I finally got an i550, after years of waiting like so many others, so I'm not going to cry about my problems. I'm going to do what any self respecting geek would do who is willing to waste ridiculous amounts of time on a dying and anitquated piece of equipment....

So, the short version of my story is that I received my new/old i550 and was thrilled with all of the features I had dreamed about. It basically did everything I had wanted my i500 to do, fit my car kit, and still gave me graffiti.

However, the first thing I noticed was that the batteries were bad. Probably to be expected with a 4 year old used phone. I also noticed that the screen was pretty dim. I was still willing to work around these issues for the phone of my dreams.

Then I noticed that it wasn't making good contact to charge. I've been down that road with a couple of i500s, so I knew where I was going with bad contacts. Now, it won't charge at all.

I can still charge the batteries externally, and the phone will sync, but the charge pins won't make good contact. My problem pin is the 4th pin in from the left, looking from the front of the phone.

I tried cleaning the contacts and it got worse. I've already dissmanteled an old i500 and removed it's pinouts/backplane, but it would take a micro surgeon to solder it on.

I may resort to that, but I'm looking for recommendations before I take apart an otherwise working i550.

Are there still some i550 owners out there?

Anyone have any thoughts?

I don't suppose you've got my old i550?? I didn't have a problem with the batteries or the screen. I used both the i500 cradle and the i550 cradle...the i550 fits better in the i550 cradle. Since you should have 2 batteries, is there an issue with just charging the batteries in the i550 battery compartment of the cradle, like you're already doing, and switching back and forth?.. this way you don't have to worry about the bad pinout connections.

Silly of me to also suggest on increasing the brightness of the screen...I believe there is a slide control.

Yes, it's your old phone.

I get about 30-40 minutes of talk time on one battery, and substantially less on the other. Since the battery power is so limited, and I haven't found a source for new batteries, charging without the cradle becomes even more important.

I appreciate the reply post, but considering that I haven't been able to use it in a practical way since receiving it from you, forgive me if I seem a little sharp. I don't blame you, but it's just the way it is.

I could not find a display brightness control, and there is no reference to one in the manual.

Did you try High-Quality, NEW Lithium-Ions Battery for the Samsung SPH-i550 SPH-i-550?

iusacell in Mexico used to carry this phone, they may still have accessories available: Iusacell

Thanks for that! I'll give them a try and report back.