Customer Reviews

Samsung Shift a177 Prepaid GoPhone (AT&T) with $30 Airtime Credit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First and foremost--What I love most about this phone is its chicness. Many have actually mistook it for a Blackberry--Pretty impressive for a gophone, don't ya think?

I enjoy this phone a lot. It is great to have a full QWERTY keyboard, even if the keys are a bit small. At first i hated the keys, but i've grown to love them. They just take some getting used to.
A couple of let downs:
1)it isnt compatible with any mp3 or other ringtones that are actual music
2)you cant send and receive pictures or sound through the bluetooth application.
3)no video recorder
4)it's not always off when you think it is

Other than that... it is an amazing phone. The battery life is impressive--I accidentally left the phone on for three days but the battery still had one bar left! Most of my old phones i had to charge everyday because I text so much. But with this phone i text more and it will last me 3 days or more. Its great. I've dropped it a few times and it doesnt show any signs of it. The camera has a lot of neat effects to use and it can help make an awesome background. the rubber backing gives the phone a good grip
A very good phone over all and i would definitely recommend it, especially if you text a lot

One other thing, the phone was $99 and as with any gophone, you get a $15 card, with this I also got a $25 card for free. So the phone was really only $74
Very Nice.

I picked up this phone after dealing with a stupid Pantech Duo for toooooo long! I hated my old phone & after reading numerous positive reviews on this phone, I went to the store & bought it. This phone is so easy to use. I'm already an AT&T customer so all I had to do was slide my SIM card in & I was set!

Great price for a great phone!!!!

this is an awesume phone i love that it has the full keyboard because i text almost all day but the keys are very small and i had to trim my figure nails to text but it was fine after i did that the camera is very good im very proud with this phone

This phone is sold via Amazon off-and-on using the AT&T service, but can also be found in local stores like Best Buy and Target (usually at a higher price, and usually only with a $30 airtime credit though).

For the price ($80 or less), it's a solid phone with a decent screen. TINY buttons, but I tend to "peck" with one finger as I text, so they were easy enough to get used to. The screen is medium resolution - certainly not an HD quality screen, but not cheap and grainy like on some other prepaid phones. Reception is decent on the AT&T network, and so far I've not lost a call, getting 2+ bars even indoors. The ear speaker does sound slightly "muffled" as though someone on the other end is talking through a thin cloth, but they're still understandable, and those taking to me say I'm coming in clearly. The camera is standard low-res VGA ( 640 x 480 pixels ) - good enough for emails, not good enough for prints. Battery life is decent-to-good.

One gripe is that there is no hole in the case where you can flip a wrist strap through, and being plastic, it's slightly slippery. I would suggest ordering a silicone or rubberized hard case to make it easier to grip. Another gripe would be AT&T's pricing plans for the gophones: Standard pay-as-you-go is 25-cents a minute plus 20-cents per text - EXPENSIVE when there are 10-cent services out there. Other plans charge $1 or $3 a day every day you use your phone which can add up, and the all you can use talk/text plan is $60 a month and does not include web use, so you'll pay the same as a contract phone to get unlimited talk. Still, you won't be under a contract and can switch phones as you like, so in that regard this may be the phone to use. Recommended so long as you're not comparing it to a $200 smart phone.

I love this phone. I've been wanting a pay as you go cell phone with a mini typewriter/computer keyboard type keypad. It makes texting easier and faster. You don't have to press the number 2 key 3 times to make the letter C or the number 7 key 4 times to make the letter S. This phone has a loud earpiece/speaker. The part where you put your ear is also the speaker when you put it on speaker phone. It may look little but it's plenty loud enough. When I have mine on speaker I put the volume down to 5 and it's still loud enough for me. When I have it where I have to put it up to my ear, I keep the volume at 7. The 7 has nothing to do with the phone and everything to do with my hearing. Those are the volume levels I keep it at. You can adjust it and find the volume levels that work best for you. The ringer is also loud. I keep the ringer on mine set high as it'll go--7. With the ringer volume set at 7 I can hear this phone ring in another room. Now about the signal strength on this phone. I have 3 Motorola pay as you go phones, 2 use A T & T and the other uses Boost. They all 3 have crappy signals. I thought it might be Boost with the Boost phone but the 2 that use A T & T are almost as, if not as bad as the Boost phone when it comes to poor signal. Then I got this phone and I realized what the problem was: Motorola sucks. It's not Boost or A T & T, it's Motorola. I have yet to find a place where this phone has a crappy signal. Maybe I should try the mall. My Motorolas never would get enough signal to work in the mall. I even bought a signal booster for one of my Motorolas. Didn't help enough to count. I'd see other people walking around in the mall talking on their cell phones. I'd wonder how they did it. Now I know: They had good cell phones. This Samsung is a good cell phone. It must be part Timex. I've dropped mine a couple times since I bought it. If those 2 drops hurt it, I can't tell it. To me, it's still working as good as before I dropped it the first time. I'm gonna end this review with a rcommendation. If you want a good pay as you go phone or a good cell phone with a contract and monthly bill, then I highly recommend this phone.
5 stars is not enough.

Amazon is the best. The samsung phone I purchased for my son has been better then advertised. My son rarely uses his phones to call and the first day he put his old sim card in from his other Go Phone and it gave him a $50 credit for upgrading his phone, didn't even use the $15 that came with the phone.
also texting most of the day the battery virtually lasted all day and never did completely die on him. after 8 hours of use it was only down 2 bars and it shows 5 on a full charge.

So far my experiences with my Samsung have been favorable and believe it's a good basic phone. I've experienced the same limitations as mentioned by others. Thankfully I do little to no texting, but when required to respond to phone prompts finding and pressing the appropriate key(s) is difficult. The phone itself feels flimsy and will be surprised if it holds up even with care. Time will tell. I wouldn't recommend it anyone that is a heavy cell phone user.

I'm very happy with the phone. It's slim, light, and attractive. A great phone if all you want to do is make calls and text.

Phone comes with $30 in AT&T credits and thus costs only $20. For that price this phone is better than most $50-$80 phones out there. It has a good keyboard and call quality is great, camera however is just ok.

It was so embarrassed when I realized that I only got $15 airtime credit from this cellphone.

I am trying to contact amazon to complain about this sort of ripoff, but still do not know where I could even try.