Samsung A950 (Verizon Wireless)

by Samsung

Product Features

• Streaming TV and Music With Verizon VCAST Service
• Near DSL-speed for Super-fast Browsing and Downloads
• Video Captures Up To 15 Seconds
• Large, Beautiful External and Internal Screens

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The hot, red Samsung A950 will have you moving with the latest wireless technology. With a 1.3 megapixel camera and camcorder, Bluetooth, an integrated MP3 player, TransFlash memory storage, a stereo speakerphone, and support for Verizon's V Cast service, this phone is a stylish companion with all the trimmings.

Learn more about the A950 from Verizon Wireless.

Design
The A950's internal 176 x 220 screen sports a whopping 262,000 colors for viewing high-resolution video and games. The full-color, supplementary external display shows incoming call information, picture caller ID, signal strength, battery life, current time and more. Controls for the phone's MP3 player are placed below the external display and they include a handy rotating jog wheel for selecting tracks quickly. Meanwhile, the phone's camera is housed above the external display. The A950's antenna is housed internally -- nothing to snag or break off, and there's a TransFlash/microSD memory slot for storing pictures, videos, music and other media. A standard 2.5mm stereo headset jack is present, as is a USB port for synchronizing data. Most of the phone's features and on-screen menus are controlled by a five-way center button on the handset's control pad.

Calling Features
The A950 boasts powerful calling functions, like an integrated speakerphone that makes it easy to converse without touching the handset-- a big plus for car users. Meanwhile, voice dialing makes it easy to call contacts by simply saying their names. And because the A950 is Bluetooth enabled, wireless headsets can be configured with the phone for total handsfree operation.

The A950's internal memory can hold up to 500 contacts for quick access to email addresses and phone numbers. The phone lets you easily assign pictures to your most common callers. In addition to vibrating alerts, the phone supports polyphonic ringtones. A number of ringtones come preloaded on the phone and more ringtones can be downloaded from Verizon's Get It Now service. The A950's GPS location technology pinpoints your exact location when you dial 911.

Messaging, Internet, and Tools
The phone's support for multimedia messaging means that text, photos, video and audio can be sent with ease (Verizon messaging charges apply). When used in combination with the A950's built-in camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging fun. There's also a built-in web browser for downloads and mobile web browsing. Verizon's optional Mobile Web 2.0 package allows you to read and send e-mails, exchange instant messages and view your favorite web content on your phone. You can check your e-mail, trade stocks online, compare prices while shopping, access flight information, get movie listings and find directions to the theater. T9 text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit-- a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.

With support for the EV-DO high-speed data standard, the A950 is fully compatible with Verizon's V Cast service. With V Cast, you can download and stream high-quality video. Need news and weather? Get the latest Accuweather forecast delivered right to your handset, or stream CNN news headlines. ESPN sports updates, entertainment news from E!, and even Sesame Street content for the kids, are all available. V Cast also serves as a portal for enhanced 3D games. Have more fun with a new breed of realistic games.

A number of handy software tools are bundled with the A950 including a voice memo recorder, a calculator, a calendar and an alarm clock.

Imaging and Entertainment
Plenty of good times are built right into this handset, and that fun is expandable thanks to the A950's TransFlash/MicroSD memory slot. The phone's 1.3 megapixel camera with flash makes getting great shots easy. As mentioned, it's also designed to capture high-quality video. Video capture length is only limited by the amount of available flash memory.

And don't forget that the A950 makes a great MP3 player; load up your favorite tunes and use the phone as a portable jukebox. The phone also supports V Cast 3D games, as well as other 2D-based games, which are available from Verizon's Get It Now service.

EV-DO Wireless Broadband Coverage
Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered. View EV-DO demonstration.

Vital Statistics
The Samsung SCH-A950 weighs 4.55 ounces and measures 3.6 x 1.90 x .95 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.27 hours of digital talk time, and up to 200 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 850/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

Note: The A950 supports the wireless headset and handsfree Bluetooth profiles. It does not support Bluetooth object transfer (OBEX) profiles.

Product Description

The Samsung SCH-a950 is red, hot and loaded with features, like V CAST Music. Add in Bluetooth® (for certain profiles), a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, camcorder and a stereo speakerphone, and you have one sizzling phone that's off-the-charts cool. Recommended for use with the Music Essential Kit.

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• ASIN: B000DZXJSC
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,632 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Battery Life is short, VCast is a hassle, March 4, 2006

By 

Laura A. Bossom "kbossom" (Bremerton, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung A950 (Verizon Wireless)

I recently got this phone as a replacement for a lost Motorola.

