Samsung SPH-A640
Average Ratings
Not the Best
I recently upgraded to a new phone or at least I thought I was upgrading. After a month I was ready to turn it back in unfortunately I was 2 days past the return date. It looks great the the camera has poor quality, not that i use it much. The worst features are the poor signal strength, very poor vibrate feature, and very low ring tones. The bluetooth reception is choppy at best. On the plus side it is durable; I've dropped it in a fence post hole full of water and was not able to retrieve it for several minutes and it worked fine after drying it out. Next time I will check features carefully before upgrading.
Are you serious
Its unclear if samsung was on something when they produced this phone or if sprint was really cheap in putting the funds into it. In a recap this phone is horrible.
pros:
- looks cool
cons:
- speaker phone is horrible
- battery life stinks (maybe it my use)
- ringer stinks
- vibration is very gentle
overall i would not recommend this phone to anyone
Don't buy if you love to Txt Msg
When I first saw this phone, I was excited about the form factor, and thought this is the phone for me. I waited to get my subsidy to resign my term before going in, and with discounts and all, the phone ended up costing me $50.
First the good: the speaker phone, the kewl OLCD on the outside, the camera (excellent sharpness).
The bad: horrible text messaging experience, occasional missed calls, vibrator not strong enough, ring tones not loud enough.
I am very picky about phones, but didn't do my homework on this one. I was taken in by the look that I figured I would take a chance on Samsung, hoping that the text message capitalization problems of the a860 would not be found in this model. I was shocked by seeing basically the same GUI (with a few mods), and that the text messaging engine sucks (all words are capitalized at the beginning, regardless of T9 or Alpha; what's more, new words are never saved).
I've missed a few calls, including test calls I made on another phone in the same room. I have a clear line-of-sight with a CDMA tower, and am located in downtown Vancouver. While battery life is great, missed calls is a bummer.
If you just need a phone for talk, and want something nice looking, but don't need anything else (camera is nice to have, at best), then this is a good phone. If you spend more time with the phone in front of you than held up to your head, definitely steer clear of this one; the text messaging has basically left a sour taste in my mouth.
***Update*** Samsung has not responded to my concern about the Text Messaging, even thought they gave a response e-mail claiming 48 hours for a resolution to my problem - this coming from over 2 weeks ago!!
Phone Info:
PRL: 30388
S: ES.A640 ZG08
H: A640.04
Many Features, Few Positve Results
Unlike many, I am not submitting a review after having a phone just a few hours or even days - you can not fully review a phone after such a short length of time!
After 5 weeks I looking to get rid of it after TRYING to like it. I am a heavy cellular user (1500+ voice minutes per month / 1000+ TXT) and have been for many years with a preference toward Motorola & Samsung products. When I first saw this phone with so many features I thought I would try it out. I'll simply list the Pros & Cons below:
Pros:
-Small form factor
-Bluetooth
-Vision Capable
-Acceptable camera quality
-AMPS 850 / CDMA 850 / CDMA 1900 (Analog Roaming!!)
-Flight Mode (unheard of in a low-cost, small form factor such as this)
-WAP Browsing
-Voice Memo
-Voice Dialing
-Push To Talk
-Nice Address Book
-Ability to use the camera with the flip in the closed position
-Ready-Link (I think is a waste of money but, hey, if you like it...)
-OLED external display (better than LCD for sunlit conditions)
-Internal Antenna
-Manufactured by Samsung
-Decent Battery Life
Cons:
-POOR signal quality - I travel extensively and the phone has sub-par signal quality overall - the Signal display constantly goes from to Full strength
-Voice quality (my end) is very "tinny" sounding and goes from complete silence to a lot of background noise all the time (I am constantly saying, "Are you still there?")
-Callers can tell I am using a phone and say the sound quality is "so-so".
-Sound quality (both ends) is much better via a bluetooth headset (I use a Plantronics Discovery 645).
-Awkward SMS/TXT composition firmware - certain punctuation requires going through a menu set rather than hitting the "1" key multiple times ("?", "!", etc) - T9 predictive text does not operate like other Samsungs or industry standards
-MANY dropped calls compared to other Sprint PCS phones
-Awkward missed calls / txt notification system
-Can not get bluetooth file transfer to work
Overall: NOT a good phone for real-world usage
Worst phone ever made!
