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"Good phone" on by thandel
Pros: Features, weight and size
Cons: Small screen and ringer features and new charger connector
Summary: I previously had a a670.... phone worked well and the size was respectable. Keep in mind that I really don't rely on the camera or use it much so my reivew is not considering the quality of the phone... it does appear to be average.
Having had two other Samsung models, the one selling feature was the old chargers would work with the new models. Not so, the older charges I have don't fit with the a870. (Modificiation was necessary but then it works fine). Why change it Samsung... please don't. Also the phone doesn't come with any sort of holder, not even a $0.10 plastic one. (Lets not get cheap Samsung.)
The phone is very light which is nice. A little bigger than my a670 but with the build in atenna a little shorter.
Good features but some are hard to get at. Samsung also removed some good features (WHY?!?!?!?) There used to be a great feature on my past two Samsung phone that when adjusting the ringer volume you had a "beep" level. This was great to just get a quick tone for a call without disturbing others. Perfect for meeting or leaving the phone on your desk when you don't want to disburb others. The feature is present but burried. I also find the screen although 65K doens't look sharp, perhaps the fonts are the issue and could use some anti-allising.
Bluetooth works great and an improved version of voice dailing almost makes it comletely useful. A great imporovement over earlier versions.
I find sound quality great and speakphone good to. Most don't know they are on spearker phone.
Overall for the price, features and weight you can't bet it. -
"Poor reception/call quality" on by RobGarn
Pros: voice recognition works well
Cons: Poor reception. Small font - can't change
Summary: Calls are choppy and I often miss a word. Calling from my home where I used my old Motorola V60 phone without problem for years. Speakerphone echos callers voice back to them to the point where caller said it was very distracting. Font is very small and can't change. Not good for those aging folks who need reading glasses. Like me.
On plus side, I was very impressed with voice recognition and after increasing the sensitivity one notch more to "reject more", it has worked great ever time.
Not much help if I can't understand what the callers are saying. I don't understand why others have said call quality is great. Is it possible I have a bad phone? I plan to return it tomorrow.Updated
My first phone was replaced with another one and now the reception and call quality is much better. It looks like I had a bad phone the first time around. Another grip after using the phone a couple of days is that the caller id name that shows up when someone calls is white text on a pretty light gray background. Text is also very small and only uses the bottom 15% of the screen. No ability to set colors or text size to fix. Overall I would up my rating to a 5 since the call quality is now better and voice recognition works -
"Great phone!" on by dp83
Pros: Great reception and sound; Small and lightweight; Good displays; can talk with phone closed either on headphone or speaker phone; great battery life; VZ Navigator
Cons: Can't use "word" input as default for everything
Summary: A great all-around phone. The sound and reception are excellent and menus are easy to use. Can fit easily into a pocket or can be used on a belt clip. Having no external antenna is great for slipping into a pocket. The outside display does go off after a few seconds when closed, but you only need to press any button on either side for a couple of seconds to show the display. Charged phone on a Saturday night and it lasted for a week (turned off overnight, of course.) The camera is fine for what's intended and not looking for an mp3 player on the phone as I have a separate one. A great phone if your primary purpose is for making calls and not listening to music. I'd select this phone again. Looked at the LG VX5300, but this was same voice quality and more compact.
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"GREAT phone! too many people complain about it" on by jobri
Pros: lightweight, camera, keypad, battery life, bluetooth dedicated volume rocker, camera and speakerphone button, great reception
Cons: resolution, external screen turns off after 7 secs
Summary: I got this phone about 2 days ago. So far, I am very happy with it. This phone is very compact, light, and has great battery life. The colors are ok, could be more vibrant, but I have no problems with it. I don't know why people complain about this phone so much. I have called my friends on it and they hear me loud and clear. They mistake me for being on my home phone because the clarity is so good. Plus it's on the Verizon network. The only thing that bothers me is that the external screen turns off after 7 secs, so it doesn't display the time. But all you have to do is press one of the side keys for about a sec or two and it shows the time. I kind of understand why this is done. To conserve battery life. This is my only gripe about this phone, it's not a biggie to me. The Picture ID calling is pretty neat. Some people complain about the font or colors on the external screen saying they cant see it. I see it just fine. I don't know what's the problem. Not every phone is perfect(in fact prob 99.9% are not...maybe close but not 100%) I recommend this phone to anyone!
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"Bad reception" on by trobinson017
Pros: slim, lightweight
Cons: bad reception
Summary: My wife has this phone after her "New Every Two" turn came up. So far, she hates it. Primary complaint is the internal antenna. Even though she doesn't put a finger up in the antenna area she gets spotty reception, even a couple dropped calls. Our other phones (Samsung SCH-a670, Audiovox CDM-9900) work just fine with no static, garbling or drops. Also, the external display goes off after about 10 seconds of non-use. As a teacher, she likes to keep the phone on her desk and peer down to see the clock (no clocks in classrooms). With her old Audiovox it just went dim but still vieawable. Same with the other Samsung. We couldn't find any setting to allow just dimming it. She plans to return the phone.
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