The Definative Samsung MM-A800 Review

[Kinetic2k3]

Ok it seems that this phone has caused quite a bit of stir amongst the Sprint community. I have now owned the phone for 1wk...And I think that its time for a voice of reason. Keep in mine that the opinions expressed in this review are that of my own and as we all know we are all entitled to our own.. However with that in mind I will try to keep this as unbiased as I can... So onto the review

Form Factor: It’s a slider. Much like the LG 535 the slider is spring loaded and slides up unlike the LG 325...The tightness of the slider can be adjusted by two screws behind the battery compartment. The A800 is actually much smaller and lighter than I could have anticipated. Not much bigger nor much heavier then the 5600 and in fact is pretty much the same size as the LG535...The A800 does weigh in a bit more then the 535..Overall the phone feels solid. Sure there may be a little wiggle on the slider but what phone doesn’t have any wiggle in its joints or moving parts. That said the phone feels far from flimsy. In fact I have dropped it and the slider is still as tight as the day it was bought...

Ergonomics: Sliding the spring loaded top up reveals the brilliantly blue back lit keypad. Key spacing is well organized and not too cramped. Keys are large enough for those who have slightly chubbier fingers and the keys give a solid click with each press. The main navigation keys are located on the top half of the slide, placement of these keys is a little less comfortable as they are spaced quite a bit closer together... you might find yourself hitting the back key instead of the down key quite often. That said once you get a feel for the phone after a couple days the key placement starts to feel natural. Holding the phone in your hand while talking on it feels no different to me then any flip phone or candy bar phone vie had. The phone has good weight distribution even with the slide up it never feels top heavy... The headset port is on the top left of the phone with the side volume keys directly below and below that the transflash slot.. On the other side we have the side camera key only real gripe I have when it came to the ergonomics of the phone.. I feel it would have been better suited to place it higher up. Overall an excellent job done by Samsung in the ergonomics department.

Screen/UI: The screen is beautiful. What you expect from a qvga screen... if you’ve seen the toshiba or 5600 you know what to expect from the a800... yes the screen is slightly smaller then the 4050 or 5600 however I feel that it is quite a pointless arguement..Wallpapers do take up the full screen and the soft navigation keys have transparent backgrounds...Several options exist when it comes to the standby display analog/digital clock with various placement, transparent calendar and scheduler may b displayed, also desktop animation such as falling snow or leaves may be set.. Alot more graphically friendly options exist in the UI...Browser fonts are adjustable from large to small...Text message fonts are not = // .. While the overall UI is unchanged as the phonebook follows that of the A700 (the a800 has a 500 contact phone book), also menu navigation is typical Samsung with there being minor enhancements to UI. The main menu does offer a new look along with some customization options... such as background wall paper for the main menu ala the 4050..The main menu is displayed in a 3x3 grid by default but can be set to a rotation style menu again in a 3x3 arrangement.. However in the latter background images nor focus animations can be set... The launch pad has been redone... the entire pad is still customizable however the right directional key launches a new shortcut menu to commonly used features and settings...Overall very nice UI with good amount of customization and those familiar with Samsung interfaces will feel right at home using the phone. One last note on the screen that may bother some is that the screen is protected by a thick plastic top coat which makes the screen appear grainy/textured/oily. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about it and if it bothers you tough, at first it was a bit annoying but I got used to it and it is only really visible on very light colors such as white.

