Manage updates with the Download AppSamsung Solstice SGH-A887 (AT&T)
Manufacturer: Samsung Part number: 3900233
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Samsung Solstice offers a touch screen and multimedia features, but its performance isn't the best.
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CNET editors' review
Samsung Solstice SGH-A887 (AT&T) price range: $54.99 - $291.66
- Reviewed by: Kent German
- Reviewed on: 08/04/2009
- Released on: 07/30/2009
The good: The Samsung Solstice has an easy-to-use touch interface and a useful set of multimedia features. Photo quality is quite good.
The bad: The Samsung Solstice lacks instant messaging and the memory card slot is behind the battery. Call quality, browser speed, and video performance are unimpressive.
The bottom line: The Samsung Solstice offers a touch screen and multimedia features, but its performance isn't the best.
User reviews
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so far the best phone i've owned
by JacksSmirkingRevenge on September 25, 2009
Pros: sensitive,accurate screen,thin but durable,very light,bright screen,enough options for the average user,creative contacts list.plenty of ring tones.
Cons: low ear speaker sound.soft vibrate,MicroSD location(under battery)OS full keyboard a bit small.like any touchscreen,needs cleaning often.eyeglass cloth,$2 at wal-mart,etc..works great.
Summary: I tried 2 other touch screens prio to the solstice.The Xenon(had to replace 3 in 2 months)The Impression.I'm sure its a great phone new,but ...
Summary: I tried 2 other touch screens prio to the solstice.The Xenon(had to replace 3 in 2 months)The Impression.I'm sure its a great phone new,but it was sent as a refurb in place of the Xenon.but again i had problems with 2 of those before having them allow me to buy a new phone at new customer pricing without a new contract.
I'll be honest and say i did replace it once because it stopped reading my sim.but they replaced it new and its been smooth sailing ever since.hasnt froze,locked up,shut down or any other major touchscreen issues.So i'm very happy with what i have now.the screen is a good size,accurate,sensitive and fun to work with.as mentioned in cons,the OS full keyboard is a little too small and i have very thin fingers.I usually use the T9 on the dial pad and its great.T9 is very smart and easy to switch back to numbers or symbols.dialing is smooth and fast and have lost only 1 or 2 calls so far.I also mentioned the phones ear speaker.it is a bit quiet and can be hard to hear in semi-noisy areas.but overall not THAT bad.i have heard worse.calls are clear and static free.the person on the other end can hear you just fine.never got complaints.speaker phone isnt great and i never use now.echoing on both sides.not that you have to,but a good bluetooth headset clears most of these problems.i use one for the most part anyway.
there is a lot of memory,a good selection of ringtones on at&t available or use one of the list of the tones that it comes with.there are more than most phones and arent as hokey.of course there are a few but its expected.
MicroSD is located under the battery which makes it difficult to remove.USB recommended(not included).Internet package would be usefull as well to transfer or upload anything to or from..
But for the price and the pro's,it is worth every penny.i'm not a phone inernet guy nor do i listen to music off it.so it has more than i need but is there if i want it.I'm glad i went through the problems and stress of the other phones.makes me love this one even more.i would recommend it to anyone looking for a great touchscreen that isnt a overpriced over hyped iPhone.7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Wanted to like it but too many compromises.Sent back :(
by kwebmail on October 25, 2009
Pros: Biggest Pro? Call quality. Hands down this is the best cell phone I've ever had. People often thought I was on a land-line it sounded so good.
Thin and lightweight, much better size to carry than an iphone.
Nice virtual keyboard.Cons: Scrolling is poorly implemented. Far too many scrolls to move down a long list or browing.
Voice dialing (should be a strong selling point on a touch screen phone) is utter GARBAGE.
Speakerphone echoes.
AT&T junk pre-installed.
Other minor stuff.Summary: Man I REALLY tried to like this phone. My Sony W580i camera broke so I gave this a shot after reading the positive reviews. I like the size, not too ...
Summary: Man I REALLY tried to like this phone. My Sony W580i camera broke so I gave this a shot after reading the positive reviews. I like the size, not too big and bulky (iphone) not too expensive, nice size screen, good reviews, etc.
