Customer Reviews

Samsung a707 SYNC Phone (AT&T)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I am not the most tech savvy person, but I do enjoy gadgets. So, when I finally decided to get a phone, I wanted it to be the nicest one that would suit my needs and still have a nice small/slim form factor. I looked initially at the new RAZR that supports mp3s. However, I took a chance and chose the Samsung over the RAZR because of the amount of negative reviews the RAZR has. I was pointed toward this model, and so far I am really glad I gave it a chance, not having seen ANY reviews on it before purchasing it. I've had this phone for almost two weeks as of today.

PROS:
-Huge, BEAUTIFUL display!
-Great size and style
-Good camera (2 megapixel), although I don't really plan to use it a ton
-Easy, intuitive menus with lots of options
-Very clear with no dropped calls so far
-Phone supports 3G technology, great for music content
-Media player works nicely, and when you plug the USB cable into your computer, it's easy to drop songs onto the phone from just about any media program.
-No quirks or glitches to be found so far!

NEUTRAL:
-Ringer could stand to be a little louder
-Headphone jack is proprietary, so you have to buy their headphones unless you want to use bluetooth
-Gets smudgy/greasy looking very easily
-Outside display isn't very high resolution, but what do you expect?
-No flash for camera

CONS:
-No LCD clock on the outside. I did figure out though, that if you hold the right-side button for a few moments it pops back up, but I would like a clock like the RAZR has.

Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. I'm glad I took a chance.

***UPDATE 12/3/2006*****

I still hold my 5 star rating to be true for this phone. It still great!(I've had it for about a month now.) Also, the picture really don't do the phone justice. It is a really sleek and beatiful little gadget.

I did have one strange anomaly with it. The last time I received an E-Mail alert while I was on a call, it closed the call when the alert popped up. I tried to reconstruct the incident, but it wouldn't do it again. I've had a couple dropped calls too, but it was in a brick building, so I can understand.

I still think the ringer isn't loud enough...but I have been setting it to "outdoor" which seems louder and vibrates as well. I love the ringer profiles and change them quite a bit. It comes in very handy

I have also purchased the media kit for this phone which comes with a USB cable, software, and stereo earbuds. I am loving the media player function. I can drag and drop songs (or other files) easily onto the phone with the USB. The only thing I don't like is that the earphone jack is the same as the charger jack. No charging while listening, and no buying whichever headphones you want. You have to get them in their kit, unless you want to use Bluetooth headphones. I ride a motorcycle and want to use the media player on trips, but I'm not sure yet how I will be able to rig earphones that will fit in my helmet (the Cingular earbuds will not fit due to their design). I am used to this dilemma (trying to find headphones for my helmet)even without the proprietary headphone jack isue. So, I am not counting it as a negative against the phone.

I am very, very pleased still. I will update again after a few more months!

First, don't take my 4 star rating as indicative of the fact that there are really any better phones in the US market. I'm not sure there are. But that's more a case of the atrociousness of most American phones - and I've tried a bunch. That said, this phone is so, so very close to being everything you (or I) could want in a cell phone - it just has a couple of issues that keep it from being quite possibly the last phone you will ever buy.

Since everyone else seems to do this, I'll list my own pros and cons.

Pros:

* As others have said, the 240x320 main screen really is quite amazing. It's almost startling the first time you open it up and just see the default wallpaper. It's like looking at a high-res computer LCD display (or HDTV), not a cell phone. The screen is not huge, but it's as big as it can be without the phone itself becoming unreasonably large.
* Call quality is quite good. Signal strength is pretty much the same as my old Sony Ericsson, which seems limited more by the network than anything else.
* It's 3G! One of only two standard phones Cingular offers that are (I think there may be a PDA phone or two with 3G capability also, but not sure). Internet browsing and downloading are very fast. I have not tried the music or video streaming yet, but I can imagine that they'd work pretty well.
* It has pretty much the perfect form factor for a phone. Not too large and not too small, slim but not overly thin, and when opened its length easily reaches from your ear to your mouth.
* Supports MicroSD. Expandable memory to hold all your videos, photos and music. Easily accessible via a side door; some phones hide access under the battery.
* 2MP camera takes great photos (for a phone, anyway). I have a digital SLR but I've missed having a decent little pocket camera when I don't want to carry the SLR around. I no longer really need one.
* Includes bluetooth.
* Seems to have a speedy processor - menus and navigation are quick, no lag. This drives me crazy on a lot of phones.

