Samsung SPH-N400 - Finally, the world of Color Screens!
Written: Dec 15 '02 (Updated Jan 27 '03)
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Pros: COLOR SCREEN! Unconventional and cool flip style. Versatility. PCS Vision enabled. Speakerphone.
Cons: Battery life is average at best for cell phones, but better than my old SPH-A460.
The Bottom Line: The color screen says it all. This is the next generation of cellular phone and it won't disappoint. More options than you'll know what to do with.
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| androoos's Full Review: Samsung SPH-N400 |
I replaced my Samsung SPH-A460 with this phone because the 460's talk-time battery life was less than one hour fully charged. I got fed up with that and exchanged it for this new PCS Vision-enabled Color Screen SPH-N400.
It's flip, but its not!
This is a flip phone, but an unconventional one at that. The conventional flip phone folds in the middle and when opened, the screen was on one half and the keypad on the other. This phone is a refreshing departure from that tried and tested flip form. On this phone, only the earpiece flips up. The screen and keypad are on the same side, but there is no sacrifice in screen size or keypad size. At first sight the phone seems awkward and larger than normal flip phones, but this design quickly grows on you. Once that happens, then you learn about its functionality and versatlilty!
What is PCS Vision?
Since the SPH-N400 is PCS Vision-enabled, this means you can surf the wireless web in full color and full web-browser style, rather than the old black-and-white text-based wireless web style. A marked improvement on Sprint's part.
You are able to download ring tones, wallpapers, games like Space Invaders, MotoGP and PacMan, and applications like Weather.com Wireless Radar, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and others. This can all be done through SprintPCS.com but you have to pay for what you find on their site. There are various other sites which offer free uploads (of your pictures and ring tones, in MIDI format) and free downloads (of already uploaded material from other users). I love the fact that I can upload pictures that I take and have them appear on my cell phone after dialing into their site. Simply amazing.
That's enough for the PCS Vision. Now for the phone itself!
The good looks...
The phone has an external antenna, which is somewhat large but necessary. If there was no antenna, the phone wouldn't work! The screen is roughly one inch square with decent resolution (I don't know the exact number of pixels.) This is the most gorgeous feature of the phone though, as the screen is in FULL COLOR! I don't know how we ever got by with old black-and-white screens. Color just makes so much more sense and looks so much better. It's about time we've moved up to color screens in our phones.
Funky colors
The keypad and buttons light up with a blueish-purple tint, which is better than the classic cell-phone-green tinge that is par for the cell phone course.
JOYstick
Instead of a round button on the upper portion of the keypad which was used to navigate, this phone has a 'joystick' which performs the same functions. Move it up, down, left, right and push down for "OK". This is used to navigate through menus and to scroll/select while surfing the wireless web.
Using the phone to the fullest
The Menu options are:
Call History
Phone Book
Messaging
Web
Downloads
Pictures
Voicemail
Voice Dial
Planner
Settings
KeyGuard
Messaging
Messaging is numeric or alpha-numeric pages that you may receive. You can also get your SprintPCS E-mail on this phone, which you can configure through this menu.
Wireless Web
Web accesses the Vision Wireless Web
Voicemail manages your voicemail mailbox
Voice Dial is one of the best features of this phone. You can assign a recorded value (name) to a particular phone number. I.E., you say "Work" and after setting up the voice dial (by recording your voice and assigning it to that particular number) the phone dials your work number. Great feature.
Planner
Planner is sort of like a mini-PDA option. I haven't explored this much. There is a calendar, calculator, alarm, countdown time, memo pad, task list, scheduler. I imagine if you hooked this phone up to a PDA through a data cable, you can transfer tasks between the two devices.
Pictures!
If you buy the SprintPCS Vision Camera ($100) you can take your own pictures with the phone. I have a digital camera already so I don't need this.
The Settings
A large menu of options.
Display, sounds, internet, roaming, location, messaging, security, airplane mode, others and phone info.
Display changes your display options. Same thing for sounds too. The location is a new feature with Sprint PCS phones. They can find where you are when you're using your phone. I've heard rumors that this option uses a lot of battery power, so I have it turned off. Even with it off, if I were to have an emergency, the phone still sends my location to 911 so they can come save me. A nice feature.
Airplane Mode
With this on, I can't make calls or recieve calls, but I can still use my phone. I guess this is so the phone won't try to find signal and disrupt airplane communications. Whatever.
Others - here you can customize your phone even more. The Launch Pad (what they call the joystick) can be customized for the direction its pushed in. For example, if I push it up, that goes to my phone book. Left is calculator. Right is Downloads, down is Voice Dial. This can be changed to do just about anything you desire. This is also where you can change how to answer...whether on flip-open, hitting the talk key, or hitting any key (where's the any key?) Anyway, there are more options to play with, but too many to list here. A fantastically customizable phone.
Strange Sounds
The sounds leave a bit to be desired. They are MIDI tones, which sound like computer music. Most of the included ringers sound very stupid. I suggest searching the internet and downloading something that suits you better. (I just wanted a normal old-school cell phone beep beep, which I found and have currently installed.)
Speakerphone...without the tin-can effect
The speakerphone is a bonus option with this phone. I haven't used it much but it seems to work ok. A little crackly sound and the person on the other end can pick up a pin dropping or noise from you moving the phone through the air. They find speakerphone annoying, I find it useful. They can deal with the noise...like I say, if I'm using the speakerphone, there's a good reason for my hands to be not holding the phone.
Conclusion
I hope this phone's battery will last longer than the previous SPH-A460. So far I haven't been disappointed. This phone seems to be built well and has a plethora of functions and options which make it the most attractive phone on the SprintPCS lineup for me. I hope you agree.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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androoos
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Member: JC Andrews
Location: Chesapeake, VA
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Great job-check. House-check. Wife-check. Dog-check. Kids? Uh-oh.
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