The ONE thing that made me keep trying to like it was the call quality. Honestly this thing sounds great, literally I had people asking if I was on a landline. Must be the network and phone combo in my area. This FAR exceeded my expectations and I've always thought "wow, if cell phones could just be great phones first I'd be in heaven.."....well, I was wrong.....there are other things that matter.
Unfortunately the great quality is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you have to hold it up to your ear at all times because you cannot use the speakerphone. It's just worthless. Trying to use the spearkerphone results in major feedback echoes that make it un-usaeble on the other end of the line (did anyone even TEST this function at Samsung?)
Surprisingly it had adequate battery life if you don't use the browser a lot.
Browser use depletes it pretty quick though.
Messaging is pretty easy, landscape mode and the virtual keyboard work well.
Bluetooth works well for file transfers.
The biggest 'across the board' problem is that scrolling is terrible. If you have a lot of contacts or are browsing the web, you'll soon get really sick of scroll, scroll, scroll to try to get through the data.
It really should have more 'inertial coasting' like the iphone or 'hold to continous scroll' buttom.
This was probably the deal breaker for me, since the phone has a nice large screen (which auto changes to landscape) and relatively fast on ATT 3G network. All the scrolling makes it simply not worthwhile to use for browsing and anything else you need to use like going through contacts.
A related issue I had (that you may not) was importing my contacts from the SIM. They came across in all kinds of screwed up ways (last name first, truncated names, missing numbers, etc). I have over 100 so this was not something I was looking forward to fixing but I started against my most frequently used contacts. Got about 30 of the common ones done to practice with in the month I had it.
And because the scrolling isn't great I tried to use the voice dialing (on a touch screen phone you can't dial without looking), Samsung uses some program called Nuance that is supposed to look at your contacts spelling and figure out the corresponding sound signature. good luck with that. You can't 'train' it and you can't improve it's accuracy rate.
I tried a couple of different ways of spelling my contacts, placing names in different fields and never got its accuracy above 1 out of 20 times on names. Numbers and yes/no work okay but so what? Overall it's just crap so there goes another potentially useful feature down the drain.
Honestly I prefer the 'training' approach of other phones as opposed to the 'one size fits none' of the Solstice. If it picks wrong once, it's ALWAYS going to pick wrong (these were not complicated names either). useless.
Minor stuff:
In landscape mode the camera lens is directly under where the fingers of your left hand rest. You can see and adjust though.
All the AT&T stuff is pay-to-play (navigator, demo games, etc etc) and better/free 3rd party apps (like GPS apps) won't work.
Scheduler, calendar doesn't default to having an alarm set to notify you when you enter a notice....what's the point of putting it in there if the thing won't remind you unless you scroll down and select 'alarm'.
Comes with nothing else useful in the box (no data cables, no headphones, no memory). I know this isn't new but c'mon couldn't Samsung toss a $1.25 data cable in there for your customers?
Bottom line I really wanted to like this phone but in the end I knew I'd just get more fed-up with its defects. I ended up taking the $35 hit on 're-stocking' and returned it.
Haven't found a replacement yet but I'm starting the search.
Hope this helps.4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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I chose this over the Eternity
by regaug on September 25, 2009
Pros: Touch screen is fast and responsive, better than the Eternity
Build quality seems excellent; leather-like non-scratchable back
Music player sits in memory making it easy to stop/start with bluetooth
Small and light for a touchscreenCons: Wish the widgets were customizable (like adding new ones)
Wish they hadn't downgraded the camera res (only thing that is better on Eternity)
Learning to scroll on the touchscreen takes some real practice
Memory card sits behind battery (nit pick)Summary: I disagree with a lot of CNET's review; this is a solid, nice phone. I chose this over the Eternity and LG's VU because it seemed to have ...
Summary: I disagree with a lot of CNET's review; this is a solid, nice phone. I chose this over the Eternity and LG's VU because it seemed to have a better quality build, and seemed less "clunky". The Touch Wiz interface seems more responsive on the Solstice; that and the vibe feedback make it much easier to text with, IMO.