Cons:

* Cingular's network!! The only place I can get 3G services to work at all is in my office, and half the time I get "unable to connect" messages even there. I work in NYC so this is really surprising to me. At home, I'm lucky if I can even get voice service (I often have zero bars of signal), let alone any sort of data, even EDGE. I was hoping this was just my old phone, but obviously it wasn't. Cingular really needs to upgrade their network. I'd only consider this phone, then, if you're a current happy Cingular customer - I'd never recommend their service to a new customer.
* The phone's made of plastic that looks like metal. This is not a huge deal but I'd expect real metal from any carrier's "flagship" phone. Every plastic phone I've ever owned has ended up looking really ugly from chipped and peeling paint, so it would have been nice if this phone was black anodized aluminum like Samsung's own beautifully designed A900 for Sprint.
* The side "doors" are really, really flimsy. I'm sure I'm going to break off the charging door within the next week. It's a little plastic swinging door held on by a tiny little plastic nub, and you have to open this door every single time you want to charge. No way it, or the other doors like it on this phone, are going to last through the abuse most phones are asked to take.
* The menus are not intuitive. For example, just to set an alarm you have to go into "My Stuff" and then navigate to "Applications". Huh? I shouldn't need the manual just to figure out such a basic function. There don't seem to be any shortcuts you can use either.
* It's kind of a niggle but the camera lens does not rotate and because of it's placement and design, you're pretty much guaranteed to get finger and palmprints all over it. I've needed to wipe mine off almost constantly so far. Even recessing the lens a bit would have helped.
* The front LCD screen is a joke compared to the main screen. It's a very low quality screen that looks even worse after getting used to the gorgeous main screen. It almost feels kind of embarrassing taking the phone out in public just to check the info on the front screen; I almost want to hide it from view!

Overall I love the phone, but I hate Cingular's network and there are just a few things about the phone itself that make it feel cheaper than a flagship phone should. Still, it is the best deal going right now in a 3G phone, and probably the closest thing we have in the USA to one of the amazing phones available in Japan or other parts of Asia.

This phone is hitting the world like a storm, bringing both a really nice camera along with the 3G data speeds and improved call quality that modern service demands. What follows is a breakdown of the pros and cons:


Pros:
-2MP camera takes GREAT photos (almost as good as the w810i)
-3G is super fast!
-Battery life is good (about 2 or 3 days with moderate use)
-Internal screen is a gorgeous 240x320 and razor sharp
-Takes MicroSD cards
-CAN view PDFs, DOC and TXT files with built-in Picsel viewer!*
-Bluetooth works well and has a strong signal
-Internal antenna makes for snagless design
-Light, but sturdy. Keypad is WIDE and easy to use!
-CAN use mp3s as ringtones (must be under 600KB)

Cons:
-Camera shutter is SLOW. You need to hold the camera still for about a full second or it gets blurred.
-External screen is low quality and will not display animated wallpapers, even though phone function alerts are motion-capable.
-Confusing menu system for browsing pics
-Media player is confusing and not very useful. Also, no 3.5mm jack is present!
-Design is so smooth...you'll drop it if you're not careful.
-Hard to open flip with one hand
-NO camera flash
-CANNOT use mp3s as phone tones (message alert, etc.) Must use mmf tones, instead.
-Does NOT come with link cable! Or PC Studio! You CAN download this from Samsung's site. I used Bluetooth to link up instead of the cable.


This phone is ALMOST perfect. The Sony w810i is the superior camera phone and implements a perfect menu system and superior imaging. It is the best phone Cingular has...but it's NOT 3G and it's NOT a clamshell. This phone falls into second place as far as features go, but the clamshell design is long (reaches your ear and mouth easily!) and the 3G has to be seen to be believed. When you browse the Net fullscreen, you'll never want to go back to the small screen size of 176x220 again!

This phone is awesome and I use it daily. I keep my w810i for backup if I go out and want a camera phone for that. This phone is HIGHLY recommended and might only be supplanted by the Nokia N75 as far as features go...but no one can beat the price on this one!

4 out of 5 stars!






*Just transfer these to the memory card with the PCStudio software or your data cable or your Bluetooth. You CAN open them!

