Samsung A237 Cell Phone
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- Screen Size (Diagonal): 2 inch
- Connectivity: Bluetooth
- Performance: Quad Band
- Design: Mobile
- Style: Clamshell
- Network Type: GSM 850 GSM 900 GSM 1800 GSM 1900
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Ok for what I need but more junk that is necessary
Pros
Among the simplest phones available via AT&T will actually make and receive calls.
Cons
Far too much extraneous programs and features that clutter up the phone.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If you want a mini PC, this phone is for you. It is a bit overboard for basic users however.
My five year old Moto V180 was on the way out and I was sad to discover that AT&T could to rework it so I had to secure a new phone. After much online research as to what was available, I settled on this one in a nice red color. This review will focus on the basic premise of a cell phone......to make and receive calls. I won't be going into all the web browsing stuff as I feel that is beyond the scope of this review.
Pluses:
*Took the same SIM card as my Moto phone so I did not lose addresses
*Ringer is much louder than most other phones, easy to hear even in my pocket
*Small size. Will fit in a men's shirt pocket
*easy to see outside display and bright main screen on the flip part of the phone
*Internal antenna. No external one to snag on clothes or belts.
*Bright keyboard is easy to see in low light.
*adjustable contrast on the inner screen for ease of use in daylight
*customizeable key shortcuts ie you can make the upper soft key go to your contact list or any other function as you desire.
*bluetooth capable
Cons:
*Main AT&T center soft key opens up the browser and cannot be disabled. Bad design here because the other soft keys are quite small and not so easy to differentiate by feel
*Limited choice of included ringtones. Additional ones cost a whopping $2.49 from AT&T site
*Cannot adjust the length of time the outer screen stays on. It displays for about 10 seconds then goes blank, to save batter power apparently
*Left side volume keys are far to easy to hit when picking up the phone so you could be turning down the volume and not even know you are doing it.
*Cannot download pix from phone to PC nor can you upload ringtones from PC to phone. Must sent to snapfish or some other email account.
Obviously, unless you are cell phone savy, it will be necessary to read the manual that comes with this phone to figure out all the options and how to make them work.
For basic setup, most folks will want to have their address book (contacts here) set up in such a way to access it quickly. Otherwise, you have to go to menu, settings, contacts, then setup to access your contact list. To Samsung's credit, for menu descriptions that cannot fit on the screen, they do scroll from right to left.
Most will be interested on the phone setup because this is where you can change the functions of some of the soft keys. Except for the basic MENU settings, nearly every other function can be edited to use whichever softkey or number keypad you wish to activate that fuction.
The phone does have a camera that takes some well............pretty lousy pictures. I suppose for that once in a lifetime event this matters but I already have a digital camera for picture taking. Again, these cannot be uploaded via a data cable but must instead be sent to your email addy or a HP snapfish account. All for 30 cents a kb so this can get rather expensive if you use it a lot.
Other setups include flip open to answer, multiple sound profiles for ring, vibrate, silence and also configure the phone to go right to VM but alert you that a call was missed.
Dialing missed calls is easy, simply select the one you missed and hit the green phone icon. Number then gets dialed.
The phone also includes a speaker which is handy for handsfree talking but don't expect BOSE level quality from it. It also includes a time zone map where you can scroll over a rolling pictograph of the earth and see what the time is in.......Tokyo for example. Why a basic consumer would need this is beyond me but.......marketing abounds here folks.
A stopwatch(!) is also included and a countdown timer. Both of these can be used to time your calls or for example you set a 10 minute limit and the phone will remind you that your call time is up. For those with a constantly running mouth, I guess this will be useful but keep in mind, AT&T has rollover minutes so unless you do telemarketing from this phone, I doubt many will use the countdown timer.
Pluses:
*Took the same SIM card as my Moto phone so I did not lose addresses
*Ringer is much louder than most other phones, easy to hear even in my pocket
*Small size. Will fit in a men's shirt pocket
*easy to see outside display and bright main screen on the flip part of the phone
*Internal antenna. No external one to snag on clothes or belts.
*Bright keyboard is easy to see in low light.
*adjustable contrast on the inner screen for ease of use in daylight
*customizeable key shortcuts ie you can make the upper soft key go to your contact list or any other function as you desire.
*bluetooth capable
Cons:
*Main AT&T center soft key opens up the browser and cannot be disabled. Bad design here because the other soft keys are quite small and not so easy to differentiate by feel
*Limited choice of included ringtones. Additional ones cost a whopping $2.49 from AT&T site
*Cannot adjust the length of time the outer screen stays on. It displays for about 10 seconds then goes blank, to save batter power apparently
*Left side volume keys are far to easy to hit when picking up the phone so you could be turning down the volume and not even know you are doing it.
*Cannot download pix from phone to PC nor can you upload ringtones from PC to phone. Must sent to snapfish or some other email account.
Obviously, unless you are cell phone savy, it will be necessary to read the manual that comes with this phone to figure out all the options and how to make them work.
For basic setup, most folks will want to have their address book (contacts here) set up in such a way to access it quickly. Otherwise, you have to go to menu, settings, contacts, then setup to access your contact list. To Samsung's credit, for menu descriptions that cannot fit on the screen, they do scroll from right to left.
Most will be interested on the phone setup because this is where you can change the functions of some of the soft keys. Except for the basic MENU settings, nearly every other function can be edited to use whichever softkey or number keypad you wish to activate that fuction.
The phone does have a camera that takes some well............pretty lousy pictures. I suppose for that once in a lifetime event this matters but I already have a digital camera for picture taking. Again, these cannot be uploaded via a data cable but must instead be sent to your email addy or a HP snapfish account. All for 30 cents a kb so this can get rather expensive if you use it a lot.
Other setups include flip open to answer, multiple sound profiles for ring, vibrate, silence and also configure the phone to go right to VM but alert you that a call was missed.
Dialing missed calls is easy, simply select the one you missed and hit the green phone icon. Number then gets dialed.
The phone also includes a speaker which is handy for handsfree talking but don't expect BOSE level quality from it. It also includes a time zone map where you can scroll over a rolling pictograph of the earth and see what the time is in.......Tokyo for example. Why a basic consumer would need this is beyond me but.......marketing abounds here folks.
A stopwatch(!) is also included and a countdown timer. Both of these can be used to time your calls or for example you set a 10 minute limit and the phone will remind you that your call time is up. For those with a constantly running mouth, I guess this will be useful but keep in mind, AT&T has rollover minutes so unless you do telemarketing from this phone, I doubt many will use the countdown timer.
