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The TV program grid. How does TV look? Great if you're in a good coverage area. It's much better than anything you've seen streamed over CV (AT&T's streaming media service). No blocky-choppy, out of sync video here. But if you're at the edge of coverage things aren't so pretty and the video will drop frames and look blocky. In our two story house in a Dallas suburb, TV worked but we experienced drop-outs and blockiness, especially on the 1st floor. The LG Vu, thanks to its extendable antenna, managed a good, sharp picture with no drops. In downtown Dallas and downtown Seattle, the Samsung did fine though, with a very sharp, clear picture and smooth frame rates. TV plays back full screen with no bars since the display has the same 4:3 TV aspect ratio as broadcast TV (the widescreen LG Vu has bars on the sides). The TV grid looks similar to something you'd see with cable or dish TV on a home set. Phone, Reception and Data TV's nice but the Access better do a good job with calls. The Samsung is a quad band GSM world phone that works on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands for GSM and EDGE. It has HSDPA 3.5G on the US 850/1900MHz bands for fast data and CV (Cellular Video streaming media). AT&T charges $15/month for unlimited data, and that includes a good deal of CV streaming content like news, weather and more (some content comes at a fee, like HBO Mobile). The phone can act as a wireless high speed modem via Bluetooth DUN, and AT&T charges extra for that pleasure, as do all US carriers. The Access has good reception that's not quite as good as the top Nokia phones or the Motorola Z9, but it beats the LG Vu and some other feature phones on AT&T.
Incoming call quality and volume are very good, but outgoing call quality has one fault: there's no DSP whatsoever according to our call recipients' keen ears. This means that background noise is transmitted to your call recipient. Running water in a sink (and we're talking a moderate stream, not a blast) sounded like wet veggies dropped into a vat of hot oil- a deafening, ongoing sizzle. A TV playing in the background sotto voce competed for our listener's attention. If you often make calls from noisy locations like busy streets or malls, plan on using the wired headset or a Bluetooth headset with a DSP. Happily, the Jawbone, whose claim to fame is noise reduction, worked well with the Access and cured the problem, though incoming voice wasn't the clearest (this is a complaint we have with the Jawbone and many phones). The Plantronics Explorer 330 sounded lovely on both ends: loud, clear and all but wind noise were acceptably filtered. Range was also good, averaging 15 to 20 feet. For music lovers, the Access supports stereo over Bluetooth via A2DP and sound quality was good with the Samsung SBH500 and Nokia BH-503 stereo headsets. The phone supports all common call features including call waiting, conference calling, speakerphone (quite clear and loud), speed dial (8 numbers plus 1 which is assigned to voicemail), but there's no voice dialing. The address book can hold 1,000 records with fields for first and last name, email addresses, IM address, group, caller photo ID, ringtone and notes. For those of you using AT&T's VideoShare one-way video calling, the Access A827 supports it.
The Access NetFront 3.4 web browser is quite good and it supports cookies, certificates, bookmarks, history, some Javascript and can send URL's via messaging. It has a Smart Fit view option along with standard desktop view and it handles most HTML web sites well in addition to WAP sites. The IM client works with AIM, Yahoo IM and Windows Live Messenger and supports most features from these services. Mobile Email is less impressive because it only supports a few services such as Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Earthlink and NetZero (you can't enter settings for providers not supported by the Java-based email app). Fun and Games The Samsung Access' music player handles most common formats including WMA, MP3, unprotected AAC and M4A iTunes format. The player sounds good through the rear-firing stereo speakers and much better through a stereo headset. AT&T includes a wired stereo headset in the box, and you can use Bluetooth stereo headsets with the phone. The music player has an equalizer, shuffle, loop and can sort by artist, album and song title, playlist as well as genre. It can play in the background while you're surfing the web or using other applications and you can store quite a lot of tunes on an 8 gig microSD card (the highest capacity card the phone supports according to Samsung). When running in the background, the current song title and player controls appear on screen indicating that you should hit the d-pad right or left to skip a track or press the center button to pause playback. Playback automatically pauses when a call comes in. Gaming on the Samsung Access is a joy: excellent speed, bright screen and very good stereo sound via the included headset. We tested a good number of games including Asphalt 3: Street Rules 3D (Gameloft) and Diner Dash (Glu), all games ran very well on the phone.
Battery Life The Samsung Access has average battery life by HSDPA phone standards. Claimed talk time is 4 hours and that's accurate according to our tests. Samsung doesn't state the battery capacity in mAh, but it's the same battery as the Samsung Ace which is 1300 mAh. That's a pretty good capacity battery for a slim, non-smartphone and it helps the Access last through an hour of TV along with 30 minutes of calls, some IM action and 30 minutes of CV streaming with power to spare. Conclusion If broadcast mobile digital TV has you all hot and bothered, the Samsung Access isn't a bad place to start. Especially if you prefer a traditional phone design and a lower price tag. The LG Vu is sexier and more fun, but if touch screens aren't your thing, the fascination ends there. The Access has better 3G reception than the Vu, but the Vu wins on outgoing call quality and camera. Both receive a sharp and beautiful TV picture in strong mobile TV coverage areas (which have nothing to do with phone or 3G reception), but the Vu's dorky antenna is better if you're in a suburban location that suffers TV jitters and wobbles on the Access. Likely most folks will pick up this phone for the TV feature since other AT&T phones at the same price point or lower offer more features or hotter looks (Moto Z9, LG Shine, Nokia N75 and Samsung's own BlackJack II). Pro: Has TV tuner (if that's your thing). Sharp, bright display, great built-in speakers are perfect for TV and other multimedia. Access NetFront browser is one of the best on feature phones and can handle HTML web sites. Large, easy to use buttons and d-pad-- the Samsung has good ergonomics. Con: Outgoing call quality issues with background noise transmitted to call recipient. Lack of TV antenna reduces potential TV viewing area. No voice dialing.
Price: $199.99 with 2-year contract after mail-in rebate. $449.99 without contract. Web sites: www.samsungmobileusa.com, wireless.att.com
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