nate’s naraku, the blahog

I got a new celly when I hopped onboard the sprint sero band wagon. so far, all in all, it is pretty sweet. I dig the phone, but I miss a couple of features my v710 moto (and probably most motos) have. I also had to change my #, which is totally lame, complete # portability my ass.

–slightly updated 6/2/06

check out my “full” a900 review -

(-) features lacking and/or need improvement:

— call logger sucks ASS (-) –
  I cannot find anywhere anyplace options for the call logger. not only are call duration times NOT logged, but the logger does not save duplicate calls - one entry per # - it is “updated” instead of given a new entry. I like #’s and I like to know how long a convo lasted, and when it took place. my moto did this very well. it also included an aggrigator that had “total call time” and the like. no such luck with the a900. major freaking :(

— the battery life sucks. (-) –
 yes, the reviews all over the web are basically true. the battery life truly does blow. I fully charged it last night, unplugged it and then almost immediately talked on it for about 2 hours straight (not real sure how long, no fucking call time logger….) and it was already down to 1 remaining of 3 bars. I cried a little inside.

 however, in the 2 weeks of ownership, I have found there is a rather large but that is usually lacking from most reviews. as far as talk time goes, expect to hit right on the spec-mark of a menial 3 hours talk time whether your GPS is on or not - your a900 will then die a most painful death. seems true for whether bluetooth is on or not. but the standby life, assuming you’re in an urban region w/solid digital signal most/all the time, is just fine.

 say you talk on the phone 3-4 times a day but for no more than 3-5 minutes a call (and or use the camera/sprint vision etc.) I can confidently say, expect to get about 2 full days out of a charge. this is where turning GPS off, and (POSSIBLY) bluetooth off will help you suck a few more hours out of it. I say possibly for BT, because I’m still experimenting with this. I have a Moto HS820 BT headset I use w/the phone, and turn the headset thingy off while leaving BT on on my a900, and it seems to go into a sort’ve ’stand-by’ mode.

— lack of storage space (-) –
there is very little to speak of - a mediocre ~40mb for music/pics and ~11mb for “content” i.e. ringers, and sprint crap you gotta buy for ridiculous prices (though I won’t get into that, because I will never buy it.) *NO* expandable memory slot. my transflash card will remain wasted on my v710. :(

— ringtone issues (-) –
you have to jump through hoops to get your own ring tones on the phone. of course, I had to hack the software of my v710 to do that… so I guess, this is a step up? regardless, I haven’t done it yet, but there are ways - here’s a link. oh yeah, and the default tones suck balls.

— sluggish and awkward interface/OS (-) –
the Operating System (insufficient hardware perhaps) of the a900 is a little slow. for instance, in the contact list using the ‘find’ feature can take up to a full second even if your list is tiny (like mine is now.) it is ridiculous.

also, browsing through photos in your phone is slow, painful, and probably sucks the dear life out of the battery. there doesn’t appear to be a quick way to browse through them.

I’m actually not very happy about the overall interface of the phone. changing the main background took actually reading the manual (it’s called SCREENSAVER tyvm). how fucking annoying is that! this phone actually has a learning curve.

— camera is a little funky. (-) –
  takes some getting use to, like, if you flip the camera around before you turn it on, your image will be upside down. I haven’t really mastered how it decides what way to position the image you see on screen, and there’s no software setting to flip it. seems to have a mind of it’s own. -see comment below-thanks stein.

I have also found the lil swivel head to move too easily, such that it gets bumped in my pocket from it’s safe place. sort’ve annoying.

(+) mmm blade aka good stuff:

— the screen is beautiful (+) –
 at 240×320, it’s nice to be at a std resolution finally. and the amount of colors/pixels samsung has packed in is wonderful. best.looking.screen.ever. (ona non-pda phone).

— camera takes decent pictures (+) –
tremendous upgrade over the absolutely trashy v710 camera. I’m satisfied w/the quality.

— sexy form factor (+) –
razr be damned, this baby tromps it. feature for feature, it is probably superior as well, the razr is an overhyped marketing ploy with little actual value and a great deal of fault - use one for a couple months, or google razr problems. and pink razr - eww. this thing, like the razr, is light, yet feels more solid, more like a gun and less like a toy. mmm gun black metal.

— quality reception (+) –
it’s just fine. though I didn’t really have any probs w/my verizon v710 except at work, my new sprint/a900 beats the living hell out of it here. sound is good from ear piece, though the speaker phone is rather sub-par.

— java enabled (+) –
no more of that semi-proprietary BREW crap; my a900 runs java programs like the free Opera Mini web browser which absolutely kicks some seriously sergant major ass. the web is actually usable on a phone.

— superior calling plan (+) –
finally, the days of 9pm nights are over, a company finally gets it. I have 7pm unlimited nights (and weekends) AND 100 more minutes/month AND unlimited sprint2sprint AND unlimited sprint (power) vision - their internet access ALL FOR $15 LESS per month than I was paying the commies at verizon. score. :D

— I’m more trendy than you (+) –
it looks like a razr but it’s not. ok, it’s not as sleek as the SLVR or whatever, but heck, I think it’s hot! will it get you laid? hahahahaha….. yes
(and by yes of course I mean no.)

so I am losing my old # - that sucks, my # was cool - and an unwanted greedy step child (verizon) at the end of the month. at least the skanks will stop callin’. ;) and with the other perks/advantages, I’m good.
hello samsung/sprint, so long moto/verizon.