PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint)

by Samsung

Product Details

Product Manual [2.71mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 3.5 x 1.9 x 0.9 inches ; 3.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000C1HLG
• Item model number: A620
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,961 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With an integrated camera, voice dialing, and dual color displays, the Samsung VGA1000 makes a great mobile companion. Other features, like support for Sprint's wireless Web services, as well as built-in games and ringtones, round out a strong package that is sure to please.

Design
The VGA1000's handsome clamshell form factor houses an internal 128 x 160, 65,000-color display. There's also a supplementary color display on the front panel of the device that displays call information, battery life, time of day, signal strength and more. An extendable antenna is located on the top right side of the phone, and the camera and flash unit are placed on the rear of the device. Meanwhile, most of the phone's features and on-screen menus are controlled by a five-way center button above the handset's dial pad. A 2.5mm headset jack is also provided.

Calling Features
The phone's built-in address book allows you to assign up to 300 entries, each storing six numbers, with a total capacity for 300 numbers and 300 email and Web addresses. You can customize your caller ID by linking a photo to a specific phone number in your contact list. In addition to a vibrate mode, the phone allows you to choose from a number of polyphonic ringtones that make your received calls all the more exciting. The VGA1000's GPS location technology pinpoints your exact location when you dial 911 (where available). Perhaps most importantly for users in rural areas, the VGA1000 is a tri-mode phone, meaning it can operate on Sprint's digital PCS network, as well as analog networks that serve many outlying areas.

Another key calling feature of the VGA1000 is its enhanced voice recognition capabilities. The system allows you to speak numbers digit by digit or speak the name of anyone in your phonebook. Voice features are speaker-independent, so there's no need to train the phone to respond to any one person's voice.

Messaging, Internet and Tools
If you need basic messaging capabilities, the VGA1000 has you covered as support is built-in for sending and receiving SMS text messages (Sprint PCS text messaging charges apply). T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built-into the unit-- a plus for text messaging users.

The phone also supports PCS Vision email and instant messaging capabilities. Sprint PCS Vision transforms the wireless experience from something that's simply functional into something visual, entertaining and highly personalized. MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL Instant Messenger are all supported by Sprint's PCS Vision service. PCS Vision mobile Web services let you check out sports scores, get your seven-day forecast, check your flight status, and stay up to date with the latest news. Experience full-color graphic versions of popular Web sites.

A number of handy software tools are bundled with the VGA1000 including a calendar, a calculator, an alarm clock and a to-do list. A voice recorder lets you record memos for later retrieval.

Imaging and Entertainment
With its robust set of camera functions, the VGA1000 shines in the imaging department. The VGA-quality (640x480) digital camera lets you take, view, store and send pictures wirelessly in full color. You can also control brightness levels, white balance and color tone to get the image and effects you want. Other features include a self-timer for group shots, built-in fun frames to decorate your images, a multi-shot function for action sequences, and a self-portrait mode for special moments. Capture pictures in high, medium or low resolution and digitally zoom in up to 4 times. As mentioned, there's also a flash for low-light situations.

The VGA1000 lets you choose from a variety of pre-set images to customize your main and external displays and make them unique to you. With PCS Vision service, you can download games like Tetris and Pac-Man, as well as additional ringers, screensavers and backgrounds. You can even turn your phone into a gaming device with an optional, attachable game pad that makes it fun and easy to navigate when playing complex, fast-paced games on your phone.

Vital Statistics
The Samsung VGA1000 weighs 4.48 ounces and measures 3.5 x 1.9 x 1 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 2.9 hours of digital talk time, and up to 168 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the AMPS 800/CDMA 800/CDMA 1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
VGA1000 handset, AC battery charger, lithium-ion battery, user's manual.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A major software revision is needed., December 8, 2003

By 

M. Hull "NoSpam714" (Fort Wayne, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

I bought this phone as a replacement for my Samsung 8500, (a phone that has served me extremely well over the last three years). I researched many many phones before I decided to get this one.

I am rather disappointed with this phone for several reasons.

1. Signal strength meter consistently at 1 or 2 bars only. I very rarely ever see more than two signal bars, but I don't have many problems with making calls, and it does better making a call in known weak areas than the 8500 did. The thing is, I only know where the weak areas are from past experience using my 8500. I sure wouldn't know where the weak areas are by looking at the signal strength on this phone, it's ALWAYS low.

2. When using a headset (which is how I make about 90% of my calls), the person I am talking to tells me that I keep cutting out (digital packet loss). The problem is worse if I am in a weak service area. If I unplug the headset and hold the phone to my ear, they can hear me fine. The problem is NOT the headset. I have several headsets, and they all do the same thing. Also, although the handset has a good volume level, when I use my headset, I can hardly hear. My 8500 was usually too loud, but could be turned down. I never had any problem with hearing or being heard with any of my headsets on my 8500 unless I was in a bad service area.

3. Call timers... What call timers! They totally did away with them. Other than the CURRENT call you are on, there is NO history of how long past phone calls were. Once you hang up, it's gone... FOREVER! It makes it difficult to bill for my phone time when I cannot go back into the call history to see how long a phone call was. As far as I am concerned, with the amount of memory the modern day phones have, there should be a cumulative call timer for every listing in your phone book, and possibly even in the caller ID list. The phone should have the length of the call listed for every individual inbound and outbound call. The lifetime counter (odometer) is completely gone too. Why!?!?

