Samsung A670 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Rating:
Summary: Phone dies after THREE MONTHS!
Review: DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE!
After three months, the screen stopped working. I took it to a customer service center and was told that the phone had been corroded by water damage. I didn't ever drop the phone in water or spill anything on it. I don't even live in a particularly humid area. When I called Samsung, they told me that they would not replace the phone because water damage constitutes "electromechanical shock," which voids the warrantee. I asked Jon, a Samsung customer service representative from Samsung's Texas office, how this could possibly have happened to the phone without water actually ever touching it, and Jon told me that corrosion can be caused by a) placing the phone on a table next to a cold glass of water, or b) carrying the phone in the rain. Jon explained to me that most people don't understand what a sensitive piece of electrical equipment a phone is, and he's right, I didn't understand that Samsung phones are too delicate to be owned by people who drink cold water or live where it rains. Those of you who do not live in the desert should be aware that Samsung phones are extremely susceptible to corrosion, and that Samsung will refuse to replace or repair your phone if does corrode.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome phone!
Review: I just got this phone...and I love it...I love taking pics of my kids and having them on the background of my phone. Games are not that important to me. I love how clear it sounds...and how easy it is to use.

Rating:
Summary: This phone is pretty cool!
Review: I like the camera and video camera. I also like the Get It Now feature, where you can download ringtones and games. It also has a planner and voice recorder. It even has text messaging and you can check your e-mail and log onto the internet.It has voice recognition so u can dial hands-free. I like this phone and plan to keep it for the rest of the plan. I am a teen and this phone rocks!

Rating:
Summary: a review for people as exceedingly exacting as me
Review: This dual-band color camera flip phone on the Verizon network is a surprisingly good handset. I was a bit frustrated at having to choose between the 2 Samsung models - one being tri-mode (a650), and the other being dual-mode (this phone, the a670). Those tricksters made the one with the front LCD the dual-mode one. Honestly, who buys flip phones anymore that don't have the front display? There is no way in hell I can go backwards in technology. When the StarTac phone died, so did that whole concept. So of course I bought the A670, and thought I could live without the analog frequency. Also, I've heard that the A650 (which is the tri-mode version) has much worse battery life because the phone is constantly switching between digital or 1xRRT and analog mode, the latter being a total power drain, as is just the switching at all.

Anyway, the bottom line is that this is a great phone with excellent reception, as long as you don't need analog. (I have only owned tri-mode phones up to this point, and I fortunately have not missed the analog frequency at all. I was initially worried about that.) The sound comes in clearly, and I'm told that I sound clear on the other end. Another strong suit of this phone is the form factor and exceptional build quality. Not only do I think it's the most gorgeous phone offered by Verizon, it's also compact, perfectly curved and shaped for pocket insertion, and it's very solidly built. It feels sturdy to hold and use. It weighs a little more than the similar LG and Audiovox models, but it's a difference that you grow to appreciate because it just feels much more substantial.

If your needs stop there, then hold it - you've got yourself a new phone.

For me, there are some irritating points about this phone beyond the basic call-making and form factor. Namely, the software. It's not customizable. It's very rudimentary. For all the effort put into the elegance and construction of the design, you'd think some attention would be paid to the inside.

If you are a text messaging freak like I am, then this phone probably is not the best choice for you. It's not the worst, but it definitely leaves something to be desired. For one thing, the font is terrible. It's like bolded 14 point Courier New. This means that you have to scroll down one line for every word, practically. And there is no way to adjust it either. Another thing is that the key stroke recognition is very slow. Often, you don't realize that the keys you hit didn't register, so you are well on your 2nd or 3rd word when you realize you have to fix the first word. Irritating. Finally, you are able to add words to the T9 dictionary, but it doesn't stay for long. Very curious bug. I don't fully understand what's going on with that, but I know that I've added quite a few curse words, and I've had to re-enter them so many times, and it still doesn't take. Another thing that would make this phone a better SMS-enabled phone would be if the menu offered the ability to send a text message right off of the contact name, rather than having to scroll through the SMS menu to start a message. It would also be great if you could begin composing a message without having specified a destination address. Often I'm thinking of what I want to write without necessarily wanting to scroll through the 9-step contacts menu. The final shortcoming of the text messaging is that you can't scroll up and down lines once you've typed. Whether you press the down, up, left or right buttons, it will only go back and forth word by word. Very annoying if you want to change something at the top of your message. To further annoy you, after a certain number of characters, it stops allowing word-scrolling altogether and you have to go character by character. And you have to keep on clicking over and over again because it doesn't do the smart auto-scrolling when you keep the button depressed. Very, very lame and very, very carpal tunnel-inducing.

