Samsung MM-A880 (Sprint)

Let's be honest--many of the extra features that manufacturers cram into cell phones are of limited appeal to those who mainly want to use their handsets to make calls. To be sure, the Samsung MM-A880 sports a ton of multimedia bells and whistles, but in this case, its best feature is also its most useful. Thanks to its excellent voice-activation capabilities, the MM-A880 is a fine choice for those who like or need to place calls while driving. Sprint PCS is offering this phone for $180 with a two-year agreement--a good price, considering how much is packed into the unit.The Samsung MM-A880 sports the same basic look as other handsets the manufacturer has designed for Sprint PCS. With this model, however, the brushed-silver casing is attractively accented on the outer trim by a slight shade of lavender. That said, it's not too flashy to whip out in the middle of a business meeting. It's fairly compact at 3.35 by 1.73 by 0.93 inches but a touch hefty at 4.7 ounces. The postage stamp-size external display supports 262,000 colors and shows the date, time, battery life, signal strength and caller ID (where available). It also serves as a viewfinder for taking self-portraits, and you can assign pictures taken with the integrated megapixel camera as screensavers or as photo caller ID for individual contacts. Above the screen is the camera lens and a small flash.

Open the lid and you'll see a vibrant, 1.8-inch-diagonal 262,000-color screen. It's great for viewing photos and the user-friendly menus (available in two styles), but it disappears in direct light. Unlike with the external screen, you can change the backlighting time, as well as the font size and color, but you can't alter the brightness. We liked, however, that you could choose from nine clock styles, including an option that shows two times simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the MM-A880's dial pad feels cramped. Add to that that the buttons are both smooth and flush, dialing by feel is difficult. That said, the blue backlighting is sufficiently bright. A button on the right spine provides access to camera and camcorder functions, while the left spine features a volume rocker and a standard 2.5mm headset port. A four-way navigation toggle just below the hinge provides shortcuts to user-defined features.

In standby mode, the OK button in the middle of the four-way navigation toggle accesses the camera functions. Given that there's already a dedicated camera button, we would have preferred the option to assign this button a different function in standby, as well. On the other hand, we could designate the toggle to act as a shortcut to four user-defined functions. There are also two soft keys that open the menu and contacts when in standby mode, a Back button, and the basic Talk and End keys. The VOD (video on demand) button on the inside hinge provides one-touch access to the phone's media player, where you can watch television via Sprint TV or listen to radio programming.

You can store up to 500 contacts in the Samsung MM-A880's phone book, each of which can hold five numbers, as well as e-mail and Internet addresses. You can assign each contact a photo and any of the 18 polyphonic (64-chord) or 8 monophonic ring tones, and you can organize contacts into groups. Other features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a 30-second voice memo, a world clock, a calculator, an alarm clock, a memo pad, and a speakerphone. We were disappointed that the Samsung MM-A880 lacked Bluetooth and an infrared port.

This handset's biggest selling point is its voice-activation technology, which lets you place calls, access contacts, launch applications, and check the signal and battery strength by dictating commands. Pressing and holding the Talk button launches the Voice Services feature. If you have a headset with an in-line call button, this makes for a great hands-free feature to use while driving. You can instruct the phone to place calls to contacts in your address book. For contacts with multiple numbers, you can specify whether to call "home" or "mobile." You can also dictate the number that you wish to dial. This feature worked perfectly each time in our tests. You can also use Voice Services to launch the text-messaging window.

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