Samsung SCH-A645
Average Ratings
Curious Yet Dysfunctional
I wanted to like this phone. Seriously. It's a cute little blue number with no external antenna, which results in a slick, pocketable profile. Unfortunately, the lack of an external antenna renders this phone next to useless in all but the most well-covered service areas.
It seemed like a good candidate for adoption; it's got a monochrome external screen and a bright, colorful internal screen. It's well-constructed, with no creaks or squeaks or clatters. It's got a 2.5mm headphones jack that actually works with standard 2.5mm headphones, unlike the C417 for Cingular.
Where the a645 falls flat on its mug is with its reception; it pulls in the worst signal of any Alltel phone that I've used thus far. It seems to do fine if you're within sight of a tower, but if you take it out of town, you might as well use a carrier pigeon to communicate.
PROS:
+ Great STN screen
+ Well-built
+ Nice tactile keypad
+ Monochrome external display
CONS:
- Miserable reception
- Voice dial button is on the inside of the phone, which defeats the purpose of being able to dial without looking at the keypad
If you never venture far from a metro area with solid coverage, I'd recommend the a645 with few caveats. If you need more from your phone, such as good coverage in fringe areas, I'd steer clear of this one.
A645 for the blind?
The voice commands are simple to use. Voice recognition is very good, with out need for training. Status command is very helpful. May be set to ask for command on 'flip open' which I enjoy. Prompts can be turned off if desired. Sound quality is better than average. This phone has a whisper mode, for those of us who like to keep our conversations personal.
Pros> voice commands
audible status indicator
keypad, while small, easy to use*
Cons> voice command key is on keypad, and not easy to locate at first
Not very good
I bought this phone about a year ago. I only got it to save money when I switched carriers. I don't like flip phones at all, but the phone was cheap and my wireless bill is cheap, too.
This is the most basic phone there is. There is nothing significant to speak of at all; no web, no camera, no bluetooth, no music player. You get my drift.
PROS
- solid construction
- meets your basic phone needs if you don't care about the frills
CONS
- buttons are not the easiest to press
- when texting, phone will switch screens for no reason at all
- also when texting, will only save your spot once when other texts/calls come in; if you're in a long text, you have to type it all over again if you couldn't finish
- battery life isn't too good
- screen is not crisp and clear
- terrible and very few ringtones
I know this phone is discontinued, but I wrote this review because I'm bored at work.
This is the worst phone I have ever seen
Not only does it drop calls, most of the time it does not even make them. The weirdest thing is that it does this randomly in good signal areas where it has worked the previous days. My carrier is alltel who are more or less reliable so its not an issue with that. As for features go, its not that great either. The thing I hate the most about it is that it does not have the ability to remember words when you are sending text messages using the T9 typing option. If you come across a word that it will not spell you have to go into alphabetical mode and spell it out. The only good thing I would say about it is that it has a nice design, and thats about all. I would not recommend this phone at all. I'm trying to upgrade to something else as I write this.
