Customer Reviews

PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

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.

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!

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!

I've been a sprint subcriber for several years now and I usually buy LG phones. I was going to buy the sanyo 8100 until I saw this model and then read the review and all the tech info on it. All I have to say is that this is the best phone I ever owned. I didn't realize all the features it had until I brought it home and started to play with it. What a big improvement over my last phone which I thought was a great phone also but it doesn't compare. Lots of features, clear displays, fast net, long battery life excellent reception, I haven't had one drop call yet. Best of all it doesn't look like a camera phone because of the location of the camera. I highly recommend this phone.

I had the Samsung VGA1000 phone for a month before I returned it. Sure, the camera with flash was a nice feature, but honestly, it is FAR from the real thing to be paying the full price for. The battery life with color display seemed to be one of the strong points of the phone. Keep in mind, you will have to pay extra for the PCS Vision contract to access any pictures taken with the camera. Despite trying for a few weeks, I could not find a reliable data cable and software driver to transfer pictures from the camera to my PC. By far the most annoying (unadvertised) feature of the phone was a background ringing during conversations, much like the semi-silent ringing during hearing tests. That nuisance distracts enough to barely notice the rising tempature of the phone while in use. It's the only cell phone I've had that warms your hands. Also, I've been a Sprint customer for over 5 years, and after agreeing to matching the price on Amazon (at $49.99 when I placed the order) for renewing my expired contract, Sprint backed out of the promise and charged me $179.99 for the phone. Now, I'm stuck with the contract, or risk paying extra each month for not having one. (BTW: AT&T stores match Amazon prices without hassle). Conclusion: Sprint's network is great. I haven't had a problem with their reception or availability yet. But, this phone is not worth paying much of anything for the annoying background ringing and heat emission. Also, try limiting the amount you have to deal with Sprint customer service in their stores or over the phone. They qualify as one of the rudest, manipulative and deceiving set of customer service representatives ever (unless you're a new customer and they are trying to coax into signing a SprintPCS contract).

The VGA 1000 is a nice phone. The earphone placement is a little high, forcing you to have to move the phone low on your ear, and it takes a little getting used to. It doesnt nearly feel like a regular phone and that can become uncomfortable for the ears. It does get VERY hot. This thing could be a handwarmer in the winter. Seriously. I dont have a real big problem with that. The pictures come out fine if there is no motion in the shot and the light is right. Don't be fooled, this flash isnt doing a whole lot of illuminating. I bought it for the flash alone because the 8100 didnt have one. It's still a pretty rudimentary camera. The LCD is HUGE! By far the biggest until you get into the PDA type phones. The sound quality is fabulous. You can do tons of things with the scheduler and alarms, etc... The games are kinda silly and you have to pay a subscription fee to get them from sprint. Otherwise, you're stuck with three little crappy demo games. The battery is pretty good, but the camera will kill it fast. If you can get this phone for free, get it. However, I would never advise anyone to pay much for this phone. A lot of the gadgets are all subscription based garbage.

I've been a Sprint customer for 5 years and I'd like to dispel the misconceptions I've found in most of these review's about Sprint's service.

WHAT'S GOOD (and misreported in most reviews):
* Service quality is GREAT and has been improving over the years where I live (SF Bay Area). Local service quality depends on your local geography, what kind of buildings your surrounded by, the number of antennas Sprint has near you, the number of Sprint users that live near you and many other factors, so never take another user's service review seriously unless you know they are in your area.

* Ringers, games and other downloads DO NOT expire and DO NOT need to be repurchased. Those items that list an expiration date actually expire from your vault BUT NOT FROM YOUR PHONE. Unless you delete the items from your phone after the expiration date, you will not have to repurchase them. If the item doesn't expire or it's before the expiration date, you have the option of carrying over your content to a new phone, or to your phone if it has needed a hard reset (i've had my phone for about 15 months, and other Sprint PCS phones from Samsung and Qualcomm for 4 years before that, and I've never needed to do a hard reset).