I chose this over the Impression because it was cheaper, lighter and smaller, and after trying them both out in the store, I decided I didn't want the slide-out keyboard. I learned to txt with predictive T9, and I can do that faster than use qwerty with my thumbs
I did not compare call quality between the Impression and Solstice; but I have read several reviews complaining of call quality and especially speakerphone echo problems on the Solstice. My phone does NOT have these issues, call quality seems normal, I am told it sounds just fine on speakerphone. On my end, the quality of the speakerphone is not quite as good as my trusty old LG CU500 music phone, but acceptable considering I usually listen to music via bluetooth.4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Solid phone easy to use
by grantman54 on September 14, 2009
Pros: Widgets work well.
Two different ways you can text.
Touch works really well.
Good size.
Widgets are mostly useful.
Easy NavigationCons: No gmail.
2 mega pixel camera.Summary: Im really frustrated that Cnet rated this phone lower than the eternity. I have three friends that have the eternity and all have said the touch response works way better ...
Summary: Im really frustrated that Cnet rated this phone lower than the eternity. I have three friends that have the eternity and all have said the touch response works way better on the new Solstice. They also like the size and the camera difference is not really noticeable. Cnet seems to be as thorough in their compare and contrasts as they used to be
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Worst phone I have owned since 1993
by osubob on October 16, 2009
Pros: Price ($99), size and full keyboard.
Cons: Touch screen either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Screen too small for web use. Horrible web browser (may not be Samsung problem).
Summary: I bought this phone when I switched from a Blackberry Curve with Verizon to AT&T. It looked impressive in the store and the features appeared sufficient for my ...
Summary: I bought this phone when I switched from a Blackberry Curve with Verizon to AT&T. It looked impressive in the store and the features appeared sufficient for my needs. I would have kept the Blackberry, but it is incompatible with AT&T service.
I initially blamed the performance difficulties on my unfamiliarity with this type of phone; however, after 2 months of using it, I realize the problem is the phone and/or AT&T.
The touch screen is the worst that I have ever used. It is far too sensitive, especially when trying to scroll through contacts or surf the web. You are constantly switching to contacts or screens that you do not want and then having to go back and try again. Perhaps Samsung should have included a stylus. I have an HP Pocket PC and have started using the stylus with the Solstice whenever I use the internet.
If I had used the internet browser more during the 30 day trial period, I would have returned the phone to AT&T. I only use the internet feature whenever I am unsure about the quality or value of a product when I am shopping, so it is not a daily occurrence. After a couple of really frustrating experiences, I have taken the time to really test it out and find it extremely unfriendly.
I have had Motorola Q, Blackberry Curve, LG, and Motorola StarTac cell phones in the past and I have never been motivated to write a review about a cell phone until I used this one. It may work out for you, but find out during the 30 guarantee period. I will probably buy a blackberry soon and chalk up the $99 cost for this phone to a learning experience.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Couldnt have been more simple.
by heston91134 on October 30, 2009
Pros: Its slim. Lightweight, feels good in your hands. A one hander phone. And it definatley has a great camera. Good with text messaging picture and video messaging alike. Okay call quality. Fast 3G service support
Cons: Not as "hackable" as other at&t phones. A little laggy or unresponsive at times, but not very frequently. Voice command and GPS functions suck up a bunch of virtual memory.
Summary: Okay, if you are planning to stick with a fun phone that you'd want to use for about a year, its great. If you are looking for a phone ...
Summary: Okay, if you are planning to stick with a fun phone that you'd want to use for about a year, its great. If you are looking for a phone with hacking capabilities and a little more complex interface...... not so much this one. This phone has been great to me, so far. It didnt stick a bulge in my pocket and didnt feel cheap. Although, at times it might have lagged but ending all the programs on the shortcut menu usually solves that. The camera was excellent. Especially when sending it in a picture message. And the video camera quality was excellent too. I had wished for a more hackable phone, especially for WiFi (I was let down) but one of the most unique things that make it stand out is the accelarometer (however you spell that). This opens up ALOT of opportunities to this phone. When you needed to put the phone on mute, all you had to do was put the phone face down on a flat surface, or when you needed to snooze on an alarm, do the same. One thing that i would have liked it to have was a slide to unlock bar. It DOES have one but it is used only to unlock the timer when the time is up. The app store is fairly useful, but isnt even a percentage of what the apple app store is like on the iphone. If you are in a mix of this or the LG VU, go with this. If you are in a mix with this or the Iphone, go with the iphone. And if you are going to buy this phone, get it at a discount retailer, like walmart, for example. Thats where all the phone review junkies get theirs.
