Manage updates with the Download AppSamsung SPH-A640 (Sprint)
Manufacturer: Samsung Part number: SPH-a640
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Though its design is uninspired, the Samsung SPH-A640 is a functional and well-performing cell phone for midrange users.
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Where to buy
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| Memory4Less.com | Not yet rated | In stock | as of 06/18/2013 |
CNET editors' review
Samsung SPH-A640 (Sprint) price range: $91.60 - $149.99
- Reviewed by: Kent German
- Reviewed on: 07/10/2006
The good: The Samsung SPH-A640 offers clear call quality and a useful range of features, including a VGA camera with sharp photos, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone.
The bad: The Samsung SPH-A640 has a dull design, with a monochrome external display. Also, the speakerphone call quality is variable.
The bottom line: Though its design is uninspired, the Samsung SPH-A640 is a functional and well-performing cell phone for midrange users.
User reviews
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This phone is much better than the equally-rated Sanyo 3100. . .
by SadieLane on September 13, 2006
Pros: Vivid screen, crystal clear sound, intuitive interface
Cons: "Night-rider" casing is kind of cheesy and it smudges easily
Summary: I truely appreciate CNET reviews andoften read them before purchasing anything, but. . .I don't know what CNET was thinking, giving this the same 6.6 rating it gave to ...
Summary: I truely appreciate CNET reviews andoften read them before purchasing anything, but. . .I don't know what CNET was thinking, giving this the same 6.6 rating it gave to the Sanyo 3100. That phone has a clunky and unintuitive interface, a pretty clunky casing, terrible image-quality on its monitor, an aweful camera, embarrassing ring tone options, and garbled sound.
The Samsung A640 is a much better phone. Sure, it's "night-rider" style exterior is kind of cheesy, but it's not *that* bad. It's a light, sleek phone with a bright, clear monitor; a decent camera; great sound on voice calls; and a much better text messaging interface (than the 3100).
I would give the Sanyo 3100 a "6" (not a "6.6") and the Samsung A640 at least an "8" for it's price range (not a "6.6"). Neither are top-of-the-line, but if you don't want to spend $100 on a phone, the A640 is a totally acceptable phone.8 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very Good Phone. Shocked with results!
by Uifz on July 21, 2006
Pros: Crystal Clear Calls, Applications, Games, Able to play Videos, Decent Camera, Small, Very Light, Very Cool Display Screen
Cons: VERY SHORT Battery life, small buttons,
Summary: Recently switched plans over to Sprint and they were offering a very good deal. A free Samsung A 940 Phone with any plan purchase. So I didn't really look ...
Summary: Recently switched plans over to Sprint and they were offering a very good deal. A free Samsung A 940 Phone with any plan purchase. So I didn't really look at any of the phones I just chose one that was free and one that I could sell online for a few hundred bucks. I was looking more for a phone that had multimedia such as a 2.0-3.0MP Camera with video recording ability. However, after trying this phone out, I was very shock with the results. My original plan on selling this phone for $300 on eBay was no more. I surprise how good this phone is especially since it came free with my service. Everyone thinks its just one of those flip it phones, but this certainly is not the case.
The phone is great, it's small and very lightweight, i've never had a smaller phone. You can call this a multimedia phone. It's able to play videos, watch tv with the Sprint Network, run applications, run 3D Games and of course a camera that takes decent quality pictures. I believe its 1.3MP but the quality comes out better then most 1.3 cameras. Sadly, there is no video recording or memory slot for memory expansion, but don't let that stop you from checking this phone out.
I was very impress with the calls. Crystal clear and I would only have one or two bars at my house. Speaker phone is pretty good, it gets really loud. I also love the display on the front of this phone before you 'flip it'. It's very colorful, tells the time, service, battery life, whose calling, missed alerts, what applications are running, and even more impressive is that you can also take self photo shots of yourself. If you click the camera key while you have it open and while the camera is running and you close the phone, the front display will start capturing pictures as long as you press the camera key from the side of the phone. That's a very neat and cool feature!
