Samsung SGH A237-Red Cell Phone User Reviews

Cons: "Pictures" folder is several menus deep, main alarm can't be set on "vibrate", flat keypad and directional buttons, not microSD-HD compatible, calendar event menus and settings are awkward

Summary: I got this phone free with a new T-Mobile plan and I can't really complain. The main thing that drew me to the phone was the memory card slot; I have a satellite radio that also accepts a microSD card, and having the slot on the side of the phone rather than behind the battery makes it easy to move the card between devices. Regrettably, it doesn't support SD-HD, so occasionally some prioritizing is required.

The camera functions well in a variety of lighting conditions, though the image displayed on the screen is only part of the picture it actually takes; to see the full picture, you either have to move it to your computer (easy enough with the SD card) or set it as your desktop, which still doesn't show the entire picture, but does show a different subsection. Needless to say this makes taking a good desktop picture a little fiddly. One of the features of the phone I remember being advertised is the shiny front panel for taking pictures of yourself, which I suppose could also be useful for various ninja applications ^_^.

The phone has a decent dictionary, though I'm a stickler for apostrophes and have to change menus quite a bit when I T9. It also allows you to add words to the dictionary (hooray!), though the "spell" submenu is set on CAPS by default. The keypad is extremely flat, with just a tiny bump on the 5 and the middle row *very* slightly textured, so touch-texting is more difficult than I'd like (especially since I don't often opt for T9).

I'm a snoozer, so the three alarms were a *big* bonus. The main alarm can be set for every day, one day, or by day of the week and has a 5 minute snooze. This alarm does *not* vibrate if the phone is set on vibrate or silent; instead, it plays the selected song or tone very softly. The other two can be set with the same frequency options, but have a 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 minute snooze option and *will* vibrate if the phone is set to vibrate. Between the three alarms, I've managed to only be late to work because of oversleeping 3 times in the last year and a half ^_^.

I haven't surfed the web on this phone, but the screen size and resolution seem like it would make surfing a bit awkward. If you're looking for a web-phone, this probably isn't it. And then there's the calendar; I can't get the hang of the thing. Every time I think I'm marking an event as completed, it removes future occurrences. If I don't mark it completed, it reminds me every day that I need to do it, even if it's a once-a-week type thing. An organizer this is not. (Well spluh, it's a phone...)

I only have to charge the phone about every other day, which is great; my last phone had to be charged about every 8 hours! I've dropped it a good dozen times, and the back has only popped off once. The flip joint has a *tiny* bit of give, but considering the age of the phone and the punishment it's been through it's in terrific shape.