I agree with most of the reviews listed here, but I wanted to add to it. I have had my A707 (Cingular calls it the "Sync") and I LOVE IT. This is only my 2nd cell phone, but it carries just about everything I want..and even more. Aside from the slim size and various colors, it turns out that I can easily use this as a modem for my laptop and get near broadband speeds. With Cingular's "Media Max" program at $19.99/month, this is a great option opposed to buying just a broadband card from Verizon for $50/month. I love the great digital content from my favorites such as CNN, e-mail and even Yahoo. I can check my stocks rather quickly, check the web for a local pizza place, send text messages quickly and even record video with the 2.1 MegaPixel camera.

A few pointers:
* Even though the specs may say it can only handle a 1GB micro disk, I was easily able to use my 2GB Micro SanDisk card.
* You really need to get the sync cable AND software (you can't download the software) so you can "sync" your music files and other items like your calendar. Consider buying the "value pack" either on Amazon or from Cingular which includes the software, data cable and a "very basic" audio headphones. It is sooooooo hard to find a reasonable price headphones for this, and it turns out it is about the same price as buying the value pack anyway. (I bought the cable and software from an Amazon store for about $6 and was disappointed to later find out about the "value pack"
* You can play more music file types that any other phone (MP3, AAC, WMA) however, no iTunes. Of course all you need to do is burn your iTunes on CD and then rip it using Windows Media Player into MP3 and it works fine...I have done this with "a few songs"
* Don't go cheap on the blue-tooth headset. This phone has great range, but if you have a subpare headset, it will break up on your call. Otherwise, I left the phone in my jacket pocket in one room while talking in my bedroom 3 rooms down the hall....that had to be more than the 30 feet they publish.

*****Laptop connection: I know I already said this, but if you are already going to have a cell phone, then the extra 19.99/month to allow yourself Internet access anywhere you have a cell phone connection is a great deal. After all, most of us are use to paying 9.99 to 16.99 for unlimited text messages, for a few bucks more I can check my personal e-mail at work without having my boss reading it and claiming he/she can because it is company property. Its my notebook, my connection, my business. Besides, now I don't ever need to pay that $10/day fee when staying at a hotel to use their network (which is very safe, I am sure) for even if I don't carry the media max plan all year, I can have Cingular turn it on for a few days (or month) and then off when I return. It'll add up when I stay for just a few nights.

NOTE: Accessories that work for the SGH-807 will also plug into this phone. Yes, Samsung makes you use their own connection items, a standard stereo headphone jack (small or large) will not work.

*** UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS REVIEW*** After using this phone for over 9 months now I thought I would update the review and actually increase the rating to 3.5 stars (from 2.5). The original review with its criticism still stands but I recently tried the Sony-Erriccson w300i and that has made me appreciate this phone more. Despite its big and bulky (and somewhat unnatractive) looks, this phone has held up pretty well and offers a lot more than the Sony w300i. Definately a better purchase than the Sony... and both can be had for free from ATT. A quick summary of the Plus points that make this better than the Sony... Better camera, better internal and external screens, better buttons, better music player visuals, uses micro sd which is easy to find and cheap.
The only Positives of the Sony are that it comes with the headphones, it has voice dial, and the battery life is excellent. It is also smaller and looks slightly better although it is made of cheaper plastic.

*** original review ***
I have been using this phone for several months now so I am over the wow phase of having a true MP3 player in the phone. While this phone does have many unique features, the overall execution makes this just an average phone.

APPEARANCE - The first thing that you notice is that the phone is rather large. Although some may say that this is due to the wonderfully big screen, the fact still remains that this phone is not as easy to carry as a lot of other phones available today. Another note about this phone's appearance is that it really looks rather bland, especially in the all black model. I purchased the red model just so that I could get a bit of color but the phone still looks plain. There is nothing about this phone that is stylish or even has a "cool" factor. The keypad is really a letdown with no tactile differentiation between keys and it just looks plain compared to phones like the Motorola RAZR.

INTERFACE - At first the interface of the phone looks really simple and easy to use. There are graphical icons that take you to different feature sets and then there are pop up menus that come up under each selection. Sounds great right? Well the problem is that the features are all over the place. Nothing is where you would really expect it to be and you will refer to the manual a lot in the beginning. Even after you have some experience with the phone you will still be frustrated because you will have to search through the menus to find the features that you only occasionally use.

