Looks Can Be Deceiving
Written: Apr 09 '03 (Updated Apr 09 '03)
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Pros: Brilliant color screen, small profile, highly visible backlit keys.
Cons: Crippling hardware and software defects, short battery life, heats up uncomfortably during use, mediocre reception.
The Bottom Line: In the rush to market, Samsung sacrificed quality and battery life. Samsung's first attempt at a US launched camera-phone should be avoided. There are better options out there.
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| acdc1174's Full Review: Samsung SPH-A500 Cell Phone |
When I saw this phone I instantly fell in love. It is small, stylish, and wow that screen looks great! The flames of my passion for technology had been stoked. You know what they say though...the hotter a flame burns, the quicker it burns out. Such was the case with my A-500 experience. The honeymoon was great, but very short-lived.
The A-500 is a slim, clamshell style phone and was the first of the Sprint PCS camera-phones offered. This was to be their crown-jewel in their lineup. And what a centerpiece it was. This phone has an incredibly vivid color display, unlike many of the color phones on the market that are very muted. It includes a calendar, alarm clock, PIM, and two different styles of menus to choose from. It has an external LCD display for caller ID which is a great little feature for those preferring clamshell phones. The keys utilize a VERY bright blue LED arrangement for backlighting. These make the phone very easy to use in low-light conditions and it doesn't hurt that it looks great. The phone also allows for internet access via the Sprint PCS Vision Service at speeds rumored to rival that of a dial-up connection from your home PC. And did I mention a camera? Yes, this phone will let you take and share pictures with an add-on camera...How, you may ask, can a phone that offers all of these features get such a poor review by yours truly? Here's how.
In the three months that I owned this particular model of phone, I had to exchange it for a new unit a total of three times.As it turns out, I discovered while talking to my technicians at our repair center (I work off-duty at RadioShack 2 days a week) that there is a widespread problem with these units having cold solders that cause a major problem...the unit will spontaneously begin to cycle on and off and it is not a cycle that corrects itself or that can be interrupted. Can I just tell you how frustrating that is when you have programmed your phonebook the SECOND time just to discover you will have to do it AGAIN? Realizing that I may have just gotten one out of a bad batch the first time, I made sure the second one came from a different batch...same problem. Then THAT one did the same thing within a month (Thank goodness for the 30 day return policy.) And when I had it happen AGAIN on my third unit (also from a different batch) I had had enough.
Now with some stories such as this you might read a line that goes something like this,"But when it worked, it was great." Not here. Aside from a crippling hardware defect, the unit's software (aka firmware) is also buggy and prone to causing the phone to lock up. When this happens you have to remove the battery and reboot the phone. Sometimes the phone will just randomly cycle off and back on. Not the best thing to have happen when you are in the middle of a conversation.
Now that word, "conversation," brings me to the topic that is most important when talking about cell phones- reception. It is nice that the phone is color and accesses the internet and will let you take pictures, but ultimately, what REALLY matters is how the phone works as a PHONE. When describing this, one word comes to mind...mediocre. Truthfully, I rarely ever lost all signal anywhere with the phone but on the flip-side of that coin, I almost never showed full reception on the signal strength meter (Please keep in mind that these meters are somewhat subjective and vary wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer) and I would characterize better than half of my conversations on this phone as "static-y."
Of course, I am somewhat long-winded (as if you couldn't tell by how long my reviews are) and I enjoy a long conversation with good friends. Unfortunately, such conversations aren't possible with this phone out of the box. It only comes with its standard slim-line battery and with that you can expect a maximum of about 90 minutes of continuous talk time. Now, these phones initially shipped with a coupon for a free extended-life battery that would offer about 2-2 1/2 hours of talk time (once you got it in the mail). I guess something has to be sacrificed in order to keep the sleek, sexy look but since I buy a phone to talk on, having a $300 doorstop doesn't help me when I need to make a call.
Speaking of batteries, I have yet to see a cell phone that does NOT heat up when using them for extended periods of time. Simply put, it is going to happen due to the high draw of the phone (especially the color phones) and small size of these newer batteries. However this phone heats up to the point of being very uncomfortable against your face. It may also be a result of the high output LEDs used to backlight the keypad but whatever it is, I didn't like it.
Basically what I am saying is this: If the phone worked as good as it looked, it would be the best thing out there. Unfortunately it appears that Samsung was trying to be the first to market with a CDMA color picture-phone in the US and they sacrificed quality in order to get there. In conclusion, if you are in the market for a camera-phone there are several other options out there for you (Sanyo 5300, the new Sanyo 8100, Samsung N-400, Samsung i700, and the upcoming release from LG just to name a few) that will fill your needs better and more reliably than this one. Not a good value at any price.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 299.99
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Epinions.com ID:
acdc1174
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Location: FL,USA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Consumer electronics aficionado and all around smart guy (just kidding)!
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