4. Major software bug. Text messages cause a ghost data session. Anytime I receive any kind of text message or e-mail, I cannot make an outbound phone call without having to log onto and then off of the internet or power cycle the phone. It totally defeats the purpose of having someone hit 2 in voicemail for the caller to have their caller ID number sent to your phone as a text message. When you go to read the message and hit the button to call them back, it says you cannot do that until you press end to quit the data session. When you do that, it still does not end the data session. This is a MAJOR problem for me as I receive a majority of my messages via caller ID and text messaging.

5. Ringers do not stay where I want them. I leave the phone on vibrate most of the time, however, if you leave the flip open, it turns escalating ring (louder the longer it rings). If you have it plugged into the charger, it just goes into straight ring on extremely _L_O_U_D_! This is beyond annoying when you are trying to sleep.

6. Wireless web. Although the speed of the 3G wireless web is impressive, many of the features that I used to be able to get into with the 2G (straight text) wireless internet are just plain gone from the available menus of 3G wireless internet. The ones I used the most, the Sprint wireless web people tried to help me get them back, but some of them just plain and simple will not work on the new phone. I thought that I would be able to get to all of the stuff I got with my old phone plus a whole lot more. Instead, they just removed about 75% of what used to be there and replaced it with subscription & pay based services. The ones that I miss most are Yahoo finance message board and Buzztime trivia. GONE!

7. Backlight Part 1. The color screen is very nice, however the controls for the brightness could be a bit more flexible. First of all, there should be some way to get light into the phone other than strictly from the backlight. When I try to look at the phone during a call, the display is completely black. It is NOT possible to read anything on the display without the backlight. (The outside display CAN be read without the backlight)

8. Backlight Part 2. I leave the screen settings in "power save mode" most of the time, because the display is just too bright (especially at night). The bad part about using "power save mode" is that when you do, the keypad lights are turned completely off (a problem at night).

9. The outside display is awesome. I love virtually everything about it. I wish that there was an easy way to make the backlight come on to look at the time. While on the subject of time, I don't know why the spinning compass (when searching for service) is more important than the current time. Leave the time up on the screen and do something else for searching for service.

9. The camera is easy to use, does well in poorly lighted rooms, quality is decent, and the "fun frames" are pretty cool.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Cell Phones!, October 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

My Sprint PCS plan was about to expire and I I decided that it was time to update my phone to something hip and trendier since I always have to be the first to try out the newest in technology so I thought why not give the VGA1000 phone a try and I just love it! It's basically an update of my previous samsung phone the SCH-8500 which I also loved, but after dropping it one to many times over the past 2 1/2 years it was very weather beaten. The VGA has a large color screen with amazing resolution and the menu is so easy to navigate. I love the camera feature as well and have everyone in my phonebook linked to their picture and it shows up on the external caller ID. Since I travel a lot mostly to big cities I always need a phone that will get great reception everywhere and it does! I always have crisp clear calls in Boston, NYC, north Jersey, Milwaulkee, and Ft. Myers Beach. This phone is so compact and I never forget to throw it in my purse or pocket. I love it and could not recommended anything better!

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good phone, great price on Amazon, a few drawbacks!, December 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint) (Wireless Phone)

I'll keep this short... yeah right! Great price on Amazon, so the phone is definitely worth having, especially for the casual user.

1. Sound quality on calls: Like other users have mentioned, the phone is not the most comfortable, but it is still okay. If you don't place the phone just right on your ear, you cannot hear very well. Volume and quality are fine to me, but I just switched over from ATT, which was absolutely horrible. The phone gets VERY hot when talking. This is normal for this phone according to all the other reviewers. Reception is excellent on the Sprint network. No dropped calls yet!

2. Size: Industry standard. Nearly the same as all the other new flip-phones out there. Very small and nice.

3. External LCD: Nice. Very Nice. EXCEPT there is no way to activate the backlighting on the external LCD unless you open it. That is kind of a pain if you just want to see the time and reception w/out having to open it up.

4. Internal LCD: Excellent. My only beef with the LCD and internal lighting on this phone are that the keypad lighting is not as good as some other phones. The 'talk' and 'end' buttons are green and red, respectively. You cannot see the red very well, so the 'end' looks like a dim red glow at night. Oh well, again very minimal problem.

5. Camera: Fine for fun pictures just to send to another phone or email to a friend, but if there is ANY movement at all, you can count on a blurry picture. Flash is not what it is cracked up to be. It is more of a light that comes on for a slow second or two, rather than a quick, brilliant flash that we are used to. All in all, who cares. Extra feature that is there for fun, so I don't get too hung up about it. Would be nice to be able to turn just the flash on for a light at night. You can add fun frames around your pictures, like footprints, balloons, etc... which are fun.

6. Build quality: Just great!

6a. Battery life: Good so far. But if you put animated screen savers and browse the web much, your battery life goes way down.

7. Games: I don't think it comes with any preloaded, and not even sure how to play them. The manual that comes with the phone is extremely basic, and doesn't cover most of the things, such as setting up your security password when you turn on the phone so that if someone steals it, they can't use it.

8. Problems: Just one. As another user mentioned below, if someone messages you, the phone will think that it is still in send/receive mode or something, b/c if you go to make a call, you will get some error that says "you must end your session first..." and even if you press 'end' it still won't work. Sometimes you need to turn the phone off and on again. I thought it was just me until I read the other review.

9. Overall: Highly recommend, especially for the price. I skipped buying this phone on Amazon and went directly into the Sprint store. I told them about this price on Amazon, and that I only wanted a 1 year contract, not 2. They gave me (2) VGA1000 phones for free, waived the activation, and I only had to sign a 1 year term! (2) phones w/ 1000 minutes for $65.00 Best of all, I didn't have to deal with all the rebate forms, etc... that is a real pain! When you go into a sprint store, make sure you haggle. They can do anything if you speak with the right person!