Of course every new gadget has to have its downsides. The one thing that will drive me crazy is the very short battery life. The battery life is pretty bad and I've experience some bad ones. Such as, I would be using the phone for half an hour for applications and maybe half an hour for talking. Within that 24 hour time period, i use the phone for about 1 full hour, leaving it on the rest of the day. After this 24 hour period, it needs to be recharged. Sadly, if you end up getting this neat little phone, you will need to convince yourself that you will have to charge it every 24 hours if you want to leave it on continuously. Your best bet is to get a car charger which is only $5 on eBay this way you can charge while going to work/school while at home.
One more thing I would like to add to the downside, which isn't much of a big problem for me but there are times where I tend to have difficulty. Since the size of the phone, it tends to have a small keypad. Even though my fingers aren't very big, I always tend to hit other buttons while making a call or trying to go the menu. But I guess that just takes practice. That's not going to prevent me from using an awesome phone.5 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Worst phone ever
by amirhadji on August 18, 2006
Pros: Nice Design
Cons: Terrible sound quality, poor reception
Summary: I got this phone from Bell Canada last week.
I had a Samsung a460 for 3 years and had no problem with that. Since I upgrade!!! my phone to a640 ...Summary: I got this phone from Bell Canada last week.
I had a Samsung a460 for 3 years and had no problem with that. Since I upgrade!!! my phone to a640 I was in big trouble.
First of all the reception is awful. I seldem got full anntena bar in exact same places I had full signal with a460.The signal bar goes up and down every second like your home stereo equalizer display. It drops calls more than usual.
The worst thing about this phone is sound quality.80% of times it skips incoming(caller's) sound and it is like the other side is talking with a Walki Talki.
There is so much intrruption and sound is not Continues and I had problem undretanding what the other side is saying.
I went to Bell and complained about the phone, and they exchange it with with another one but still I have the exact same problems.
P.S. Bell has a good coverage and I had no problem with my old a460
Buttom line: never ,never get this phone unless you want to through it out of window.4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great Phone - poor subscriber service
by Larry John on August 12, 2006
Pros: Loved the futurisitc look of the phone
Cons: Sprint has setup the phone so it will not connect to a computer
Summary: I need to start off with - "CNET does not hold too or indorse my opinion of this product or services in any way, shape, or design, the opinion represented ...
Summary: I need to start off with - "CNET does not hold too or indorse my opinion of this product or services in any way, shape, or design, the opinion represented here is wholly my own and was formed from my contact with Sprint PSC and their paid representatives."
Yep.. I tried to get this phone to work in the "Bluetooth" mode with my Mac, so I could DL the phone book and never lose it again if the phone was damaged. BIG SURPRISE, Sprint PCS has a new option for you... it's called Wireless Backup and its a "pay" for service option. (No wonder they manipulated the phone in such a manner, "all the better you rip you off Grandma!") According to Sprint PCS tech/Mac support. This Bluetooth link option has been removed from the phone. It will not link to a Mac, Heck it will not even link with existing programs like BitPim, Data Pilot or Future Dial I've tried. When it does link with a Mac via Bluetooth, it only list using the phone as a modem source. That's all it can and will do, and I have searched the web high and low to find a driver to make this work.
This is a classic example of the old "Bait and Switch" routine. Sprint advises the unit is "Bluetooth compatible", but they will not elaborate, on what exactly their definition of "Bluetooth compatible" is. When you make a complaint about this... their opinion is "Too Bad So Sad, but you still have a two year contract with us..."
Maybe they forgot to read the Consumer protection laws regarding intentionally flawed products.6 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good phone for the money.
by AiXeLsyD13 on October 25, 2006
Pros: One of Sprint's cheaper phones.
Cons: One of Sprint's cheaper phones.
Summary: It works well as a phone. No video or mp3 playing or anythign fancy. But... if you want a phone to call people, it works pretty damn well.
Summary: It works well as a phone. No video or mp3 playing or anythign fancy. But... if you want a phone to call people, it works pretty damn well.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Far better phone than my Treo
by gbaldasarri on October 9, 2006
Pros: Light! Great feature set!
