Samsung Strive A687
Phone Scoop Review
Apr 16, 2010 by Eric M. Zeman
Samsung's latest Quick Messaging Phone for AT&T strives hard to offer a well-rounded set of features. It succeeds in some areas, and strikes out in others. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
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Pretty good
Great for texting and calling. Web is ok for light surfing. Battery life could be better. Not a huge fan of the way all the Samsung messaging phones are laid out
Do not buy
At first this was an ok phone but after a few months would not charge brought new battery new charger and nothing worked. Had to find an old phone to use until I can get a new one
Pros: nice size,easy to use,
Cons: will not charge after being on charge all day and night
I USE to love this phone...
I had this phone for almost a year. It seemed to be a bad one at 1st. The battery didn't want to charge, the sims card said it wasn't in there. But some how it fixed itself. After 9 months, the phone stopped charging altogether. I went to AT&T and they gave me a new battery. Two days later I was back. I have 3 chargers. One at home, on at work, and one in the car. That shouldn't be the problem.
When I took the phone back the 2nd time. They sent it off to Samsung. One month later I was thrilled to get my phone back. Two days later I was back at AT&T because they had not fixed the problem. One month later, Samsung sent me a refurbished phone, not the same color but okay. I got this "refurbished" phone Thursday. It's now Sunday and I'm setting here with a phone that is completely dead! I even wasted money on a 4th charger since I didn't see how two phones could act the same! Frustrated!!! And they aren't open til tomorrow!
Worst Phone Ever
Yes, it is a cute little phone...but that is all that is good about it. I am on my 4th phone, I keep having to return to the warranty center and they keep replacing the batter, the phone and the sim card. On the phone there is a slide down feature that disconnects you from your previous screen, that feature has a glitch and your message does not get sent. The battery life is awful and it does not charge quickly. My husband has the same phone and his does the same thing with the messages and now his shortcuts button is not working. He is not able to send texts or read them. We are headed back to the warranty store for a third time this weekend. I would not recommend this phone to anyone.
Good Little Phone
Great little phone, however the keys are too small and too close together; plus, my volume just started acting up. I turn it all the way up, but you can barely hear the person on the other end. Also some text messages, words get cut off. then you back out and go back in see your text messages, and the entire message is there. Don't know what's up with that. This is the first time this has happened. And its still that way today. HUM?
The best phone ever
Pros:Amazing battery life, battery charges quick,comes in amazing colors, the display is great. has amazing cell phone service, camera quality is very good, it is very easy getting use to the keyboard.
Cons: the keys aren't very spaced out, doesn't come with a memory card, web browsing is a little slow, you have to tilt the phone to use the camera function
Slighty quirky but good phone
I use my phone for calls, texting and to wake up (alarms). I don't care about apps or the camera. I don't have a data plan (AT&T).
This is not a touch screen phone. It has a compact QWERTY keyboard under the slider which slides only UP (not sideways). The keyboard took some getting used to since the keys are quite close together. This phone will not work for people with long nails. I was having some trouble getting to the keys on the top row of the keyboard because my *short* thumbnails were bumping into the bottom of the slider. I trimmed my nails and adjusted how I text slightly to make it work.
Text messages appear in threaded conversation bubbles which is nice. One problem I'm having is that the memory gets full pretty fast and you're forced to go in and manually delete some conversations to free up space. I turned Auto-Cleanup on, but I still have to manually delete messages. I've had the phone for 6 days and had to start deleting conversations on day 5.
At first I could see all the contacts from my SIM card when I went to create a text message but I could not see them in the Address Book (for calls). I used the Menus to copy my contacts from my SIM card to the Address Book. Now they're in my Address Book but I have double entries in the Contacts for texting. I've researched this online and other people have the same problem. The user's manual doesn't address this, so for now I'm having to deal with the double entries because there is no way I can see to delete them from the texting contacts. Seems strange. Hoping firmware upgrades will fix this.
When making a call, you need to know how your contacts are stored. Typing "JO" in the Address Book search will take you to John Smith, but it will NOT take you to Smith, John or Adam Jones. Also, if you start typing in a phone number, it won't automatically search for matching contacts for you as you type.
Overall good, sturdy reliable phone with great reception. Could use an increase in storage space.
A Great MOM cell phone
Pros: I have only had this phone for a few days, however it is THE BEST MOM cell phone I have ever had! I had a blackberry curve, but my husband took it when he got a new job. Then I tried the Pantech impact but it didn't do everything that I needed. The Strive does everything and more.... It has ALL the alarms I need for my busy lifestyle. I have a large family and it holds ALL the contact info I need for addresses, telephone numbers, kids/husbands names and most importantly; Birthdays and Anniversaries.
I have plenty of room for notes, tasks and everything in between!
Cons: the Blackberry was far superior for internet access stuff and receiving/reading all my/kids emails and pulling up my facebook and youtube accounts...but I am happy giving that all up for the 6 alarms, awesome calendar features and a great address book!
Great phone for the basic user
Pros: Button placements make sense, and shortcuts are easy to use. text "conversations" that appear in word bubbles which makes texts easy to follow. Good call quality
Cons: Okay camera, buttons on qwerty too close together, slow browser. Phone is set up for a data plan, which makes a lot of features useless if you don't have one. Some shortcuts cost extra money to use, and take up space on main menu (such as $5 at&t email).
I've had this phone for a couple of months now, and I really like it. It's small and does not feel bulky, and does not scratch easily. The buttons on the qwerty keyboard are a little close together, but you get use to them after a couple of texts.
The camera gives fairly good quality pictures (for a 2.0 MP), but sometimes in extreme light they can appear foggy. Night pictures on it are not very good. The browser button is front and center on this phone, which makes it easy to hope on the internet. I have noticed that the internet on this phone is very slow...but this is my first phone with a data plan so I have nothing to compare it to.
Phone quality is good, but sometimes reception is not. It never drops calls, but sometimes it'll only have one bar. It has a couple of nice features such as the switch button...which allows you to switch between applications without closing them, and the end-all option, which ends all applications by closing the phone (including phone calls).
It is by no means an iPhone, but it'll do what you want it to, and it's reasonably priced.
