Samsung Strive SGH-A687 - black (AT&T)
Manufacturer: Samsung Part number: 4420224
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Samsung Strive is one of Samsung's better messaging phones. And it offers a few new features.
Read more
Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | In stock Earn 2% eBay Bucks on qualifying purchases! Backed by e | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 05/23/2012 |
CNET editors' review
Samsung Strive SGH-A687 - black (AT&T) price range: $79.49
- Reviewed by: Kent German
- Reviewed on: 04/01/2010
- Released on: 03/15/2010
The good: The Samsung Strive has a comfortable, user-friendly design. Performance is agreeable, and you get a fair number of features.
The bad: The Samsung Strive's camera lacks a flash, and the phone's internal memory is low.
The bottom line: The Samsung Strive is one of Samsung's better messaging phones. And it offers a few new features.
Samsung got an early start on CTIA 2010 when it introduced the Samsung Strive and Sunburst a week before the show began. The two handsets take a different approach to the still-hot messaging-phone trend. The Sunburst has only a touch screen, but the Sunburst offers traditionalists a physical QWERTY keyboard. On the whole, the Strive has all of the features you'd want in a midrange device plus decent performance. You also get access to AT&T's new cloud-based services. The Strive is reasonably priced both with a two-year contract ($19.99) and without ($169.99).
Design
The Strive, aka the SGH-A867, fits the definition of a messaging phone. Much like the Samsung Flight it has a chunky (4.17 inches long by 2.15 inches wide by 0.58 inch deep) slider design. Common it may be, but we still think it's a relatively attractive device and we're pleased that it makes good use of its real estate. The Strive has a plastic shell and it almost feels a little too light in the hand (3.99 ounces), but the slider mechanism clicks into place on either end. You can get the Strive in black or purple; the features are the same on both models.
The display measures 2.6 inches, which is about as large as Samsung could go on the Strive. It's also bright and vibrant with support for 262,000 colors and 320x240 pixels. You can change the wallpaper, display theme, backlighting time, background color, and the type, size, and color of the dialing font. The menu comes in list and grid style; both designs are user-friendly.
The Strive's navigation array is well-designed with spacious, easy-to-use controls. You'll find a four-way-toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys, a control that opens a pop-up shortcuts menu, the Talk and End/power keys, and a Back button. The toggle doubles as a user-programmable shortcut to four features, but we don't like that the OK buttons opens the Web browser in standby mode rather than opening the main menu.
The QWERTY keyboard may be too small for some users; indeed, we were nervous once we first saw it. But after we used it for about 30 minutes, even the small, flat keys became relatively comfortable. Four rows of keys mean that letters share buttons with numbers and symbols, but that's hardly unusual on a messaging phone like the Strive. We like the dedicated shortcut for the messaging feature and the location of the space bar, which is in the center of the bottom row. Also, the top row of keys isn't squashed next to the bottom of the slider.
Remaining exterior features include a volume rocker on the left spine, and a camera shutter and Micro-USB port for a charger and syncing cable on the right spine. The camera lens sits in the top left corner of the Strive's rear face. The handset doesn't have a flash or a self-portrait mirror, and the memory card slot is located behind the battery cover.
Features
The Strive has a large 1,000-contact phone book with room in each entry for six phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, a nickname, a birthday, a company name and job title, two street addresses, and notes. You can assign callers to groups and pair them with a photo and one of 11 (72-chord) polyphonic ringtones. New on the Strive is the AT&T Address Book feature, which allows you to back up your phone's contacts to an online address book. You also can send text messages and import contacts from the Web-based account.
Essential features include an alarm clock, a calendar, a task list, a notepad, a calculator, a unit and currency converter, a tip calculator, a world clock, a timer, and a stopwatch. More-demanding users will find Bluetooth, PC syncing, USB mass storage, and a voice recorder.
As you'd expect from phone with a keyboard, the Strive also comes with text, multimedia, and instant messaging. And along with the Sunburst, it's the debut device for AT&T's next-generation messaging service, which adds a reply-all feature for up to 10 recipients. AT&T Mobile E-mail service is also onboard. The service allows you to connect to Yahoo, Gmail, and other popular POP3 service, but you'll need to use a clunky Web-based interface.
