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PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint)

PCS Phone Samsung VGA1000 (Sprint)

List Price: $259.99
Your Price: $199.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Phone Horrible Customer Service
Review: PROS
-Tons of Features
-Voice Dialing is Great (the one on the phone, don't pay Sprint for their service)
-Downloading Games
-Very easy to take pictures and send them off
-Receiving text messages easy
-Your personal Sprint Web site is pretty useful and full of info and options to service your account
-Above average reception so far, haven't gone outside of Houston yet
CONS
-Customer Service simply awful. They told me to go down to a Sprint Store when I really didn't need to. They could not Port In my old mobile number even though they told me I could before hand, then they told me my number was restricted by my old service even though Cingular confirmed TO THEM that is was eligible (literally spent hours on this one with no success).
-Downloading Games expensive and only lasts a few months-what a scam!
-Seems to be a glitch in my phone, sometimes moves twice to the left or right when I only press it once
-Internet service is SLOOOW, and sometimes unreliable
-The methodoligy for sending a text message is painfully tidious considering the speed of internet connection (odd why they do this since sending a pic is so easy)
-No way to "reply" instantly to a text message
-Can't send text message to email address
-Sprint charges more than any other company in surcharges that are not mandated taxes. This should be illegal when they advertise a cetain rate plan price.
-Battery Life mediocre

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: nice phone!
Review: Overall, decent. The LCD is nice and bright, and it's a good size too. I was surprised at how crisp the screen was. The display was nice and clear-- two thumbs up. I tried out the camera of course. The flash option is nice, but doesn't do as much brighting I hoped (I didn't try taking pictures outside, but I'm sure those would be 10 times better) Many of the other pictures stored on the phone seemed a bit dark as well. However, besides that, the quality of the pictures was really good. Also, there are options for different kinds of photos you want to take-- whether you are taking one of someone else, taking a self portrait, or doing a group photo. The phone is cute. Silver, flip phone, camera, color screen. It is by far one of the best in it's class. It is true that Sprint has high prices on service plans, and I've also heard that the customer service is lousy, but as for their phones, Sprint is holding the weight. Plus, the phone is free right now, so hey, why not?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: VGA 1000 / SPH-A620
Review: The phone itself is decent with a few quirks. In general, it works as expected. The interface is pretty intuitive. I like the larger phone book (250) but I can't select an entry by their entry number. You can call the number like it's speed dial, but can't select an alternate number for that person.

It bugs me that the buttons on the side of the phone don't light up the display when it's closed. My previous Sprint phone had that and I didn't realize how useful it is until this phone failed to do the same.

The battery life is pretty low. I charge it every night and still have issues if I use the phone for more than about an hour during the day. I think it'd last a lot longer if I weren't roaming so often, which is another annoyance. Also I really don't like that I have to pay for the internet service for text messages. That's enough whining.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good phone bad provider
Review: the phone is awsome best reception ive ever had camera is great easy to navigate

Sprint PCS is a horrible provider you have to pay for everything even storing the picture that you take on you OWN phone 15 extra a month you should be able to upload the pictures to your comp with out having to pay for it. i dont see kodak and hp and other makers of digital cameras charging you to upload your pictures to your computer sprint is horrible

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Samsung does NOT stand behind their product
Review: I have had this phone for 5 months - and the hinge for the flip portion is cracking on the left side. As soon as the cracked peice falls off, the flip top portion can come out of the hinge, potentially rendering the phone unusable. So until then, I have to use the phone with extreme care and caution to prolong the inevitable.

Upon contacting Samsung for a warrantly repair, I was informed that this flaw was "cosmetic" and a repair will cost $75. If I wait until the phone actually breaks, then of course the repair will be much more expensive and still not covered by the 1 year "warranty" - it is classified as "normal wear and tear". The customer service person I spoke with was very straight forward, and informed me that this is an extremely common problem with Samsung flip phones. It apparantly occurs because the hinge is not strong enough to withstand normal use - i.e. holding the phone to your ear, opening and closing, etc. A small crack develops internally and eventually spreads to the outside of the hinge. When I questioned the logic of having a phone break after only 5 months of nrmal use, the Samsung response was that their phones are not built to last forever - just like cars, they are also engineered to break down. To which I say at least car companies use tempered metal for high stress componets, rather than PLASTIC. Car companies also issue recalls to repair common faults.

