Handy Handy (Samsung SGH-A300)

Member Name: HelenHancox

Product:	Samsung SGH-A300
Date:	08/07/02 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: size, design, robust

Disadvantages: small keys, diary naff

For those of you German-speakers out there, you should get the reference (the German word for mobile phone is Handy).

Anyway, why did I choose this phone? Why did I part with £125 last September when I could have had a brand new Nokia for free?

I had a disastrous relationship with various Ericsson phones (NEVER AGAIN!) and so was in the market for a new manufacturer. EVERYONE has Nokias, but none of the good ones at the time had keypad protectors. And why did I want this? On an earlier Ericsson, with Keylock activated, I managed to phone my hairdresser up whilst I had the phone in my back pocket (heard an eerie voice saying "hello hello" from behind me when alone in the house); I also managed to phone up the friend I was having dinner with in a restaurant by accidentally kicking my handbag by my feet. She got a call, and said "it's you Helen!". Each time I was lucky that I spotted it - otherwise I would have had a MONSTER phone bill. From that point on I was sold on the benefits of flip phones.

I went for the Samsung because it had a diary feature (why should I carry around both a phone and a handheld organiser?) and because it had a really good flip to save me dialling people accidentally. Oh, and it looked great!

And now I've had it for ten months - what do I think? Well, the diary feature is useless - you can only have one event a day. Newer phones no doubt are much better at this but I was disappointed. Oh well.

But the rest of the phone is great. It is so small it can fit in the coin pocket of my jeans. I have carried it everywhere with me for the last ten months - bashed about in a rucksack, shoved in a pocket on rainy dogwalks - and despite the silver rubbing off the corners it's still fully working. I even dropped it from about 3 feet yesterday onto concrete and it's none the worse for that experience!

Call quality is fine. I find it easy to navigate. I li
ke the green light/red light feature on it. The vibrate feature is useful as always. Unlike another op I've read on this, I find the battery (even the slimline) works OK - perhaps that's down to signal strength wherever you are? I also get on fine with the predictive text messaging, except it insists on calling my husband James "Lands" until I change it!

I would definitely get another Samsung, but my next phone (due September) WILL have to have a functional diary/PDA bit so I will probably end up with something much bigger. A shame, as nothing can beat the A300 in its looks.

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