OK, I can hear you stop asking already!
Written: Jan 24 '04 (Updated Feb 12 '04)
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Pros: Good reception, relatively cheap, won't break and Verizon has a huge coverage area.
Cons: Limited extra features like new rings. No camera or color screen.
The Bottom Line: Not for those that want a phone that can play your favorite song with two tone speakers. Short of throwing it at a wall you won't break it.
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| Abraxmed's Full Review: Samsung SCH-A310 Mobile Phone |
I was an avid cell phone hater for years. I thought they were stupid and useless. That was until I bought a pager. It was sooooooo annoying to get pages when I was away from a phone. Especially when people would page me, and than when I called, the line was busy. The price difference between pagers and cell phones, kept me with the pager. That was until I enlisted and land line phones became illogical. I decided I wouldn't hate, I'd appreciate.
When I decided I wanted to own a cell phone I shopped around. When I say that, it is more like I asked my friend(tiggert12140, quick plug, if you are interested in cell phones, he knows more than anyone really should, check him out) which service would suit me best. I wanted the best coverage possible. Verizon is hands down the best. Their coverage area is huge. I almost never roam. That isn't to say that I don't lose service, but roaming is rare. I knew I would be moving and wasn't sure where to, so I wanted to get the service that I could count on working everywhere. It does! Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia and New York, it works and not just in cities.
The phone itself doesn't have many bells and whistles. It can go on line, but I never have used this feature, as I didn't feel like paying an extra $20 a month. It came out before the camera phones struck like a thunderbolt, so that people can take pictures of people picking their nose. It has a black and green screen, so no color screen to to go surfing the web for porn. I never got that! The screen is not much more than an inch square, you can hardly tell if it is a girl or not! Anyway when the screen illuminates it is very easy to see in the dark. The small screen, when the phone is flipped together, can illuminate a variety of colors, which is useful when there is too much background noise to hear the ringer.
When I bought the phone I was told I could down load new ringers off of a computer. However when I was going to do this I found out the damn phone isn't Smart Update Compatible, lying bastards! Sorry, so I am stuck with the choices that the phone came with. There is enough of a variety that it isn't painful, but it is disappointing. The sound card(is that what they are called on cell phones?) is pretty sad, it kind of reminds me of the first generation Nintendo. The alarm choices suck however. But I suppose that is the point when you think about it. One thing I don't understand is why the alarm/text message ringers aren't the same as the ringer ringers.
I used to use text messages a lot! They are great for those times before 9 when you get charged daytime minutes. They are also great if you want to not have a long conversation with the person. Another use is for when you get bored with the person and don't respond. You now have plenty of time in which to come up with some excuse as to why. This way you don't have to say your reception is breaking up. How many times can you say that to someone? They take a little while to get used to, but once you are proficient you can type out a message pretty quickly. I stick with the ABC style typing, the other one spits out combinations of letters at random and changes them at its whim. I have been told it is quicker, but I have no understanding of how to control it at all.
Probably the most important point when choosing cell phones is the reception. I also find it the most pointless. I see no quantifiable measure of antenna sensitivity for the different cell phones. At least not on the sales floor. This in my opinion is the only thing that a cell phone can do in this regard. The antenna must be able to pick up the signal before the amplifying circuits can make it big enough to hear. There should be a measure of the minimum strength of a signal that the phone can pick up and allow you to hear and maintain a signal. So basically your reception is based on the quality of your service provider. There are two main companies in my opinion, and it depends on what you want. If you are like me and go to a variety of different places, and want your phone to work in all of them, than you want Verizon. If you live in a city, and don't go into the rural areas very much, than you want T Mobile. T Mobile tends to have very good reception where it has towers and none where it doesn't. So none of that 2 bars thing, but they do have the free roaming plans.
My phone gets horrible reception where I am! But I am also surrounded by radar antennas and concrete walls. I have to stand next to the wall for calls not to drop constantly. However I also have had one bar on the top of a mountain, after walking around with my hand in the air. I really wanted to check my messages OK! I can almost always get reception with at least two bars. It is a fairly reliable phone as far as reception goes. The sound quality is very clear and I almost never get static. Of all the phones I have used it is the most reliable. If you want a simple, but good phone this is that. I bought one of those stupid, after market, active antenna things. Don't waste your money! I didn't think it would work and it didn't. But I figured it was worth a try.
The life of the battery is pretty good. I can talk constantly for over an hour with a full charge. When I checked there wasn't any better batteries available. That was like six months ago so maybe it is available now. Since I have to go outside, and freeze my butt off, to talk I tend to keep it to less than an hour.
The game selection sucks! I have Spider Hunter and two other useless games. I have beaten Spider Hunter so badly that it couldn't save my high score. Which is pretty sad since I hate the game. But I was bored at work one day and we all know how that is.
Don't expect Verizon to be cheap, it is the most expensive provider that I know of. But the customer service is really good. You can update software with your phone by dialing *228. You don't have to go to the store and have a tech do it, like Sprint phones make you do. Whenever I whine to the service reps they give me free minutes. Poor me I didn't know I was going over, waaaaaaa! I have 500 anytime minutes and I pay around $60 a month after taxes. But there are unlimited night and weekend and 1000 mobile to mobile. The mobile to mobile thing works great with long distance relationships! Saves you some money as I would always run over on minutes. It is hard to say I am running out of when my girlfriend is saying I am cheating on her! Which was a lot of fun trying to console her at a bar with my friends making fun of me in the back ground.
I'll have to say this phone takes a beating! I have dropped it plenty of time on concrete floors. The screens are hardly even scratched. I thought flip phones were easy to kill, but this proved my wrong. She is light and durable. I don't think I can kill her if I wanted to. I did break the charger once. I pulled the phone off of it by accident and bent it all to hell. But I was able to bend it all back into place and a year later it still works!
For $100, $200 minus a $100 instant rebate(whats the point with that by the way?), the phone wasn't a bad price. I believe it is down to $50 without any pointless rebates. Pretty soon it'll probably be free with signing up. If you want a cheap, reliable; quality phone this is the one. There a lot of extra features to keep you entertained, but it'll let you talk to your friends.
*UPDATE*
I guess if I really wanted to(which I don't) I could make this update another review. But it would be a sucky review and I would hate writing it. Anyway I bought a few accessories for this little phone. I now have the leather case(which is annoying), the hands free thing and the plug in charger for the car. The car adapter works fine, not that there is a lot to it. The hands free set is OK. It does the job, but the sound isn't 100% clear and the wires hanging all over are annoying. The leather case is a waste of money. However if you act fast the Verizon Stores(brick and mortar, not sure about online) are having a sale. The car adapter and the case for $9. Which isn't bad considering they are $20 a piece. Anyhow I don't like the case because it gets in the way. Dialing feels artificial. Notwithstanding it does look much better, the silver on black is great. The clip on is a good feature so that I don't miss as many calls, but it looks stupid. Overall I'd buy the set just to save $10 on the car adapter.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $100
Recommended for: World Travelers - Works Anywhere and Everywhere!
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Epinions.com ID:
Abraxmed
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Member: Abraxmed
Location: Virginia Beach, VA
Reviews written: 78
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
Back again for now
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