Vision/Browser/Text Messaging: Ok vision is lightning quick on the phone. It is right on par with the 4050, 5600, and just about every new vision phone. Pages literally take a second to load. Also downloads are lightning quick... again vision speed is dependant on many things but overall if your getting at least 3 bars of service well u can expect a rather zippy vision experience... Browser cache issues; I have yet to run into an issue where a page is too large to load, browser font as I stated before is customizable however some pages due have issues with proper spacing which makes you have to scroll more then say the 4050, however more often then not you won’t have any problems loading typical wap pages. The browser used in the A800 is the typical obigo browser used in most other Samsungs. I really woulda have liked a netfront or open wave browser like the 4050 which allows you to copy paste and such... that said the browser is more then capable of handling most of the pages you throw at it...Overall vision experience with the a800 is quite pleasing although nothing revolutionary. The phone does support #777 and also is embedded with 6mb of internal memory and has support for a 512mb transflash card; it does ship with a 32mb card. Note about memory card downloads, anything transferred to the card such as mp3s or videos unless saved by the phone, cannot be assigned as ringers or screensavers, major downside I feel. Also not sure if anyone else experienced this, the a800 browser does not remember the last visited page when re-launching the browser after vision arrows have disconnected = // and they disconnect quite often, this is kind of annoying.

Text Messaging is something many users on the board do and well for those used to the ubiquitous T9 system the phone will displease you in this aspect..The lack of T9 implementation in the A800 has been well documented. T9 has been supplanted by EziTap, Ezitap so far by many users has been dogged and criticized perhaps prematurely as it is far from terrible.. Ezitap as stated is a text prediction system, now the more you text with Ezitap the better the experience you will get, Ezitap works by remembering the most commonly used words, phrases, and portions of a word that the user of the phone typically inputs. So the more u text the better the prediction.. Also something not mentioned is that Ezitap has a customizable personal dictionary, so u can add words and phrases that are not by default built into Ezitap. At first Ezitap is cumbersome and difficult to use compared to T9 however like anything else the more you use it the more proficient you are at it. Many T9 users will criticize the system but if you take more then a couple days to use it, you’ll find that its not as bad as its being made out to be. Text messaging interface is the same as the A700 and has the same amount of storage per folder.

[Kinetic2k3]

One amazing inclusion is Speech Text. As advertised you speak your words and text away. Now some users have reported problems using the feature, I will say its not a replacement to T9 or manual input by hand however when you are driving it is extremely useful to dictate a message. I personally have had no problem training phone to recognize the words I say into a text, if a mistake is made more times then not it is automatically corrected in the end. It takes 5 minutes to train the phone and involves repeating 123 words back at the phone, also for those who cant get speech to text to work properly, pause after every word!!! It helps. once again if your looking for it to replace manual input, your expecting too much as it is a first generation feature and im sure will improve, for now its useful to send a text when you can’t input it by hand, such as driving and after all isn’t that when you normally use voice commands??
Overall Txt Messaging on the a800 is satisfactory, woulda been great with the inclusion of T9 but it doesn’t break the phone without it because once you get the hang of Ezitap its like T9 never existed, remember we once all had to adapt to T9.

RF/Reception/Battery Life/Call Quality: RF/Reception on the A800 early on was regarded as poor, this was as recent as a wk before the phone was originally released, and I said back then judge not the phone after 2 minutes of use but instead 2 days of use, and look what has transpired, the A800 is as solid as a rock when it comes to RF. In my area the A800 rivals both the 4050 and 5600 in RF currently 3 of the best performing sprint phones in terms of RF, all 3 ranging in the neighborhood of 64-69 DB, in my scenario the a800 was constantly 2 decibels less than the 5600 signaling stronger RF. The a800 and 4050 were constantly within 1 db of each other signaling equal performance. So with regards to RF, well done Samsung, I would rate a tie between the a800 and 4050 and the 5600 a close second.

Earpiece/Call Quality is excellent on the a800 very clear and warm sounding; while not as natural sounding as the 4050 the a800 is much louder then the 4050. The 5600 while better then past Sanyo offerings in this field, still cant hold a candle to either the a800 or 4050 in terms of earpiece/voice clarity. Again hearing is subjective however. There has been mention about the noise cancellation bug that supposedly exists in the a700 also existing in the a800, however I have yet to experience the cutting in and out of voice on my end or the other party’s end, so I personally cannot vouch for this.

