Samsung A707 SYNC Phone (AT&T)

Let me begin by saying that I have closely read all the reviews, and some of these folks don't have a clue. I am not going to get into specifics but there are abundant inaccuracies in some of these reviews. Perhaps some people should spend more time with their phones or bust out 'n' crack open the user's manual before complaining about the phones interface.

I bought this to replace my black razr (lost it =(. SO far I like it much better. Oh yeah I also got the red SYNC but wanted to post my review here where the majority of the SYNC reviews are.

The Good:

a$$ kicking display
music player
call quality (I get great reception where I live)
design (not all slick and shmooth like the razr but decent looking and comfortable to operate)
Menus are in depth and easy (at least for me) to follow
The chicks dig it!

The Not so Good:

UGH! F*CKING SAMSUNG PROPRIETARY CONNECTOR!
NO USB CABLE IN DA BOX!
The front display and main screen suck fingerprints from your fingers from what seems like a foot away! (nothing a quick shirt-shine can't fix =P)


The phone design, interface, features and voice quality are above average however, its an entirely different matter if you want to use this phone as a personal or business instrument. Unless you use Windows, you're out of luck. The only application made in the universe is one created by Samsung to sync up with Windows Outlook users. Of course we all know that on the 8th day, Windows was created however... for those of use who oppose the assimilation and choose to use tools that improve quality of life, we're out of luck with this phone.

I've searched high and low for 3rd party apps, plug-ins, scripts, etc. to enable the a707 on Mac but to no avail. Samsung should be embarrassed but then again, maybe they just don't give a rip. If you have a Windows box, you'll more than likely feel this phone is okay - you'll have to get the software and cable separately (of course) but at least you can sync up your information. For those of us in the Apple world, save your money for the iPhone - it will solve all your woes.

Pros:
1) Main screen resolution is excellent.
2) Good camera.
3) Speaker phone quality is good.
4) Nice grip. Also when you open the phone the length is perfect.
5) Can change the font and color of the dialling numbers.
6) 3G capable. Although unless you are vrey tech savvy you will not use this feature.
7) MP3 capable. Can control from outside.
8) SD card fascility.

Cons:
1) Front Display is not up to the standard.
2) No Voice dialling.
3) Could have used annodised metal instead of plastic.

Overall a very good phone for its price.

I have been using this phone for several months now so I am over the wow phase of having a true MP3 player in the phone. While this phone does have many unique features, the overall execution makes this just an average phone.

APPEARANCE - The first thing that you notice is that the phone is rather large. Although some may say that this is due to the wonderfully big screen, the fact still remains that this phone is not as easy to carry as a lot of other phones available today. Another note about this phone's appearance is that it really looks rather bland, especially in the all black model. I purchased the red model just so that I could get a bit of color but the phone still looks plain. There is nothing about this phone that is stylish or even has a "cool" factor. The keypad is really a letdown with no tactile differentiation between keys and it just looks plain compared to phones like the Motorola RAZR.

INTERFACE - At first the interface of the phone looks really simple and easy to use. There are graphical icons that take you to different feature sets and then there are pop up menus that come up under each selection. Sounds great right? Well the problem is that the features are all over the place. Nothing is where you would really expect it to be and you will refer to the manual a lot in the beginning. Even after you have some experience with the phone you will still be frustrated because you will have to search through the menus to find the features that you only occasionally use.

FEATURES - The phone is a 3G phone which means if you want (relatively)high speed internet or the ability to watch streaming videos/tv on your phone then this should work better than the non 3g models out there. Personally I don't get why anyone would pay such ridiculously high monthly fees for the Cingular Data services just for the "privilige" of watching tv on a 2 inch screen! Apart from that the phone has most of the standard cell phone features available out there including, quad band GSM, bluetooth (including bluetooth stereo headphone compatibility), and a nice 2 megapixel camera. The camera takes wonderful pictures (as long you hold your hand still) but the video is pretty lousy (hey its a cell phone not a camcorder!). Despite all of these nice features there is one major omission in the feature set and that is the lack of voice dialing. This is truely a sin in this phone because what is the point of having handsfree bluetooth if you still have to pick up the phone and search the phonebook to dial a number while driving? Another big minus with this phone is that it does not include any cables to connect it to your computer.Normally I would not care if a cable was included with a cell phone but lets not forget that you have to have a way to get songs onto the phone. Not a problem if you have a blutooth adapter on your computer or you buy a micro sd card with an sd adapter to just put the songs directly on the card, but Samsung is really going cheap by making this phone have a proprietary connector and then making you pay extra to buy it.