FEATURES - The phone is a 3G phone which means if you want (relatively)high speed internet or the ability to watch streaming videos/tv on your phone then this should work better than the non 3g models out there. Personally I don't get why anyone would pay such ridiculously high monthly fees for the Cingular Data services just for the "privilige" of watching tv on a 2 inch screen! Apart from that the phone has most of the standard cell phone features available out there including, quad band GSM, bluetooth (including bluetooth stereo headphone compatibility), and a nice 2 megapixel camera. The camera takes wonderful pictures (as long you hold your hand still) but the video is pretty lousy (hey its a cell phone not a camcorder!). Despite all of these nice features there is one major omission in the feature set and that is the lack of voice dialing. This is truely a sin in this phone because what is the point of having handsfree bluetooth if you still have to pick up the phone and search the phonebook to dial a number while driving? Another big minus with this phone is that it does not include any cables to connect it to your computer.Normally I would not care if a cable was included with a cell phone but lets not forget that you have to have a way to get songs onto the phone. Not a problem if you have a blutooth adapter on your computer or you buy a micro sd card with an sd adapter to just put the songs directly on the card, but Samsung is really going cheap by making this phone have a proprietary connector and then making you pay extra to buy it.

CALL QUALITY - Definately a dissapointment with this phone. The phone sometimes has the signal drop to zero bars and then a few seconds later come back to 5 bars. This is very annoying and something I have not experienced with any of my other cell phones I have used over the years. Also the quality of bluetooth connections is definatley below average because if the phone is in your pocket or purse you will hear crackling sounds over the connection (I have tried 3 headsets with this phone and all experience the same crackling).

DISPLAY - This is one of the shining stars of this phone. The screen is very nice and large. It is bright and easy to use in most lighting conditions. Another great feature is that you can change the appearance of the numbers that display while dialing a phone number. My favorite is the quill setting that gives the appearance that the numbers on the screen are being written with a feather quill... really a nice touch. The external display, on the other hand, is a major letdown. It has a small font which makes it difficult to read without straining.

MP3 FUNCTION - This is the main attraction point of this phone and on this end Samsung has done a decent job. The song title displays on both the internal and external screen and it is easy to create playlists and navigate to the song you want. The phone also supports micro sd cards so you can have a 2gb MP3 player everywhere you go! The main problem is that it comes with no headset and it has a proprietary connector so you have to buy the Samsung brand or just get yourself some bluetooth headphones! The phone does have an internal speaker that surprisingly sounds decent and gets loud enough to be able to share your music in a car or quiet room. The one big drawback of the MP3 player is that the buttons on the phone's front cover that let you pause and skip songs lock out after a few seconds. This is extremely frustrating because you have to hold down the unlock button so that you can get them to work again. Why couldn't samsung just reverse the function and make the buttons stay on until you decide to manually lock them??

Overall this phone does have a lot to offer (especially if you get it for free or for less than $30) but it simply does not hold its own when compared to the other music phone options that are available.

I bought this phone at Christmas, pretty good service through amazon, took a little while, but they shipped in about 3 or 4 days and i got it promptly, i bought a sony ericsson w810i also at the same time as this phone for my girlfriend. The Sync is pretty nice, im a long time razr user and this is better as far as functionality goes, its a little bigger, when you open it it measures about an inch longer than the razr though, but no complaints. If you want an mp3/cam phone from cingular, please get the w810i, i fell in love with it, its better in every way, better pics, much better mp3 software, easier to use. But this phone is decent too

Pros -

Good camera
decent mp3 software
decent looking phone
the speaker sounds fairly decent, as good as the w810i surprisingly since it only has a small speaker and the w810i has 3 speakers on the back.

Cons -

no multitasking, you cant listen to mp3's and do anything else.
no data cable or headphones included
no always on time on the outside screen
battery life is meh, i have to charge every night after minimal use, it always dies over night
it gets decent service, i can sit it next to the w810i and it always has less service.


Overall its an alright phone, but if you want a good phone go with the w810i, that phones amazing

PROS:
1. The screen is beautiful. It is like it is in HD.
2. The MP3 player with the controls on the front are a nice feature.
3. It is nice and slim and very lightweight.
4. I really like the length of the phone and how it comes all the way down to your mouth.
5. There are cool features for how numbers look when you are typing in a phone number. You can make the numbers look HUGE or appear on post it notes, or be rainbow colored, etc.
6. The buttons are large and easy to press.