One of the small things that I love when phone manufacturers include is the reminder beep. The Samsung A670 definitely has that for SMS and voicemail, which is the most typical offering, but I think it would be great if they borrowed a page from Motorola and added one for missed calls. And make it configurable! Also, when the phone is set on vibrate, it only vibrates the first time when the SMS or voicemail gets sent, but does not offer any reminder vibrations. This is a mistake.

One thing about the ringer setting is that, aside from the global vibrate mode (set by pressing down the # key), the call ringer setting is independent from the SMS/vmail ringer setting. This means that if you only toggle between sound and vibrate, you're fine, but if you wanted the phone to be silent (and not vibrating), then you have to set the call ringers to silent AND you have to go to the SMS/vmail menu to set those ringers to silent as well. It sounds ridiculous, but I learned the hard way that this is absolutely true.

There are several pre-installed professional-sounding ring tones to choose from. It's a sad trend in the industry that phones are coming with fewer (if at all) ring tones that are not songs or chimes. Samsung offers a fair share of annoying tunes, but it's nice that they offer at least 3 actual ring tones that would be acceptable in an office setting.

A cool feature that I discovered is that, as long as you don't have "active flip" set, if you receive a call while the phone is open and you accidentally close it during the ringing, it doesn't hang up that call, like other phones I've had do. You can basically keep opening and closing the phone throughout the ringing and it won't hang it up nor answer it until you deliberately press "answer" or "ignore". Very cool. I've inadvertently closed the phone without necessarily meaning to screen out the call with previous phones. Also, after sending an SMS, I can close the phone right away and it still continues the 'sending' process (which can take about 10 - 15 seconds) - something that has saved me some time. Send it, and fuhget about it! It's a feature that I still wonder how phones ever got away with NOT having.

I also like the fact that the display is very vibrant. There is a power save mode which takes it down a notch, which I find quite nice actually because at times the non-power save mode can be *too* bright. Another power saving consideration is that you have to keep the side button pressed down for at least 2 seconds in order to activate the light on the front LCD. This is nice and avoids overuse of the light when you accidentally just tap it. Some users find it annoying though, that they have to keep it pressed for soooo looong just to get the light to come on. I rather like it.

The battery meter is a bit misleading. There are only 3 bars, and the first 2 bars come down really, really fast. So it seems like the battery life is atrocious. Really, though, the battery life is not as bad as it seems; it's moderate, and that last bar hangs on for quite a long time.

If this phone had speakerphone, it would be a near-perfect phone.

Even though I spent a great deal of time talking about the flaws of this phone, there really aren't phones out there that don't have major software (and hardware) shortcomings. Relatively speaking, this phone's flaws are not that bad. In truth, in terms of call quality and form factor alone, and all in all, this is the best non-PDA phone on Verizon's network and my favorite phone I've owned to date, and considering how many phones I've owned, that is saying quite a lot.

Rating:
Summary: Good phone-but be careful with the camera button
Review: This is a very handy cell phone. It has a ton of ring tone extras, the keys are easy to use and after a short while, you will be able to figure out how to navigate through for messages, files, etc.

One area of concern though is if you are not careful, you can accidentally turn on the camera. This can be avoided by not holding or picking up the phone from the sides. The phone is a sleek version of Samsung's earlier flip phone. I had my previous flip phone for years, so this one is a little more delicate, yet still quite sturdy, having an alloy base and not plastic.

This is a digital dual mode phone. I have had fewer dropped calls and verizon has been a very good network for my needs. I do not usually utilize electronics to their fullest capacity, although I have taken some great snap shots with the camera feature. What is cool, you can create your own slide shows.

Most recently a warning went out about downloading ringtones, etc. This phone seems to have canned ringtones for anyones liking. The battery the phone comes with has a fairly good life, however, after you charge it and you unplug the charger the system lights up.....I wonder how much power is used for this, and I wonder even what the intent is that it does so.

The display is great, however, in the sunlight it becomes obscured and if you are on a call more than a minute or two the display goes blank to preserve energy, which although good, makes you have to press keys to get the view screen.