The 2-megapixel camera takes pictures in four resolutions and three quality settings. Other settings include a night mode, three color effects, an adjustable brightness tool, four white-balance modes, a self-timer, geo-tagging, 20 fun frames, and modes for multishots, panoramas, and mosaics. The Strive also has a digital zoom, but you can't use it with the largest photo resolution. Photo quality is fine, but nothing special. Colors are a bit muted.
The camcorder shoots clips in just one resolution (176x144 pixels), but it offers a set of editing options similar to the still camera. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at about 30 seconds, but you can shoot for much longer in Normal mode. The Strive also supports AT&T's Video Share feature, but your friend also will need a compatible phone if you want to use this. For storage the Strive has 90MB of user-accessible shared memory. That's rather low, but you can used a microSD card for more storage.
The Strive supports AT&T's 3G network so you can access the carrier's full set of broadband media services. There's Mobile Video for streaming-video content like news recaps and weather reports and AT&T Mobile Music for wireless song downloads through partners. It also has a selection of music-related features including XM Radio Mobile, a Music ID application, an app for creating ringtones, music videos, and a community section with access to fan sites and downloads.
As mentioned, the Strive and Sunburst offer new cloud-based features like AT&T Mobile Share. It lets you share photos and videos with contacts and upload the files to a PC, social networking site, and Web-based storage locker. After storing the files you can access them from your computer or your handset at any time. Though you get 250MB of online storage at no charge (with additional storage available for purchase), file transfers aren't free. You can pay either 35 cents per transfer or $10 per month for 50 transfers. Also, there's a 10MB cap on file size.
The Strive includes direct access to AT&T's AppCenter and offers a number of integrated applications. There's AllSport GPS, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Social Net, Loopt, Mobile Baking, Yellowpages Mobile, MobiTV, MobiVJ, Mobile IMDb, WikiMobile, My-Cast Weather, and Where 2.1. For gaming, the Strive comes with demo versions of five titles: Ms. Pac-Man, Diner Dash 2, Tetris, and Bubble Bash 2.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Samsung Strive in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality was relatively good. Some of our callers sounded a tad robotic, but for the most part the signal was clear, the volume was loud, and voices were natural. We also detected the slightest hint of "GSM buzz," but none of the problems was significant.
On their end callers said we sounded fine. They could tell that we were using a cell phone, and some of our friends said the audio cut our briefly on a couple of occasions, but complains were few. Speakerphone calls were more distorted, but not excessively so. Bluetooth headset calls were fine, but quality will vary by headset model.
The Strive's streaming video quality is quite good. Videos loaded quickly and there was little pixelation, though some colors and details are lacking. We're glad, however, that the video frame takes up the full size of the display in landscape mode. Similarly, music tracks loaded in less than a minute and the music quality is passable. Of course, a headset will offer a better experience.
The Strive has a rated battery life of 3 hours talk time, which is quite low, and 19.41 days standby time. However, the Strive had a talk time of 5 hours and 47 minutes in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the Strive has a digital SAR of 0.58 watt per kilogram.
User reviews
-
-
Great messaging phone
by bananaferret on July 27, 2010
Pros: Keyboard is great and really easy to use, not sure what other reviews mean when they talk about the flexing.
Threaded texting is amazing
Plenty of shortcuts / quick access keys
GREAT screen
Not too largeCons: Center button connects to internet when not on a menu (annoying if you don't have data)
Fingerprint magnet on screen
Had to return first one because of loose sliding mechanism, but 2nd one has been fine / no problems.
Call quality averageSummary: If you don't want to spend money on a data plan but text a lot, this phone is great. The keyboard feels good on your fingers and is very ...
Summary: If you don't want to spend money on a data plan but text a lot, this phone is great. The keyboard feels good on your fingers and is very accurate, but sometimes will miss a letter if you go too fast.
The screen is very nice to look at, and the battery life is better than I was expecting -- I seem to charge every 3rd day off medium/high texting use and low call use.
The plastic feels a bit cheap, but I'm planning on getting a rubberized case and screen protector.
It feels like it will last for a while, and texting is a breeze, which is all I really need, so I really like the phone.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Great Messaging Phone
by Wilces on May 25, 2010
Pros: LIght and small, nice outside color and shine, feels strong and durable, very nice display, battery life good, plenty of features for price tag
Cons: Bluetooth had issues, but reboot fixed them. Lack customization of front key menu and to end calls by closing the slider. No 3.5mm audio port available.
