The Samsung A900

By: Quill Wordsmith
wordsmith@excapethematrix.com

Samsung’s recent model, the A900, made exclusively for Sprint PCS wireless services has the capability of being one of the most convenient and desirable phones out there. However, with its supposed convenience, exactly how reliable is it? Released nearly 2 years ago, many compared the phone to the Motorola Razr™ due to its thin and sleek design. However it was referred to as “The Blade”. 

“While many surveyed consumers who don’t own the phone have a desire to explore with it and all of its many features, those who actually own it are looking for an alternative.”

The phone is Bluetooth compatible, has the ability to hold custom ringers with ringer ID, polyphonic audio, custom graphics, web browser, T9 predictive text entry for SMS messaging and even a music player. The photo and video specs give you an opportunity to record videos with length limited only by memory as well as a 1.9 megapixel digital camera. Applications, email, and instant messaging capabilities are also available to be downloaded to the added features to the phone.

With a phone like this, where would the problems arise? Many of the downfalls to the phone come through pushing the phone beyond its limits. Of course not every consumer of the A900 is going to max out the phone book capacity of 500 entries (5 numbers per entry) although it doesn’t take long for the battery to run down with its 3 hours of talk time. When researching the standby life of the battery, there is no specified time mentioned. The largest complaint of the phone however, is that even the three hours of talk time can be shorted due to the heavy amount of other features the phone contains.

When questioning Sprint Customer solutions with ways to preserve the battery several different “possible” solutions are offered. However, each solution causes the phone to be less “enjoyable” as it would only be used for the phone that it is. The GPS/Location feature can be disabled to preserve battery lifetime. Placing the phone on “Airplane Mode” gives you access to all of your phone’s features with the exception of talk time, web usage, and sending or receiving messages. The A900 along with Sprint’s Sanyo release, the Katana, are among the first of Sprint PCS Power Vision phones. Due to the Power Vision Mobile Web feature, the battery life is yet again, drained of any possibility of endurance.

“Many of the downfalls to the phone come through pushing the phone beyond its limits.”

While many surveyed consumers who don’t own the phone have a desire to explore with it and all of its many features, those who actually own it are looking for an alternative. Outside of the short battery span, crashing (entire phone blanking out and restarting), freezing, and delayed response are among the other factors of the A900. If you’d like to enjoy all the features of GPS location and online downloads, it may be best to stick your laptop or PC. 

This phone is only good for what it is…a phone.