* You DO NOT have to pay a $15 PCS vision fee to take pictures, send text messages or use the Internet. You can take pictures for free (sending them is a different story). I use text messaging and the Internet a moderate amount (about 10-15 text messages and 15 various web accesses per month) and don't buy the service, just pay per kilobyte or whatever it is and I've never paid more than $3 in a month. Also, in the 15 months that I've had a Vision enabled phone, I've ended up getting 6 (not 2) months of free Internet. Every once in a while Sprint will call me up and ask if I'd like another free trial. I load up on content (games, ringers, etc.) during the trials, since you get a $10/month allowance, so I've never even paid for content. My only problem is that my phone is about to run out of storage space!

* I haven't had too much trouble with customer service. Obviously, YMMV. Problems do seem to be solved a lot quicker when I casually mention that I'm a 5 year customer and on my 5th Sprint PCS phone.

WHAT'S BAD:
* Sending pictures does require the $15 service and is slow and cumbersome. I've mostly just opted to keep my pictures on my phone. They look terrible on a computer screen anyway. I like the phone feature as a capture a moment (you see something hilarious and don't have a real camera handy) or safety thing (car accidents and such), but I don't think it really has applications beyond that.
* Text messaging is very slow and requires you to go through wireless web. I don't use it too much, so I've learned to deal, but if text messaging is your life, I don't recommend Sprint. I think phones with SMS text messaging capability may solve this problem, but Sprint has just come out with them recently, and my phone isn't one of the lucky ones.

As far as phones go, I have the Sanyo 8100 and LOVE it. This phone is being seriously considered for my next upgrade, with the one drawback being that it doesn't have speakerphone.

I have had this phone for 5 months - and the hinge for the flip portion is cracking on the left side. As soon as the cracked peice falls off, the flip top portion can come out of the hinge, potentially rendering the phone unusable. So until then, I have to use the phone with extreme care and caution to prolong the inevitable.

Upon contacting Samsung for a warrantly repair, I was informed that this flaw was "cosmetic" and a repair will cost $75. If I wait until the phone actually breaks, then of course the repair will be much more expensive and still not covered by the 1 year "warranty" - it is classified as "normal wear and tear". The customer service person I spoke with was very straight forward, and informed me that this is an extremely common problem with Samsung flip phones. It apparantly occurs because the hinge is not strong enough to withstand normal use - i.e. holding the phone to your ear, opening and closing, etc. A small crack develops internally and eventually spreads to the outside of the hinge. When I questioned the logic of having a phone break after only 5 months of nrmal use, the Samsung response was that their phones are not built to last forever - just like cars, they are also engineered to break down. To which I say at least car companies use tempered metal for high stress componets, rather than PLASTIC. Car companies also issue recalls to repair common faults.

The only advice Samsung personnel gave me was to not buy another flip phone. I plan to go them one better and not buy any Samsung phones at all.

Phone loses connectiosn often.

Phone does not store usage information. Requires connecting and minutes to get usage.

Does not show all call history. Only most recent from a particular number. No details as to call length stored.

Camera is almost useless unless you subscribe to the picture plus service so you can send pictures to people ($15/month). Can not download pictures not taken on the phone. Quality of photos pretty weak. If you upload a photo and later download it, it is too large to use as a caller ID image.

You can download ringtones or games but have to pay for them and only get them for 30 days, or they rebill.

I just received the phone as a warranty replacement for my Samsung A500. I was not a big fan of the A500 due to ringer issues and the fact that it turned off from time to time for no reason.

I was a little worried about trying another Samsung after the A500 but I'm pleased so far with the VGA1000. All the functions are easy to use, including the camera. I had a hard time getting the vision setup after my last phone but that was mostly due to Sprint customer service issue rather then the phone itself.

I like the overall feel of the phone, it feels more solid then the A500 did. I also like the larger screen and color external screen. The camera function is a novel idea but not sure I'll use it too much.

The one thing I do like about the VGA1000 compared to the A500 is that it has a normal ringer included with it. The A500 did not have a normal ringer so I had to pay for a downloaded one.
The ringer on the VGA1000 sounds good and isn't disruptive like some of the ringers (crazy chicken) on the A500.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this phone and would recommend it to anyone who needs a new phone through sprint and wants to try out the camera phone technology.