	Article Directory		Article Submission Service		Article Marketing Blog		Publishers		Member Log In

Article Directory :: Computers & Technology Articles

AT&T Samsung Impression Review

By Dagny Reardon

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 30Nov2009
Word count: 640
Viewed: 730 time(s)

Get Free Content For Your Site

The Samsung Impression (also known as the SGH-A877) is one of the most popular models offered both by Samsung and AT&T. If anything, it is the direct competitor to the iPhone, though both it and the Impression are offered under the AT&T banner.

The device is both smooth and curved. It feels good in one's hand and weighs just enough to give the rightful impression of quality. The subtle accents, like the well placed chrome, make the Impression stand out. It's detailed features, like the well designed proximity sensor that turns the display off when near your face, adds greatly to the overall quality of the Impression.

Unique to Samsung phones, the TouchWiz technology on the Samsung Impression is both fast and fun to use. Dragging your widgets onto the background from the side dock was fun, and the sheer number of widgets keeps one entertained. There's also a dedicated Bluetooth widget that makes for easy pairing, providing a cool graphical representation of nearby devices, which makes device selection nice and easy.

The media player was simple enough, and the microSD card expansion slot allows for up to 16GB of additional storage, something that eclipses even the iPhone.

Whatever else you think of the Samsung Impression the first thing you notice, and the key selling point, is the fantastic AMOLED display. Even in direct sunlight, the display is absolutely gorgeous. The colors are sharp and vibrant and details on the screen simply pop out at you. The color-rich display is a 3.2" wide TFT touchscreen, offering 256K color support at the surprisingly sharp resolution of 240 X 400. Without a doubt, the display is the real draw to this device. AMOLED displays are brighter, have better viewing angles, and consume far less power than any previous generation of displays.

The actual touchscreen is capacitive, and offers the user haptic feedback whenever a selection is made or when scrolling through menus. There is one weakness to the screen - it is thin plastic and it honestly scratches way too easily. This shouldn't dissuade you too much, though. If you buy this phone, just get a screen cover.

For its most basic purpose, the Samsung Impression is a good phone. Call quality was superb. The signal was rather strong for the AT&T network and the reception was clear and sounded good. The speakerphone on the Impression also worked well.

The AT&T MEdiaNet browser and 3G connection operate well together. The Impression's browser gives a legitimate imitation of the full web browser experience. Pages tended to load quickly, which is not at all bad for a device lacking WiFi. The browser is flexible, and can be used with either the full QWERTY keyboard, or the snazzy touchscreen keyboard that pops up when you close the device. The accelerometer made browsing in either portrait or landscape possible. The experience of web browsing was in fact rather satisfying.

The camera is superior for a cell phone. With 3.0MP, it takes high-quality photos that aren't too soft due to built-in noise-reduction. Plus, the colors are exceptionally vibrant on the AMOLED display. The included suite of photo editing and enhancing features are surprisingly easy to use, especially considering they are phone-level software. It almost borders on too much. Of course, the 3.0MP camera runs into the exact same problem every other camera phone does: it simply cannot replace a decent point and shoot. Not to say otherwise, in fact the included photo editing features are certainly a step in that direction.

In short, the Samsung Impression is an impressive feature phone. As long as the price is low, it is worth considering as an alternative to the iPhone. In fact, most authorized AT&T retailers are now offering it free with any new contract or contract renewal. It certainly is worth every cent (or lack thereof!).

Dagny Reardon is a cellular technology consultant and author who works for a variety of cellular and wireless technology websites. If you have read this review and are an AT&T customer (or want to switch to AT&T) you may want to buy the Samsung Impression cheap, or simply just look around for the best price on the Samsung Impression.

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here