This is by far the worst phone ever made. I have had it for a very short time and cannot wait for my contract to be up next month. There is no signal anywhere, it sound like you and the person on the other end is in a cave and you cannot hear anything. If you get a voice mail or text both vital in my line of work you might as well forget it because it does not give you any notifications. Don't waste your money or time with it. Although my four year old niece will like playing with it when I'm done with it....that is if I don't snap it in half before the time is up.
WOW!!! What a PAPERWEIGHT!!!
OK so... unlike my usual self, I resisted the impulse to write a review until after I got a chance to "field test" it. After 2 1/2 months of use, I am absolutely convinced that this is the worst cell phone I have ever purchased. My old "free with signup" Nokia I had when I was 18 was more reliable and rugged than this little guy!
Pros:
- It looks good(kinda 80's Knight Rider-esqe)
-The menu is easily navigable
- Main screen is bright and easy on the eyes
Cons:
-Worst reception I have ever had.. Nothing like dropping an important call while sitting in your livingroom!
-Camera is slow and fickle about being steady... I NEED PERFECT STILLNESS PEOPLE!
-Ringer volume is nowhere near loud enough (thank god for Labradors who alert when your phone rings)
-Phone forgets to ring when someone calls you and then holds voice mails for ransom 'till the next day (very helpful)
-Phone randomly turns itself off in your pocket with out telling you first.(what do you mean you can't get ahold of me hunny?)
-Weakest vibrate mode ever...my sister in-law's little rat dog shakes more violently... In August.
-frighteningly wobbly hinge.
All in all, I gave this phone a 2/5 because it does dial out and connect calls occasionally. It fits in my pocket. and David Hasselhoff would definitely have had this in his pocket if it were available during the Knight Rider era.
I'm going back to Sanyo... Maybe the M1 this time.
o.k. phone
We have 11 phones. 1 LG, 2 Sanyo and the rest are Samsung A640. For a free phone it's o.k.
Pros
Small
nice looking
1 of the phones went through the washer & dryer. The display doesn't work, but everything else does.
Cons
Ring is not loud enough
Vibrate is not strong enough
Picture quality is poor
1 of the phones shuts off randomly
1 of the phones would go into "search" mode and not come out of it until the battery was removed.
(these were replaced by our rep)
My husband wanted the new phone b/c of the blue tooth, but went back to his Sanyo - much more durable & louder ringing.
I wanted to like it....
I just ported a few months ago to Sprint from Cingular, and needed a cheap phone with Ready Link, and when I saw this at the price it was at, with Bluetooth and a camera, my father and I both got one. But sadly, it's not what I expected.
PROS:
~Great design
~Camera is nice
~Ready Link
~Bluetooth
CONS:
~If Ready Link connection is lost for even a second, it interupts what you're doing until it regains connection, which gets very annoying
~Lately, phone has been freezing, which can really disrupt activities
~Key Lock on outer keys when phone is closed can be disabled easily, which can lead to embarassing moments if left in pocket
~Speakerphone is terribly quiet. I had to hold it up almost to my ear to hear it.
Overall, I thought it would be a great phone, but sadly it's barely mediocre.
Samsung A640
Pros
-receptions good
-crystal clear call quality
-sleek and cool looking phone
-nice display
-sharp photos
Cons
-No Camcorder
-No mp3 player
-VGA camera
I hate this phone
I purchased this phone because, quite frankly, it was the only phone I could afford that had bluetooth and a camera. In fact, I paid only $30 for it.
Little did I know, I could have gotten the phone for free on the Sprint.com site. I was also unaware that all that neat stuff my friends would tell me they could do with their bluetooth was completely impossible on my phone.
So by the time I realized all the stuff that I could not do, I was already past the 30 day return period.
As far as the good things about this phone: It has speakerphone. It may not be the best quality, but I am used to Nextel phones, so mebbe I'm just spoiled. And even if I can't do alot of neat things with it, the bluetooth is kinda cool. It also supports all the data features I so love to access. I hate my T9, but it's otherwise good.
