One of the first 3.2-megapixel cameraphones to arrive in the U.S., Samsung's 3G SCH-A990 boasts a swiveling display, Bluetooth, V Cast support, and more. Do its snapshots measure up?
Review summary of the Samsung SCH-A990:
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 With its 3.2-megapixel camera and swiveling display, the 3G-enabled Samsung SCH-A990 takes some of the sharpest pictures we've seen from a U.S. camera phone. Unfortunately, this somewhat bulky clamshell stumbles with Verizon Wireless' clunky V Cast Music player and its lack of a USB cable and stereo earbuds. Release: July 2006. Price: $300.
Pros: Stellar picture quality; swiveling display; TV-out port; external music controls; easy-to-use keypad; good battery life
Cons: No bundled microSD card, USB cable or stereo earbuds; camera tends to be sluggish; can't play music in the background
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Full Samsung SCH-A990 Review:
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Samsung ups the ante for U.S. camera phones with the SCH-A990, one of the first stateside handsets with a 3.2-megapixel camera. With its swiveling display (which rotates 180 degrees and turns the main display into a viewfinder) and stellar image quality, the A990 has the best camera we've seen to date, although it faces stiff competition from the upcoming Carl Zeiss optics-equipped Nokia N93 and N73 handsets - and of course, it's still no match for a dedicated camera.
Camera - Very good
Ready to snap some pictures? Rotate the flip and the main LCD turns into a viewfinder, complete with a heads-up display and options such as a burst mode and a self-timer.
The A990 snaps some of the best photos we've seen from a cameraphone. Pictures looked vivid and detailed, with plenty of shadow detail and good color reproduction. The auto-focus took a couple of seconds to zero in on our subjects, but the razor-sharp results were worth the wait. That said, video captures looked murky and choppy, and the camera application slowed to a crawl while storing large images files.
Music - Good
Music lovers will appreciate the A990's support for Verizon's V Cast Music service, an online storefront with thousands of songs available for purchase and download. A set of play/pause and skip buttons on the left spine of the phone let you control music playback, and cover art is displayed on both the internal and external screens, although you can't play music in the background while performing other tasks.
Sound quality was good, if weak on the bass, but we were miffed that the A990 doesn't come with a set of earbuds or a microSD card for storing your tunes. At least you can sync your PC-based music collection via Windows Media Player.
Multimedia - Good
In addition to its support for downloadable music, the A990 also taps into Verizon's library of streaming video, including news, sports and entertainment clips. Videos loaded within about 20-30 seconds over the phone's EV-DO connection, and there's a handy full-screen mode.
The phone's mobile browser had no trouble rendering the personalized Google main page, although it couldn't quite hack the lengthy front page of the New York Times.
Messaging - Good
We had no trouble tapping out text messages on the A990's spacious keys, although the narrow four-way navigational keypad was a bit tricky. You can easily add recently-used addresses to new messages, although there's no while-you-type live searching, and you can't organize your messages into folders or copy/paste text.
Calling - Very good
Our calls sounded loud and clear on the dual-band A990, even while we were chatting on our Bluetooth headset or over the speakerphone. Adding recent callers to the address book was a one-step process, and we had little trouble keying in contacts manually, although you'll need to order a PC software kit and USB cable to sync PIM info from your system.
We liked the dedicated key that activates voice dialing and commands, but if you're a fan or conference calls, you won't find them here.
Battery life - Good
We got more than four hours of talk time from the A990 - pretty impressive for a power-hungry handset like this one - and about five days of standby time. We also managed to squeeze about 12 hours of music out of the phone.
Price and availability
The Samsung SCH-A990 will start selling for $300 to $400 ((Verizon Wireless)) in July 2006.
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