Customer Reviews

Samsung A950 (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought this phone when my Samsung schA670 broke in half.
Best features in my opinion:
Clear, easy to read display.
No antenna to worry about.
Great reception.
It doesn't seem to have as many ringtones as my old phone, but I've downloaded alot and the sound quality on them is great. The camera is much better than the 670, and the phone itself seems more durable. The front display is also bigger. Battery life seems ok, but I did also buy an extended life battery so I alternate between the two. I've only had the phone for about 2 months but overall I love it!

I bought this phone and I'm very pleased with it. It wasn't very expensive but, it gave me features that phones $100 plus had. It has a good MP3 player, nice screen, nice camera, and nice battery life. So, this phone is a definite pick if your searching for a new one.

Exterior: The exterior of the phone is a nice silver with a band of red on the sides. It looks nice and sets it apart from other phones. On top is an antenna which, is different than most phones. On one side there is a camera button and a TransFlash card slot. On the other side there is an up-down toggle and a slot for your headphones or your headset. On the bottom is the charger port. On the face we have a nice 1.3 megapixel camera. It takes good pictures and good video. It has a flash also, even though it's not the greatest. The external display is right below that. It's crisp and it's clear but, it turns off very fast after you close the phone. To on it again, hit the up-down toggle for 3-4 seconds and it will turn back on or just flip the phone open and close it again and it will be back on. Below that is like a little circular pad used for your music. There is also shortcuts to play/pause, next track, previous track, and stop buttons. The size of the phone is pretty small and it's pretty thin too. It's one of the lighter V-Cast phones (except for the RAZR V3c).

Interior: If you open up the phone you will immediately notice the big LCD display. It has great resolution and pixels and you will notice every detail. The keypad isn't so great though. It's pretty flat with the surface of the phone and they are pretty close together making it hard to dial by feel. The internal interface isn't bad, it's the one Verizon uses with most phones nowadays. You hit the OK button and you are immediately greeted to your CONTACTS button. There's five choices to choose from. New Contract, Contact List, Groups, Speed Dials, and My Name Card. If you scroll right to the next button, you'll find out it's the RECENT CALLS. They're five choices here also: Missed, Received, Dialed, All, and View Timers. Then hit right again and you're at SETTINGS & TOOLS. It includes 10 choices (0 is considered #10): My Account, Tools, Sounds, Display, System, Call Settings, Clock Format, Ringer ID, Picture ID, and Bluetooth. When you go right you will go to the first button, GET IT NOW. The six choices included are: Get Tunes & Tones, Get PIX & FLIX, Get Fun & Games, Get News & Info, Get Going, and Get More. Then hit one more time right and you'll be at MESSAGING. The 10 choices are: New TXT Msg, New PIX/FLIX Msg, New Sketch Msg, Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Voicemail, E-Mail, Mobile IM, and Chat.
To work the camera you hit the camera button on the side of the phone (there is no key for it). It will start it up and you will see the image, if you go to Options on the right hand corner you'll can customize your image. There's flash settings, Self Timer, Multi Shot, Quality, Resolution, White Balance, ISO, Color Effects, Metering, Settings, and Camcorder. You can change these features to get your perfect image. You can flip the phone down and use the smaller external display to take a self potrait. You saw in Options that there is a choice for camcorder. But, if you hit the side camera button twice, it will take you immediately to camcorder. It will record 15 sec. to your FLIX section. It's pretty good feature to have on a good multimedia phone.

To wrap it up, this phone is one of the best phone Verizon Wireless offers. It has everything someone is looking for and more. For the price, you surely can't resist it. Also, if you pay extra you can get a TransFlash card which you need to store ringtones, music, photos, etc. This also has bluetooth so you can get a wireless headset which, is really nice to have, especially with all the fining that's going on with cell phone users. Get this phone and you won't regret it! It's the Samsung SCH-a950.

Listed Features:

Bluetooth Enabled // Calendar // V Cast Music/Video
Caller ID-Picture // Digital Music Player // Speakerphone
Camera-Flash-1.3MP // Voice Dialing // Removable Memory Slot
Color Display-Intrnl/Extrnl // Messaging - TXT/PIX/VIDEO

This is a great phone despite what some have said. My previous phone was an LG-8100, and the two phones are VERY comparable-- pretty much the same features and processes. Some people in their reviews have complained about service, bluetooth conectivity, music transfer, the camera a little bit, and some other things. I've had the phone for about 5-6 months and I just recently purchased a bluetooth headset 1 month ago. It works great; of course with new technology like bluetooth you have to keep the preconceived expectation that people probably won't hear you quite as well as without the headset on, and due to the fact that it is wireless, YOU might not hear THEM as well either, but that is what you get with new technology. I haven't had any huge problems with it. As far as the mute & vibrate functions, as someone mentioned, those features come with the headset (if you choose an inexpensive bluetooth headset, you won't get them. Period.) not this samsung phone.

