My Samsung has not Sung (Samsung SGH-A300)

Member Name: hthomas1531

Product:	Samsung SGH-A300
Date:	06/12/02 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, Flip lid

Disadvantages: Low battery life

I recently got a contract Samsung A300e from Orange. It really isn't good enough for any purpose beyond that of a basic phone. It was free with an Orange contract.

CONTAINS
Phone
Charger
SIM card
2 Batteries (normal and slimline)
Cord
Instructions

FUNCTIONS
Infra red
Phone Book
WAP
Information services
Dual screen
Text messaging
Alarm (and other expected basics)

I'll list some of the advantages and disadvantages:
ADVANTAGES
COMPACT
It is compact given the flip lid and comfortable sits in any pocket. It's also got a cord so that you can hold it in your hand (makes snatching more difficult).

FLIP LID
The reason why I opted for this was because I kept dialling 999 from my Nokia in my pocket (even when you lock the keys, you can still dial 999). With the flip lid 'activated' you can use it to answer calls and it makes the phone very easy to use. The lid also makes the phone longer when you answer a call so that you hava e phone that can actually reach from the ear to the mouth - quite a novelty nowadays! It's quite comfortable too as the phone curves around your face.

DUAL SCREEN
The dual screen means that there is one on either side of the lid which is really handy to monitor who is calling before you answer the call (any work related calls can be immediately rejected). However, the only way of rejecting a call without answering it or waiting for the other side to hang up is to remove the battery (rather drastic, but if it's someone you really don't like...!).

DESIGN
The phone is well designed although there is the antenna which on most new phones is internal. This can catch when you're trying to answer the phone in a hurry!

NAVIGATION
For navigation there's a side toggle to move up and down and on the dial pad there's a 4-directional button to move up, down, left and right. This makes
moving through the menu screens easy.

DISADVANTAGES
BATTERY
The two batteries this comes with have a low life and as such last about a maximum 2 days before requiring a recharge. There's the normal battery and a slim line version. The distinction's pretty useless as the slimline version doesn't make that much of a difference in terms of size but has a much shorter life (about a day). In the days of Nokia, where the battery life can be a week, this is useless.

RECEPTION QUALITY
The reception isn't as good as it could be, and certainly not as good as any Nokia phone I've had. I find it very difficult to get any reception in tall buildings. It seems that where I used to get a 1 or 2 'bar' reception on Nokia, I find it difficult to get a 1 'bar' with Samsung. Very often it cuts out.

TEXTING
For some reason, texting is not as easy with this phone as with Nokia, the symbols aren't easy to find. However, the predictive text does work quite well.

INFORMATION
The information service (for Sport/Lifestyle/Finance) is useful but expensive and hence I haven't used it much (It's the cost of a text message to receive the info.)

WAP BROWSER
The browser is of limited use in these days of multicolour phones and I would advise anyone who would use this service to get a more modern phone.

OVERALL
It's a good basic phone for just using as a normal phone. To use any of the other mobile services (eg WAP) I'd advise using more modern and versatile phones (some of the new Samsungs seem better at this).

Summary: