Samsung SPH-A500
Average Ratings
A- 500
The beauty, the elegance, the style, the features... but it is still only made by one carrier. Its carrier alone drops this would-be 4 or 5er to a mere 3 1/2. Feature wise the phone book and user options are great, the color display is phenomenal, it is very user friendly, for example the phone looks very complicated to use but in fact my 84 year old grandmother would probably be ale to use this phone without taking cell phone philosophy 101. For those who went out and purchased its $100 accessory camera the pictures come out pretty decent. (View them on your web page wow!). Now as far as the set backs. 1, IT'S ONLY MADE BY ONE CARRIER, which makes probably the best receipting phone the carrier ever made still kind of scratchy but it is loud and I have probably only dropped 2 calls out of 500. 2, The battery life could have been better. I see not much of a difference from the standard battery or the extended life battery. 3, The phone gets hot. I don't care about that but for whatever reason others do. 4, Why oh Why is this phone 300 bucks. After buying the camera, you have already spent $400 when you could have waited for the Sanyo 5300, which buy the way comes with 2 batteries. And 4, IT'S ONLY MADE BY ONE CARRIER. Come on Samsung don't you think you could put Motorola out of business if you weren't focusing on one carrier. Overall overpriced, but it's probably the best you can do if yo have Spr... oops I almost said it.
a good wireless phone?
i'm a salesman at radioshack. i've been working for radioshack for 10 months now and i've had about 9 wireless phones, all sprintpcs. i absolutely love the service. i recently purchased the a500 and in my oninion, it is an upgrade from the 5150.
i enjoyed the 5150 but when my sprint rep told me about the new a500 i went crazy. i thought to myself and said, samsung......hmm working at radioshack, samsung phones seemed to get returned alot due to some type of flaw. broken display, bad earpiece, etc. samsung phones always seemed to cool but i always thought sanyo was the best. my 5150 was a very durable phone and had a great finish on it. the a500 scratches if you happen to lay it on a counter the wrong way, my 5150 was durable. when i finally got a shipment of a500's in, i opened the box and started playing. the menu options were great, display beautiful and crisp, and 3g speed was great.(sorry, i mean PCS Vision) as i started useing all the features of the wireless phone i found more and more flaws in sprintpcs. PCS Vision worked on and off and all 3g handsets in my area had some kind of popping and cracking noise during some phone calls. i called sprintPCS and they said, its a known 3g issue and they are working on it. its been about a month now and all the bugs seem to be working out. my only problem is the phone has no data cable kit. i can't connect the handset to my pc and download ringers and images. i hate that sprint is trying to charge everybody for everything. screw the vision plans. i have the 74.99 free and clear plan and download the games i want. i'm not going to pay 10 dollars for 2 mb. not worth it! i had the camera but ended up returning it. the images sucked. i enjoy the phone but if its true that sanyo is coming out with a 5300 i will return this and use my money towards the 5300. i recommend the a500 to a person who can afford it and wants a good looking display. a clear display makes all the diffrence!
sprintPCS&Sanyo rocks!!!
AT THE TOP FOR NOW
I have had the a400/a460/5150/ and currently have the n300/lg4ne1/6200/5250 and the a 500.the a 500 is the best one so far.don't be deceived by sanyo's higher signal
strength(it's just a generous meter compared to a stingy meter on a 500).by changing the a500's slot cycle index to 3 you can improve battery stand by.so far this phone has been awesome.it has all the features most people would ever need and the screen is bright and easy to view,except in bright sunlight,obviously.once sprint gets all the bugs ironed out of the 3g system I am positive this phone will be even better!!so far I have been very impressed with this phone.
if you can afford it-go for it!!
great phone / clueless & coercive support
this phone is definitely unbelievable. i finally have activated it and it's all it is cracked up to be! on the other hand, one hand has no idea what the other is doing at sprint! i wrote earlier about an "impending scam," well i guess if you can deal with the chaos of 3G implementation - jump in now! the switch to vision is clearly a scam. it is sprint's hope to make boatloads of money off existing customers. ask yourself some hard questions about how much you will use the data capabilities before they sucker you into a vision contract. the phone works beautifully on existing contracts and you can still utilize the data data capabilities at a slightly higher price. for those who don't plan to go crazy on the web with your phone, don't give in! i think it's an absolute shame to coerce existing customers into a new (and more expensive) contract simply for upgrading your equipment. so for me, i have the best phone by far, and i have used my existing contract. i have downloaded a ringtone with no issues, so don't get taken! in the end, this phone is awesome. a cadillac in a world of ford's!