Cons: Not terribly intuitive
Summary: I picked up this little phone because I'm tired of dragging around my Treo 650. The Treo is great for my work needs but it's very lacking as ...
Summary: I picked up this little phone because I'm tired of dragging around my Treo 650. The Treo is great for my work needs but it's very lacking as a phone. The volume is weak, to say the least and it's not very BlueTooth friendly. The Samsung works great with all four BlueTooth headsets that I've got and has a ton of features.
The setup isn't the most user friendly but spending some time with the book that comes with it fixes that. Voice dialing is a piece of cake, volume is super and the camera is a great little bonus. I'm spoiled by the thumb keyboard on my Treo so loading all my contacts was tedious but that's a small price to pay.
The call quality is great and as long as I keep my finger off the hinge reception is easily as good at my Treo.
Anyone looking for a functional, light, inexpensive phone can't go wrong with this little guy.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Better than the Sanyo 3100
by lovestobuy on October 3, 2006
Pros: Voice recognition dialing. Thin and compact
Cons: Speaker phone feature could be better, no picture id on cover
Summary: It was time for a new phone my old phone(Samsung A620) is still in great shape. I got the Sanyo 3100 and went home and started programing it. For ...
Summary: It was time for a new phone my old phone(Samsung A620) is still in great shape. I got the Sanyo 3100 and went home and started programing it. For the first couple of days the voice activated dialing worked. After that it was more miss than hit. I do most of my calls while driving and wasn't aware that there is a difference between voice activated dialing and voice recognition dialing. With the Sanyo you have to "train" the phone to recognize your voice which should be easy.. IT IS NOT!!. I love the voice recognition feature that is on both my old 620 and the 640. Just say the name or number and it dials it. Anyone can use the phone and say a name/number and the phone will dial. I do miss my caller id picture on the cover that I had with the 620 but I can live without it. I wanted a speaker phone and in this regards it definitely does not measure up to the Sanyo 3100, which worked great as a speaker phone. But the 640 has bluetooth, so I will just get a headset. All in all I rather be safer driving with the voice recognition dialing than getting frustrated hoping that the Sanyo recognizes the word "home". Plus it only cost $30, where as the Sanyo was $40.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Bluetooth does work?
by Mw240 on October 1, 2006
Pros: Good price.
Cons: Ease of sending vcards from computer to phone.
Summary: This is for Mac users. I'm not sure about MS. I just got this phone and was disapointed when my vcards wouldn't transfer to the phone. You can ...
Summary: This is for Mac users. I'm not sure about MS. I just got this phone and was disapointed when my vcards wouldn't transfer to the phone. You can work around this problem by going to Address Book preferences and changing the vcard format to 2.1. You then have to export the vcards to your documents folder INDIVIDUALLY and from there you can send all files from the Bluetooth File Exchange to the phone. Not as simple as it shoud be, but it works. This is how I finally got it to work. There may be a faster way, but I couldn't find it. Good luck.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Here is how you can download pics from SPH-A640, Great Phone
by imonlytesting on August 31, 2006
Pros: reception is ok, great look, good features
Cons: low ring volume
Summary: Damn companies are tryin to cheat their way into your pockets by making you use their services to download your photos from your cell? Well, it is possible and will ...
Summary: Damn companies are tryin to cheat their way into your pockets by making you use their services to download your photos from your cell? Well, it is possible and will only cost the cable (which i got from ebay). This nice guy (not me) found a way (to cheat) and download/upload photos and upload ring tunes (free midi files) from and to the A-640 phone:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=983423
The program used is BITPIM and it's free. yay. It's working for me. The phone is also great.
PS, don't pay those bastards with retail prices, buy on ebay (but be careful what you buy),
take care,2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent phone! Great reception, easy to use and super sleek!
by LolaCat06 on July 26, 2006
Pros: Lightweight, easy to use, nice options, side buttons, great screen!
Cons: Battery life gets drained easy but there is a simple fix: powersave mode.