Again, I like my flip phone. I hope that it has the life that my last one had.

Verizon though will make you send the phone to Georgia for repair, so you could be without a phone for awhile.

You can also get some neat accessories to go with this phone.



Rating:
Summary: ok phone
Review: this is my first cell phone and i dont think it is the greatest but i think it is ok. it has a good picture quality and memory. u can take a 12 second video clip and make it ur backround. i dont really like the look or the phone though because it is very bulky. so i give this phone 3 stars because samsung has better looking phones for cheaper and they have the same options.

Rating:
Summary: Great phone, but does have a few cons
Review: This phone is great, color, easy use, great menu. But, the camera does not zoom, no ability to adjust any lighting so the pictures turn out too dark or too much light. No games, which really threw me for a loop. Ringers are okay, but nothing special. All in all, the phone is nice, good reception, nice color, and easy use. With the price I paid for it, I was disappointed in the extras that were not there. Should have games, better ring tones, camera use could be more better and settings should have more. I would recommend this phone, but not to anyone who wants a lot of extras on their cell.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not great -.-
Review: THis phone is so cool to use and take pictures but there are some flaws in it. FOr example you cannot send txt messages from it!~ The camera is good with zoom and plash. THe small light weight design is what i most like about it, And the fact that you can use the front of the phone as a camera too is amazing. I give it 4 stars just because it dosnt have the txt and picture messaging.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Phone
Review: Up until a week ago, I owned a really old Nokia phone, you know, the cheap ones you can find for sale at the super market. It was time that I get a new one. So, I found the Verizon Wireless site, and liked the deal. I found the Samsung a670 on there and was totally focused on getting that one phone. I'll admit, the features are what really attracted me. So, I bought it, and two days later got it in the mail. I instantly fell in love with it.

It's just so sleak looking. I loved the size. It felt so sturdy as I opened it. The display is bright and clear, and the lit up buttons just look cool. I checked out the camera, which is really fun. I've tried the video feature as well, but it's not quite as impressive. The voice recognition is great, you don't even have to program it. The ringtones weren't great, but I just bought a few on Get It Now, I like "XRinger" personally. It also has no games, but I bought Tetris, which is really fun on this phone. It takes some time getting used to it and working out all the features, but that's the fun part. I love this phone, here are my pros and cons:

Pros:

Small, sleak, and sturdy.
Bright and clear screen.
Easy to use interface.
Outside display very useful, and clear.
Nice camera feature, including flash, and the use of the outside screen to take pictures of yourself.
Picture caller ID.
Get It Now network.
Loud ringtones, strong vibrate.
Voice recognition, very impressive.
Strong signal and sound.

Cons:

Extendable antenna is a bit hard to pull up.
Battery life not so good when used a lot, but I plan on getting the extended battery.

And that's it. I can't think of anything else wrong with this phone. I really don't care about having a speaker phone. The antenna is no big deal since you don't usually have to use it that much, the phone works fine without it, at least in my area. This is a must have phone.





Rating:
Summary: 4th Phone
Review: Well....this Samsung A670 was my 4th phone and I must say the best. No offense to Nokia, but my other 3 phones with Nokia were LAME. Each time my phone broke and all services were pretty rude at getting my phone fixed (T-Mobile, PSC Wireless, and Tracfone). My mother had recieved a Verizon phone when she switched jobs and never listened to join her plan until I started junior high school. Verizon not only has a great plan and is helpful when my mothers phone is broken, but has almost unlimited options for your phone,but back to the story....I wanted this phone really bad and my parents were worried about me switching for a 5th time,but finally they got me the phone on Christmas. The Samsung was an excellent phone, it is small, many options like vibrate, ring, or both, a great color screen and great picture images (just read the manual when you get the phone or you wont understand how to work the camera). I am also a great camera person! Anyway you can do 2-Way txt messaging and internet access. It only has about 16 polyphonic ringtones and you can download more! The only disadvantage is there are no games, but when you are at Verizon they give you they give you the option to download some when you are there or online, but otherwise the phone is great and all my friends love it. If a parent is reading this I totally recommend it to any teen who wants not only a cute phone, but one with good reception and good service. Trust me Verizon and Samsung is the phone and service for that teen and a parent who just needs a phone for emergencies!Have a great 2005 and may all your dreams come true!