A 500
This is a good buy if you are strating new services with the sprint corp. but if you already have service this will set you back, the device seems to be a great phone at first but when you get this phone you will be in for a shock, yes it is a color screen and it seems to have some new features, but the flip is that the battery overheat very quickly, the screen can not be seen in the sun and this devices is a starter and seems to be made to be broken.
3 Years and still love it!!!
This month I have had this phone for three years! I am really impressed with how long it has held up. The service is great. I got the extended battery, and turned off the GPS and I only have to charge the battery once a week. I do talk a lot on it too, but don't use the internet.
This phone is very durable. I have dropped it numerous times and just recently broke the antenna. The phone still works GREAT. I really don't want to get a new phone but am shopping around just incase this one dies. It could possibly go another couple of years. I did get the camera with it, but don't use it since I got a real digital camera.
I hope my next phone is as great as this one!
I love Sprint and Samsung.
Good phone not great
I have owned this phone for a year and a half. It has a great display, the built-in answering machine is a nice feature and helps to save on voicemail costs, loud ring volume and very good sound quality. This phone has a few flaws, it does not possess the advanced voice activated dialing of the Samsung SPH-a600 or a660 (digit-dial), the beep for the built-in answering machine is quiet. Also, my Samsung a500 after about 65 phone book entries started shuffling the phone numbers in the phone book. For example my house number got switched with my best friend's cell number. I work in the wireless industry and have had several customers complain about the same problem. Don't get me wrong the phone is quite good, but the hefty price tag it carries means there is better value to be had for less.
This phone gives Sprint a bad name.....
The Samsung A500 has some nice features. Nice bright screen. But, only if you are indoors, otherwise it's unreadable in sunlight or outdoor shaded areas. Nice volume on both talking and ringer, except when the phone decides to give you one more loud ring in your ear after you open it to answer. It's slim and easy to slip into your pocket. Perhaps too slim and slippery, it's hard to open one handed, there are no ridges or indentations to allow you to flip it open easily with one hand. Now for the bad stuff. This phone has been nothing but trouble for me from the start. I've had to get it replaced twice already. I'm on the third one and am very tired of its poor performance. The first one had a bad screen. The second one would not accept updates from the Sprint store. None of them could receive a strong signal in various parts of Louisville or other major cities where I travel. You can stand in one spot and the signal will go from nothing to full just by moving your arm around. Or have 2 bars go to no signal just by dialing a number. Rarely have I every seen a full strong signal. I travel a lot, friends with different phones will have good signals on Sprint and I'll have one bar or nothing while standing in the same spot. I'll miss calls, the phone never rings then a message will appear. I drop calls on a regular basis. "Signal Faded", is the most used notification this phone gives. Naturally the folks at Sprint tell me the same old canned lines about you live in a bad reception area, or you must be doing something wrong, or it just needs a software update. Bottom line is this phone is not what it's made out to be. If the performance and reception were as nice as the form and looks, it would be great. As it is now I would not waste my money on another Samsung phone. This phone is so bad it has me considering not only changing my phone but ditching Sprint as well. The Samsung A500 is a lemon.
Great Phone
The phone definitely one of the best samsung has came out with. I currently work for Sprint and still own a A500 and the only thing I would trade it for is the the PTT phones. The battery life is short with the slim line battery but the extended life battery works wonders. Overall this is a awesome phone and highly recommend it.
A500 - Dropped Calls?
For all you who say sprint has really bad service... Where do you live? I go all over the Country with my Samsung A500 and have had no problems. and to top that I have used a Sanyo 4700 and an 8100 And have yet to see the Sanyo outperform the A500. I would say they are about equal, niether being better or worse than the other. I personally got mine brand new for $30 and can't complain one bit, except that I now want my wife's Samsung VGA1000, as it has almost too many features, if there is such a thing.
Pro's:
1. Very Compact, making storage in the pocket pretty swell.
2. Clearer screen than the most other vision phones available during or previous to the time this phone was released.
3. works on the Best all digital network in the US.
Con's:
1. Battery life is robbed by that ultra bright screen. (Three options: Turn on "Power Save Mode" get extended battery or a VPA- Vehicle Power Adapter.)
2. Sprint seems to not train it's employees on the technical side of things. rather, makes excuses or educated guesses due to ego, whatever.
