Outstanding phone, Outstanding Price, Stand out Style
Written: Jul 01 '03 (Updated Jul 05 '03)
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Pros: Sleek design, light-weight, clarity, great colors, external caller ID
Cons: Menus could be more intuitive and no so deep
The Bottom Line: If you want a cool phone with outstanding features, here's your mark! If you want to hear the theme from Mission Impossible everytime you get a call...get something else.
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| Romilayu's Full Review: Samsung SCH-A310 Mobile Phone |
Possibly, as another reviewer said, the last great non-color phone is indeed the Samsung SCH-a310. This clamshell or flip phone is one of the higher end phones that verizon is now carrying. It is a tri-mode CDMA phone that is compatible with their America's Choice calling plan.
The phone is indeed very "chic". It is encompassed in a silverly metallic plastic with chrome accents both outside and inside the flip. You can also buy face plates for the front from you local store or eBay where the options run from clear plastic to tie-dyed background upon which pandas dance with the word "Love" written over them. (I promise, it's there...go check out) Anyways, the colors are amazing too. You can change the backlight of the screen to many vibrant colors (yellow, green, blue, light blue, orange, or purple). The text is always black and provides great contrast. THe Send button is lit green and the End button lit red to distinguish them.
THe screen itself is very large and rectangular allowing you, at glance, to see everything. THe picture is very clear and the menus are animated (for those of you to whom that matters). I was surprised at just how large the screen is. There is no sense of clutter on it all.
The phone has a great weight and is small enough to slip into your pocket or purse and go mostly un-noticed. It could be smaller, but if you want super tiny, chances are you aren't with Verizon. :-\
The reception in my area is impeccable...living in Metro Atlanta, Georgia....there is almost nowhere that I do not get a signal. I also have never had a problem while traveling even to the most remote of places.
Battery life is not too terribly impressive. I did however switch the slot cycle to 3 and that improved it a bit, but I still only manage to ink out about 90 minutes talk time over a two day period. Which is OK for me.
Onto my negatives...the first is a negative to some, not all. There has been talk here that the menus are too difficult. I believe one person said was an engineer and couldn't figure it out without much labor. While it is true that the menu system is not as intuitive as some, it is NOT that difficult, especially if you've ever used a cell phone. I reprogrammed my entire phone book (30 plus numbers) in under 45 minutes while watching a movie. It can be done.
I think the reason some folks have trouble is that the phone book holds a RIDICULOUS amount of info. Which I love! It holds five numbers a person, has a slot for you to select a specific color and ringer to associate with that person, as well as making them a private contact. Very cool! But there is, as with all things, a learning curve.
The other complaint I have is that some of the menus are pretty deep. For instance, to access whisper mode (a mode that amplifies your voice so you can whisper during a call...also extremely cool!) you need about 10 keystrokes. Maybe there's a shortcut that I have yet to find, but I don't think so. That is a bit of a pain, but it's not a feature that I am in the habit of using, so it doesn't bother me terribly.
You've probably also heard that people are on their third or fourth phone. It is true that the phones were glitchy at first, but samsung has fixed the problems and now they work great.
Lastly...ringtones. The ring tones are...well...odd...but they aren't awful and Samsung has added a standard ringer. I can't get over this ringtone issue...people buy phones for the ringtones...when did we as a culture decide that a simple "ring ring" was no longer enough and now we have to hear the latest R&B tripe everytime someone calls? But I digress...
All said, if you want a good phone, get this one! Hands down...and for the price, you can't beat it! I got mine at Radio Shack, paid 50 and got a 25 dollar rebate from Samsung. That was of course with a two year contract. A phone like this, for two tens and a five? You can't beat that!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 25.00
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Epinions.com ID:
Romilayu
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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