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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All around good phone. Usable and reliable.
by jrob0115 on June 29, 2010
Pros: sleek design, easy to use, reliable, very durable --holds up well against being dropped 1000 times.
Cons: Nothing special. No feature stands outs. Looks more impressive than it actually is.
Summary: Overall, I really like this phone. I have never had an issue while using it, and the fuctionality of the phone is easy to get used used(i.e the ...
Summary: Overall, I really like this phone. I have never had an issue while using it, and the fuctionality of the phone is easy to get used used(i.e the touch screen qwerty keyboard) If one plans to use this phone for a lot of texting and frequent phone calls while not sacrificing design or "new technology" (for example, having a flip phone vs this phone)this is the phone for them. I also purchased the "newer" design, I believe is called the Mythic, after I thought I lost my phone (found it a week later) and the AT&T employee actually suggested I stick with the Solstice. It is just very reliable and practical. There are no bells and whistle, but then again, you're purchasing a phone, and sometimes carrying around a minicomputer (aka smartphones) is just not necessary.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great phone and very easy to use, I love it!
by sydmax111 on April 6, 2010
Pros: Holds battery good
Great touch screen
Easy to use
Very durable and doesn't break eaisly
Great camera and many camera options
Light weight and good sizeCons: The touch keyboard is kind of hard to use
Hard to scroolSummary: I have had my Solstice for about 5 months and I haven't had one problem with it.The Samsung Solstice is a great phone. I expected it to not ...
Summary: I have had my Solstice for about 5 months and I haven't had one problem with it.The Samsung Solstice is a great phone. I expected it to not work too well for being so cheap but it works great! The battery holds a charge for a long time ( mine goes up to about 6 days without needing recharged). The touch screen works a lot better then I had expected and is VERY accurate, the only problem with it is that it can be hard to scrool down without accidently hitting something and it going to that. The Solstice is very easy to use and would be a good first phone to get. It was my first phone and I got used to it within the first day or two. It's not complicated at all. It is a very durable phone and doesn't break eaisly. Some people complain about how they drpped it and it froze or quit working. If your responsible with the phone and don't treat it like a toy then it wont break. I have actually dropped it once or twice but nothing at all happend and the screen will not crack. This phone has also never froze for me. It is very light weight and a perfect size. The camera is GREAT. I love the camera because it has so many editing options for pictures like warping, croping, rotating, adding frames and clip art, and a lot of other things. I didn't expect the camera to be so good and the pictures are very clear, the only bad thing is that I don't think the camera has a zoom, which can be annoying. The only bad thing I have really found with the phone is that it is kind of hard to text on the touch screen because the letters are small and you hit the wrong keys a lot, it does have predictive text though which is nice.Besides the keyboard being hard to text on, the Solstice is a great phone. I would recommend this phone to anyone looking for a great cheap costing phone.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great phone
by greywolf_keeper on March 20, 2010
Pros: easy to use even for my non-techie husband. Bought 4 - one for me & my husband & one for each son. Like that we can link to each other's phones via bluetooth & transfer files for free. The ringtones are actually loud. Speakerphone is decent
Cons: none that I can think of.
Summary: easy to use, good size, great camera, ringtones are great
Summary: easy to use, good size, great camera, ringtones are great
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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I am REALLY enjoying this phone!
by takeniteasy55 on February 24, 2010
Pros: Touch screen is responsive, camera is great. Love the text T-9 on this phone! Nice feel in my hand. seems well made.
Cons: Gets stuck occasionally, but hey, what the heck. Speaker phone quality could be better
Summary: I had a Motorola 3xx before I got this phone, and I have to admit that I was a bit shy about going to a touchscreen. My husband went to ...