CALL QUALITY - Definately a dissapointment with this phone. The phone sometimes has the signal drop to zero bars and then a few seconds later come back to 5 bars. This is very annoying and something I have not experienced with any of my other cell phones I have used over the years. Also the quality of bluetooth connections is definatley below average because if the phone is in your pocket or purse you will hear crackling sounds over the connection (I have tried 3 headsets with this phone and all experience the same crackling).

DISPLAY - This is one of the shining stars of this phone. The screen is very nice and large. It is bright and easy to use in most lighting conditions. Another great feature is that you can change the appearance of the numbers that display while dialing a phone number. My favorite is the quill setting that gives the appearance that the numbers on the screen are being written with a feather quill... really a nice touch. The external display, on the other hand, is a major letdown. It has a small font which makes it difficult to read without straining.

MP3 FUNCTION - This is the main attraction point of this phone and on this end Samsung has done a decent job. The song title displays on both the internal and external screen and it is easy to create playlists and navigate to the song you want. The phone also supports micro sd cards so you can have a 2gb MP3 player everywhere you go! The main problem is that it comes with no headset and it has a proprietary connector so you have to buy the Samsung brand or just get yourself some bluetooth headphones! The phone does have an internal speaker that surprisingly sounds decent and gets loud enough to be able to share your music in a car or quiet room. The one big drawback of the MP3 player is that the buttons on the phone's front cover that let you pause and skip songs lock out after a few seconds. This is extremely frustrating because you have to hold down the unlock button so that you can get them to work again. Why couldn't samsung just reverse the function and make the buttons stay on until you decide to manually lock them??

Overall this phone does have a lot to offer (especially if you get it for free or for less than $30) but it simply does not hold its own when compared to the other music phone options that are available.



I got my Sync last night after my almost 2 year old RAZR died unexpectedly. First thing I have to say is that the sound quality is 100% better than the RAZR.(I do have Cingular and there are issues there, but I will save that for another time)I also finally got my Bluetooth to work, with my RAZR I could hear, but no one could hear me. I don't know how much music I will download, but it's nice to have that option.
Things I Like:
sound quality
gorgeous screen
fun features like post it notes number display
cool ringtones
looks pretty cool
downloads FAST

Things that they could improve:
better owner's manual
easier to use terminology
more intuitive commands
hate the little door you have to open to charge phone, I'll break it, I know I will.

I like this phone. I was pretty sure I wanted it, then went into a Cingular store to check my other options. I Googled a few things I had questions about after I got it, since the owner's manual pretty much sucks. I only paid $80 for it with a $50 rebate, plus I like it quite a bit. I spent a lot more on my RAZR and it was just okay.

This is a good little phone, I'm sure there is bigger and better, but since I use my phone for mainly calls, the camera, some games and a little texting, I think it is fabulous.

I was excited about this phone. After shopping around and comparing with the Razr and LG models and hearing recommendations, I went out on a limb and purchased this phone from Cingular. The phone is cool, although rather plain looking. It does have a great screen. It can be a little difficult to manuever around as many of the features and buttons aren't where one would expect.

My biggest gripe is reception. I have lost more calls on this phone in the 2 weeks I've had this phone than the entire 2 years of my previous phone. It seems like in order to get reception, you must stand on one leg, with your finger on your nose and hop up and down. It's crazy. I can show a full 5 bars of reception and it won't let me make a call or answer a call.

I have contacted Cingular and am thankfully able to return this piece of junk. I have a new Motorola coming to replace it. (not the Razr I originally thought but a Slvr. I got addicted to the GPS on my friends phone so opted for this one). I found it humorous that when I called Cingular to complain, even the operator said "Oh, you got a Sync. Yeah their reception isn't good at all"

All-in-all I would say DO NOT get this phone unless you're wanting it perhaps for the music features and not the ability to place a call.

