The perfect cellphone
Written: Feb 04 '03
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Pros: Size, shape, weight, color, reception, Internet, voice dialing, talk time and hands-free safety
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: This is an excellent phone, and a great deal for the price. Accessories are being developed in full swing, and its certainly a slice of the future. Two thumbs up!
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| sbambawale's Full Review: Samsung SPH A500 Cell Phone |
A while ago, I had recommended waiting with the A400 till the A520 came out. That suggestion was based on two presumptions:
#1 - The shape of the A500 would be odd to handle and carry
#2 - The A520 would have color video capability
While the second is still a possibility, I've got to admit that I let the slick ads get to me and finally get myself the A500 a few months ago. After continous use and experimentation, I do think that, if conditions permit - I'm going to stick with this phone for a long, long time.
When the salesman (Good Guys) handed me the box, I was quite surprised at how thin and small the box was, and figured that the form factor was that way primarily because Samsung stopped shipping a desktop charger along with the box as it did for the earlier models (8500 & A400). Opening the box and putting the phone together had me move another notch up the "pleasantly surprised" scale. The weight and the feel of the phone rated four-and-a-half out of five stars in my opinion. With the included battery, the phone fit very comfortably in the palm of my hand - and in my pocket.
My first call was to a friend's land line, from an area that I used to have trouble with reception / call quality with the A400. At the end of the call, I broke the news that I was using a cellphone, and was told, with deafening exclamation, that the call quality was excellent.
The color screen and the overall menu layout seemed quite user-friendly, added to by the various little aesthetic tweaks in the mix. Phonebook entries could be given a picture from the included library that would show up in color on the internal screen and in monochrome on the external screen whenever the associated number was dialed, or was on Caller ID.
Prior to buying, I had concerns about how the little external LCD could display an entire phone number and more. However, all that vanished after a few minutes of use. The external LCD works great, and the blue backlight does prove more comforting than the green backlight I'd been used to with the 8500 and the A400. All backlight functions could be controlled from the menu, of course. There's also a power-saver mode in there that lets you conserve battery life.
One of the big factors in cellphone purchases that I tend to overlook is battery life. Over the last year, and notably over the last few months, I've begun to appreciate this more as my overall cellphone use has gone up. However, with a car charger and a travel charger (provided in the box by Samsung as the only charger), things don't get that restrictive since I'm never that far away from a power outlet. However, Samsung had an interesting goodie thrown in for free - a free extended Lithiun ion battery (retail value about $60) arrived via UPS within a week after making a phone call to Samsung. This battery is a little heavier, but doesn't really increase the overall form factor of the phone. I use the two alternatively, and do fine without having to get myself an extra charger.
While talking about car chargers, the A500 does wonders with voice dialing. The phone allows for complete voice functions, including:
#1 - Digit dialing using voice
#2 - Recorded name dialing using voice
#3 - Bringing up the phonebook using a voice command
#4 - Loads more functions clearly laid out in a menu
All you need is a headphone with a "Talk" button that lets you access the voice dial function. I had one of these from the A400, and it works fine. "Digit dialing" is quite amazing - I dictate numbers to the phone and it pops up alternatives if it thinks it didn't hear me right. This is one of the biggest plus points of the phone according to me. I can finally make calls while driving without having to touch the phone at all! Training the phone to recognize your diction and accent is an exercise that takes about 10 minutes at the very most.
Accessories included with the purchase of a new phone include the camera, but I seemed to have let this slide. I did have the rebate coupon, but after using the many sites online that let you upload high-quality images and then get them onto the phone using the bundled, unrestricted data connectivity, I figured I didn't want a little camera around with me.
Sprint's deal with unlimited "PCS Vision" for $10 is quite helpful. Also, since getting "online" doesn't take away minutes from your usual voice plan, its a big plus since I can be "online" using the phone right in the middle of the day without worrying about losing that time from my peak minutes' pool. Kudos to Sprint on this pricing policy!
Back to the phone - signal strength and call quality are exceptional. None of my callers have been able to tell me that I've been using a cellphone - the clarity's that good.
Voice memos are back with this model. There's a configurable "launch pad" that lets you assign a button to the voice memo function, and lets you record only the caller's voice for a maximum of 60 seconds. That's just one clip. I've recorded about seven clips so far and I don't know what the space restriction is!
So, putting together the Internet, voice-dialing, color pictures and all the rest in a little, light, shapely form gives us the Samsung A500. For my money, I think its a great deal, and I think Sprint's running some great promotions on it as well.
I've dropped it from a considerable height once, and - no trouble yet - touchwood! Looks like its quite a little bit of everything!!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299
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Epinions.com ID:
sbambawale
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Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.
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