I have had excellent service with my samsung 950... SO much less background noise (like when I am driving) then I did when I had a samsung phone with T-mobile. I have no dropped calls, and I can always hear the person I am talking to. I know what it is like to have such a hard time hearing the person I have to use my home phone (because I used to be with Tmobile) and it is completely opposite with this phone. I prefer to use my cell phone instead of my home phone, even when I am at home.

With the music transfer-- the samsung 950 can be used with WMA or MP3. You simply need a memory card (JUST LIKE ANY OTHER MP3 player, might I add)... And they start at like $20 at an electronics store (sometimes cheaper on places like EBAY) so it's relatively inexpensive to get a lot of music on. I just purchased a 512 mb memory card 1 month ago, and have about 400+songs on it. The sound quality is great. In order to transfer music, you need either the USB cable ($19.99 right now through Verizon) or a memory card slot in your computer... which most newer (up to 1 to 1 1/2 years old) computers have built in. If you EVER have any problem transfering music, go to samsungs website-- they have a GREAT extensive support system with step by step instruction on formatting the card & transfering music, pictures, videos, etc.

One thing that sets this phone above the LG 8100 (the one I mentioned I had before that is VERY similar) is the camera-- this cell phone camera is VERY advanced with options like self timers, divided & series shots, digital quality levels, color effects, shutter speeds, white balance adjustment, and even metering! I love taking pictures, so ALL these feature on a CELL PHONE CAMERA were great. It even has really fun "shutter sounds" like "say cheese!" and things like that.

Overall this is a great phone, and just like another post said... if you have a riff about not being able to transfer via bluetooth, get a usb cable. You can do it, and it hardly costs anything.

Some things I dont like: Agreeably, the inability to add words to T9 dictionary completely sucks, and I can't believe Samsung did not give this phone that ability. Voice recordings can only record for 15 seconds... Not a HUGE deal, but it bugs me. Also, with the LG 8100 you can read text messages on the FRONT screen with the front buttons while the phone is closed, and I miss that ability on this phone. These little things bring it down to like a 4.5 MAYBE... no phone is perfect, so it can't have a 5.0. It only comes with about 6 ringtones, and they aren't that great... but it also comes with more "sounds" in the sounds file in the Get it Now menu that you can set as ringtones (you can also record your own and set them as ringtones, so thats cool).. this is samsungs deal, not Verizons, by the way-- I asked.

Some things I love: You can change the font color, alignment, and style in a text message. The camera, as mentioned. Music transfer, style & design, ability to set recorded sounds as ringtones, and much more.

Sorry I said so much, but if you're going to buy this phone, you may as well know it is a good phone & the bad experiences listed here are just deals where that person got a lemon (or broke it themself), and they should take it and exchange it through the store or the manufacturer warranty (which lasts one year). If your phone has a "popping noise," there is a "high pitch wistling noise," or you can't understand anyone you talk to, then TAKE THE PHONE BACK and exchange it. Duh.

Okay-- I am done, thanks for reading!

this phone is pretty good overall
it is a nicely designed phone and is quite strong and feels good in your hand. the software is typical to verizon, that is, it is locked and limited and quite a pain to do anything with

if you want to play music on it, convert your music to .Wma and use a card adaptor to put the music in the MY_MUSIC folder on the card

I've had this phone for 5 months, and I love it. There is a few things that people complain about, but can be solved with a little technical know-how.

If you want MP3 functionality, or if you want to be able to use it to broswe the internet on your laptop (DUN), there is a simple hack you can preform on it to enable those options (google 'enable samsung a950 mp3 dun'). Remember you could really screw up your phone doing this, altough if you be careful you should be fine. Also, I was able to put full-length DVD's on it (look for 'Eazy VCD' and 'Nokia Multimedia Converter').

Used on Verizon network.

PROS
- physically sturdy
- aesthetically pleasing
- voice dial software works well
- colorful and vivid screen
- good camera quality

CONS
- worst speakerphone I've ever used. I drive alot and choose to use the speakerphone over a headset. speakerphone echos, if you have the volume on high (so you can hear it), it gets muffled and unclear so you need to use it on low volume to hear and understand the person on the other side
- on calls using the phone itself, i heard a high pitch sound off and on
- calls seemed to drop more often than i was used to (even more than the razr i tried on the verizon network)

PS - i ended up getting the LG "V" 9800 much better speakerphone and overall voice quality than the samsung

A nice phone with loads of features, but Verizon has once again decided to disable some useful features to force the customer to pay more. You must buy a cable and a memory card to use the mp3 player effectively, and it only supports windows wma format. You must use WindowsXP and windows mediaplayer 10 to convert mp3's, and you must have the usb cable to transfer these to the phone.
Bluetooth is disabled except for a mono earpiece. No calendar/phonebook synch with computers.
You cannot transfer images/videos to computer. You must pay to mail them, and even then, only in lower quality due to image size restrictions.
Nice phone, but verizon messed it up.
I sent in my rebate before thorough testing, or it would have gone back.