42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High quality product with a user-friendly interface -- It's one sharp phone!, October 20, 2006
This review is from: SAMSUNG SCH A930 VERIZON CDMA BLUETOOTH CAMERA PHONE (Electronics)
The reason why I didn't give it a 5:
I currently own a Audiovox XV6600 (a fully functional PDA with Windows Mobile 5, etc.., and activated the phone through Verizon). So you can imagine downgrading from a PDA to a run-of-the-mill / mainstream flip-phone explains why the Samsung A930 isn't the "fanciest" gadget I've come across. In other words, I'd give this Samsung a 5/5 if it wasn't for the PDA. I hope you find the following information helpful.
Ive seen and handled several types of cell phones and I'd have to say that the Samsung A930 is an excellent phone... for the price (compared to other phones of much higher value, and pooring ratings/quality). It's V-Cast compatible, and has a memory card slot for a SanDisk microSD disk which is useful if you listen to music on the way to work, school, etc..
Physical Features:
- Very well constucted; no flimsy/cheap made parts.
- All input connection ports (i.e. where you plug the charger in) have attached caps/covers to prevent any dust, etc. from building up- which can result in damaging the connection prongs, which is no good (especially if you dont have an insurance plan on the phone).
- There's no protruding antenna, (which i personally found both unhelpful and unneccessary with earlier phones) but despite this problem I've been getting excellent signal (but that may just be the area I'm in)
- The camera rotates 180 degrees (give or take) so you can face it forward, or towards yourself - and it also takes impressive pictures for being a camera phone, 1280x960 (pixels) maximum resolution. Plus it has many other camera features: flash, brightness, contrast, etc..
Software Features:
- The ringtone selection isn't very good, in my opinion. There are only a select few to choose from (You can always download ringtones off GetItNow though, if neccessary).
- The user-interface is very easy to use (I'm still getting use to mine so I've had a few mess-ups, pressing the wrong key and what not). The manual contains every bit of information you need to know on working your phone - plain and simple, with pictures and easy to follow instructions - down to every last option (which i find very helpful because some options seem to be hidden almost, and commonly manuals arn't written and put together very thuroughly - Hey, no offense all the cell-phone-manual-writers, just lettin out some steam, hah!.
- They're several pre-installed software applications built-in, unfortunately I can't list all of them because my fingers would fall off, trust me though, there are some real cool features: a calculator, a scheduler, alarm clock, and many many more.
- It includes GetItNow (for those not farmliar with GetItNow, its a application on the phone which allows you to connect to a Verizon server (Air time does not go against your contracted minutes) and you'll have access to hundreds of downloads such as ringtones, wallpapers, games, news, sports, and thats only to name a few. Its free to use, but some of the tones, wallpaper, etc.. cost a few dollars to purchase.
- Since i started a new contract I was eligable for 1 month free trial of V-Cast (Which I believe is about $15 a month) - it's pretty interesting/entertaining, you can access music videos, concerts, clips from your favorite tv shows, etc... In my opnion though i wouldn't recommend it, it's very over priced... $15 a month to watch clips of concerts and tv shows on a 1'' x 1'' screen? and how often are you going to watch a concert on your cell phone?
Phone Settings:
- There are countless adjustments and settings you can make to the phone to make it very customized, from different ringtones depending on the person who is calling you (you can even have a picture of the person display when they call, it's called Video-ID i believe)
- Voice Activated Dialing - you dont even need to had a pre-stored contact to call, you can simply say, for example "Call 5551234" and if it hears you clearly it will recognize the number and ask what you would like to do, "Call, store, etc.." (and when I was testing it I was speaking very quickly it worked dead-on the first couple times, but if it missunderstands a single (possibly 2) number(s) it will show you a list of similar numbers
- TIP: When using the voice recognition dialing, try putting on the speaker phone fuction first, I've found it can recognize speech a lot clearer (and make sure there isn't any loud ambient noise in the room (which would lead to a misrecognition)
- It's Bluetooth capabile for anyone interested.
- It also has a small input jack for headphones (i dont believe it's the standard 1/8'' jack though, any local electronics store I'm sure would carry an adaptor) so you can listen to music on the go. Also has playlist buttons are on the outside of the case to allow easier control.
