Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Samsung A187 Phone With QWERTY Keyboard

That's what makes the Samsung A187 phone an interesting point sideshow in the continuing smartphone wars that are being carried on the major manufacturers such as Apple and HTC or Sony and Sanyo. The A187 is basically a GSM (quad-band) phone that was released a couple of years ago by Samsung to fill a need.

The need was for the user who wanted Bluetooth, texting capability and phone capability without all of the other features that you find on Apple iPhones. Yes, the two phones do have something in common, they both operate on the GSM frequencies (800, 850, 1900, 2100 MHz) and they are incompatible with any form of CDMA technology, but, other than that the fact is that they work.

For example, if you drop your iPhone you hold your breath and hope that it lands just the right way or you may end up with an interesting crease in the expensive aluminum body or scratch on the screen. The A187, on the other hand, handles the drop with easy and its protective clamshell design the phone is protected from damage.

That said, the A187 offers you a 1.3 MP camera, which was, at the time of its release, state of the art for small, reasonably priced phones. Of course, the 1.3 MP barrier was passed long ago, but so was the small cellphone, but that doesn't mean the 4.3-inch by 05 inch by 2.3 inch, 3.2 ounce phone doesn't have a regular following because it does.

For example, the Samsung with which we are familiar is very similar to the A187 and has the same style camera. This camera was never meant to replace a 16 to 30 MP digital SLR. No, it was meant to take a quick snap that you could then email to a friend or family member.

At 1.3 MP, the camera's range may not be up to the standards of those whose smartphones have 8 MP rearward facing cameras for serious photography, while also including forward-facing 3 MP cameras for videoconferencing or chatting, but the range of the A187's camera is good enough for the casual snap-shooter who just wants to mail a picture of a child's first step or a pet's cute pose. (Most people also don't realize that no matter how good the camera, the average LCD is meant to display cameras in the 3.2 MP range, or roughly VGA.)

Which brings us back to the A187. It offers good, not Dolby 5.1 surround sound and you can stream it, if you'd like. It also has a huge standby time and reasonable talk time so it is a good camera for that.

The A187 never pretends to be anything it isn't. It's a basic, low-cost phone that will get the job done and that's exactly what you want to happen when you text a person or call for a real voice-to-voice conversation. Unless you are trying to compete with the big guns in the business, that's pretty much all you need, including an effective Bluetooth connection and decent speakerphone, both of which the A187 offers.

Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for ecommUS

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