Samsung SPH-A500
Average Ratings
So-so phone that looks good.
Although the A500 is cool looking, my older samsung N200 provides much better digital phone coverage without dropouts. My A500 also locks up when I'm roaming. My N200 hardly ever gave me "signal faded" hangups on my calls but the A500 enjoys dropping out parts of my conversation.
For battery life, this phone is only bearable with the extended battery, as the standard battery only gave me 1-2 days standby.
Sprint Vision on the phone is a joke - it usually doesn't connect or their service is down. The WAP browser is terrible and won't let you surf to any site. Even if it works it takes 60 seconds to load a damn page. If you have a PC connection kit (futuredial or boxwave cable) vision is OK to use with a laptop computer, but forget using the phone.
SMS messaging on all sprint phones is slow & painful because you have to use the web browser and there are delays loading the pages... You can't compose messages offline like other carriers.
On the bright side, Sprint lets you download apps and ringers from 3rd party sites like 3gdownload.com... Verizon and other carriers don't. So you could even write your own J2ME apps and upload them, or compose your own ringers.
The biggest complaint I have is simply scrolling through the phone book - it pops up the person's number above or below the currently highlighted name... obscuring the next name in the list.
Overall I still like sprint but this phone looks better than it performs. I think of it more or less like flashy jewelry.
Great Phone
I own this phone, and it is one of the best I've ever seen. I've had some problems with PCS Vision through the phone, but they seem to have been resolved. The latest software version for the phone is a must, however.
I work for RadioShack and at it's current price of $49.99 for new customers, it's a steal. If you're looking for a good, reliable phone with great features, this is the phone for you.
A Very Cool Phone Or Not?
yeah yeah i bought this phone and got ripped off.
pros: color, size, battery life
cons: service(cuts off service alot), low ring volume, over heats, internet connection, text messaging (needs to connect to much), scrambling internet options ex. you choose text messaging page but takes you to the sprint pcs home page(weird), camera feature, Personaly I didn't have the internet option for a couple days because it screwed up some how and sprint pcs specialist couldn't solve the problem, so got a new phone. TO MANY CONS AND SO LITTLE PROS, if u want a phone go with verizon's vx-6000, that would change all the cons to pros.
Stylish and Flawed
While I find the performance and reliability of this phone completely unacceptable, I was still tempted to give it a higher rating because it's so sexy. It looks good, it feels good, it's small and light, it's ultra-cool. It just doesn't work well enough to even be on the market.
Mine stops making and receiving calls with no outward sign that anything is wrong. I've had calls going straight to voice mail for hours before trying to make a call myself and realizing the phone is crashed. Cycling the power brings it back to normal, as the Sprint PCS rep helpfully told me the first time it happened. Then it happened again the next day.
Battery life is fleeting and you might have to charge every day with only light to moderate use. The battery indicator is calibrated to be unhelpful. On the second day it was still at 3 bars, so I went to work. It went down to 2 bars, then 1 bar, then the phone died phone before I left for home. And it was just sitting on my desk.
The A500 cat get quite hot in use, and sometimes alarmingly so while charging.
The bottom line is that I don't have confidence in my phone and don't feel I can depend on it. For all its looks and specifications, in practice it seems like a flawed piece of engineering. I'm running back to the store to get a Sanyo.
OK Phone, needs major work.
I have owned this phone since it was first introduced. I love the look and feel of this phone. The color screen is wonderful and so is the blue illuminated keyboard. Size and weight are fine too. Sound quality, volume and clarity is best I have ever owned.
Down Side:
1. Battery life is dismal, and not even approaching half the promised talk and standby times. Worst phone I have ever owned for Battery life, the extended battery doesn't seem to last much longer than the standard battery.