Three days ago I made the mistake of purchasing an SGH-a707 and I can't believe how bad the documentation is for a Phone that truly LACKS. It took three days and a magnifying glass to discover it lacks the key features I need and had been assured it had. I only had three days to return it so I'm stuck with it. I've been ROBBED! This thing doesn't do ANYTHING properly or well. The two key feature I NEED are Mac compatibility and voice dial! Who the F*&# doesn't have voice dial? Samsung apparently. Every time I have to shuffle for the thing, INSPITE OF MY $[...] headseat I HATE THIS THING MORE! I downloaded their NOT INCLUDED "software" and within minutes I had infections all over the place only to discover I had to go buy the NOT INCLUDED cable to connect the phone in HOPE that it MIGHT have a software upgrade appropriate to this century. You wanna be an iPod, (be mac compatible first) then be an iPod, AFTER you finish being a phone. Since I have no computer interface by which to manage the addressbook (and don't make me laugh by saying outlook), and the download diseased my PC computer, which I had to system restore to fix, I have to peck through the OVERLY LIMITED AND COMPLEX software to attempt to fix my EXTENSIVE addresss book which was imported from my previous SIM with multiple entries for each contact, NONE of which are properly identified as what they are. I have to dig through 5, 6, 8 contacts with a meaningless icon on them with no idea as to weather its a mobile, home, office, weekend home, fax, just a butt load of entries that have the same name and icon listed over and over and since I can't iSync I'm stuck with this stupid limited interface which is by no stretch of the imagination, intuitive. What genius came up with your address book? Clearly some geek who likes to text because the documentation is not written in complete words and easily 80% of the interface and documentation are designed for messaging. What the heck makes them think that ANYONE wants to peck away on a phone keyboard for messaging. If I wanted to text, I'd have bought a blackberry or phone with full keyboard. There are MULTIPLE acronyms throughout the phone menus and printed documentation which are never defined or explained. I had to go online to interpret the documentation. I guess they figured we're not gonna read it anyway. Do their programmers study GUI (Graphical User Interface) design or OOP (Object Oriented Programing) before they unleash them on the rest of us? What a Half Baked interface. Like throwing and egg at a wall, everything is everywhere and nothing is where is should be but look at all the pretty colors and movement HOW USEFULL ARE THEY, not to mention it's incessant beeping, chirping, tingling, blah blah blah. I can't wait to go to the movies!

This phone offends me 40 times a day and it cost and is costing me money. I can't even calculate my loss of productivity as I put down my cameras and spend ten minutes dialing wrong numbers as I PECK PECK PECK AWAY at this stupid Addressbook. I need a new assistant just to manage the damn phone. Every time I have to stop what I'm doing to pull the thing out and PECK PECK PECK at the addressbook I find myself cursing out loud. Even the "MP3" player forces me to pull the damn thing out of my pocked to confirm that I actually want to play a song, and why Why WHY! are there active controls on the outter casing. THEY WHOLE POINT OF A FLIP PHONE IS TO COVER THE CONTROLS! I should have gotten another razor. There's NOTHING handsfree or SYNC about this phone. I HATE IT!!!

I had a nokia phone before this and it broke after one year so I decided to get a new phone that is more up to date. At first I loved this phone: it looked good, sounded good, and had everything I needed. But after a few months with it there are quiate a few flaws that I founded really disturbing. It gets dirty very easily, losing the clean look. But what I found most disturbing is that the phone does have mp3 ringtone capatibilty but you cannot use these for text messages or wake up alarms. I was expecting to wake up to the ringtones I put on thier but the alarm feature does not use mp3's so the alarm rarely wakes me up (being a college student alarms are quite important). Besides these complaints I cannot find anything else wrong. I do recommend this phone though.
Pros:
-Looks good
-Mp3 player
-Camera and Video recording
-Bluetooth Tecnology
Cons:
-Gets dirty easily
-Front Screen does not turn on unless you hold the side button for a few seconds (I prefer just one push instead of holding down)
-Alarms don't use MP3 ringtones
-Battery power is short
Recommend? Yes


The Sync looks as though it is really good. Even after having it for awhile, however, the longer you have it the more you will discover that it's best feature is only the screen (and I am talking about the inside one, because the quality of the outside screen is pathetic).

The volume control only has 5 different settings making it hard to get the volume just right, not to mention the treble in the sound is so high pitched that it is unlistenable with headphones. The sound quality without headphones is alright, but there is no equalizer option.

I had the impression that this was supposed to be "the" music phone. If you are looking for something to play good music and have lots of options get the W810i. It's quite possibly the best phone out there!

-Christian Fobian
Author of "Why Christ?"

PROS:
1. The screen is beautiful. It is like it is in HD.
2. The MP3 player with the controls on the front are a nice feature.
3. It is nice and slim and very lightweight.
4. I really like the length of the phone and how it comes all the way down to your mouth.
5. There are cool features for how numbers look when you are typing in a phone number. You can make the numbers look HUGE or appear on post it notes, or be rainbow colored, etc.
6. The buttons are large and easy to press.

CONS:
1. Sound quality is not so great.
2. Speakerphone is not very loud. I use speakerphone a lot and you have to turn the phone sideways to hear the speakerphone.
3. Fingerprints!
4. When you have a missed call, it does not show up on the screen outside of the phone. You have to OPEN the phone to see if you have any missed calls. This is very annoying.
5. Not very durable. Yes, it is lightweight, but this phone will break easily.
6. If the phone is set on the highest ring volume and you need to put it on silent, you have to open the phone and press the side down volume button about eight times, with the phone making a short beeping noise each time. There may be a way to place the phone on silent without opening the phone, but I can't figure it out.
7. I didn't find the buttons to be very intuitive. For example, I keep thinking that the big silver button in the top middle will take me to the main menu, but it takes me online instead. However, I am a former Motorola user so it may take some getting used to.




