5 Comments on Samsung a737 Lime/Green Phone

Shirley J. Reilly on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 2:50 am


The Samsung A737 has been nothing but trouble. First two months worked fine, but when I downloaded songs, the trouble started. I can no longer make or receive calls in my home, near my home or a mile away. Called ATT and have received two new phones, changed the card and still not working. Took the card and inserted in my old Nokia and phone works fine. Do not buy this phone.
Rating: 1 / 5

Mark Colan on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 4:08 am


I chose this phone hoping to carry one less device, by installing a 4GB Micro SD chip and using it as an mp3 player.

OVERALL RATING 2 stars (average of my phone and mp3 ratings)

A737 AS A PHONE: 3 stars.

As phones go, it is good enough. Other reviews complain about durability and battery life. So far mine is not broken, and I agree that the battery life is short. That will put me in the habit of leaving it connected to the computer overnight to recharge (using a USB cable). It’s nice to be able to charge it from USB rather than carry an AC charger when traveling. Indoor use is better than my previous phone (Sony Ericsson T610), which did not work well in my home.

A useful feature that is not listed in the manual is “AIRPLANE” mode: it disables connection to the network, so that you can use the device on an airplane, for example to play mp3s or backup the phone’s address book to your laptop.

I don’t have the data plan. If you’re going to pay the exhorbitant monthly fee for data, you should get a smart phone that makes better use of it.

Many features that require a data plan clog up the interface even when you don’t have a data plan. For example, if you press the AT&T logo (select button), it pauses, says the connection failed. You then have to press OK, then Back, then confirm that you want to exit from the browser, 3 different button presses just to cancel the unavailable feature. This button is prominent on the phone and I had to learn NOT to press it from the main screen. I wish that the phone knew or learned it had no data plan, and kept data-dependent features from getting in the way.

On the other hand, there is a convenient configurable menu on another button from which you can select the features you actually use. That does soften my complaints in the previous paragraph – except for the AT&T logo button starting the browser.

A737 AS AN MP3 PLAYER: 1 star

As mp3 players go, it’s nearly unusable.

I have a nice pair of standard earbuds (Koss “Plug”) plugged in through an adapter, and they sound decent when the music is playing, but not as good as on my inexpensive but old Creative Zen Nano Plus mp3 player.

There is a LOUD *POP* at the beginning and end of each songs – that means two loud pops between tracks. It usually cuts off the first half-second of the song. Every time I push buttons to navigate the menus on the phone, there is the same LOUD *POP*. Between songs, there is a pause – sometimes short, sometimes long, and sometimes it is stuck until I push some buttons.

The volume control has only 5 steps over a wide range from too quiet to too loud. I have to use step 4 even though it is louder than I prefer, because step 3 is much too quiet.

I would like to play songs in a Music folder in the order they appear when sorted (my songs include a track number), as I can do with my Zen, so I can play an album in its intended order, or arbitrary mp3s in an order I have chosen. The only way to do that is to create a playlist for each folder. Without a playlist, you can play by Album and by Artist only.

I was hopeful when I saw that I could rate each song as it was playing, but this feature is useless. I played two hours worth of songs and rated each of them. The ratings are available on the phone, but I can’t transfer the ratings back to my mp3 library with any of the three mp3 transfer mechanisms – Windows Media Player, the included Multimedia Manager (which has a column for displaying the rating but apparently no way to set it), or the mass storage USB setting using File Manager copy.

The battery life for playing music is poor: perhaps 3 hours, about the same as talking on the phone. If you play a lot of music on a flight, you won’t be able to use the phone when you land.

MISC COMMENTS

The phone came with a charger and nothing else. I had to buy adapters to connect to USB (to charge, and to transfer data), and to use standard 2. 5mm (1/8″) stereo headphones. You will probably want to buy a lot of accessories to make the phone practical. They would be cheap except there is high postage, and no one seller has them all.

Contrary to some reviews on Amazon, I CAN use 4GB Micro SD chip in this phone; the Kingston chip works fine.

The 1 megapixel camera will sometimes come in handy when I don’t have my real camera with me. The quality is on par for mobile phones, but not comparable to using a dedicated camera.

The AT&T plan I have includes SMS text messages. People can message me by emailing 10-digit-phone-number@txt. att. net, which is convenient, but I cannot reply to them without a data plan, except using SMS to their phone.

