- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 4 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"Calls are muffled, no improvement over older models"
Pros: Thin and sleek, lots of features
Cons: Call quality is low, S20 pin port not compatible with any audio adapters
Summary: I tried this phone out for a couple of weeks, and switched to the SGH-A707. I'm not so concerned with design and features; I was just interested in ease of use as a phone and an MP3 player without a lot of extra expense.
This phone has terrible call quality; whether land line or cell phone, local or long distance, I found it hard to understand the caller because of how muffled it sounded.
I didn't get to try it as an MP3 player either. The headphone/charger jack is an S20 pin port, unlike their older models, and the only wired headphones I could find for this phone I would have needed to order from Samsung. The only other choice I had was Bluetooth, and I wasn't ready to shell out another $80-150 for headphones most people review as uncomfortable. I have headphones I'm happy with, but there is no adapter available for the S20 pin port. Believe me, I looked.
The phone has a solid design that seemed like it could have taken the abuse I will surely subject it to, and it was not too bulky. Maybe some will have more luck with this phone than I; I'm just not willing to put more effort into making this phone work for me.
I've only has the (Sync)SGH-A707 for a day and am already much happier with the call quality (RadioShack told me this phone is recommended for hearing impaired persons; I don't know about that, but it's definitely better) And better yet, for just a couple dollars I can buy an audio adapter for this phone so I don't need to buy Bluetooth (though, like the a517, it does support stereo Bluetooth).
So far, it seems to me the SGH-A517 doesn't offer anything (it's predecesor?) the SGH-A707 offers, but rather lags behind it in quality. It looks sleeker, but it's not.
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