cjoseph82
01-28-2007, 10:58 AM
First off, so you can see what it looks like:
http://www.samsung.com/Products/MobilePhones/Sprint/SPH_A640ZKASPR.asp
I picked the A640 because of their reputation for good quality, and of course, because Sprint was offering the phone for free after rebate at the time. I believe it's offered free from the get go now, however.
APPEARANCE - The A640 has a very modern, slick look. It's black all around except for a silver accent bar at the top with the Samsung logo. The texture of the plastic is extremely smooth and has a glossy finish. The face will smudge easily, but a few brushes against your shirt will take that away. It has not scratched on me so far, but this is something I would be careful of. Because the plastic seems so "soft," I wouldn't count on it looking so nice if dropped. Get a case and be careful with it! I would not recommend the Samsung leather case, however. You can get a brand new one from eBay quite cheap, but it muffles the speakerphone pretty badly. At first, I thought something had gone wrong, but the voice became extremely clear once I had removed the case. It also is not a very good fit, and one would expect as much coming from the manufacturer of the phone. You have to really force the phone to get it all the way in, and the protective plastic will hold down the camera button if you do this. Not good...
VOICE QUALITY - A640 produces great voice quality from the earpiece and speakerphone. No complaints in this dept.
SIGNAL - I don't know if I can give an accurate review on this, since the area in which you are living and proximity of the towers both have an impact. One thing which I did not like was the A640 seems to hop around alot. Frequently when in my home, it will have a very strong 800Mhz signal but then suddenly jump to a 1900Mhz signal (both roaming). Not sure why it would do this if both are Verizon signals anyway.
CAMERA - The camera is very easy to use and even has some fun little templates built in. The picture quality is pretty decent for a camera phone. Phone has the ability to quickly upload your pictures to Picture Mail if you have that service. Would not recommend doing this unless you have an unlimited Vision plan. This would get pretty expensive otherwise.
BATTERY - This is where I think the A640 falls short. Phone is supposed to have 3.8 hours talk time. I don't think I'm getting any more than 1.5 to 2 hours tops. Due to location, I am roaming most of the time. I don't know if this affects the battery life. I don't think that switching between 800 and 1900 often helps either.
DISPLAYS - Alot of people don't like the single color external display. This is exactly what I wanted. I mostly use the external display to find out the time. On my old Cingular RAZR, it was hard for me to read the time with all of the other colors in the background. It's much easier to make out with the black background. The internal display is very crisp and clear.
BLUETOOTH - I spent $80 on a Plantronics Bluetooth headset for my RAZR when I had Cingular. I was definitely not going to take a phone that didn't have this and waste my money. I was very glad to see that Sprint has free as well as low cost phones that have this feature. Call quality is very good and the headset operates the same as it did with my RAZR. Push the same button to answer and hangup. Just what I need if my hands are tied. Have not tried to test out the range. Seems to work all around my apartment without any signal issues.
For free, you really can't go wrong with this phone. I've recommended it to others looking to upgrade or to try Sprint for the first time.
http://www.samsung.com/Products/MobilePhones/Sprint/SPH_A640ZKASPR.asp
I picked the A640 because of their reputation for good quality, and of course, because Sprint was offering the phone for free after rebate at the time. I believe it's offered free from the get go now, however.
APPEARANCE - The A640 has a very modern, slick look. It's black all around except for a silver accent bar at the top with the Samsung logo. The texture of the plastic is extremely smooth and has a glossy finish. The face will smudge easily, but a few brushes against your shirt will take that away. It has not scratched on me so far, but this is something I would be careful of. Because the plastic seems so "soft," I wouldn't count on it looking so nice if dropped. Get a case and be careful with it! I would not recommend the Samsung leather case, however. You can get a brand new one from eBay quite cheap, but it muffles the speakerphone pretty badly. At first, I thought something had gone wrong, but the voice became extremely clear once I had removed the case. It also is not a very good fit, and one would expect as much coming from the manufacturer of the phone. You have to really force the phone to get it all the way in, and the protective plastic will hold down the camera button if you do this. Not good...
VOICE QUALITY - A640 produces great voice quality from the earpiece and speakerphone. No complaints in this dept.
SIGNAL - I don't know if I can give an accurate review on this, since the area in which you are living and proximity of the towers both have an impact. One thing which I did not like was the A640 seems to hop around alot. Frequently when in my home, it will have a very strong 800Mhz signal but then suddenly jump to a 1900Mhz signal (both roaming). Not sure why it would do this if both are Verizon signals anyway.
CAMERA - The camera is very easy to use and even has some fun little templates built in. The picture quality is pretty decent for a camera phone. Phone has the ability to quickly upload your pictures to Picture Mail if you have that service. Would not recommend doing this unless you have an unlimited Vision plan. This would get pretty expensive otherwise.
BATTERY - This is where I think the A640 falls short. Phone is supposed to have 3.8 hours talk time. I don't think I'm getting any more than 1.5 to 2 hours tops. Due to location, I am roaming most of the time. I don't know if this affects the battery life. I don't think that switching between 800 and 1900 often helps either.
DISPLAYS - Alot of people don't like the single color external display. This is exactly what I wanted. I mostly use the external display to find out the time. On my old Cingular RAZR, it was hard for me to read the time with all of the other colors in the background. It's much easier to make out with the black background. The internal display is very crisp and clear.
BLUETOOTH - I spent $80 on a Plantronics Bluetooth headset for my RAZR when I had Cingular. I was definitely not going to take a phone that didn't have this and waste my money. I was very glad to see that Sprint has free as well as low cost phones that have this feature. Call quality is very good and the headset operates the same as it did with my RAZR. Push the same button to answer and hangup. Just what I need if my hands are tied. Have not tried to test out the range. Seems to work all around my apartment without any signal issues.
For free, you really can't go wrong with this phone. I've recommended it to others looking to upgrade or to try Sprint for the first time.