Review Date August 21, 2009

Samsung Comeback SGH-t559 (T-Mobile)

  • Pros

    Includes 3G support. Solid voice quality. Decent camera and video playback. Excellent battery life in EDGE mode.

  • Cons Bulky. Feels cheap. Non-standard headphone jack. UI is steeped in molasses. Low-rent external LCD.
  • Bottom Line

    The Samsung Comeback SGH-t559's 3G radio and flexible design mean it's powerful for a midrange messaging phone, but its flabby look and poor performance render it an also-ran.

By Jamie Lendino

The Samsung Comeback SGH-t559 attempts to give buyers the best of both worlds: a numeric keypad and small external screen for making calls, and a hidden QWERTY keyboard with a larger LCD for more intensive messaging and Web browsing. It's also a lower-cost QWERTY alternative to the ever-popular T-Mobile Sidekick LX (2009). Unfortunately, the Comeback falls down on two main counts: its keyboard isn't great, and its software design isn't up to the task.

Design and Calling
The Samsung Comeback isn't particularly heavy—just bulky. It measures 4.3 by 2.2 by 0.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.6 ounces. Samsung fashioned the handset in cheap-feeling plastic; you can choose either red and white or purple and white. Plenty of buttons adorn the Comeback's front panel and sides, including six shortcut keys crammed around the five-way control pad alone. The external LCD recalls 2004-era phones, with its 128-by-128-pixel resolution and dim, washed-out colors. Dialing numbers felt fine on the numeric keypad. But considering you'll be staring at the outer screen on calls and when checking your phone in general, most of the time you'll feel like you bought a cheap phone, which isn't good.

Flip the smooth lid mechanism open and you'll reveal the internal 2.6-inch LCD, which fortunately fares better. It offers sharp resolution (240-by-400-pixel) and more vibrant color. The scrunched QWERTY keyboard reminded me of the one in the original Samsung Alias SCH-U740, with its tall, thin keys. With the smaller dual-flip Alias, that made some sense. But here it's just a waste: the keyboard isn't even as wide as the one you'd find on a svelte BlackBerry Curve, and yet the Comeback is more difficult to type on because of the huge plastic bars on either side. All of the keys and shortcut buttons felt the same, inside and out—soft, quiet, and calculator-like.

The Comeback is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) EDGE phone and a dual-band (1700/2100) HSDPA device. There's no Wi-Fi radio. T-Mobile's 3G network is still confined to a few major metropolitan areas, but the company is building out fast. Voice quality was excellent in both directions over T-Mobile's 3G network, with no hiss and still good over GSM. Reception was also strong, even in rural areas. The Comeback was comfortable to hold for long periods due to its rounded edges. Calls sounded harsher than usual through a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset, though the speakerphone was loud enough for use outdoors (albeit a tad harsh-sounding). Battery life was excellent in EDGE mode at 10 hours and 58 minutes of talk time, though its battery life in 3G mode would be much shorter; unfortunately, there wasn't enough T-Mobile 3G signal near my home to get a reliable result.

Messaging and Multimedia
Navigating the UI was tedious due to the slow response time and constant button mashing required for most tasks. The usually good Access Netfront 3.5 Web browser was slow to bring up WAP pages and desktop Web graphics, although they came in properly aligned (aside from Flash). Page scrolling and clicking on links was also a pain since you can't just hold down the control pad, and there's no on-screen cursor. For instant messaging, you can log into Yahoo, Windows Live, or AIM accounts, though it only showed my mobile AIM buddies when I logged in. T-Mobile's Java client supports Gmail, AIM, AOL, and Yahoo mail along with some common ISPs, but not Hotmail. The keyboard features T9 predictive text and auto-word completion, and the GPS radio works with the TeleNav-powered GPS Navigator for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions (at $9.99 per month).

For audio, the Comeback features Samsung's horrid, proprietary headphone jack, so upgrading the bundled wired buds would be difficult. Standalone MP4 and 3GP test videos played smoothly providing they fit within the Comeback's screen resolution, but it wouldn't resize or otherwise play any other formats (such as WMV and AVI). MP3 and AAC tracks sounded pleasant and detailed through Motorola S9-HD stereo Bluetooth headphones, including ones bought in the iTunes Store and on Amazon MP3. I also had no problem listening to music while browsing the Web, which is a nice way to pass some time with the Comeback. It also displayed album art when available. The Monopoly Here & Now game demo played smoothly, and you can assign your own MP3s as ringtones.

Camera and Conclusions
The 2-megapixel camera is standard in this class, though it lacks a flash or auto-focus capability. Like everything else with the Comeback, it was slow to take pictures, with a four to five second delay between each one. Actual shutter delay was minimal. Test photos were pretty good, with slightly soft focus and flat color, but good detail and a natural color balance. Recorded 320-by-240 videos rang in at a somewhat inconsistent average of 12 frames per second (mostly more, sometimes much less), but they were colorful and sharp. Sideloading media was tough due to the microSD slot located underneath the battery. (When will this horrible practice end?) Reading and writing to a 16GB SanDisk card worked fine.

In the end, the Samsung Comeback comes off as a poor imitation of the $175 T-Mobile Sidekick LX (2009), without looking any more professional. The Sidekick features a very high resolution LCD and a much better keyboard, at the expensive of some extra heft and a slightly higher price. Samsung's own Highlight SGH-t749 is a more successful and contemporary design than the Comeback, even if the Highlight lacks a hardware keyboard and 3G support. Samsung also announced the nicely styled Gravity 2 at the same time as the Comeback; it just hit stores this week, and its horizontal slider form factor is considerably more appealing. (Stay tuned for our .) In short, if you really want a hardware keyboard and don't want to pay extra for a T-Mobile smartphone data plan, the Comeback would be fine at a discount. But I'd just stick with the Sidekick.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous Talk Time: 10 hours 58 minutes

Compare the Samsung Comeback SGH-t559 with several other mobile phones side by side.

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Jamie Lendino
By Jamie Lendino Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics and Mobile


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