Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 SmartPhone Review
The Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 is a complete touch screen SmartPhone that landed in the shelves of AT and T. Similar to its cousins the Instinct, Behold and Delve, the Eternity also features a very vibrant touch screen, a very attractive design and a load of multimedia features. But, as you expect, there must be something special about this SmartPhone, and yes it does stand apart from the crowd by offering the AT&T Mobile TV feature. As a result, Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has turned out to be an unbeatable multimedia device. But then, considering this as a PDA, those corporate guys who are looking for strong data features will be very disappointed.
Attractive design:
All the smartphones of the Samsung family have the same design veins. Samsung Eternity, as in the case of all the other touch phones, has the hallmark features. It has a candy bar from factor with an extremely slim profile, having dimension as, (H x W x D) inches 4.3″ x 2.2″ x 0.5″ and weighs just 3.88 ounces. Though it weights a bit lighter than its counterparts, it still retains a sturdy feel in your hands. Eternity is having a black colour theme which is simple and at the same time, very attractive. The glossy texture that surrounds the display and the shiny metal spines are particularly very attractive. The only regret that we have with the design is that, we would have preferred a metal cover for the battery, rather than the plastic one that has been provided.
Touch sensitive display:
The Samsung Eternity has a large 3.2″ touch sensitive display. This display has a resolution of 400×240 pixels and has support for 262,000 colours. All the images and graphics that are displayed are very sharp and the text is legible. The brightness, font type and the backlighting time can be changed as per your wish. The size of the display is apt for browsing, watching videos or even for typing in the virtual keyboard. The only three physical buttons that are available sit just beneath the display. They are the talk, end and the back buttons.
The user-friendly interface:
The touch interface of the SGH-A867 phone is very responsive and easy to use, but in case you find any difficulties with it, then you could always change the calibration. Most likely, you will not be finding any issues with selecting the menus or scrolling through the long menus. The intensity of the vibrating feedback which is extremely helpful could also be adjusted. The TouchWiz interface of Samsung is truly unique and accessible. Having joined hands with AT&T, it has added some of its own widgets which includes a shortcut to the mobile TV application. A secondary shortcut bar can be seen towards the bottom of the display which gives you one touch access to the phone dialer, contacts list, and the main menu too. The main menu can be set to be displayed either as a set of icons or in a format of list, the choice is yours, said that, both the types are intuitive and have easy access to a wide range of features. You will be finding large alphanumeric characters in the phone dialer application. Activating the loudspeaker when on a call is just as easy that it can be done in one touch.
Buttons and Controls:
The left side of the Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 Touch Screen phone has a volume rocker and a headphone jack which doubles as a charger port. The headset that is included uses a proprietary connection. The right side has a camera shutter and a menu shortcut button. The shortcut menu that appears as a result of pressing this button includes shortcuts for phone dialer, main menu, the music player, the web browser and the messaging menu too. The top of the phone has a dedicated screen locking control as in the case of Apple iPhone. The camera lens sits in the rear of the phone, but unfortunately, Eternity neither has a flash nor a self-portrait mirror.
The virtual QWERTY keyboard:
The virtual QWERTY keyboard that Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has on offer is similar to that of the other touch sensitive phones of Samsung, offering separate keyboards for alphabets and numbers or symbols. But Eternity has managed to pull up another advantage by adding another keyboard for the Emoticons. Another thing that we loved about the virtual keyboard is that, they have dedicated punctuation keys that are extremely handy. All the keyboards take full advantage of the display, thus allocating you only a small amount of space for typing your messages. Dedicated shift and spacebar keys are available in the keypad. It is extremely easy to deactivate the predictive text and switch to the French and Spanish menus. Accelerometer of the Eternity allows you swap between the standard alphanumeric keypad and the graffiti applications by just rotating the device. On the whole, the complete interface is entirely user friendly.
Personalize your Samsung Eternity:
Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 PDA Phone can be personalized with a variety of background colours, wallpapers, alert tones and greeting messages. Additional ringtones can be downloaded from AT&T’s Media Mall service. The Eternity offers demo versions of four games, Monopoly, Ms. Pac-Man, World Series of Poker, and Block Breaker. The full version of these games and some additional titles too can be bought from AT&T.
Phone book entries on Eternity SGH-A867:
You can make about 1000 entries in Samsung Eternity SGH-A867’s phone book. Under each entry, you can have multiple phone numbers, two addresses, company name and job title, nick name, birthday, email IDs, URLs and notes too. Remember, the SIM card stores and additional 250 entries. The callers can be assigned to group, photos and given one of the eleven 72-chord polyphonic ringtones. Do not panic, you can use your one set of MP3 tracks and audio files as ringtones.
Features:
Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has full Bluetooth with stereo profile. The absence of Wi-Fi and voice dialing left us wondering why? They stand out to be the most glaring omissions in the PDA smartphone. Coming to the part of email, though AT&T’s Mobile e-mail service offers access to a variety of POP3 services, it is a Web-based application that does not sync automatically. In addition to this, the IMAP4 is also largely unavailable. This makes the email service, not that ideal for the business users. The basic PC syncing for images, MP3 files and other date files are offered by Eternity. But, it cannot sync with Outlook e-mail, calendars, and contacts. Additional investment in third party syncing software is required if you need exchange of the contacts for sure.
Miscellaneous features:
The other miscellaneous features include text and multimedia messaging, calculator, calendar, notepad, task list, alarm clock world clock, timer, stopwatch, currency and unit converter, speakerphone and vibrating alerts. The voice recorder and USB mass storage facilities are the most useful ones among the lot.
