You know you want it (Samsung SGH-A300)

Member Name: triplecthegame

Product:	Samsung SGH-A300
Date:	05/10/02 (713 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Long Battery Life, Tiny, Easy To Use

Disadvantages: Low Text Message Memory, Predictive Text not that Predictive

I can remember when I told anyone and everyone who was listening that I would never own a mobile phone, that they were a waste of money and that they looked like idiots walking down the street with one. That was nearly 3 years ago now - then I got my brick, its that much of an embarrassment to admit it that I've forgotten what make and model it was, all I know is that it was on a contract and it passed for a (albeit huge) mobile phone.

Now over those past years I've gone through a few phones each of them getting smaller and smaller until I met dink - now dink is a pet-name for my Samsung A300E - mainly nick-named that was as its about as big as a cassette tape, if you cut a quarter of each of its sides off - that's how tiny it is.

So why is it I love my dink, well its practical, easy to use, friends are jealous of me because of it and most importantly - dink has never gone down on me once (fnar! - first person to point out that that could be taken the wrong way will get slapped upside the head).

* The Features *

Dual Screens - what this basically means is because its a flip-phone, you don't have to open your phone to see who's calling - as there's a second screen on the cover which will tell you exactly who's on the phone (of course unless they 141'd you - then you're stuck), so if you don't want to talk to someone - you don't *have* to answer the phone.

WAP - People used to say WAP was the next big thing, for those of you that don't know what WAP means its Wireless Application Protocol - basically a version of the internet on your phone, now imagine if you will - Ciao on a small screen (about 1 and a half inches either way), the screen has a green back-light and everything else is in black - that's all the typing , a few pictures here and there and that's about it.

Now it's not a bad thing to have if you're desperate to get information and know ex
actly which WAP site to go to (not all sites are compatible with WAP), but it is slow - and remember with most packages you will be paying for your WAP time by the second - and it may be expensive - so it's something that you need to be careful about.

Infrared - Now I've hardly used this, though my Infrared is turned on, now the only thing that this has done for me can be quite annoying at times, when I get a text message and I don't answer it - if I'm in the room with my phone it'll beep once every five minutes till I do answer it. Now I use my mobile as an alarm clock as well (more on that later) - so of course it's turned on overnight - well, most of the people who text me know not to bother at 2am (most I say not all eh Helen?), but when someone does bother - I will be awoken (eventually) by an incessant beeping until I open the phone and either delete the message or read it, very annoying!!

Personal stuff - only a few of the basics here to be honest, so a quick list for you all with a couple of sentences on each:

Calendar :- simple really, for the next lord only knows how many years there's a calendar on your phone - on each day you can leave a warning for what you're supposed to be doing on that day, as well as that you can set an alarm at any time in that day to actually remind you to get to it.

Calculator :- A standard fare - nothing to shout home about.

Alarm :- A life-saver for me, I'm not a mornings person, in fact waking up is a chore for me - but I still have to be awake each weekday morning around 7am - this means that I have to have an alarm that works - now my own clock does work and is quite loud, but I need a just in-case - and that's my dink, it'll play me a natty little tune all the way till I wake up - and eventually between the tag-team of my alarm clock and dink I'll be up.

Standard Mobile Features - Texting and Phone-Calls, that's what p
eople really need their mobile phones for isn't it? Well Dink does quite well in both fields, phone-call wise it's very rare that you'll struggle to hear whoever it is you're talking to and almost everywhere you go there'll always be a signal (though that's more to do with Orange than it is dink).

Text-Messaging wise it's still as good, though the small buttons do mean that occasionally you'll typo as you write out your message but what with the predictive texting that you get - it shouldn't be that big of a problem, as when you make a big typo - it just won't let you carry on till you've sorted it.

However there is one problem I find with the Predictive Text - on many an occasion you'll find that the word you want to use isn't dink's first choice, so you?ve got to flip through each word till you find the one you want to know.

Oh - there is another niggle, the memory for saved messages is crap - it'll only let you keep 10 messages, most phones let you have 15, this is sometimes a bit of a pain as when the phones been turned off for a while and you get several messages at once - the back-log can be a bit annoying, but nothing too bad.

Names Memory - Easy, there'll be 90 saved on your sim-card and another 10 saved on the phone itself, in my time knowing people who use mobile phone's there's only one person I've known who wouldn't find this plenty enough, personally I'm nearing my limit, but I don't think I'll ever actually get there.

Battery Life - Now this is something a bit special - you don't get one battery for your mobile, you get 2 - one slim-line one that will last you about 24 hours with 3 hours talk-time, and one regular sized battery that is double the size and double the power - so expect it to last 48 hours and have 6 hours talk-time.

Now if you're like me and regularly spend days away from home its alway
s handy to have 2 batteries - one as a spare, and in total you'll have 3 days to go before you're really nearing trouble with your reserves of power and if you keep your charger with you as well - then you'll be even better placed to find at least one power outlet to charge your phone up at, then with it being a Lithium battery, it takes about 4 hours and before you know it - you're fully charged.

Now from all that lot you'd probably think that dink is a pretty average phone, but I like it, its a bit special even if it did cost me £80.00 on a contract from Orange, and in 6 months time I will be scheduled to actually change my handset - you know what - I think I'll keep her.

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