First off. I would like to say that many of the loxer rated reviews here do not due this phone justice. After i had spent two weeks researching phones such as the Sony Erricson W810i, Motorola Krzr, and the Razr V6 Maxx, i choose this phone. This phone comes with 3g service which (I'll spare you the specs) requires you to enter an area code before wach number you put in the phone. This is not however a problem since one should be entering that in their digital phonebooks. Since many other reviews have been doing pros and cons, I will do them as well

Pros:

1. A very large, beautiful screen. This is one of the advantages over all other phones i compared to.

2. 3G service is amazing and comes with lightening fast downloads from cingular.

3. Cingular has many deals available for this phone right now making it free with rebates when bought with a media max plan( This should be bought anyway).

4. Reception is excellent. I get reception in my home even though I am about 8 miles away from the nearest cingular tower.

5.The media capabilities of this phone are good. They are not great mind you, but enough to have some with and simple enough to enjoy(I personally have 200 songs on the phone with a 2gb sd card).

6. The camera on this phone is 2mp! this is great for a clamshell phone and it works very well. You can even use the camara on the outer screnn to use as an digital mirror.

Cons:

1. This phone does not come with an usb cable! this can be quite aggravating for those who wish to add media onto the phone and do not have a card reader. Cingular should definatly fix this.

2. Although the music player is good, it could have been much better. The touch-screen music controls are nice but are slightly unresponsive at times. The music player itself has playlists and such, but they are not very organized and useful

3. Without a media max plan this phone's capabilitties are crippled. Most of the bells and whistles on this phone require some internet access and without this plan, things get very expensive quickly.

Finally, This phone is a great buy FOR Cingular customers for Cingular has many plans now that make this phone essentially free. This will probably not be the last phone you will ever buy, but it is one of the best to buy today.

I agree with most of the reviews listed here, but I wanted to add to it. I have had my A707 (Cingular calls it the "Sync") and I LOVE IT. This is only my 2nd cell phone, but it carries just about everything I want..and even more. Aside from the slim size and various colors, it turns out that I can easily use this as a modem for my laptop and get near broadband speeds. With Cingular's "Media Max" program at $19.99/month, this is a great option opposed to buying just a broadband card from Verizon for $50/month. I love the great digital content from my favorites such as CNN, e-mail and even Yahoo. I can check my stocks rather quickly, check the web for a local pizza place, send text messages quickly and even record video with the 2.1 MegaPixel camera.

A few pointers:
* Even though the specs may say it can only handle a 1GB micro disk, I was easily able to use my 2GB Micro SanDisk card.
* You really need to get the sync cable AND software (you can't download the software) so you can "sync" your music files and other items like your calendar. Consider buying the "value pack" either on Amazon or from Cingular which includes the software, data cable and a "very basic" audio headphones. It is sooooooo hard to find a reasonable price headphones for this, and it turns out it is about the same price as buying the value pack anyway. (I bought the cable and software from an Amazon store for about $6 and was disappointed to later find out about the "value pack"
* You can play more music file types that any other phone (MP3, AAC, WMA) however, no iTunes. Of course all you need to do is burn your iTunes on CD and then rip it using Windows Media Player into MP3 and it works fine...I have done this with "a few songs"
* Don't go cheap on the blue-tooth headset. This phone has great range, but if you have a subpare headset, it will break up on your call. Otherwise, I left the phone in my jacket pocket in one room while talking in my bedroom 3 rooms down the hall....that had to be more than the 30 feet they publish.

*****Laptop connection: I know I already said this, but if you are already going to have a cell phone, then the extra 19.99/month to allow yourself Internet access anywhere you have a cell phone connection is a great deal. After all, most of us are use to paying 9.99 to 16.99 for unlimited text messages, for a few bucks more I can check my personal e-mail at work without having my boss reading it and claiming he/she can because it is company property. Its my notebook, my connection, my business. Besides, now I don't ever need to pay that $10/day fee when staying at a hotel to use their network (which is very safe, I am sure) for even if I don't carry the media max plan all year, I can have Cingular turn it on for a few days (or month) and then off when I return. It'll add up when I stay for just a few nights.

NOTE: Accessories that work for the SGH-807 will also plug into this phone. Yes, Samsung makes you use their own connection items, a standard stereo headphone jack (small or large) will not work.