Summary: I really like the phone, was a liittle reluctant at first but then got used to the nice diaplay, keyboard, and functions and got to the conclusion that it is ...
Summary: I really like the phone, was a liittle reluctant at first but then got used to the nice diaplay, keyboard, and functions and got to the conclusion that it is a very nice phone. Would have liked to be able to customize the menus a little more, but the functions are there easy to find. Signal and call quality are great, and the ability of having a Micro-SD card slot that doesn't require the removal of the battery to get to is nice. The phone size and weight are adequate, feels good in your hand. Had issues before with smartphones and touchscreens, so decided to move to a non-touch screen and is very nice, no need for touchscreen (and phone freezing up all the time).
Only big complaint, and reason for the 4.5 rating, is the lack of a 3.5mm audio port. Reliable headphones that work with the micro USB port available are not that easy to find, only one or two that I don't really feel like are good quality. There is a 3.5mm to micro USB converter available online, but it is somehow inconvenient and expensive (~ $15).
Overall very nice phone with an adequate set of features for everyday calling and messaging needs. Would definately recommend if you want to get away of having to have an unlimited data plan, but want to be able to text and write down tasks and calendar entries with ease using a query keyboard.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Don't listen to the bad reviewers, they're idiots
by terra_silas on April 15, 2011
Pros: Texting, Music Quality, Picture and Video Quality is great for a phone, Light weight, Sturdy and well built, Great battery life, Call Quality is wonderful
Cons: Slow at times
Summary: Ok first off, if you are good with phones then this review is for you!! I got this phone is Aug. 2010. Its now April 2011, and this phone still ...
Summary: Ok first off, if you are good with phones then this review is for you!! I got this phone is Aug. 2010. Its now April 2011, and this phone still works well, there are no problems. Sound quality is great as well as picture and video quality. SO to start off with...
1. If you're a big and I mean BIG texter, you'll love this phone. Threaded text messages so you always know what the person you were texting said last, and it even have group texting that keeps that group conversation in one folder.
2. If you like to play music on your phone with the speaker, its perfect. I've used this phone even while i'm taking a shower and i can hear my music over the roar of the water :D
3. I've taken amazing pictures with this, its got small memory though so do have a microSD card, its useful. The video is just as good, sound quality is great too. clear and loud, though if you record during concerts beware natrually it'll blow your ears out and sound bad due to the high volume of the speakers
4. This phone is light weight and sturdy as hell. I've dropped it from a second story balcony by mistake once and all i got was a chip on the paint. (WARNING: DO NOT DELIBERATELY DROP IT! YOU'RE LIKELY TO ACTUALLY BREAK IT AND VOID YOUR WARRANTY OR INSURANCE WITH AT&T)
5. The battery life is great. I can go two days with it not needing to be charged while still making calls texting a ton. Now it can be shortened when you play music or videos or use the internet. But if you mainly use the phone to text or to talk to someone, its battery will last around 2 or 3 days.
6. NOT ONCE, has my phone ever dropped a call. NEVER. enough said. It does get hot at times, but not unbearable.
This phone does not freeze, it does lag at times when deleting a conversation from your text messages. It does what its supposed to and it does it greatly. THOSE WHO SAY ITS HORRIBLE, are people who don't know jack squat about phones at all...none. THIS PHONE IS GREAT. I really like it and I hope people find this review helpful.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
an acceptable upgrade option from an older phone.
by GizMoXaris on March 29, 2011
Pros: full qwerty keyboard, durable, somewhat good battery life (depends what theme you're running, as well as how often you use it.) if you get it as an upgrade option with AT&T, it comes with an LG bluetooth headset.
alarm system is kind of good, howeverCons: extremely bad for multimedia. videos have to be in 128kbps (absolutely horrible quality.) and the speaker puts out fairly bad quality audio, so don't think about running music through this. the camera is something you'd expect from a cheap phone, bad pict
Summary: a few more cons: the message alert sound is very loud even on the first bar, and the buzzer ALWAYS goes twice when recieving a message, and you can't ...
