The Samsung MM-A800 (SPH-A800) is a unique slider phone, allowing customers to capture two-megapixel still images and VGA-quality videos, listen to digital music files, and text message at lightening speed with voice commands and dictation, all in one intelligently designed device. In addition, the MM-A800 has a TransFLASH memory card slot (32 MB card included), auto focus, 2.5x digital zoom, flash, color adjustments, fun frames and multishot.
Samsung MM-A800 (A800) User Reviews
1. Posted by SS70Chevelle
Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:03 pm
I have had my MM-800 for over a month now and I still have people coming up to me and asking me about my phone. People can't get over the fact that a cell phone would have a 2 mega-pixel camera on it and a video recorder.
Out of the box I was suprised first by the solid feel of the phone and then by the huge display screen on front. Then my mind immediatly shot to months down the line, after a lot of use, this beautiful exterior screen being scratched beyond recognition. On month later I am beyond suprised at the fact that carrying the phone in my pocket for almost a month has yet to get a single visible scratch on the screen. Another concern of mine was the slider function. I have friends that have horror stories of their slider phones falling apart after less than 3 months. Once month later my Samsung's slider function still feels as tight and smooth as it did the day I purchased it.
Of course the biggest selling point of this phone would have to be the 2.0 MP camera and overlooking it would be like trying to sell a big screen TV without telling you how large the screen is. The resolution is fantastic! I send pictures to friends and family and they ask me what kind of a digital camera I have and when I explain it is from my cell phone they are left in disbelief. An array of settings and options for each picture truley makes each picture your very own. The auto-focus and auto-brightness make even a dim lit room come to life in a photo and the flash is very bright unlike most cell phones and really illuminates. The series shot option makes taking multiple shots within a few moments easy and works fantastic. The video is average and gived you video with average resolution but with extra recording time if you choose to save it to the included memory card. You are given the option to save the pictures directly in the phone or to save them to the included TransFLASH media card for easy transfer to your computer. It is also nice that Samsung had the heads up to put a cover over the camera's lense for safe storage when not in use. But with the good comes the bad. When all options, like auto-focus and auto-brightness, are enabled it can take up to 3 seconds between the time you press the shutter button and the time it actually takes the picture. Also, when the phone is in the open position, it only allows you to take 800KB pictures.
On to the other great fatures of the phone. The navigation menu is large and easy to read and finding what you are looking for is easy for anyone. Sending text messages is made easy through the navigation menu and is made even more simple with the VoiceMode option. Simply press and hold the assigned side button and VoiceMode allows you to speak your text message. While it is not perfect, I have had about a 90% success rate with the VoiceMode option and it is a GREAT alternative to maticulously tapping the 7 button four times just to get to the letter "s". The Tools menu allows you to perform many operations that seem to be standard in the cell phone market. There is an option for Voice Memos which has worked great for me so far. The best of the 10 tools features is the memo pad. While you do need to enter each letter though the keypad, it is nice for taking a quick note about something. An alarm clock, today menu ( much like what is on Pocket PCs), Scheduler, Task List, World Time, Countdown clock, and a calculator are also included. The contacts folder works much like all other cell phones with two exceptions. First of all there is enough room to hold 500 entries, which is perfect for those of us who sadly felt shorted with just 300 entries like other cell phones provide. Also, there is no more need to program voice commands for each entry. The software programmed into the cell phone automatically makes voice coms for each entry. The voice com software is an extension to the software that makes it possible to speak out your text messages. Simply hold the talk button down until it asks you to say a command (the possible commands are also listed on the screen at this point so you will know just what to say). Continuing on our tour of the Menu, we find the settings menu which is a cell phone standard, but each category is so straight forward that there is no question where you would need to go to, lets say, change your ringtone. My favorite part of the phone's software is the web navigator. It is easy to read and very easy (just like the menu) to find whatever you need. Not much else can be said. The final "toy" on the SPH-A800 is the media player. It gaves you the option to either look for online media or to go to the phones TransFLASH card (a 32MB card is included with the phone but I would suggest at least a 256MB if you are going to use this phone as an MP3 player) to view media. The online section of the media player takes you to Sprints fairly new SprintTV section which allows you to go through various channels and watch clipped shows (This service is a pay by the channel service). Sprint, however, has been nice enough to include a few movie trailers, which are updated weeky, complimentary. The other portion of the media player is to veiw and listen to files from you TransFLASH media card. You may upload .MOV movies or .MP3 music files from your computer to listen to. With this you are given the option to listen to this through 2.5mm headphones which must be purchased separately or you can have the phone play it directly from the headset speaker. Suprisingly when playing it through the headset's speaker the sound is VERY clear and clean and the volume can be adjusted to blast music throughout an entire room!
The final thing included with the phone is a USB cable that is said to only be usable to directly link your phone to a photo printer. However, with a little searching you can find software out there what will make the cable usable as a data link. *cough* DataPilot *cough* I have yet to use the cable for direct printing but I would assume it would be as seamless as any other direct printing camera.
A few features that would have been nice to include with this phone that are non-existent are bluetooth capability and a speaker phone. I however have gotten around this by obtaining a jabra A210 bluetooth adapter and a Cardo headset. Another problem that I had once that I have heard a few other people having is it has frozen up once...which i fixed by turning the phone off and then back on. And finally it has been fairly challengin for me to find a case for this phone but I was told by Samsung that a few cases are coming soon!
All-in-all it is a solid phone that is a little high priced for a reason, there is a ton of technology held in this small phone. I personally have enjoyed every day using this phone and the camera functions. Sending out my pictures and videos is a breeze and even though it has an internal antenna it has outperformed my other phones sevicewise greatly. If you are looking for a top of the line phone and one with a few new technologies I would highly recommend this Samsung SPH-A800 (MM-A800)!
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2. Posted by JayMike
Tue Aug 02, 2005 2:58 pm
Well what can I say but the phone is great. The camera is amazing, I can easily use the pictures I take as backgrounds for my computer! Thats how good the quality is. The only problem I find is that for a phone with so many features it does not have a speakerphone which is quite annoying. Also, the calls are not very loud, the speaker is fine and loud enough when playing MP3s and such, but not when actually talking on it. Another annoying feature is the predictive text, it does not use the normal T9 predictive text input, so if you text message alott you have to learn a new system.
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