The alarm clock and address book applications are fine. The included PC software works, albeit with a non-intuitive interface and text and help file written by someone who does not know English very well. The Multimedia Manager takes much too long (average 2 minutes each) to transfer mp3 files to or from the phone.

The three included USB modes support the Samsung PC software, Windows Media Player protocol, and accessing the MicroSD (if present) like a USB memory stick. There is a choice to “ask me when connecting” – but it greys out all but the Samsung PC software, so this setting is useless.

SUMMARY

The phone is ok for basic phone features. With the exhorbitant price of data plans, if you’re going to pay that much monthly, you should invest in a phone that can make better use of the data features. The crippling problems in the MP3 player render it nearly unusable for that purpose.
Rating: 2 / 5

Mark Prier on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 5:20 am


I got this phone because it seemed nice. It is. Don’t get me wrong, but other than music and texting, not that great. I was looking for a music phone and found it. The sound is great, and there’s even a handy dandy music button on the front. It’s a little hard to organize your music, so I create playlists which seem to work well. There are too many internet connections though. I didn’t get internet because I don’t need it, but it seems that you can get to it on every last menu. Have to be disappointed in the battery life. If you call, recharge that day or your phone will die. On standby, it lasts 3-4 days. Calling is okay I guess. Sounds a little fuzzy, and is way off when calling someone near any sort of signal, i. e. the radio station. However, ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC RECEPTION!!! I was up a mountain 30 miles from anything worth mentioning, and I got 3 bars! Most of the time I get 6, yes, 6 bars. This phone goes to 6, not 5. A note, as long as you don’t have the picture of a phone with a slash through it, YOU HAVE RECEPTION. I had a 30 minute conversation with ONE BAR! I also could text with no bars. This phone is amazing for contact. Menu layout is simple, and there is much customization if you want it.
Rating: 4 / 5

Smith on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 8:11 am


I got this phone in July as a replacement for my stolen D-807, the precursor. The menu setups are almost identical, and it took me about a day to figure out the options that differed. My favorite feature of this phone is the “My Menu”, which lets you select the tools and applications you use most and order them accordingly. Mobile email did not include GMail, which I had to download separately (thank you Google!).

This phone was not made for text messaging. I do my share and do fine with it, but the quick-link create-a-message from the main screen does not allow you to access your inbox and outbox like the D-807 did, which is a feature I miss. The keys are flat and indistinguishable from each other, making typing a challenge. T9 is terrible and once the phone learns a word it tends to use it instead of high-use words. . for example, I entered an address months ago, the phone learned “Ct”, and every time I type “at” it gives me “Ct”. It’s just a quirk, but a really annoying one.

The thing that I dislike most about this phone is its flimsy build. It’s colorful, it’s cute and it’s almost a functional slider – nothing on the face to push to slide – but it’s incredibly fragile. I used to carry phones in my back pocket and broke the habit with this phone to try to extend its lifetime, so when I use a pocket it goes in a front pocket. Even that is too much for this phone, and I just bought a hardcover case for it because I’m concerned about the integrity of the casing. Fortunately Amazon Marketplace has a clear plastic cover for less than $4 including shipping. . . check it out Transparent Crystal Clear Case Cover for Brand Samsung SGH A737 A-737 Protective Cell Phone Hard SNAP-ON. I’ll write a review as soon as I get it.
Rating: 2 / 5

Brett E. Carlock on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 10:50 am


I was up for renewal and my x507 was getting long in the tooth. I ventured to the ATT store to shop for a phone (I was looking at the Centro). I loved the Centro till I realized I didnt know how to make a call. I gave that up right quick and then found the a737. I normally hate anything but flips, but this was sleek, nice, and came in a color thats different. It is more or less identical to the Sync, just a slider. Its amazing in nearly every regard except three things.

First, the locked JRE. This is bothersome as I have a ton of java apps that are FREE but the JRE is locked so you cant run java (easily) without downloading through WAP, which I refuse to pay for.

Second, the Recieve AGC (Auto Gain Control) is a mess and makes sounds waver from soft to loud. Use this code to find the menus to turn it off:
*#0002*audio# Its labeled Rx AGC.

Third, as noted above, the battery life does not compare to either my x427m, x497, or x507. Oh well, its a beast, a great media player (4gb MicroSD yay!), and an excellent phone. Better call quality in/out than my x507, and half the radiation!
Rating: 4 / 5

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