Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone – ultra basic phone
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Easy to use and light weight phone, affordable
Thumbs Down:
No Bluetooth, lid doesn’t have external display
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/1900 (Dual Band)
Phone design: Folder type
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Call forwarding, Conference calling, GPRS support and speakerphone
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone is 1.73 inches wide, 0.78 inch deep, 3.46 inches high and weighs around 2.61 oz. The display is 2.0 inches big and has a resolution 128×128 pixels. Rated talk time is three hours and standby time is ten days. The phone supports AMR, MIDI and MP3 formats for sound. There are 40 polyphonic ringtones built in, in to the phone. Messaging features include MMS/EMS/SMS, T9 predictive text, instant messaging. For connectivity, there is USB 2.0, WAP and HTML browser.
User memory on the phone is 1146 Kb and 200 SMS can be stored on this phone. PIM features on the phone include calendar, clock, worldtime, alarm, currency converter, converter, calculator, stop watch, count down timer. Call functions include speakerphone, video caller ID, call cost / call time, multiparty and dialed/missed/received calls list.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone is 1.73 inches wide, 0.78 inch thick, 3.46 inches long and is quite lightweight at 2.61 ounces. It is one of the smallest clamshell phones we have ever seen. There is no external display on the phone and this is the most basic handset we have ever seen in our labs.
Inside Dope:
Cell phones are improving day by day but there is a section of people who don’t seem to care. All they want is a simple phone that can call other people and send text messages. Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone is a phone that is made to cater to the entry level users. This is one of the most basic phones we have ever come across in our labs. There is no camera, Bluetooth, or music player. Bluetooth is a omission, we see it on all the phone these days, even the cheapest ones. This phone is yours for $29.99 and there are no contract obligations.
Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone has a 1.43 inch display with support for 65,000 colors. The resolution is quite low and images look a bit blocky. But this isn’t unexpected in an entry level phone. The text would have been more legible if the display was a tad bigger. You can adjust the greeting message, idle screen display and wallpaper of this phone.
Below the Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone’s display, there is a basic navigation array which includes 2 soft keys, four way navigation button with OK button in the middle, clear key, send key and Power/End key. You can map four applications that you use the most for the toggle and the center key acts as a browser shortcut in standby mode. The navigation array is quite roomy just like the numeric keypad underneath it. There is plenty of space between the keys and this makes it easy to dial and type text without any mishits.
There are not a lot of features on the Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone. You get a 500 entry limit phone book. A single entry can take multiple numbers, notes and e-mail address. You can make caller groups and assign a picture for the contact. There is no built in camera so you will have to stick with the preinstalled images on the phone. There are 11 ringtones to choose from.
Basic features on the phone include multimedia and text messaging, vibrate mode, speakerphone, alarm clock, mobile MediaNet browser, instant messaging, calendar, tip calculator, standard calculator, timer, unit converter, world clock and stopwatch. If you want to put in more ringtones and graphics on the Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone, you can go to the AppCenter which leads you to AT&T’s MediaNet homepage. You don’t get any games for this phone though.
Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone was excellent call quality. On our side, we could hear our friends’ voice very well but there was static and the voice was a bit hollow. On their side, our friends too said that the call quality was good. They said that ends of our sentences were cut sometimes and there were issues of static too. Speakerphone quality is mediocre, our friends sounded a bit harsh and we also heard a lot of hiss and echo.
Samsung SGH-a107 GoPhone’s rated battery life is three hours and standby time is ten days. We haven’t conducted battery drain tests yet but we will do it soon and update this section.
Nitty Gritty:
This is the most basic phone that we have ever seen. We won’t recommend this phone because even some of the barebones basic features are missing. Look elsewhere even if you want an entry level phone.
