Samsung SCH-A970 User Reviews

ive got a bit of a problem...my contract is up and looking for a good, dependable cell phone. i first thought of the razr because it was sleek and came with nice features. i wanted it, but now that everyone has one, well, i kinda lost interest in it. then, i was looking to buy a sony ericsson w600i model & heard some "so-so" reviews and i dont like cingular i think they are a rip off as plans go. now, i saw this phone and liked it right away because of the swivel and video capture thingy..i love taking videos, want a somewhat decent camera, MUSIC IS MY LIFE! so im really REALLY really close to getting this phone. ive also heard mixed reviews on the camera. i dont need a STUPENDOUS MARVELOUS GORGEOUS camera because its a CELL PHONE PEOPLE!!! and i kno wut ur thinking: then why the heck do u need this phone?? i love all the features. please help! i have been looking mostly at VERIZON phones and if not this one, what verizon phone do u recommend? so confused..need opinions ASAP
THANKS and much love,
CONFUSED

I have this great phone for a third week and love it's killing look.Great quality of sound,design.There is one problem though.They do not have a case for this size so you need a pouch which is not always convenient.And reading opinions on few other websites I did not find anybody mentioning about problems with the camera.It works well only after you turn the phone off and on again.The swivel turns the camera on but not for long.Short time later camera shows you picture upside down and left turns right.I have to exchange it but not a different one.I do not use any paid service.One more problem it's a bit heavy and only 2 times zoom but you can live with it.

I bought this phone for $300.00 when it first came out. Personally $300.00 isnt a lot to spend on a cell phone for me anyways, but it still schocked me that it was that expensive.

The Samsung a950 has the exact same option. And now that verizon made all there phones with the exact same boring red logoed software, besides the design everything else is the same.

The sound and speaker when sending and recieveing calls was very good you can actually hear in a crowed and when your walking around. T9 text enabled is also a very nice option. Now that verizon included the AIM and other messaging systems its a breeze to use.

For a 2.0 MegaPixel camera it sure did suck. The pictures were ok, and good quality for a phone except you have to wait 30 seconds after you shit the shutter button or else it comes out blurry, which really defeats the purpost and is a really big pain. And this has to be the brighest flash i have ever seen on a phone. Ever.

The camcorder was pretty good though, there wasnt as much "video lag" as I thought. It alsomade it nice that you can set videos for you wallpaper, which was a nice added touch.

As far as mp3's go, they were good. Good quality and even good sound if you didnt have a headset plugged in. However trying to find a MicroFlash or TransFlash above 128mb is really a killer, Ive looked almost everywhere eBay, amazon, overstock, etc. and even the scarce ones I find are really sxpensive. I wish you had options with this phone but your limited to the max. There are no EQ's or sound quality settings. I may just be spoiled with me previous Samsung i730 and Treo 650 but still comon give us some options.

Another con is that YOU CANT SET YOUR MP3'S AS RINTONES that right there is a huge disappointment. For $300.00 with a 2 year agreement and not being able to set mp3's for a ringtone is really...and I mean really disappointing. Can you tell im disappointed?

Again I might be spoiled im use to Palm and Pocket pc software but I didnt like the fact when you take pictures you have to have it set to send the pictures to the memory card otherwise there stuck on the phone.

The LCD was kinda small for my personal liking but the phone was meant to be small and compact. SO I cant really aruge. I didnt like the swivel design I thought that it felt like it was going to break when you try to tke a picture however the nice thing about it when you turn the head the camera automatically starts and you have variously templates for fun.

FOR ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO WANT THE SHORT VERISON HERE IT IS

PROS:
Good quality pictures
Small and compact
Very flashy
Good reception
Good very bright flash
Good sound quality and mp3 capability
Nice having the option to set videos as wallpaper
T9 is a charm

CONS:
Fragile
Cant set MP3's as ringtones
Camera lag you have to wait like 12 seconds so the picture wont be blurry.
Limited software internally
Limited ringtones, not that great (preloaded)
Hard to notice calls on Vib mode
Finding a transflash/microflash above 128 is incredibally hard and expensive.
LCD smaller than normal
Poor camera design
To expensive when you can get the exact same thing for less.


Overall. The phone has good options im spoiled with my pocket pc software and palm software. If looking for a regular flashy phone this is what you looking for. Just dont drain you savings for it. Its to expensive when you can get a different model with the exact same options. The fact that the camera lag was so bad made me want to break the device that and not being able to have you mp3's as ringtones. Everything was ok. If you have $300.00 to spend on this go for it for less than half the price you can get a phone thats the exact same thing. Hope you do better Verizon

there are so many features with this phone. I've had it for two weeks and i'm still figuring out new things that i can do with it. the technology involved is literally insane. the mp3 player feature is the best. it was definately worth the money.

This phone is great it has so many features. There is almost nothing u cant do with this phone. The quality of pictures is insane. Theres so much technology wrapped into one product.