I was sat at the desk writing an opinion about Earl Grey tea, when the doorbell rang. In deep concentration and fingers typing, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Banging my knee on the side of the desk, I knocked over a cup of the aforementioned Earl Grey over my Nokia 6210. Alas, by the time I had ridden the salesman from the door and mopped-up the tea, the phone was dead. Well not completely dead, but so badly injured `she` had to be put down. I shed a tear as the man from Phones 4 You told me the grave news, the babe I had nursed and loved for many a year had rung its last. Looking through the array of phones on display, searching for a replacement, this little thing `winked` at me, and I knew then, that this was to be my new baby. And I do mean `winked`, there is this little smile light on
the front of the phone which `smiles` every couple of seconds (the colour of this winking smile can be changed to blue, sky blue, violet, green, orange, yellow, white or off).
What can you say about the Samsung A800? It's stylish, cute, sexy, curvy, manly and reliable. Samsung have got it spot on this time. Providing a phone which appeals to both men and women and kids the young and the old, it's a phone for everybody.
The first thing you notice is its size, only standing at 80mm (plus a 20mm ariel), 40mm in width and 22mm in depth, so it easily fits in to a pocket or handbag, which is an advantage over other bulkier mobiles -or bricks as my kids call them. As the size suggests, this is a light phone and only weighs 68g, so be careful as it can be easily lost. The phone -shaped like a clam- when opened lies at 145mm in length and has a sturdy hinge for extra strength.
The phone is silver in colour, and boasts a duel display. The first on the front measures 20mm by 19mm, and shows several items of information in LC (liquid crystal) on a sky blue background. In the top left corner you find the signal reception -from the ariel- the more bars showing meaning the better the reception. In the opposite corner a battery indicator, showing how much power remains. The battery is good, and has a stand-by time of 150 hours, and a talk time of 3 hours, which is good compared to previous mobiles which I have owned. A full charge from a `dead` battery takes 2 hours, from a mains charger which was included with the phone. Chargers are available at around £12-15 from good phone outlets. In bold numerals the time of day is displayed, which can be shown in either digital (12 hour or 24 hour) od analogue versions. Under this is the date (day , date and month). When you receive a call, the name of the person calling appears on this screen (aslong as the person is in your address book). Missed calls and message alerts are also shown here. There is a volume button on the side which doubles as a cancel key if you don't want to speak to the person calling.
On opening the `clam` you find the main display. On the top half is the main display screen, showing the main menu or if you like, a picture, the date and time, reception and battery, again on a sky blue background. All of the phones' function displays appear here, address book games, settings etc. The function keys are found on the bottom half of the opened phone.
There are the usual digit keys, 1-9 plus 0, each with corresponding numbers which are used for messaging and user information. An `I` key, which gives instant access to WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) for information on sport results, weather, timetables and almost anythng. A cancel key, four way scroll keys for moving through the menus, 2 function keys, power on-off key and a vibrate key, used for changing from silent to sound alert modes.For such a small phone the keys are big enough to accomodate large bulky fingers like mine, a problem which I have found with other mobiles.
In the menu, you find an extensive memory for storing upto 290 names and numbers, and additional information such as mobile, home, office, fax and email numbers. Instead of using the address menu for making a call, you can use a Voice Recognition feature, which allows you to `dial` 20 numbers by simply saying the name of the the person you wish to call.
Text messaging couldn't be easier either. With the fantastic T9 predictive text, the Samsung A800 recognises certain combinations of letters and uses this to predict the word you want to write. If you don't like this method it is simple to revert to the normal ABC mode, where each number on the handset represents certain letters, ie, 2= A, B, C or the number 2. I find this takes longer, unless you are one of these text wizards like my daughter. There are three games, X-Fighter, Fortress and Space Wars which keep the kids busy.
The A800 features polyphonic ring tones and message alerts more of which can be found at internet sites for download, as can pictures for your phone.
All-in-all the Samsung A800 is a great phone and at the right price, about £136 , including charger and hands-free kit. Brilliant. But is it Earl Grey proof?...Shall I try?...NO, better not
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Advantages: very attractive, easy to use, reliable, appealing to eveyone Disadvantages: heats up with prolonged use, annoying jingles, no snooze for alarm
rut52 15.04.2004 (15.04.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Samsung SGH A800
Advantages: very attractive, easy to use, reliable, appealing to eveyone Disadvantages: heats up with prolonged use, annoying jingles, no snooze for alarm
rut52 15.04.2004 (15.04.2004)
·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Samsung SGH A800
Oct 16th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