2. Phone tends to get really hot after long periods of use.
3. The phone drops calls worse than any phone I have owned, 3 and 4 bars of strength and it will drop a call.
4. I prefer flip phones. Belt clip is big and awkward, there hasn't been a good one since the sleek Startac. I wish all of the flip phone manufactures would go back and look at Motorola's design for the original Startac, it was sleek, simple and easy to use.
5.The Sprint PCS Vision service is slow and not worth farting with.
6 Finally, and this one is hard to explain, but the phone is just .......quirky. It does odd things. It will shut off all on it's own, it will lock up or wont work right so I have to remove the battery and reinstall. Sometimes, I answer the phone and say "Hello" 3 or 4 times before the person hears me. It is just quirky!
I am mixed on this phone. I waited a long time for a great quality flip phone that was also pretty cool, so I was really excited when Sprint introduced this phone, but it just hasn't lived up to my hopes. Soon, I will have had this phone a year and I will gladly switch phones if I can find a better one. I would prefer to switch to GSM (for worldwide travel), I just haven't found anyone that comes close to Sprints minutes and national coverage, for the price. I need mega minutes, I also get a 25% discount on my monthly rate because of my company. I am afraid I will probably be stuck with Sprint for a while.
A500
I have had a total of five phones. All within the last year and a half! From the old Str-tac to one Lg(biggest mistake!!) and two other Sanyos! (love their battery) But now that I invested $300. bones into this phone!!! I'm glad to have saved my hard earned pennies!!! That extra battery was the icing on the cake as well!! I love how loud it is, and how clear it sounds!! I use it all the time to call California! (have 5 sisters!) They coul not tell I was using a cell phone!! And on top of that , I live in a two story house! Can go up and down while taking, no affect whats so ever! I love it!! Oh..and the ringers I down-loaded, It turns heads around!!! Get lots of copliments!! Overall.....GREAT,GREAT,GREAT phone! I give it two THUMPS UP!!!
a500?
I personally think that this phone is over all a good phone, for any one looking for a color screen phone, this is a great choice. I on the other hand was lead to belive this would have awsome graphics, and much to my dismay is not so. I can't see the screen in the sun light. I think that the phone is laid out to easy, as far as the format. It is easy to move around in, in the menu. I do think this is a good phone for older consumer. As for the younger consumer, we are going need a few more things on a phone. Like a built in camera, a clearer screen, and a few more features.
CRAP!!!!!
simply put, this phone is a pile of garbage that fits in your hand! i have had this phone, a sanyo scp-4900 and a sanyo scp-5300 and by far this phone is the worst!
PROs:
1. blue backlit keypad is very pleasing to the eye.
2. VERY crisp screen.
3. volume on the earpiece is great, you can use it (somewhat) as a speaker phone because of its volume.
4. very stylish looks and feel.
CONs:
1. keypad gets VERY VERY hot when talking for anymore than a few minutes.
2. battery life is miniscule. i even got the extended battery and it still drained the battery quick!
3. if plugged in while talking, the phone would randomly shut itself off after 5 minutes, 13 minutes, 21 minutes....who knows when? that's why i said "randomly."
4. reception is TERRIBLE! i compared it to my new sanyo scp-5300. where my 5300 got full reception my a500 got 1 to 2 bars. i just about fell on the floor when i witnessed the few times that it had 3 bars (again, this was very rare)
BOTTOM LINE:
not a good phone at all! i wouldn't give it as a present! if i was given one for free, i would sell it on ebay so i can buy something else! in fact, i'm returning it to get another 5300 for my girlfriend.
DON'T GET THIS PHONE (yes, i'm shouting at you)
SAMSUNG SPH A500
The style of the phone is excellent...the free extended battery that samsung gives u for free makes the phone a bit bigger...the battery that the phone comes with is terrible ...and the phone comes with the travel charger rather than the desktop charger so u cant even charge both batteries at the same time....and the major part in which i give this phone such a low rating is the bad reception..i had other samsung phones such as the n200 in which i had good reception..but this phone i rarely get more than 2 bars