The only advice Samsung personnel gave me was to not buy another flip phone. I plan to go them one better and not buy any Samsung phones at all.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Amazing phone...
Review: ...but I don't like the SprintPCS service all that much. Methinks T-Mobile is much better, and less expensive, too! The stuff that came with the phone (ringers and such) are a bit campy. I found a link to http://muwap.com here on amazon (with the 10% off coupon) and downloaded everything I needed. I'd buy the phone again in a heartbeat, but I'd go with T-Mobile service this time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like not love this phone
Review: I like this little phone. Yes the quality of the pictures is poor and it is difficult to see in the daylight. You can download free ringers and games at www.myhonefiles.com. Once I personalized the phone using this site I was much happier.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: I purchased this phone after owning another Samsung phone for 3 years prior with no problems. However, the VGA 1000 I purchased just 8 months ago broke on the hinge when closing the phone and is now in two pieces. After contacting Samsung, I was told this is considered "physical damage" and not a defect, at which point they implied that I had abused the phone and would charge me $75 to try to repair it. Sprint, with whom I have my service, also called me a liar and insisted that the phone could not have broken on the hinge simply by closing it. I beg to differ. Neither company will do anything to help me. I am disappointed as I considered Samsung a reputable product and had even paid more money to get a Samsung phone than had I gone with another brand.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a great cellphone choice!
Review: Referring to the comment about all the little extra charges made by another reviewer, for the extra $15 per month Sprint charges for PCS vision and Internet access which you can start and stop at any time (beginning with a free two-month trial period), not mentioned but included is a ten-dollar per month credit that can be applied toward the purchase of any of the online options, including the downloadable ringers, screen savers, games and more. This $10 credit can even be applied during the free 60-day trial period, so essentially you're getting $20 worth of extras for free during the trial period. So it isn't nearly as bad a deal as a previous poster made it sound. Ringers range in price from 1.50 to 2.50 each and expire in 90 days. There are hundreds to choose from, and play in true music with vocals and all, not just the melody.

You may have seen Sprint's TV commercials with the kids taking a break on the bleachers while holding dodge balls and being asked to guess how many tries they had with the dodge ball to get someone out without going over, or else it would be a waste... the advertisement for Sprint's new Fair & Flexible plan? I signed up for this plan and am very pleased with this new approach to the PCS pricing schedule (go to sprintpcs.com for more details). Essentially, anyone who signs up for this plan begins with 300 anytime minutes for $35 per month, which increases by $2.50 for each block of 25 minutes needed beyond that. If you always use a lot of anytime minutes, then this is not the cheapest plan for you. However, it can be very cost-wise if, like myself, you use 300 anytime minutes or less during some months, but in other months require 500 anytime minutes but don't want to be charged 35 cents per minute for over the limit usage. The plan includes unlimited nights and weekends for any calls made to anywhere in the USA, so you get free long distance during those times. For another $5 per month you can make your nights begin at 7 pm instead of 9 pm. Nights end at 7 am.

Back to the Samsung VGA1000. This is a better than average cellphone. It includes all the latest technology. This phone is not at all difficult to learn by playing around with it and pressing buttons to see what happens. The bilingual (Spanish/English) manual included with it is compact enough for a small purse but thick enough to be very informative and is also available online. While it's true the screen is harder to see in bright sunlight, there's always shade available so it's not that big of a problem, in my experience. Dialing can be done by voice, so the screen isn't essential anyway. You can locate people in your address book by voice commands and then dial them, or you can dial direct by voice command. Here's how: Press the left arrow (left side of camera picture) then state "DIGIT DIAL" then state each number beginning with the area code. It will confirm the number you stated before dialing it. This is all done without requiring ever looking at the screen. I do not consider games a necessity for any cellphone, but the games available for this phone are good fun and great time-passers, especially if you have a charger nearby allowing you to play endlessly while keeping your battery fully charged. I enjoy the bowling game. My favorite screensaver is one of the 4 included screen savers: the calendar. It shows the entire month, outlining the current day in bold and upcoming days with appointments in blue. The screen uses the most power, but it goes into auto-dim mode after about 8 seconds, and turns itself off after another 8 seconds. So playing games, reviewing pics, etc, all use the most power. However the recharger quickly recharges and gives a green light when ready (red until then). You can buy a charger that plugs into your car's vehicle charging port (the cigarette lighter).

The camera function can be used to snap pics of your friends (or of yourself using the volume button), and store a photo of each of them with their name. You can connect to the internet and read your email. You can send photos that you take with your phone to anyone's email address, or to another vision phone, or to your included webspace for storage, enabling you to clear your photos from your camera and take a whole bunch more. You can take up to 26 high resolution photos at 19 kb each. From the share/review menu you can select to "upload this" or "upload all" photos stored in your camera. The medium resolution photos are 5 kb. The medium res. photos may seem a bit grainy if you're a true camera buff, but they are of a good enough quality to enjoy and bring back memories. And this "camera" is so tiny you can hide it in your shirt pocket and easily disguise when you are snapping a picture of someone. I have more photos of my friends than they realize! I now have many pictures of people that I would never have had without this handy little cellphone. This great new technology allows you to take and send a digital photo to almost anyone as soon as you take it. A plumbing contractor friend of mine was studying my cellphone recently when suddenly it occurred to him that his field personnel could send digital photos of hard-to-identify parts, either back to the shop or directly to the parts supplier, saving both time and money and reducing error, as most unknown parts that need replacing are described over the phone. A picture is worth a thousand words, and maybe a few dollars as well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: (...) get your facts straight!!!
Review: "Battery Life mediocre, and Downloading Games expensive and only lasts a few months-what a scam"?????
what are you talking about? I have this phone and the battery life is great, allot better than the samsung a-460. It lasts a couple of days give or take a few hours depending on how much you talk, use the browser, or your phone is searching for a signal. Try setting your phone to automode instead of just the sprint network, that way you will save some power. also you dont buy ringers and then only get to keep them for a month or so, if you buy a ringer, then it yours for good.


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