Digital Trends

Samsung MM-A920 April 25th, 2006 | by Nick Tesler

Performance

Thanks to the A920's EV-DO compatibility, you get to the net in around 10 seconds and connect to Sprint's TV or music store in around 15 seconds. Downloads are equally zippy, with complete music tracks downloaded and ready to play in less than a minute, depending on the length of the song. Equally important, WAP Web pages load in less than five seconds and Sprint TV channels started playing in less than 15 seconds.

Playing music, however, is problematic. Hitting the "list" toggle on the outside of the phone does nothing. You'll have to open up the phone, power up the Sprint media player, and then access your play lists to start the tunes. After this you'll have to open the phone up again to stop play. You can skip forward, skip back, and pause with the phone closed as the track progress bar flashes in different colors to indicate you have temporarily halted play. The included earbud headphones actually sounded decent, although no one with even moderately smart ears would confuse them with a good set of Shures or Ultimate Ears.

Even though the A920 has a bright screen, the A900, with its larger screen, is far better for watching Sprint TV (if watching TV on a cell phone is why you're considering subscribing to Sprint PowerVision). But even beyond the screen, we lost audio when watching TV whenever the phone asked us to confirm that we were still watching, and nothing we did brought it back. However, this may have been in glitch in our test model. If this is a concern, test the phone in the store first.

For chatting, connections with Sprint's network were solid with no drop outs, and cell-to-landline conversations were loud and clean. We did hear some warbling on cell-to-cell calls, however.

Samsung estimates that you'll get three hours of continuous talk time, which is a little below average. No estimated standby time is listed, which to us sounds like a studio not previewing a movie for critics knowing that the subsequent reviews will be less than benevolent. Suffice it to say, this is a phone that ought to be charged every night and will require you to pack a charger for even overnight trips to ensure battery life.

Conclusion

If you intend to -- or even suspect that you might -- watch Sprint TV, get the A900. But if you intend on listening to music or just accessing the Web, then this is the PowerVision phone for you.

Pros:

• Speedy EV-DO connections
• External music controls
• 1.3 megapixel digital camera/camcorder
• Bluetooth
• PictBridge
• External TransFlash (microSD) slot

Cons:

• Small screen
• Short battery life
• Complex access to music files