CONS:
1. Sound quality is not so great.
2. Speakerphone is not very loud. I use speakerphone a lot and you have to turn the phone sideways to hear the speakerphone.
3. Fingerprints!
4. When you have a missed call, it does not show up on the screen outside of the phone. You have to OPEN the phone to see if you have any missed calls. This is very annoying.
5. Not very durable. Yes, it is lightweight, but this phone will break easily.
6. If the phone is set on the highest ring volume and you need to put it on silent, you have to open the phone and press the side down volume button about eight times, with the phone making a short beeping noise each time. There may be a way to place the phone on silent without opening the phone, but I can't figure it out.
7. I didn't find the buttons to be very intuitive. For example, I keep thinking that the big silver button in the top middle will take me to the main menu, but it takes me online instead. However, I am a former Motorola user so it may take some getting used to.

I bought this phone in December. I got a great deal for 2 of them from Cingular. At first I was extremely happy with the phone. I bought all the accessories including a 1GB MicroSD card for my MP3s After 2 months with the phone I started to notice that my 1GB memory was almost useless since the phone's battery will not play your 200+ songs that you can store in the card. I also noticed that the powercord input is the same as the headphone input, so you cannot powerup while listening to your tunes. Also the MP3 player pulls way toooo much battery life. if you listen to maybe 30-40 minutes of music, then you will be on the verge of your battery dying.

Horrible Enginnering to put the powercord and headphone in the same input.

Don't even bother buying the Data package that Cingular tries to sell you. It is over priced, and you can get the software free from Samsung. Either way the software is AWFUL!!!. No use at all for it...except maybe organize your contacts.

Overall...a good phone to use. BUT BAD for MP3 usage.

i liked this phone a lot when i got-- sleek, great camera. yet charging is very backward. first there is this little plastic piece that covers the charging terminal. i am sure it will break off shortly as it is flimsy. second, it is v. difficult to properly place the plug so that charging begins. the first couple of weeks were fine, but now i can't get the plug in the right "position" and cannot charge. my crummy previous lg 1500 has a far superior infallible plug. plus, i am a big speakerphone fan. half the time, the speakerphone is inaccessible. bottomline, i'm returning it w/i the 30 day period and shopping for a replacement.

I really hate talking on the phone... If I am on the phone for more than 15 minutes in a day it is because someone has died.. or some other catastrophe has happened
So of course I have only 1 phone... my mobile
after my 2- yr agreement was up I decided I didn't like my old clunky phone, which had habits of not being clear 100% of the time... I would have to try to figure out what people were saying only hearing 4 out of 5 words... I thought my phone was falling apart

I wanted either a smaller (slimmer)Phone to put in my pocket.. Or a more durable bullet-proof phone that I could use as a hockey puck.. and still call a cab after the hockey game because we drank too much.

I paid $50 for this Samsung because it seemed to be the best deal on a quality phone, and it came very highly recommended. I went to the cingular store in the local mall and asked everybody that worked there which phone they had in their pocket.. 5 of 6 pulled out this phone... the other guy pulled out a huge gameboy type thing with 90 buttons on it

Anyways I LIKE!!

Just about everything... this phone seems to have the features to satisfy anyone
For me I like Being able to make my own ringtones. <all you need is an mp3 file that is less than like 600K> You probably cant use a whole song, but you can download a clip, transfer it to the phone, set it up as your ringtone... really easy!!! I just wish I could find a sound clip of a phone ringing... I think ringtones are very annoying!!! NEway I just fired up the intro to a song that is LOUD and has good memories for me... when My phone rings I have to smile

Here we go.. I DISLIKE!!!!!!

Why is there not a generic headset plug??? Why do I have to buy a new headset??? AND WHY ARE ALL THE HEADSETS THAT ARE AVAILABLE SO UNCOMFORTABLE???!!! since I HAD to get a new one I wanted a stereo headset.... The bluetooth ones are $100, and the ones that will plug into the phone are designed for Vulcans (They ARE HUGE!!) uncomfortable!!!

someone else said that the little doors over the charger port and memory card port are flimsy... They were not lying!!! I feel like I should just rip them off right now so that at least i can be in control of my own disappointment.

I also still have the problem with decoding the conversations that I have with people because I only hear 4 out of 5 words that they say... But I am now convinced that this is only because of the service or reception that I get... I'm sure it has nothing to do with the phone