It’s Handy & Trendy I am a Nokia fan but switched over to Samsung SGH-A800 because of its compact size, trendy look and heavy discount offered by the local dealer – not from gray market. Samsung SGH-A800 is one of the latest from Samsung with duel bands. Duel bands are GSM 900 + DCS 1800 and I have little knowledge about it so will avoid to write about it. It is very small because SGH-A800 is a flapper type version. Like all other Samsung models, it is also not as sturdy as my old friend 3310 is. Salient Features- Design of Samsung SGH-A800 with flapper made it very compact that weighing about 80 gm with an admirable dimension of 76.3 x 44.2 x 22.7 mm. It is a “Hang it from the neck” phone. # My handset is in silver metallic with a blue backlight. It has seven color LED and 16 Polyphonic Ringtones. However, you cannot download and save those popular Indian ringtones. Even so, Polyphonic ringtone of SGH-A800 creates a center of attention of all others. # A-800 comes with customizable Memory Allocation. Not yet tried it. # Battery is integral part the back lid like all other Samsung cell phones. It has 800 mA, Lithium-Ion battery with talk time upto 3 hours and 120 hours standby (never bothered to check this claim of Samsung). Battery takes too much of time to get charged unlike Nokia. # The outside display (on the flapper) has 64x64 pixels of resolution and can display up to three lines of text with digital clock option – good enough for basic information. # The inner display has 128X128 pixels of resolution. You have choice of seven colors - white, yellow, light blue, green, violet, orange and dark blue. It can associate a call indicator light with phone numbers from the phone book – better-half can be easily identified – thank god – Samsung is great. # It has three games - fortress, space war and x-fighter but there is no option to download extra games. I am not a great gamer so not much of problem for me but sons are not amazed by these games. # Other features include Voice recording, commanding and memo - Typical of Samsung but not yet tried. Experience - Using it since one month and took sometime to accustomed with it only because it is much delicate than 3310/3315 or even 3610. Initially I used to open the flap very carefully and in that process the side button used to get pressed and calls were rejected. Now I have set the option to silence mode so only ringtone made silent. Pros: It is a good-looking phone – Trendy & Handy. Good sound and choice of Polyphonic Ringtones made it attractive however many do not like to download ringtones of their choice and that is not possible. Good features – it took some time to figure out how to use them. I am not crazy about too many features so not at all a problem. Please check its features before buying it if you are feature crazy chap. It is Handy and Trendy. That’s the problem – its cute look tempt other to explore it. My heart run faster when someone open the flapper to see the inner screen and close it the flapper with a bang. Friends, A-800 is not designed for muscleman. It has a navigator with a choice to select four features for quick selection. You can choose four features that you use frequently. Friends, that’s a useful feature to make life little comfy. Clock with blue screen-light on the outside screen is useful. Outer screen also display name of the caller/number or number of missed call or message. Message alert is has options of continuous ringing or intermittent or only once or vibration. It will not ring continuously if set for intermittent ring. That’s a great feature to ignore the messages of annoying BPL-Mobile when I enter Mumbai. Cons: Initially A-800 is not an easy to use handset even with the instruction book – at least true for me. Maybe, I am used to Nokia phones and they are simple to use and logical. You cannot download any pictures or ringtones. It does not support latest trends of picture messaging. Writing message is not that easy with my thick fingers – needs some more practice. Delicate one unlike my old friend Nokia 3310 that had survived many falls. General Comments: I love the style of this Samsung A800 mobile phone – Sleek & Trendy with great polyphonic tones - hang it from the neck and move around. Like any other Samsung cell-phones, A-800 has Samsung features like Voice Command/Dial. A-800 is a cool phone, even though it does not have a camera or colored screen – not a CIA agent so camera is not necessary for me. According to some of the friends, the newer software is better than the older version – no personal experience and till today not faced any software related problem. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A good buy if you are looking for a Mobile Handset that is sleek and trendy and at same time do not bother about too much of features. Cost as of today - INR 9k+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jan-2004