I purchased the Samsung SYNC to replace a Motorola v551. The SYNC is sleek, has a beautiful display, good camera (except for the lack of autofocus and flash), and an OK mp3 player interface.

Unfortunately I am very disappointed in the sound quality under normal phone calls. On even the loudest setting, voices are noticeably muffled. Using a bluetooth headset, I've heard, overcomes this problem, but 75% of the time I'm not using my headset and want to use the phone as a phone.

Also, for Mac users, the Sync can connect to your mac to transfer address book entries or photos, but it does not work with iSync at tbis point in time. Therefore you cannot syncronize the calendar on the phone with outside applications, so you would have to re-enter all of your appointments on your phone instead of doing a nice and simple sync.

I change cell phones like I change shoes. I literally keep a cell phone for about two months because I'm always searching for that one special phone that combines all the features I want. I've had my SYNC for almost four months now and I haven't found another phone that I'm ready to replace my SYNC with.

The SYNC has a nice, big, beautiful display. It doesn't feel flimsy like the RAZR; it's sturdy and has a nice weight to it without being bulky or heavy. It has PDA features and its mp3/video playing capabilities are limited only by the amount of storage space on the media card you choose to use. It's an excellent phone. If you're looking for a phone that will keep your calendar as well as keep you entertained, this is the phone for you.

I've had 5 phones in the past five years, and this one tops them all!
Pros:
-Amazing Camera Quality!
-Amazing music quality
-The Screen!
-Battery Life (It's different for everyone, i have no problem with it.)
-External Music Buttons

Cons:
-Fingerprints! I hate fingerprints on phones! For this phone it's only the two screens that really bother me.
-Shortcuts! I had to read the manual to find simple things such as an alarm, an i can usually figure out a phone without a manual.
-Memory Card/Charger door: I've read several complants about this, they are flimsy, but if your carful, there fine.
-Headset! Samsung has this special headset port, so if you want to listen to music you need to buy an adapter or a new headset, i'm just getting a stereo bluetooth one.
-(And lastly:) No Usb Cable In Box! (that speaks for itself)
I know it seems like the cons outweight the pros, but this is the best phone you can get with Cingular. (In my opnion)





This phone works best when plugged into an AC power supply. Thus for most users who may need to be away from power outlets for long periods of use, this phone is not a good option.

Big bright screen is attractive, but a massive power hog. Forget the quoted 4 hour talk time and 10 day standby; you will be very lucky to get 90 mins of talking or 2 days of standby, and that is with Bluetooth turned off. With Bluetooth on, you'll be charging this every other day.

Even worse, the battery goes from 2/3rds to no power very quickly and unpredictably. You will start the day thinking you have several hours of talking left, and will find yourself at zero power after a 15 minute call. Carry a spare battery and / or charger to avoid frustrating and inconvenient downtime, or better yet get a more efficient phone.

Another big problem with this phone is the music player feature. Unless you plan on purchasing an expensive media plan from your carrier, all the connectivity features of this phone are pointless. Downloading stuff by the kb is insanely costly, and the media plans add significant cost to the monthly plans. Also, to transfer music from your PC to this phone by USB is agonizing, as the phone takes more than half an hour to transfer a single CD (10 songs). To put a lot of music on this phone takes inhuman patience, and then you have to use junky Samsung proprietary earphones to listen to your tunes as no headphone adaptor jack is available.

On the positive side, MP3 playback through the Sync speakers sounds surprisingly good. The signal strength is usually very good, a pleasant step up from older Samsung designs, as good or better than Nokias, a big achievement for Samsung. Call quality and speakerphone performance is also very good. Camera takes good pics, but only has a 2X zoom on 1.3 MP and no zoom at all on the 2.0 MP setting. Samsung has much better camera features on some of its other models.The phone does look nice and it is pretty durable and well-built.

Bottom line: if you want a phone to make calls on, the A707 Sync has good call quality and excellent signal strength. However, the rotten battery life and rapid non-geometric decrease in battery life makes this phone unreliable and irritating to use for its primary purpose. If you add silly junk to your usage like watching videos and browsing the web, you will only decrease the battery life and make the phone even less useful as an actual telephone.

The true Achilles heels to all these multimedia phones are the added cost to users for subscription plans, and the limitations of current portable device battery life. The Sync makes you acutely aware of both of these problems. Until better batteries are available, Samsung should not build phones this inefficient, or at the very least should not call them "wireless". You don't need a phone line attached to these, but you will need a power cord!

