Samsung SPH-A660 / VI660
Average Ratings
Good first phone
I am finally reviewing this phone, after owning it for a good two years. This has been an excellent, sturdy little phone.
PROS
-very durable! has endured dog bite marks, being dropped, etc. and despite some scratches, is still an attractive phone.
-simple to use
-nice screen inside
-well-lit buttons (easy to use in dark)
-decent battery life
CONS
-my biggest complaint: texting. people often dont receive texts i send them...idk if that concerns my reception or area or such, but that was my main problem.
-reception was iffy in some places
-no camera or speakerphone
-call waiting beep was hardly audible
overall... a very good, simple phone. If you are looking for an easy first phone, i would recommend this one or something similar.
Good Phone
I had this phone for over two years and its was okay. Its not a phone for people who want to do more than make calls, but I was fine with that. I dropped this phone over 30 times and did collect visible scratches, but that 31st time killed it! The top separated from the bottom, yet it still worked!!!!! I just had to hold the two pieces together when I wanted to make a call. Overall I liked the phone despite its flaws
Pros:
Small
Simple
Durable
Inexpensive
Cons:
Low Reception (Sprint)
Text messages take forever to send
No Outside display
Good phone
Very good performing phone with lots of features. I have had this phone for over a year now and have little trouble. Only lately, has it begun turning itself off occasionally. This only happens once in a great while when the phone is slammed shut. My wife has the exact same phone and she has not experienced the problem.
I would like to have a camera phone some day, but that would be the only reason I would ever quit using this one.
I have dropped this phone a number of times, usually when I am trying to clip it back on my belt. As long as it has been closed, it has endured the abuse well. I did break it in two once, because it slipped out of my hand when it was opened and hit the hard floor just right.
Sprint was able to fix it, with all of my phone numbers and programming in tact.
By and large, it is pretty durable, with good features and I am very happy with it.
Great Phone!
If you're not concerned with photos or other fancy stuff, this is a great phone. It is great for slipping into your pocket, very durable, and the screen is great. Especially considering the price.
A660
I bought this phone right before it was discontinued. It was still $100.00 after two years. Very good phone.
Pros: 30 ringtones
65,000 color display
very easy to read in the dark
beautiful backgrounds
loud ringtones
MP3 and real-music tones
Cons: ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!
no external display
hard to read in bright light
Sprint Vision doesn't always work
All and all, its a very good phone. If it were still being sold, i would say buy it, it is worth it.
December 2005
I'm not sure why people get so fired up. Every carrier has areas in which the reception isn't so great and they each have customer service black holes and each phone has some problems. And that's why it has never made sense to me to change carriers monthly - they are all the same! And the world is far from perfect.
Now on to this particular phone.
I've had this phone for almost two years. It has proven to be very reliable, easy to use, reasonably good sound quality, long-enough battery life, quick charge (especially in the car). This phone allows me to make & receive calls in places former phones could not. That's a plus for me.
Granted, I only need basic, simple features, but this phone covers just what I need and I've been very pleased with it. In fact, I bought one (used, even) for one of my daughters and am thinking of buying one for the other. I'm sure she will be happy with it, too.
GET RID OFIT
If you have this phone please get rid of it. Sprint and whoever else sell this phone should be a shamed of themselves
Great Phone sorta
I've had this phone for over a year. One good thing about it is the ability to download ringtones. And it is simple to find free ringers for this phone off the net and you can even use sprints internal browser for this. ther are several complaints about the phones ringtones not being loud enough and these are fact but it's not hard to download new ones that are plenty loud enough
And now for the bad stuff. The battery is crap...my phone stays charged for a 1/2 a day with moderate use...it's been like that since i bought it. when i bought it i tried cycling the battery but that did not work.
But the phone is compact. it's small enough to go down the toilet and not clog up the drains. Don't ask how i know this. I just do. By the way sprint replaced it quick. Even if there customer service does suck
There's a good reason it's free....
To be honest, this phone does have some strong points, but it fails to function well as a phone. My mom picked up this phone a few months after I got my Samsung A460 (older phone). The A460 had mediocre to poor reception, and yet still could make calls where A660 could not. The A460 was a piece of junk and the A660 was not much better. When we complained about signal with Sprint, the store reps basically said "well Samsung phones are not known for great reception." My first thought was "why in the world are they still selling them then?" They said that there is a good reason all the reps have Sanyo's and recommended we try one of those instead.
PROS:
-Compact size/lightweight
-Clean simple silver/black design
-Sturdy build quality
-Good sized screen for a free phone
CONS:
-Horrible reception (worst of any Sprint phone)
-Mediocre call quality
-Gets hot during long calls
-Buttons too small
-NO Speakerphone
-NO external caller ID!! (Even my cheaper older A460 had one)
-Samsung interface is too complicated
-Paint chips off easily
-Don't get excited over preloaded games, half way through you'll be asked to buy them
I think Samsung went very cheap on this phone and it lacks the ability to hold calls and too many basic features. Unless you live down the street from a tower and rarely travel DO NOT buy this phone. Get a Sanyo or better Samsung at the very least. I think what made me maddest was how Sprint admitted this phone gets poor reception, yet they refuse to do anything about it. If you're on a tight budget, I'd recommend even an LG over this one.
My mom ended up getting rid of this phone and we switched to Verizon and got Motorola phones. What a tremendous improvement that made. Dropped calls are a thing of the past and Verizon customer service is vastly superior.