Summary: I had a Motorola 3xx before I got this phone, and I have to admit that I was a bit shy about going to a touchscreen. My husband went to a Samsung Impression, which he never complained about, and believe me, thats a bit on the WOW side here. He normally always has a complaint! His phone was a bit too bulky for me with small hands, so I checked into the Samsung Solstice. After alot of agony and research, and my husbands coaxing, I decided to get it. Am I ever glad I did!
Camera is great, video also. Thats always been a point with me about a phone as this is my main picture and video machine.
The touch phone part of it has improved as I use it. Getting used to it was easy, and the first few days was a joy to explore all the features of the phone.
Love the widgets! have redone them to exactly what I want handy. Yes, it would be nice to customize it, but really everything you really need is there.
I am really pleased with this phone and have told all my friends to look into the Samsung Touch screen products. Honestly, if you are reading this, look into the touch screen phones from Samsung. You will be glad you did!
Footnote: I wasn't much of a texter before I got this phone, but since have I have started using between the qwerty and the T-9 on the phone I had to upgrade my messaging package. So, texting is really really good!1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Part number: 3900233
- Description: If you're into messaging, social networking and having the latest and greatest, pick up a Samsung Solstice. This advanced touch screen puts the features you use most right at your fingertips. There's a 2.0-megapixel camera and virtual QWERTY keyboard so you can share images and thoughts. There are social networking apps to keep you up to speed. And there's GPS Navigation so it's easy to meet up with the crowd. In other words, the Solstice lets you update your status and improve it at the same time.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Product Type Cellular phone
- Form Factor Touch
- Phone Design PDA
- Integrated Components Voice recorder,
Digital camera,
Digital player - Antenna Internal
- Width 2.1 in
- Depth 0.5 in
- Height 4.3 in
- Weight 3.3 oz
- Body Color Black
Cellular
- Technology WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
- Band WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
- Mobile Broadband Generation 3G
- Service Provider AT&T
- Software Platforms Supported Java
- Input Device(s) Touch sensitive screen
Messaging & Internet
- Cellular Messaging Services SMS
- Instant Messaging Services Yahoo! Messenger,
AOL Instant Messenger Service (AIM),
Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) - Messaging & Data Features Text messages,
Voice mail,
E-Mail,
Picture messages,
Instant messages - Downloadable Content Ring tones,
Graphics,
Games,
Videos,
Applications Communications
- Wireless Interface Bluetooth
- Bluetooth Profiles Serial Port Profile (SPP),
Object Push Profile (OPP),
Headset Profile (HSP),
File Transfer Profile (FTP),
Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP),
Basic Imaging Profile (BIP) - Communication Features Internet browser
Phone Features
- Phone Functions Call timer,
Conference call,
Speakerphone,
Vibrating alert - Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Polyphonic Ring Tone Voice Qty 72
- Additional Features Touch screen,
Speakerphone,
16 GB microSD card slot Organizer
- Personal Information Management Calendar,
Calculator,
Reminder,
Alarm clock - Missed Calls Memory 30
- Dialed Calls Memory 30
- Received Calls Memory 30
- Phone Book Entries Qty 2000
Media Player
- Supported Digital Audio Standards MP3,
AAC
Memory
- User Memory 189 MB
- Supported Flash Memory Cards Micro SDHC
Digital Camera
- Sensor Resolution 2 megapixels
Navigation System
- GPS Navigation A-GPS receiver
Display
- Type LCD display - Color
- Technology TFT
- Diagonal Size 3 in
- Display Resolution 240 x 400 pixels
- Color Depth 18-bit (262000 Colors)
- Multi-language Menu Yes
- Display Languages English,
French,
Spanish Battery
- Technology Lithium ion
- Capacity 1000 mAh
- Run Time Details Talk - up to 300 min,
Standby - up to 250 hour(s) Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Power adapter , Power adapter
Product series
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Samsung Solstice SGH-A887 (AT&T)
Manufacturer: Samsung
Specs: AT&T,
WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM,
Up to 300 min,
With digital camera / digital player,
3.3 oz,
2 megapixels,
3 in
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Samsung products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Samsung
- Address:
105 Challenger Road, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 - Phone: 1-800-726-7864
- Fax: 1-973-601-6001
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