Battery life on the a800 is exceptional with all things being considered. Sprint rates the lithium ion battery with 4 hours of continuous talk time. Now you might experience this if you use the phone solely for voice purposes however chances are if you have this phone or are considering it you’ll want to use its other features. My personal experience is that after use of the camera (10-15 pics a day), casual vision usage (20-40 min a day), media playback, text messaging (20-40 messages), I average around 2 – 2.5 hours of talk time before I hit 1 bar of battery which to isn’t bad all things being considered. Again you mileage will vary depending on your usage.

Media Player/Multimedia: Media player works great much like the 5600 and 535 support for video files and mp3s playback is present, audio is outputted through the earpiece speaker on the a800 unlike the 5600, also stereo headphones may be used. Playback of mp3s and video is louder on the 5600 and video can be stretched to fit the entire screen of the 5600. When using earphones the a800 I feel has better audio clarity. The a800 media player interface also has 3 visualizations during mp3 playback, its interface is rather intuitive and basic. The multimedia portion of the phone is much the same as past multimedia phones and works the same way. Multimedia playback is smooth depending on your location and signal strength, also I found that it does buffer less than my a700 used to. I can’t speak much for the 535 in this area as I have not had the chance to own the phone, however I had heard nothing but glowing reports in regards to the 535. Ringer volume is clear and loud but not as loud as the 5600 nor as clear due to the lack of a dedicated speaker. AAC ring tone and 64 chord polyphonic midi is supported. Also included is support for Video Ringers, and animated wallpapers via GIF files, yes GIF files..

Tools/Misc Features: The a800 features Voices Command, Voice Memo, a Scheduler, Task List, Memo Pad, Alarm Clock, World Clock, Calculator and Countdown.. Typical Samsung tools, the scheduler has been tweaked and is excellent with its pim functions, it has a weekly and monthly view, again your basic Samsung organization tools, nothing special.
The a800 has a service light that blinks red and green, the service light doubles as the missed even indicator, and a nice shortcut on the a800 is a list of missed events, calls, messages.

Also nice is the feature to assign vibe+ring to any ringer volume, and to any call, event, or message this I feel is a great inclusion. Also it has been mentioned that the phone cannot be operated while the slide is in a down position. Completely false is this notion. Unlock the key guard and you can browse your phonebook, menu options, launch the media player, place and receive a call, launch the camera, and browse the web, now if any of these requires text input then you would need to slide up the slider to expose the keypad. One drawback is the ability to slide down the slider while on a call without the headset, there is no option to allow this without disconnecting your call.. If you want to place a call with the slider closed you must scroll through your phone book or use voice signal to dial out. Overall the phone is more then operable with the slide down. It has also been mentioned that the phone book takes too long to access, however that’s really nitpicking as its really not slow and in fact is quite instantaneous, if u search ur phonebook and hit ok its just as fast as the 4050 at accessing and finding entries. Also not previously mentioned is a couple new security options, such as being able to lock voice or vision usage, those with children who like to press buttons will appreciate the vision lock, so many customers used to come in and ask if there was a feature that would allow a vision lock, well now they got it… pretty useful.

Camera/Camcorder/Picturemail/PictBridge: And now we come to the main selling point of the phone the US first official carrier supported 2 mega pixel camera phone. Well before you all toss your dedicated digital cameras stop because the fact of the matter is that it won’t replace your dedicated digital cam. That being said I didn’t expect the a800 to do so. While the a800 camera is a CCD auto focus lens, it doesn’t compare to a standalone digi-cam, and while many expect it to I feel it’s a rather unfair expectation.