Overall I'm very pleased with the phone (and you can imagine that going from a PDA to this... thats a good thing)
Don't take my word on it though, there are plenty of online reviews, and going to the store to try the phone out yourself before buying it is an awesome idea. I hope you found this review helpful.
Thanks for reading!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Need Help With This Phone??, January 20, 2007
This review is from: SAMSUNG SCH A930 VERIZON CDMA BLUETOOTH CAMERA PHONE (Electronics)
This phone is great! I've had it for a month now an have found some really neat tricks with this phone.
First off it is not an MP3 phone!! It only plays WMA music files. BUT! no worries its really easy to convert your MP3 music files into WMA (using "Plus! MP3 Audio Converter LE") & they sound completely the same. Going to www.microsoft.com download center you can download this software fast, easy an most importantly FREE. ok. The next thing I learned was that I could make my very own RINGTONES on my phone. Yup. That's right, I can grab any MP3 song slice a small clip (using "MP3 Cutter Joiner version 1.17") that I want from it an transfer it to my phone (using SD transFlash Card) and use it as a ringtone.
So check it out. With a little patience an learning a thing or to about audio files this phone can offer you Free Music, Ringtones & Pictures. All from your computer. Remember though!! I use a microSD/TransFlash Card to transfer all these files to my phone. So if u want to take full advantage of this phone your going to need one. 256mb is the one I use.
The Reception is great. So Far no dropped calls. I'm also a big texter ,seriously I txt all day everyday about 6,000 a month, well after txting all day the battery does tend to get low. Especially after a couple phone calls. But it has never died on me. I also play music all day and yet has never died. So in the end the battery is good.
Now If you read some of the other reviews somewhere someone wrote that since it has no front display you cant tell if u got a txt message, phone call or missed call etc. That is somewhat true. After 2 min it disappears but if you press the speaker button (or any other button on the outside) for 1 sec it pops back up again for another 2 min letting you know you have received something. And if you haven't it simply displays the date. ALSO!! the front display on this phone NEVER turns off. it always displays reception, time (not the date), and battery life.
so to sum it all up..
Good:
Reception
Battery Life
Add your own music and ringtones
Has Dust Covers
Rotating Camera
Bad:
Speakers could be a wee bit louder
& Verizon should hand out free accessories for this phone.
I know Sprint does with all of its Samsung phones.
Feel Free to email me at Hernizzzle510@sbcgloabl.net an I'll gladly help anyone needing help wit this phone in any way I can .
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great phone, September 30, 2006
This review is from: SAMSUNG SCH A930 VERIZON CDMA BLUETOOTH CAMERA PHONE (Electronics)
I've had this phone for about a week now and I really like it. I get great reception indoors and out; in a direct comparison with my friend's newer lg phone (vx5200 I believe) and older lg (model?) it gets better reception than both. The sound quality is great and the phone feels very solid. I have had no problem hearing through the earpiece on buses, etc. where there is a lot of background noise - this was always a problem with my previous phones.
This phone DOES display missed calls and messages on the front display; the lower half of the display disappears after about a minute to save battery life. If you hold the speakerphone button for a second, it will light up again and display missed calls and messages, so you can check for messages without having to open the phone.
In short, here are a few things I really like about the phone:
-Great reception
-Nice loud earpiece and speakerphone
-Loud ringer
-Very good sound quality
-Voice recognition works well
-Beautiful internal screen
-Feels solid
-Nice large keypad and navigation buttons
-Camera takes decent pictures and video (for a cell phone)
Here are a few things I'm not crazy about:
-Speakerphone button can be easy to inadvertly push, although I'm now
getting used to the location and press it less often
-Speakerphone echo in car (other person hears echo); only seems to occur
when talking with flip closed in car
-Ringtones aren't the greatest
-USB cable and headphones not included with phone
Overall I think it's a great phone. It's not advertised as an .mp3 player, so I don't know why people get upset when they find out you can only play .wma files. I haven't tried V-Cast or the navigation system, but I've heard other people say that they work very well on this phone. The outer display is not for everyone and may be difficult to read if your eyesight isn't the greatest, but I personally like it. This phone deserves much better than one or two stars.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No