I'll open my phone to anyone!! (Samsung SGH-A300)

Member Name: eleanorofnaboo

Product:	Samsung SGH-A300
Date:	22/07/02 (865 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cute, shiny, tons of gadgets

Disadvantages: small battery, not many ringtones, no games!

As I am normally at least one season behind everyone else in a fashion sense I just got my Samsung A300 a couple of weeks ago. It is a really cool little phone and I love it.

It is very small at only 40x80x25mm and comes in a lovely shiny silvery chrome with a round window on the front. When you are not using the phone the window displays the date, time, signal strength and battery strength. Whilst you are making a call the window display the caller info (but who is looking at the outside when you have it to you ear anyway?).

On opening the phone you see that the top half is a big screen and the bottom are all the usual buttons, some of which have reprogrammeable shortcuts. To get into your menu all you do is press the top left button which also acts as a "select" button on most options.

The menu has:
1. Call records - view your missed calls, received calls, dialled calls, call time
2. Messages - quite straight forward: read, write, setup broadcast and voicemail
3. Sound settings - for chosing your ringtone, ring volume, alert tones etc. This section also has the ringtone composer which is for writing your own tunes. Very easy to use, far easier than Nokia's composer.
4. Phone Settings - For setting your greeting, language options, light options, contrast, Active flip (ie answers the phone as soon as you open it and ends your call when you close)
5. Organiser - for the unorganised (like myself): calendar which you can make wee notes and get an alarm to remind you of appointments, birthdays etc, To Do list, Alarm (choose between once alarm, daily alarm and weekly alarm), calculator, and also the option of setting your shortcut keys.
6. Security - set up your PIN codes etc
7. Network Services - call waiting, call barring call diverting options
8. WAP Browser - internet access which is easy to set up using the help on the Vodafone website.
9. Vodafone - all the usual services which Voda
fone offer...... help, information, footie on the fone...... you know the stuff and it's all set up ready for you!

A good thing about the menu setup is that everything has a number, so to save you having to work through the menus all the time you can type the shortcut numbers. For example, if you wanted to send a message then instead of finding the message section in the menu and hitting select then going into the send messages bit all you would have to do would be press the menu button and hit 22 and lo and behold you have a blank message screen.

The phone has T9 predictive text which is fine some of the time but a bit of a pain at others. Thankfully it is very easy to switch between it and normal text, you just press the top right button when you are in a text section (i.e. wring a text message, writing a memo etc).

When you get the phone it comes with a lovely silvery grey hands free kit (so don't buy yourself one whilst waiting for the phone to be delivered like I did!!) and also a spare battery. This may seems a bit strange but it is completely necessary as the batteries do not hold their charge for long, mine lasts a day and a half, or two days if I have not used the phone at all. I keep a battery fully charged and carry it with me in my bag, they are really small so it doesn't take up any space and it is better than having your phone run out at some crucial time.

The instruction book which comes with the phone is very clear and concise and has a big list near the back to help you find everything on the menus while you are getting used to where everything else.


I keep getting lost in the menus (yeah I know I am easily confused) when I press the wrong buttons and get into sub-sub-menus but it is really easy to get out as closing the phone finishes whatever you are doing, so when you open it again you are back to the basic screen and can start again!

The basic screen has the same sort of
information as the outside screen: date, time, signal and battery strength, as well as the symbol for either the ringtone or vibrate to tell you how you have the phone setup for ringing. A the bottom is the menu and name options which are accessed by the top right and left keys respectively.

I find the address book a little more awkward to get into than it was on my old Nokia but it really isn't difficult. Press the top right when you are on basic screen and then either type the first letter of the person you want to call or hit top left to search. This option brings up your entire list and you just scroll through it, the first option shortcuts you to that letter.

It really is all very simple when you get used to it.

So, how much did my new toy cost me? Nothing at all is the answer. I got the phone free as part of my contract. I ploughed through tons of websites looking for the best deal (top priority was that the phone was free) and came across www.theorder.co.uk who were offering free and you could chose which ever contract you wanted. I always use Vodafone and they had all the available options there, you can chose to suit your own calling requirements. I know that Dial-a-phone had it free as well but they have no choice in line rentals and you have to pay 45p a minute with their only option! I am paying 20p a minute with The Order as well as a cheaper line rental.

Is there anything bad about this phone? Well apart from the one or two little minor inconveniences I mentioned above the only other thing was that their website support was not where near as good or exciting as Nokia's and that the ringtones are only available if you programme them yourself i.e. you can't order them over the phone/internet like you can with a lot of other phones. For such a fashionable phone I was quite surprised that there was not many websites with ringtones codes. If you find any good sites let me know!!! Oh, and one las
t thing..... there are no games to play while you are standing waiting on the bus!

:0)

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