Summary: a few more cons: the message alert sound is very loud even on the first bar, and the buzzer ALWAYS goes twice when recieving a message, and you can't change that. also, internal memory is a bit low, but thats to be expected with just about any phone. also, don't bother going to buy a usb data transfer cable, if you have a memory card reader on your computer then you can just get a microSD card (you should anyways) and transfer files with that.
one last and very big con. i've had too many problems regarding service to this little bugger. if the service goes down to 0 bars, theres a good chance it won't get service again unless you restart it. one time i had an issue where it was holding all the texts from the phone, when i had reset it i recieved 12 text messages. so i don't very well recommend this for anyone out in the middle of the woods such as myself.
despite all the cons; it is definitely a good upgrade option for someone still using an older model of phone, for example, the sony ericsson Z750a. (that thing would restart itself in the middle of typing out text messages D:) i got it as a free option to upgrade to on the AT&T store when renewing my contract, if i remember right. if it wasn't free, i remember something about it being only 25 USD, not bad. and its okay for texting, just remember to check your text so you don't make too many typos.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
don
don't buy this phoneby oscur_132 on December 28, 2010
Pros: Don't like anything about it
Cons: The battery overheats. It will randomly freeze and then the screen flashes. It will turn itself off.
Summary: I have had this phone for 3 months and it has caused me problems since the day I got it. Usually samsung have good phones but this one is a ...
Summary: I have had this phone for 3 months and it has caused me problems since the day I got it. Usually samsung have good phones but this one is a piece of fluff. I do NOT recommend anyone to buy this phone. I am waiting patiently for my next upgrade so I can get rid of this piece of fluff. The only good thing about it is that unfortunatly it didn't break when I left it on top of my car and drove off leaving it there.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Problem syncing bluetooth
by SteveLititzPa on January 25, 2011
Pros: Nothing to speak about
Cons: Phone did not pair well with Ford Sync
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Nice and easy phone. Quite attractive for the price.
by Neerajdab on April 7, 2010
Pros: Nice and easy to use. Bluetooth and messaging services.
Cons: low battery. Not the best call quality.
Summary: Good messaging phone with qwert keyboard. decent quality.
Summary: Good messaging phone with qwert keyboard. decent quality.
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Stops far of anything spectacular
by narn3049 on May 16, 2012
Pros: read summary
Cons: read summary
Summary: I got this phone in 2011 as my secondary phone which I use for work. I used it about 8 months before it shut off completely and died. It wouldn'...
Summary: I got this phone in 2011 as my secondary phone which I use for work. I used it about 8 months before it shut off completely and died. It wouldn't charge, or anything. It would BLINK the ATT logo. I took it in and got replacement number 2
Replacement #2:
This phone lasted for 10 months, 2 months longer then the last one. It died completely, I went to charge it, and after was fully charged tried to power it on and it kept vibrating. I took this into ATT and they actually ACCUSED ME (remember samsung's purple X indicator, that's what it is without being triggered, and it still was) of dropping it in water. I never did.
I then had to pay 50 for the next one. I got it and it continued to work, I guess 3rd time is the charm. It didn't stop working until a year later when I retired it. I went to sell it as functional and it didn't boot. At least it lasted me. It has a good keyboard, but that's REALLY the only good part. -
Inherit operating system problems
by aimeseroni on September 30, 2011
Pros: linked conversational texting. sturdy design. micro USB port, Great customizable shortcut features allow to tolerate some of the shortcomings of the phone.
Cons: Overheats in <4 minutes, drops a call almost every time, internal memory maxes out daily on texting and then just stops sending/receiving, takes several minutes daily to delete texts, must waiting through multiple notifications to send, confirm sending
Summary: This phone had software bugs from day one. This is my second after the first just died. I'm a very experienced technology user and think this phone was a ...
Summary: This phone had software bugs from day one. This is my second after the first just died. I'm a very experienced technology user and think this phone was a step BACK from my flip phone mostly because of the overall wait time between screens and when deleting/sending anything. Effective battery life is about 1.5 days with moderate texting and almost no phone calling. Once it hits halfway dead, it heats up to very hot, and starts to shut down intermittently.
I have never used this phone for web browsing but can't imagine it would be impressive if it has to think about the menus to load every time.
You must have patience with this phone. It will stop mid-typing to think about a letter sometimes. It will stop when you are about to get a call. It will delete texts for several minutes. You must wait while it is "sending text message..." especially if you added a picture. Texts dont always arrive in order they were sent either. If msg is too long for one msg and the second portion is smaller. The smaller text will always arrive first.
