Samsung SCH-A970
Average Ratings
Good, but not Great
I have had the Samsung a970 for almost 2 weeks. While I feel that the feature set of this phone is better than most on the market, there are still some major problems with it.
Pros:
1. 2MP Camera - although if you set the resolution to 2MP, you will get really bad pictures. Lower resolution gives much better pics.
2. MP3 Player - It is actually better sounding and louder than my LG VX-8100 was, and the 8100 has stereo speakers.
3. Rotating Screen - I think this is absolutely great because it gives me many different angles to watch my V-Cast clips from.
4. Voice to text - I can actually speak my text messages and the phone will write them. Although you have to do this in a completely quiet room or it doesn't work right.
5. Memory Card Slot - This is a MUST on this phone because of the size of the picture files that this camera requires. 60MB would go very quickly with 300KB pics.
6. Mirrored front screen - The front screen is mirrored when it is not on. Granted this is completely personal preference, but I love it.
7. Internal Antenna - I can put this phone in my pocket and not worry about it getting caught on anything because there is nothing sticking out of it.
Cons: (only a couple, but they are BIG)
1. OS is VERY sluggish. Especially in V-Cast or when trying to switch entry methods in texting. The phone almost comes to a standstill. It is ridiculous.
2. No EMS - While you can receive text messages larger than 160 characters, you cannot send ones larger than that. A real pain.
3. T9 doesn't remember words - There is no way to store words into the T9 dictionary for texting. This is a horrible oversight of Samsung.
In conclusion, with Texting becoming something that is so mainstream, Samsung really dropped the ball on this phone. Texting is not user friendly at all - more of a pain in the rear end. But the camera is really good, if you play with the settings. Otherwise, one would think the camera is really bad.
Finally- A Good Camera Phone
No- I won't rate it a great camera phone- those are yet to come BUT this is the first I'm happy printing from- as a photographer and lab owner. We are also Verizon, Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile dealers so I'll be interested in trying others- especially Sprint's slider version with the business card scanner function.
So far (one weekend)-
Pros-
Good camera with easy (although slow) start up. Removable media too! (I've printed up to 8x12 from this one- respectable images)
Good sound quality.
Pretty good speakers (for the size)
More accurate battery gauge than my Moto v710
Better address book than the Moto- multi numbers in one place
Cons-
Sometimes swivels when answering a call
A little large
Camera lens will ALWAYS have finger prints- needs a cover!
Seems like a national shortage on microSD- hopefully SanDisk releasing this (was their TransFlash standard first) will ease the shortage.
Next- on to the Sprint SPH-a800!
almost perfect phone,almost!!!
this is one great phone, this is my fist phone ive owned without any bugs as far as i can see! but all iam going to list is the cons
1= front LCD is extreamly low lighting, very dim, colors look more like 20,000 colors than 65,000
2= no seperate backlighting for the keys,external,or internal screens all the same??? front screen only stays on for 5 seconds, period :(
3= keypad is almost flush with phone, hard to push #s
this is all i can think of right now, but please remember these things i listed are MINOR issues to me, and hopefully can be corrected with a software update,EXCEPT #3. like i said overall ALMOST PERFECT PHONE. its worth $299.99 i paid :)
pretty damn good
amazing phone, pic quality is amazing so is the video. i dont know what loading the other guy has i dont have that. only thing i hate is i cant find out how to send myself ringtones to actually save on the phone like my old samsung a670?? the video on the phone last 1 hour and 23 min i think. its worth the money
the ONLY review you need to read
phones ive owned:moto v60,T720,samsung A530s,N330,A670,Audivox 9900, 8940,LG 6000,LG7000, LG8100, LG 9800
NOW:samsung A970
bought all except 3 of those phones full retail price. I love new technology. This phone is all that you can ask for.
PROS
-amazingly cool turning screen
-very sutrdy build
-nice status light in the front
-nice look to it
-2 megapixel
-2 optical zoom
-did i mention that its a SAMSUNG?
CONS
-desktop charger that it comes with sucks
-uses the LG interface, the ugly red verizon crap
-camera isnt as good as LG9800
this phone is amazing, and not comparable to any other phone other than the LG9800. the only better thing about the LG 9800 is the better picture quality. but come on.......who really uses a cell phone camera for REAL pictures?i have a nice Sony Cybershot 5 Megapixel camera for that.
This phone is VERY sexy and will get the ladies attention
Can you say, AMAZING!!!
I recently switched from the Samsung sch-a950 to the a970 mainly because i wanted the nifty twist design and i LOVE it. The whole twist design thing is amazing. It works so well for self portraits! Also, the 2 megapixel camera is awesome. Crisp,clear, quality pics and the optical zoom is great. The video isn't nearly as choppy as any other phone out there. And it takes over an hour of video...AMAZING! The reception and call clarity is awesome. Way better than i expected. The screen is amazingly clear, as is the external one. The only thing i don't like about this phone is that you can't record your own ring tones, but hey they don't come out that clear anyways. Also, the external screen shuts off too fast, but the press of a button activates it. Anyone who is looking for a high end phone for Verizon should Definatley get this phone. A+++++
This Phone Is Awsome
With all of the talk about the Razr buzzing around, this one came in under the radar. A phone with all the features and no software bugs . The only thing that stopped me from giving this phone a perfect score was the weight, but I will get use to that. Every Feature works good even the Bluetooth is clear,pictures are good,reception is awsome.I think sales of the Razr may have went down big time when this phone was released.
The Wrong Christmas Gift
I bought this phone for my daughter who wanted a digital camera for Christmas and was looking for a phone for her birthday in April. I bought what I thought was the perfect combo gift. I was wrong.
Pros:
Sturdy Phone
Good Battery Life (have not checked it with Bluetooth turned on)
Cons:
Need a tri-pod to take a clear picture
Bluetooth does not transfer photos or video to PC
No cable to transfer photos to PC
If lowering the resolution fixes the shutter speed problem then why pay for the 2.0 mega-pixels?
When I asked the VZ rep about an update to the bluetooth software to get the pics easily off of the phone she said, "No, you have to email them." Obviously, she didn't even consider the transflash card that slides into the SD Adaptor.
The bottom line is the feature list may sound nice, but they need to fill in the gaps to take full advantage of them. Promoting the 2mega-pixel phone is almost false advertising considering it is almost unusable because of the slow shutter speed.
I will be visiting with VZ soon to ask for a different phone.
Great Phone GREAT PRICE
This Phone is almost perfect it has great pictures and videos and memory is good I just recently bought the phone so i havent been able to use all of its features but i will. I have owned several phones and this is by far the best i have ever owned. And the amazing part is that I only payed 150 dollars. im telling you right now DO NOT pay the price they offer for the phone. if you can try to talk them down do it! i will never again just settle for the price they offer for the phone. I Went to the mall and bought the phone from one of those boths that cellphones and yes the phone was 350 but i acutally got the lady to sale me the phone for 150 dollars. Its was perfectly legal and a brand new phone. But enough about that. Pros: 2.0 mega pixel camera- great pics. Can play MP3. Can hold over 1 hour of video. Voice command is execellent. Has VCast you can watch clips of shows and sports highlights.
Cons: Very big i wish it was smaller and I wish that the video was not broken down into 15sec intervals.
Blurry, dull photos!
When I printed the photos, they were blurry and dull. I then taking the same photo with another 1.3 megapixel camera and they came out more crisp and clear. I thought maybe my device had a problem, so I tried a second one and had the same poor quality. Also you have to hold your hand very steady a moment or two after shutter sound.
I was very pleased with the text message voice recognition. It wasn't perfect, but better than tap typing.