This phone is poorly made junk. The outer LCD cracked for no reason after a few months of use. The camera is hard to access and very difficult to get decent looking pictures with. Phone is also very hard to open without using two hands

the battery on this phone is terrible...evewryday i'm charging it, and the reception is very poor.....i miss my nokia

This phone has the possibility to be one of the greatest phones you buy.

Problems: The mp3 player & volume.

Volume: is very very low and only goes up 5 settings which is barely audible in any sort of crowd or noisy place. Headphones don't help, its almost like they get quieter if you use the headphones.

Mp3 player: They partnered with Napster, Yahoo Music etc etc but the problem is that all those services sell music as WMA files to protect the licenses. The phone does not play WMA files- so you must then attempt to find a mp3 translation program on the web to turn your WMA files into Mp3 files and not all of them have the music text option, so you have to rename your files after your done converting them. Quite annoying.

The other problem is music does not play with bluetooth- so don't bother getting a nice new bluetooth if you intend to use this phone for music at all

again, no other phone yet has all of these options and potential in one phone, but there are ALOT of kinks that Cingular needs to work out first.

I got this phone about 2 weeks ago and have been playing around with it quite a bit. I got it in the blue - a nice, subtle hint of color without being too loud, like the red color. First thing you will notice is that the screen is large and brilliant, similar to the screen of the RAZR, but keep in mind that when opened, the SYNC is about an inch larger than the RAZR, this may discourage some.

The interface of the phone is quite easy to use, but lacks some customizable features. The volume is quite loud, both the external speaker, and the speaker when you are on the phone. There is no need to shout or say "huh?" anymore RAZR users!

This phone does lack Voice tag calling features. You cannot add a Voice Tag to any of your contacts, which is bothersome to me because I enjoy using my voice dial with my bluetooth headset.

To clarify on some issues brought up on this page, you CAN see the time on the external display. You have to hold the volume button (either up or down) for about 3 seconds until the screen lights up with the time. That bothers me too. I'm used to using the external display of my phone as my official time clock of the day, and it just gets annoying to have to wait 3 seconds to see the time...You may think I'm being too picky, but you'll see. Also, the external charging/headset port is terrible! I find it ridiculous that Samsung could not have designed this better. There is a cover that you have to remove and put back everytime you charge the phone. It is attached to the phone, but I don't know for how long!

Overall the phone rates very high in my eyes. It's a beautiful phone and has many pros - like the brilliant display, volume of calls, the large fonts, the colors, and the interface. The cons, like I've stated, are the external charging port, lack of customizable features, no voice dialing, and external display 3 second hold.

Weigh your options when choosing a new phone...I really think most will be happy with the SYNC...It's loads better than the RAZR (so far). But most will just have to choose which features they want best in a phone...and for standard phone use (I don't use camera, although it is a really good one, and I don't use the music player) this seems like a wonderful choice!

This is a great looking phone with by far the most beautiful user interface I have ever seen. The colors, graphics and fonts all look tremendous. The 2 MP Camera is a great addition. The phone book looks very nice as well.

I have some issues with it, however. There is no Vibe and Ring setting, which I found to be somewhat irksome, and the front display is impossible to power up, rendering it almost useless (it is also a very grainy display). The Battery life is marginal, and there are several useless entries to the address book that clutter it up and are unable to be removed.

That being said, I am very pleased with this phone.

I had this phone for about 2 months before the phone would not charge. The battery and charger were fine (after bringing it in to a local Cingular shop to diagnose the problem), but the phone itself was the issue. I then called Samsung since the phone should be two months into a year warranty, but to my amazement they said they DID NOT HONOR warranties of phones purchased through Amazon!! And Amazon would not exchange the phone since it had passed the 30 day window of returns. If I was just rating the phone itself I would give it 4/5 stars.

I bought this phone in December. I got a great deal for 2 of them from Cingular. At first I was extremely happy with the phone. I bought all the accessories including a 1GB MicroSD card for my MP3s After 2 months with the phone I started to notice that my 1GB memory was almost useless since the phone's battery will not play your 200+ songs that you can store in the card. I also noticed that the powercord input is the same as the headphone input, so you cannot powerup while listening to your tunes. Also the MP3 player pulls way toooo much battery life. if you listen to maybe 30-40 minutes of music, then you will be on the verge of your battery dying.

Horrible Enginnering to put the powercord and headphone in the same input.

Don't even bother buying the Data package that Cingular tries to sell you. It is over priced, and you can get the software free from Samsung. Either way the software is AWFUL!!!. No use at all for it...except maybe organize your contacts.

Overall...a good phone to use. BUT BAD for MP3 usage.