Phone is not worth the money they charge for it but it usable enough. -
Don't get a STRIVE!!!!!
by ksozlover on August 27, 2011
Pros: Only 1 thing to say - the purple model is pretty! The name fits it quite well as it STRIVES to be a phone!
Cons: I got a Strive in mid-April this year when my daughter added me to their plan. I did not have 1 decent phone call on it. Texts were a joke. Most of them had to be made outside a building which is not convenient to step out on my porch or hold the phone
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS PHONE! DON'T LET THEM GIVE YOU THIS WORTHLESS MODEL! I've only had 2 other cell phones but they didn't give me problems like ...
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS PHONE! DON'T LET THEM GIVE YOU THIS WORTHLESS MODEL! I've only had 2 other cell phones but they didn't give me problems like this one has! Haven't used the camera or voicemail because I can't get it to be a phone let alone a camera! Aggravating experience - to say the least!!! The battery holds a good charge but it should since I can't use the phone!
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Part number: 4420224
- Description: Why repeat yourself? The Samsung Strive is a stylish slider phone that lets you text a bunch of your friends at the same time. Available in both black and purple, you also enjoy access to some of AT&T's best services, including AT&T address book, AT&T navigator, online locker and MusicID. With its slide-out QWERTY keyboard, threaded text and social messaging, it sets the standard that other messaging phones strive for.
General
- Product Type Cellular phone
- Form Factor Slider - Full keyboard
- Phone Design Slider
- Integrated Components Digital camera,
Digital player,
Voice recorder - Antenna Internal
- Width 2.14 in
- Depth 0.58 in
- Height 4.17 in
- Weight 3.99 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) QWERTY keyboard
Messaging & Internet
- Cellular Messaging Services EMS,
MMS,
SMS - Messaging & Data Features Text messages,
Multimedia messages (MMS),
Instant messages,
E-Mail,
HTML Browser,
Voice mail Communications
- Data Transmission GPRS,
EDGE - Wireless Interface Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
- Communication Features Internet browser,
Mobile Email client Phone Features
- Phone Functions Voice control,
Call timer,
Conference call,
Speakerphone,
Voice dialing,
Vibrating alert - Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Additional Features TTY compatible
Organizer
- Personal Information Management Calendar,
Calculator,
Stopwatch,
Reminder,
Alarm clock Media Player
- Supported Digital Audio Standards MP3
- Supported Digital Video Standards MPEG-4,
H.263,
WMV
Memory
- Bult-in Memory 80 MB
- Supported Flash Memory Cards microSDHC - up to 16 GB
Digital Camera
- Sensor Resolution 2 megapixels
- Digital Video Formats MPEG-4,
WMV,
H.263 video and AMR audio - Features Video recording,
Multi-shots Navigation System
- GPS Navigation A-GPS receiver
- Navigation Software & Services AT&T Navigator
Display
- Type LCD display - Color
- Diagonal Size 2.6 in
- Display Resolution 240 x 320 pixels
- Color Depth 18-bit (262000 Colors)
Battery
- Capacity 1000 mAh
- Run Time Details Talk - up to 180 min,
Standby - up to 250 hour(s) Miscellaneous
- Compliant Standards HAC(Hearing Aid Compatible)
- Included Accessories Power adapter , Power adapter
Product series
-
Samsung Strive SGH-A687 - black (AT&T)
Manufacturer: Samsung
Specs: AT&T,
WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM,
Up to 180 min,
With digital camera / digital player,
3.99 oz,
2 megapixels,
2.6 in -
Samsung Strive SGH-A687 - purple (AT&T)
Manufacturer: Samsung
Specs: AT&T,
WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM,
Up to 180 min,
With digital camera / digital player,
3.99 oz,
2 megapixels,
2.6 in
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Samsung products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:Samsung
- Address:
105 Challenger Road, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 - Phone: 1-800-726-7864
- Fax: 1-973-601-6001
%20-%20Compare%20prices,%20reviews,%20user%20opinions%20-%20Shopper.com&srcUrl=http://shopper.cnet.com/cell-phones/samsung-strive-sgh-a687/4014-6454_9-34008101.html&x_breadcrumb=8900:3488:3504:6454&x_arw_bkts=MAD:high_wireless_switcher){kind=small}