[Kinetic2k3]

Reason being it’s the first of its kind here in the US, and in fact one of the first in the world minus many Japanese carrier phones that are around 3-5 megapix.
Now while it doesn’t take the best pics at its full resolution when compared to a standalone digicam it holds its own against other camera phones quite well. I wont compare the 2 mega pixel pics to a 1 mega pixel pic because no other phone in the US does 2 mega pix and I won’t compare it to a dedicated digital camera whose sole purpose is to take pics. Now comparing it to a 1 megapixel camera phone is fair, and quite honestly after you turn on auto focus the phone takes wonderful snapshots. One caveat is that you must hold the camera absolutely still until the saving picture dialog has disappeared otherwise your pics will blur. By far the a800 takes the best night time and low light pics amongst all camera phones sprint has to offer, the a800 makes use of a led flash that acts like a flash should. Also the a800 has a macro mode which is accessible through the intuitive almost digital camera like UI. Macro shots are brilliant and come out nice and clear. Pics can be stored to the phone or memory card and can be sent via a memory card reader or through picture mail.

There was some mention that it takes to long to snap a pic open the lens cover start the camera and click wait for the auto focus, quite honestly if you’re complaining about that then you really need to learn patience because 9 seconds is far from an eternity. Also it has been mentioned that when you have the slider up you can only snap at 800x600, my response to this is wow big deal. I mean how hard is it to close the phone and snap at 1 or 2 megapix and then open it up and hit send; wow you know it takes another 10 seconds which is another eternity. Honestly if that’s one of your gripes that’s really weak. One legitimate gripe from me on the camera is that if you use the zoom at 4X or more better lower the resolution to 800x600 because you will get very blocky images.

The camcorder is the best by far as quality is concerned, video clips are smooth and less blocky than that of the 4050 or 5600. The camcorder also allows for 90 minutes of continuous video recording if you have a memory card with enough space. One downfall is that sending of videos over 512kb in size cannot be sent over video mail but hey, they can be uploaded to your computer through memory card readers. Overall the a800s camera does not quite live up to the hype in regards to 2 megapixel pictures however at 1 megapix and lower the camera delivers detail and sharpness rarely seen by any camera phone out on the market minus perhaps the lg vx8000. The camera is by no means perfect but in the same breath it is by no means complete junk.
Pictbridge I haven’t used the feature as I don’t have a pictbridge printer, the usb cable that is included with the a800 serves the sole purpose of connecting the phone to a printer for pictures to be printed out. Perhaps in the future there will be support for contact synchronization however as of the moment there isn’t.

Various Pics taken with the A800: http://f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/kinetic2k3@sbcglobal.net/lst?.dir=/Samsung+MM-A800+Pics&.order=&.view=l&.src=bc&.done=http%3a//f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/

Conclusion: The big question is if the A800 is worth the 500+ dollar upgrade. Well if you have an lg 535, sanyo 5600, or even an a700 the answer is quite simply no. Reason being that several ev-do phones should be out within the next few months and with the a940 supposedly being the sister of the a970 the a800 will quickly become old. However if you’re in the market for a new phone or are considering sprint as a carrier then I would say yes, you should definitely take a look at the A800. What you get for 300+ dollars at new activation is one of the latest convergence cell phones out in the US market minus Bluetooth.

Is the A800 500+ dollar price tag well justified, more then likely no however its target audience is a niche market much like the Motorola Razr and was that phone worth 500 dollars considering it was a rehashed v600 in a new shell.
Overall as phone the A800 is as solid as you can get from Sprint, it has excellent RF and Vision performance and offers a plethora of customization options. While its 2 megapixel camera isn’t the best compared to standalone digital cams it holds its own against other camera phones in its class. The A800 might not replace your I-pod in regards to mp3 player functionality. However it is handy for those who just happen to be going out of town and need a few mp3s to listen to at the airport or on the plane. Remember the convergence devices will never replace devices designed with solely one purpose in mind rather they are targeted more for convenience.

The A800 is far from the perfect phone but it is far from the worst. Remember the saying to each their own; this applies to cell phones because what it comes down to is that the A800 won’t be for everyone, and that’s why we have choice. ;)

Oh ya one caveat don't you dare get the A800 or you'll end up like me, got the phone wet at the pool and ended up with a blank white screen thank god for 30 day exchange = )

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