I just got this phone several days ago and there are many wonderful things about it. First of all, the display is beautiful. I am a graphic designer and this is always very important to me when I am choosing a phone. The fonts are beautiful, easy to read, and the black background makes them look very sharp. Videos also have great display on here, and you can switch the view to landscape for them to be full screen, which is awesome. Bluetooth is certainly the best thing about this phone because you can send pictures, songs, videos, and ringtones to yourself and not have to pay a cent.

This phone is awesome, I am very glad I chose this over the Razr. In comparison, the top (flip-up part) of it is not near as thin and flimsy as the Razr is, and the display to me is just so much more vibrant and enjoyable.

I just bought this phone 3days ago and i have access the three different bluetooth headsets. I hear static on all of them when phone is in my pocket and im on a call useing headset. Anyone else have this problem?

Hi all -

Got this phone and within four days it kicked into a boot loop that cannot be fixed (even taking out the battery does not stop it). It starts up, kicks into the main screen and none of the buttons work, eventually shuts down and then starts up again ad infinitum until you pull the battery. I got a replacement phone from amazon and this happened AGAIN - this time it only took a day. I don't know what's going on (i did find another online account of this from someone who bought through a cingular store recently), but i'm suspicious that samsung has released a batch of defective phones. So beware - i just cancelled out my plan and am rethinking my cell phone options.

I was thinking of purchasing this phone, but I was wondering if you have to subscribe to the music service to load music onto the phone? If I have songs on my computer, and have a USB cord for the phone, can I load music on the phone that I have bought or downloaded previously? I'd appreciate the help!

I spent a couple of weeks playing with Cingular Wireless and Samsung's SGH-A707 after my contract expired with Verizon Wireless, but I ultimately returned to Verizon Wireless. As other reviewers attest, the Samsung A707 is a handsome phone with a beautiful screen and great connectivity, but some things just didn't work for me:

- Phonebook. The A707's phonebook is very flexible, especially compared to the LG VX8300 that I'm currently using. Need to give a contact two entries for work number, or some notes to a particular contact? The A707 allows one to add notes and additional fields as needed for each contact. My LG VX8300 is stuck with only one field for work number, and notes are stuck awkwardly in a separate application. The unforgiveable feature about the A707's phonebook is that several Cingular entries in the phonebook may not be erased, including: Check Bill Balance, Directory Assistance, MusicID, Pay My Bill, View My Minutes, Voice Connect, and *Now. If I don't want to use Cingular's Directory Assistance because it is comparatively expensive to alternative free 411 numbers (that only incur minutes), I should be able to delete it from my phone, since it is my phone. This is not a phone to give to one's parents, to spare them the aggravation of maneuvering around these directory entries.

- Hands-free functionality. The A707 is meant to be used with a Bluetooth headset -- ideally, a stereo Bluetooth headset to take advantage of the phone's media capabilities. However, my wife doesn't like to wear a Bluetooth headset. She prefers to use speakerphone instead. Using the A707's speakerphone is a two-step process for every call -- pressing the Cingular button to choose Speakerphone functionality, and then selecting Yes to activate the speakerphone. This is not easy to do by feel (e.g., when driving); other than the Cingular button, the A707's keypad has no defining ridges to let you know which key you've pressed. The difficult speakerphone functionality was the primary reason I returned my two SYNC phones to Cingular. (Most other Cingular phones allow you to press one key during a call to activate speakerphone. Some Verizon Wireless phones even have a dedicated speakerphone key.)

- Interface. The phone has a simple, media-centric interface. The SYNC ought to be paired with a MediaNet plan, because it's exceedingly easy to get onto the Internet with this phone. One or two keystrokes and you're in. The downside is that the phone's interface is confining for those who only want to pair their phone with a voice plan.

- Front display. As shown in various Cingular advertisements, the A707's front display can beautifully approximate an analog clock. Activating the front display to show the time when the phone is closed is very difficult. The front display brings up a media menu that one must exit before the phone will show the time. It is faster to quickly open and close the phone in order to see the analog clock, but this is an inconvenient motion for simply checking the time.

The Cingular SYNC SGH-A707 may be good choice for those who will consistently take advantage of the phone's media-centric features, but people who want a stronger balance of phone functionality should look elsewhere.

I experienced a few bumps in closing out my account with Cingular; they erroneously billed me for $915.73 for closing out three lines within the trial period. However, Cingular's representatives courteously and quickly credited my account for the returned phones, and prorated the service charges to the limited number of days I used the Cingular network.