Summary: I think this is an awesome phone, very sleek, very lightweight, and really straightforward. I bought this on a family plan and everyone in my family loves it too. We ...
Summary: I think this is an awesome phone, very sleek, very lightweight, and really straightforward. I bought this on a family plan and everyone in my family loves it too. We finally get reception in my apartment! No more running outside to try and catch a call (thanks for that, Cingular). I haven't gotten any dropped calls yet. The quality of the sound is excellent, so if you're interested in something really working instead of having a million little games, options, etc. this is definitely a great phone. My family even tested this out and ran around the place calling each other from different areas. The only place it got two bars was in a closet in the basement, but you could still hear everything fine. This is in stark contrast to Cingular's service and phones. I could be anywhere and get dropped calls or go to roaming with Cingular.
There are a few little irritating things I've found- one, there are no face plates or covers out for this. The phone gets oily really easily and smudges, so I haven't figured out how to fix this. Also, the battery gets drained a bit quicker than I liked, so I just changed my options so that it wasn't so noisy or so colorful and changed it to powersave mode. This helped my battery life a lot. I haven't used it to the point of draining yet because I charge it everyday anyways.
Overall, I think it was a great purchase from Sprint, the service and sound are excellent so far. The features are really accessible on the side keys, and the menu has great visibility and really simple design. I definitely give this phone a solid A. You can get them free on Sprint's website right now too, which is what I did.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Part number: SPH-a640
- Description: Why should your phone look like everybody else's phone? Why should you have to take all that time dialing? The SPH-a640 has a sleek, glossy black, disappearing external screen, Ready Link instant-connect technology and a bunch of other cool features you'll want to show your friends.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Product Type Cellular phone
- Form Factor Folder (flip)
- Phone Design Flip
- Integrated Components Digital camera,
Voice recorder - Antenna Internal
- Width 1.8 in
- Depth 0.9 in
- Height 3.6 in
- Weight 3.2 oz
- Body Color Black
Cellular
- Technology CDMA / AMPS
- Band CDMA 800/1900 / AMPS 800
- Service Provider Sprint Nextel
Messaging & Internet
- Cellular Messaging Services SMS
- WAP Protocol Supported WAP 2.0
- Messaging & Data Features Text messages
- PCS Vision capable Yes
- Mobile Services Picture Mail,
PCS screen savers download,
PCS Voice Command,
PCS Messaging,
PCS ringers download,
PCS Web,
PCS Business Connection Communications
- Wireless Interface Bluetooth
- Communication Features Internet browser
Phone Features
- Phone Functions Voice control,
Call timer,
Speakerphone,
Voice dialing,
Vibrating alert - Additional Features World clock,
Picture phonebook,
E-911 compliant,
Intelligent typing (T9),
TTY compatible,
Flash light Organizer
- Personal Information Management Calendar,
Calculator,
Stopwatch,
Reminder,
Currency conversion,
Alarm clock - Phone Book Entries Qty 300
Security Features
- Phone Lock Yes
- Restrict Access to Phone Book Yes
Digital Camera
- Sensor Resolution 0.3 megapixels
- Digital Zoom 4
Display
- Type LCD display - Color
- Technology TFT
- Display Resolution 128 x 160 pixels
- Color Depth 16-bit (65000 colors)
- Display Indicators Missed calls indicator,
PCS Vision access,
TTY indicator,
Alarm clock indicator,
Text message waiting,
Ringer alert on,
Voice message waiting,
Ringer alert off,
Battery meter,
Silent ring signal,
Signal strength,
Divert indicator,
Roaming - Multi-language Menu Yes
- Display Languages English,
Spanish - Features Wallpaper,
Screensaver,
Backlit Display (2nd)
- Type LCD display - Color
Connections
- Connector Type Headset jack
Battery
- Technology Lithium ion
- Capacity 1000 mAh
- Run Time Details Talk - up to 228 min
Miscellaneous
- Compliant Standards HAC(Hearing Aid Compatible)
- Included Accessories Power adapter , Power adapter
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support Details 1 year limited warranty
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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