The good:
- Free bluetooth headset was included with my purchase.
- Hands-free capabilities are excellent with loud speakerphone volume and good sound quality through bluetooth headset.
- Voice Recognition software is OUTSTANDING and in my opinion the main reason to buy this phone. It does not have to be programmed to recognize your voice; it works right out of the box.
- Best camera quality on a phone so far.
- Excellent signal strength; have not lost a call yet.
- Display is clear and bright
- Menus are easily navigated
- Verizon customer service has been excellent
- Verizon's backup assistant allows phone books to be backed up and transferred in the event that a phone or data is lost. (I have had this service now for 2 weeks and have used it twice! Worth the fee.)
- Cost value is excellent. (...)almost the same as replacing my old Motorola with many more usable features.

The bad:
- Bluetooth often loses its link between phone and headset between calls (maybe I'm pushing too many buttons or something)
- Battery life is much less than my Motorola - the LED flashes alot even though I have turned the signal LED off. This seems to contribute to loss of battery life.
- VCast is not worth the money. $15 per month is WAY TOO MUCH to pay for this service. Wasted feature in my opinion.
- Due to the location of the built-in antennae I have to find a new way to hold my phone to keep from blocking the signal (phone has a sticker that says for best quality do not place hands on this area - of course the one area that I rest my fingers.)

This phone is a great value for the price. It has many great features and options and the call quality and signal strength are outstanding.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor music player - good camera, February 27, 2006

By 

J. Ronan (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Samsung A950 (Verizon Wireless)

Verizon recently updated the software on this phone to prevent it from playing MP3's. Files now have to be converted to WMP and be loaded using the Verizon "music kit" to be played. I find this very inconvenient and make the one really key feature of this phone virtually useless. Nice work Verizon.

I have also found that the reception on this phone is not nearly as good as on the LG 8100. The Samsung will show 0 or 1 bar of service in spots where the LG shows 3 or 4 and there is a noticiable difference in the voice quality. It could just be the individual phone that Amazon shipped me since others have not reported this problem.

On the plus side the camera is really quite good. Certainly an improvement over the LG 8100. The color is slightly better, there are more metering options, and the camcorder will record for an unlimited amount of time (instead of just 15 seconds.) It still won't replace a normal digital camera, (shutter lag is absolutely awful) but in a pinch it will capture an image that you can make a 4" x 6" print from.

I just wish that it had better reception.

---update---
Amazon sent out a second A950 and it has much better voice quality then the first one that I tried. Sounds exactly the same as my LG8100.

The music player on the A950 is so cumbersome to use that it really ruins the phone for me. The LG8100 is much better in this regard - much easier to select which song to play and because of ht eequalizer, it sounds much better through the built in speakers.

Of the two phones I greatly prefer the LG8100 even though the A950 has a much better camera. It works just as well as a "phone", it has better messaging capabilities and a much better music player.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for someone new to cell phones., April 24, 2006

By 

A. Nguyen (Annville, Pa United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung A950 (Verizon Wireless)

This is an excellent phone if you use it for its primary use, a cell phone. My calls don't get dropped and there is this place I frequently drive by that all my other phones would drop there, same thing with my friends and family (even though differing services), but this phone doesn't drop the call. I'm glad! The stereo speakerphone is usually clear.

As a music player, this phone is alright. The jog dial pauses the song playing (when phone is closed) and rotating it rewinds/fast forwards. You have to press it in once to make it work though. I don't feel the VCast is worth it, so I don't use it. All my song come from my computer. Apparently, when this phone first came out, it could play mp3s but not support VCast. Now, it won't play mp3s, you have to convert them to WMA file format first, but now it supports Vcast (quoting what I learned off several other websites). I have the "Music Essentials Kit" I find this is only neccessary if you play on storing songs directly to the phone rather than the the optional memory card (which, by the way, is cheaper anywhere else than through Verizon). I don't know why you could want to store songs on this phone anyway, you can maybe fit two small ones. The USB cable included with the Music Essentials Kit ONLY TRANSFERS MUSIC, on top of that, Windows Media Player (which converts the mp3s into wma for you if you use Verizon's program w/the cable) won't convert all mp3s, it throws me errors. The phone has about 25MB storage on it, and mind you about 10MB of that is used before you even get the phone in yoru hands. I can't figure out how to get the songs to repeat after it has played through all the songs, a sort of disappointment. MY SUGGESTION IF YOU WILL USE THIS FOR HEAVY DUTY MUSIC EQUIP, get a sizeable transflash card w/adapter and put your songs (in wma format) on it through a card reader. The USB cable really sucks.

As a camera, the pictures are good, although a bit white washed out. I thought it was the neatest thing the flash can stay on while recording videos.

As for TEXT MESSAGING, I don't know why, but you can't program your own words into the T9 dictionary. This really ticks me off and has me comtemplating a different phone. I use text messages a lot. I type fast on the keypad, sometimes the phones gets slow and doesn't register what I type. The buttons are very flat, so if you are like me and type by feeling around, this will be difficult.