The browser:
As in the case of Behold and Instinct, the Eternity also possesses a full HTML browser and also carries on the same disability to support flash or animation. Most of the pages are displayed well. It has got very intuitive onscreen controls, but we liked the iPhone’s multi-touch interface better which allows you to use a magnifying button to zoom the contents in the display. Scrolling through the lengthy web pages and selecting URLs from crowded pages could be unpleasant.
The 3G connection was just good, but not excellent. While using the web browser, some of the pages took longer to load and very sluggish when scrolling. Streaming video take long time too. But once they are loaded, they run well. They never freeze or drop connection.
Camera:
Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 multimedia smartphone has a three mega pixel camera, that has a lot of features in common with Behold’s 5-megapixel shooter. It takes images in four resolutions varying from 2,048×1,536 down to a 400×240 wide resolution that uses the full expanse of the Eternity’s display. There are a range of other editing options too, which includes four quality setting, a self timer, exposure metering, an auto focus and six scene settings that include night, action, landscape etc, white balance, onscreen gridlines and brightness. The other options include four color effects, and three shutter sounds along with a silent option. You can also select from either of the three shooting mode that include continuous, panorama and mosaic. You can have loads of fun with the sixteen fun frames available and also with the smile shot mode that promises you to detect when the person to be captured is smiling. The absence of flash is a big minus, having a three mega pixel camera. Overall, the menus are simple and easy to use.
A mini-Camcorder too:
Eternity SGH-A867 has a camcorder option too. It shoots clips with sound in two resolution that includes 320×240 and 176×144. The options that you have with the camcorder are fewer when compared to that of those you have with the still camera, yet, it has a decent collection of them. The clips that you shoot that are particularly meant for the multimedia messages are capped for just 1 minute. But if you want to shoot for a longer time, then you can choose the standard mode.
Image quality:
The quality of the images shot in Eternity are pretty good. The colours are bright and vibrant. But the absence of flash played a major role in degrading the quality of photos. Though you provide with adequate illumination, it does not help much. The quality of the videos were good too. They are better than the quality of videos shot using any other camera mobile phone. The images and video clips can be easily copied to your system using multimedia message or the Bluetooth or using the provided USB cable.
Memory:
Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 has an internal memory of 200MB, which can be expanded using a microSD card.
Navigator:
Assisted GPS and AT&T navigator service offer the Eternity turn by turn directions. The Where and Yellow pages mobile applications can also be used. Some of the other applications that are included in eternity include WikiMobile, My-Cast Weather, and Mobile Banking. A tumbling device is also available that lets you roll a pair of virtual device right on your display.
AT&T mobile TV service:
Coming to the seller feature, the AT&T mobile TV service, which is a live TV service that uses Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology. It brings more than 150 simulcast and time-shifted programs from content providers such as ESPN, CBS, ESPN, Fox, Comedy Central, NBC and MTV. The quality of the broadcasts were nothing less than flattering.
Other services:
Since Samsung Eternity is a 3G UMTS handset, it has the support for AT&T’s Cellular Video service and AT&T Mobile Music. While the former offers lots for streaming video content, the latter brings wireless song downloads through a variety of partners. Though the interface of both the applications have minimalist deigns, they have support for a wide range of file formats. The other interesting features that these applications have on offer are, album art, play lists, shuffle and repeat modes, XM Radio Mobile, MusicVJ, a Pandora, a Billboard Mobile channel, Music ID application, music videos, and a community section with access to fan sites and downloads.
Call quality:
The quality of the calls are good. The voices of the callers sound natural. Since the volume levels are a little low, you will have to increase it when in noisy places. Slight GSM buzz could be noticed but it was minimal though. The quality of calls using Bluetooth headset are good too. The automated calling system could understand you quickly, but only if you are in a quite room. Same is the case while having a conversation using the speakerphone. While listening to music, usage of a headset will provide you with the best experience.
Battery life:
For a feature phone, the Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 3G Mobile Phone has a surprisingly high capacity 1300 mAh Lithium Ion battery that is user replaceable. Battery life for a 3G phone with a large display and plenty of multimedia apps is quite good. Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 gives 5 hours of talk time and 10.42 days of standby time.
Warranty:
Samsung offers Eternity SGH-A867 one year warranty.
Verdict:
Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 TouchScreen SmartPhone has a lovely deign and interface. The diplay is large, bright and clear. You can get access to voice mail, email, photos, and other features at the touch of a button. The Samsung Eternity succeeds as a multimedia device, but without Wi-Fi and full e-mail support, it stops well short of being a business-friendly device. And hence, if you are a multimedia freak, Eternity is the one for you. But if you are a corporate, choose Blackberry pearl.
Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
| Model Name | Samsung Eternity SGH-A867 |
| Form factor | Candy bar |
| Service provider | AT&T |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 4.3″ x 2.2″ x 0.5″ |
| Weight | 3.9 oz |
| Display | 3.2″ touch sensitive display |
| Display resolution | 240 x 400 pixels |
| Color support | 262000 Colors |
| Supported Digital Audio Standards | AAC , MP3 , WMA |
| Memory | 200MB |
| Platform / OS | Proprietary |
| Processor | Qualcomm MSM6290 |
| GPS / Location | Type: A-GPS supports LBS (AT&T Navigator) |
| Languages Supported | English, Spanish, French |
| Polyphonic Ringtones | Chords: 72 |
| Ringer Profiles | 4 |
| Messaging Services | MMS , Wireless Village 1.1 , AOL Instant Messenger Service (AIM) |
| Mobile Email | Yes |
| Phone features | GPRS EDGE Internet Browser JAVA applications Alarm Clock Calendar Reminder Calculator |
| Camera | 3 mega pixel |
| Predictive Text Entry | Volume on left / multi-task, camera on right / hold on top |
| Battery | Lithium ion |
| Warranty | One year |
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:07 am
i have a vibration problem and it dial by it self and my phone is Samsung SGH-A867