I bought this phone at Christmas, pretty good service through amazon, took a little while, but they shipped in about 3 or 4 days and i got it promptly, i bought a sony ericsson w810i also at the same time as this phone for my girlfriend. The Sync is pretty nice, im a long time razr user and this is better as far as functionality goes, its a little bigger, when you open it it measures about an inch longer than the razr though, but no complaints. If you want an mp3/cam phone from cingular, please get the w810i, i fell in love with it, its better in every way, better pics, much better mp3 software, easier to use. But this phone is decent too

Pros -

Good camera
decent mp3 software
decent looking phone
the speaker sounds fairly decent, as good as the w810i surprisingly since it only has a small speaker and the w810i has 3 speakers on the back.

Cons -

no multitasking, you cant listen to mp3's and do anything else.
no data cable or headphones included
no always on time on the outside screen
battery life is meh, i have to charge every night after minimal use, it always dies over night
it gets decent service, i can sit it next to the w810i and it always has less service.


Overall its an alright phone, but if you want a good phone go with the w810i, that phones amazing




i liked this phone a lot when i got-- sleek, great camera. yet charging is very backward. first there is this little plastic piece that covers the charging terminal. i am sure it will break off shortly as it is flimsy. second, it is v. difficult to properly place the plug so that charging begins. the first couple of weeks were fine, but now i can't get the plug in the right "position" and cannot charge. my crummy previous lg 1500 has a far superior infallible plug. plus, i am a big speakerphone fan. half the time, the speakerphone is inaccessible. bottomline, i'm returning it w/i the 30 day period and shopping for a replacement.

In the description above, it says "...charging and USB data cable ports are placed on the bottom of the phone...". This is not correct, the cable ports are on the sides.

Nice phone. Only had it a couple of days but pleased so far. The tech-saavy can transfer graphics, music, and contact info (vcard format) to/from the phone via Bluetooth, no USB cable needed. Took a little while to get it set up-- the manual is completely useless on this topic-- but it sure beats transferring contacts via SIM card and paying Cingular for the priviledge of emailing yourself pictures that you take w/ the camera.



This phone is awesome! I can watch HBO on this device. Of course its a charge of 4.99 monthly. BuT where i work i need this. but of course this phone isn't for everyone.

I am not the most tech savvy person, but I do enjoy gadgets. So, when I finally decided to get a phone, I wanted it to be the nicest one that would suit my needs and still have a nice small/slim form factor. I looked initially at the new RAZR that supports mp3s. However, I took a chance and chose the Samsung over the RAZR because of the amount of negative reviews the RAZR has. I was pointed toward this model, and so far I am really glad I gave it a chance, not having seen ANY reviews on it before purchasing it. I've had this phone for almost two weeks as of today.

PROS:
-Huge, BEAUTIFUL display!
-Great size and style
-Good camera (2 megapixel), although I don't really plan to use it a ton
-Easy, intuitive menus with lots of options
-Very clear with no dropped calls so far
-Phone supports 3G technology, great for music content
-Media player works nicely, and when you plug the USB cable into your computer, it's easy to drop songs onto the phone from just about any media program.
-No quirks or glitches to be found so far!

NEUTRAL:
-Ringer could stand to be a little louder
-Headphone jack is proprietary, so you have to buy their headphones unless you want to use bluetooth
-Gets smudgy/greasy looking very easily
-Outside display isn't very high resolution, but what do you expect?
-No flash for camera

CONS:
-No LCD clock on the outside. I did figure out though, that if you hold the right-side button for a few moments it pops back up, but I would like a clock like the RAZR has.

Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. I'm glad I took a chance.

***UPDATE 12/3/2006*****

I still hold my 5 star rating to be true for this phone. It still great!(I've had it for about a month now.) Also, the picture really don't do the phone justice. It is a really sleek and beatiful little gadget.

I did have one strange anomaly with it. The last time I received an E-Mail alert while I was on a call, it closed the call when the alert popped up. I tried to reconstruct the incident, but it wouldn't do it again. I've had a couple dropped calls too, but it was in a brick building, so I can understand.

I still think the ringer isn't loud enough...but I have been setting it to "outdoor" which seems louder and vibrates as well. I love the ringer profiles and change them quite a bit. It comes in very handy

I have also purchased the media kit for this phone which comes with a USB cable, software, and stereo earbuds. I am loving the media player function. I can drag and drop songs (or other files) easily onto the phone with the USB. The only thing I don't like is that the earphone jack is the same as the charger jack. No charging while listening, and no buying whichever headphones you want. You have to get them in their kit, unless you want to use Bluetooth headphones. I ride a motorcycle and want to use the media player on trips, but I'm not sure yet how I will be able to rig earphones that will fit in my helmet (the Cingular earbuds will not fit due to their design). I am used to this dilemma (trying to find headphones for my helmet)even without the proprietary headphone jack isue. So, I am not counting it as a negative against the phone.

I am very, very pleased still. I will update again after a few more months!