Great until the battery dies!! (Samsung SGH-A800)

Member Name: dove3066

Product:	Samsung SGH-A800
Date:	06/03/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, compact

Disadvantages: Replacement battery cost

I really loved this phone until the battery gave up on me. The trouble with Samsung phones is that the battery is an integral part of the design and so to buy a replacement battery ends up being expensive. The phone cost me £100 about 7 years ago and at that time was one of the smallest phones on the market and was of the "clam" design.

This design was one of the things that attracted me to the phone as I was fed up with finding that my Nokia phone kept ringing whoever was first on my contacts list because I had forgotten to lock the keypad (it didn't have an automatic feature for this). With this phone the key pad is protected as soon as you shut the top of the phone down.

Even at the time it was quite a basic phone - no camera, no bluetooth, no music as such, however it was really easy to use and wonderfully compact. It was easy to slip into a jeans pocket if I didn't want to take a bag.

the buttons were well spaced and the predictive text was fairly user friendly. I know that some people found the flashing light on the front a bit annoying but at least it told you that teh phone was on and if you wanted it was easy to configure so that you could turn it off. I also liked the clock on the front display when closed so that you could tell the phone was still alive (unlike my current samsung). I really didn't want to get rid of this phone but the battery started to go downhill quickly so that if I made a call it would end up flat. I looked into a new battery but it would have cost about £40 - this didn't seem worth it when a new pay as you go phone would only cost me £20 more.

I keep looking to see if one is available cheaper but to no avail because I think I prefer this one over my new one just for ease of use and knowing when it is flat!!

Summary: A really good no frills phone

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Sound quality:
Variety of features: