a 30 second ringtone of any song you like.
how do you do the 30 second ringtone, i’ve been trying to get it to and i can’t and to respond to the other comments on the page i think that for the price its a good phone. complaining about the marketing of it, what add is ever perfectly honest? No one is going to buy it if they tell you its not as good as an ipod and just and above average phone. i like that it can play the music without headphones, something i wish my ipod did. as for not being able to download the music from v-cast, why would you want to pay a monthly charge for being able to download music while wasting the battery too. its so easy to upload them from your computer, and this is coming from someone who isn’t too good with them. overall i like the phone so far, i’ve had it for a little over a month and no problems so far unlike my razr that was dying after like a month.
Mike,
Do you have any details on how to make a ringtone of any song I like? I can’t figure it out.
Do you have to pay for music for your phone or can you put music on it that you already have?
is this phone durable?….i tend to be a little clumzy…=[
p.s. ……hes wrong about having to start your music first by having it open then closing it after. all you have to do when its closed is simply hold down the center button on the wheel….and presto…your playlists come on automatically.
I got this phone primarily because it could play MP3’s and I assumed I could set them as ringtones. Our contract was being renewed so I had to get some kind of new phone, and this one came with everything to play music. I just feel very disappointed that one of the main features I wanted in a phone just isnt there. I dont see the point of making a phone that can play MP3s yet you cant set it as a ringtone? I mean that would take devolpers another hour to add that feature? Its a good phone, but I wish it had that capability.
im gettin this fone in feb!
i can’t wait!
♥
Got the phone, I’ve only had it a few weeks and it’s already broke (at no fault of my own). I bought a snap on case and a leather pouch for it to be safe, haven’t dropped it at all- and the main circular front bottom does not work when the phone is closed now. Yeah, that means no music. Luckily I pay an extra $5 a month for insurance. Unfortunately that means I have to use one of my 2 phone replacements I have throughout my phone contract- ALREADY. I didn’t expect to have to use that for at least another year when I dropped it in the toilet or something. Needless to say, I’m not getting another juke. I’m pretty disapointed myself about not being able to set my own songs as my ringtones. The volume quality also blows, it’s no Ipod that’s for sure. The only thing I liked about the phone was the size- it’s small and easy to fit in your pocket. But that’s it. It’s hard to text, it’s hard to answer, it takes very poor quality pictures.
does ANYONE know how to put my music on this using an Apple MacBook? It worked at first and even when I plug it into other computers its showing the music I added in the Music Folder; however, on my actual phone the music is no longer showing up….please help?
Hey to clem333, make sure the music is in mp3 format! Macs will still show it being transferred, but it will not work. Make sure you save it as an mp3 or and AAC file first, and then transfer it! I use Itunes and save them as AAC files and it works just great! hope i helped!
This is a great phone! and a good music player as well! What do you want for $99.00!!!
You have some nerve!
how do you transfer from itunes to phone
I just bought this phone yesterday. I havent had a chance to fumble with the music player yet, but i did want to make one comment about the whole ” it opens upside down ” thing. It actually doesnt open upside down because if you have the belt clip and you remove it from the clip and continue to hold the phone the way you removed it ( fingers touching the wheel ) and bring it up to look at it, you can open it the ” right ” way up. If you dont have or use the belt clip then i guess you just have to remember the wheel is ontop to open it for use in the correct position.
This was a poo phone
Can you record your own sounds? like can you press a button and it records it, then you save it? like the krzr or whatevr.
I love love love this phone. fro the 2gigs of memory to the fun picture taking. easy to transfer music and battery life is amazing. and for $19 you cant complain.
So tell me, it can still play mp3 and wma files even if it doesn’t have V-Cast, right? If so, then who needs V-Cast? What, too lazy to hook it up to a computer?
you cant transfer i tunes to the phone.
I use Myxertones.com to make ringtones….on the juke does it have the option of “save as ringtone”….my chocolate does and want the same feature.. Also can you assign different ringtones to different people? same with pictures??
How do i delete all the music off my phone at one time… it all downloaded itself from my windows media player but there is a bunch of crap on there i dont want how do i remove them aand start over?
phonezoo.com works well.
as does the aforementioned “record your own” method,
which works,
but won’t sound as good as one that you have edited and had phonezoo.com send you.
the main reason for this is the mic on the juke isn’t the highest of quality,
so you have to find the perfect volume to set whatever it is you want as a ringtone;
which is not the ideal setup to say the least IMO.
Sending mine back before the warranty expires. Nice for music, but, it comes open in your pocket all the time. You have to turn it upside down to see who’s calling. And good luck hearing them if you’re in a busy place, ie., restaurant, etc. You can hear all the background noise and not the person on the phone.
hey can someone PLEASE help me. i got this phone a while ago. like in december. but im still wondering how you can get the MP3’s as ringtones. or how you can get free ringtones! someone plz tell me! lol!
I have ordered this phone for my youngest daughter. She wants to know if the phone has any games loaded on it. Also, I just wanted to know the overall durability of the Juke. She won’t use it much, she is only 9. But, I think it will be fine for her for her music, etc. Does anyone know if it comes with headphones?
Hi Mother of Three,
I just opened the box, so I can’t say much about durability. But yes, it does come with headphones (in matching colors!) but no games.
Katie
um on verizions webpage it says the samsung juke is 60 bucks in a 2 year contract!
okayyyy.
i love my juke. it is very durable. i should know-im a clutz and my phone has been dropped from the very top of the stairs and fallen straight onto hardwood. that was three months ago and it is still working fine.
I have had my phone for almost a month
it is now brokenand is hard to open
anyone else with this problem
i have not dropped..
or done anything to it