Cnet report on Samsung T100..Which is SprintPCS A500(Samsung)

[kenwood]

The Samsung SGH-T100 tugs at your heart, not your mind. For the price tag of almost S$800, you would expect features such as Bluetooth, GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), or--at the very least--infrared.


The SGH-T100 offers none of that. Instead, it comes with a spectacular color display, awesome sound and a sleek, curvy silhouette--and succeeds in appealing to our innermost desire for beauty.





The Appearance
For a start, this silver clamshell is ergonomically designed, looks attractive, and feels comfortable in the hand. Admittedly though, some might consider the 94g handset is a tad chunky.

A small screen on its front cover shows the time and date during standby. It also informs you when there's an incoming call or message. The buttons inside, although large, are lacking in key depth.

True Color
The real treat comes when you open the SGH-T100. This handset features a 4,096-color Thin Film Transistor (TFT) display--leveraging on Samsung's technology in computer monitors and television sets. Compared to conventional Super Twist Nemestic (STN) handset screens, the colors of the SGH-T100 are richer and brighter. Its viewing angles are excellent, and the colors show up well outdoors.

Samsung has also made some changes to its software menu, in order to better harness its large 128 x 160-pixel color screen. For instance, the SGH-T100 comes with a number of preset background pictures for use as wallpapers. It is also possible to change the color schemes of the menus.

Sweet Music
The Samsung SGH-N620 was impressive enough with its 16-polyphonic capabilities. The SGH-T100 goes one better with its superior speakers. The ringing melodies come across clear and crisp, while the phone vibrates in rhythm. However, some users might miss incoming calls as polyphonic ringtones are typically not as shrill and noticeable as conventional ones.

There is also a melody composer onboard, but it only allows users to create single-track ringtones.

Lesser Features
Samsung phones are generally responsive, but the SGH-T100 seems to be much slower than its predecessors. This can be seen in some of the other features.

For instance, the SGH-T100 comes with three games, but two of them are much too slow for any enjoyment. "AirShooting" looks promising enough--until the gameplay begins. Then you find yourself shooting down enemy aircraft in slow motion. The third game is better--an interesting Tamagotchi clone where you can feed, shower, or teach a kitten. The polyphonic sound effects and vibrant graphics will make this a favorite with the young-at-heart.

Other features include a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 1.1 browser, a scheduler, an alarm and a calculator. Like the SGH-N500, the service light can customized to show different colors.

Surprisingly, the voice-dial of the SGH-T100 is buggy like the SGH-N500's, failing to register spoken commands. As before, speaking through a handsfree kit seemed to solve that problem.

The memory capacity of the phone is good for 500 phonebook entries. The predictive text feature of the SMS is sluggish by Samsung's standards, while Chinese text input is not supported. The phone comes with more than 40 preset ringtones, and almost all are polyphonic.

Box Full Of Extras
As is often the case with high-end phones, the SGH-T100 comes with several accessories, including a lanyard-cum-handsfree, an extra battery, a hand string, as well as PC-link cable and software.

Installation of the PC-link software is straightforward. Using the serial cable, you can download content from the CD-Rom, which contains more than 400 pictures and 200 ringtones. This nifty addition also allows you to upload your personal pictures as wallpapers.

Polyphonic melodies can be downloaded the same way. The SGH-T100 supports ringtone files in an MMF format, and cannot be played back from conventional programs. However, Samsung has thoughtfully included the WAV or ASF format of each ringtone, so you can preview it with the Windows Media Player. Alternatively, software tools that play MMF can be found on the Web.

While the PC-link cable does the job admirably, here's when the absence of an infrared port is most evident. Owners of notebooks, especially ultraportables without serial ports, might prefer to use infrared.

Reception And Battery Life
The reception of the phone is good. We managed to obtain a signal even in areas with dodgy network coverage. Voice quality with and without the handsfree kit was also satisfactory.

Samsung expects the standard Lithium-ion battery to last more than an hour of talktime and 60 hours on standby. With the bright color display, the SGH-T100 lasted us two days of normal usage. This is still much shorter than the other color phone, the Ericsson T68, which gave us four days. Thankfully, the extended battery included with the package should provide longer usage time.

Conclusion
At S$768 (with a two-year plan), the SGH-T100 left us with mixed emotions. It offers precious little in the way of connectivity, making it less than ideal for road warriors. Yet it excels at its core competencies. If you want a phone that simply looks and sounds good, look no further.

Can you tell me how to get the PC Link Software? I purchase a A500 and it talks about this software and I am having a dickens of a time locating it. Thanks.

[jasonmerrick]

This is a UK Samsung site with all of their available software for download. The software for the T100 is available there.

I have no idea though if it will work for your A500. I just downloaded the EasyGPRS software for the SGH-S100 to try on my SGH-S105. I will post the results.

After following the link, click on SUPPORT, then MOBILE PHONES, then FILE DOWNLOADS.
SAMSUNG UK

[jasonmerrick]

Where on C|Net did you find this article? I can't find any reference to a T100 review or story on their wireless or any of their other sites... ?

Also, for those interested, I have started a thread on the EasyGPRS software I downloaded for my SGH-S105.