Samsung Strive SGH-A687 – eye-catching messaging phone
For:
Passable performance with mid-range feature set; user-friendly and comfortable design.
Against:
Low internal memory; no flash for camera.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 is based on WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM technology that supports WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900 bands. The SGH-A587 has 80MB internal memory and micro-SD card slot for external storage.
2.6 inches LCD display has 240×320 pixels resolution that supports 18-bit (262,000) colors. 2-megapixel camera features multi-shots, geo-tagging, and video-recording. The supported video formats are H.263 video with AMR audio, MPEG4, and WMV.
The additional features are voice mail, HTML Web browser, Mobile email, Instant messengers, EDGE, GPRS, and Java applications.
100mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 180 minutes talk time and 250 hours of standby time.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 is 2.15 inches wide, 4.17 inches tall and 0.58 inch deep and weighs 3.99 ounces. It has plastic shell and comes in two colors: purple and black. The cell phone feels very light while holding in hand.
Inside Dope:
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 was announced to be launched at CTIA 2010 with the Samsung Sunburst. Both are messaging handsets and the Strive SGH-A687 provides a different approach to hot messaging phones trend. It has all the features which you need from a mid-range messaging phone. It costs $19.99 with two-year AT&T contract and also available unlocked for $169.99. Like the Samsung Flight, the Strive has a chunky slider design. It provides access to the latest AT&T cloud services, like the Sunburst. The SGH-A687 supports both WCDMA (UMTS) and GSM, while the Sunburst supports only quad-band GSM. Its camera does not have a flash to improve the picture quality and the internal memory is limited. Our test model had purple color on the sliding front face and gray color at the other one. It casts appealing look to attract the other’s attention. You can select the Samsung Strive SGH-A687 if you need a latest and attractive messaging phone.
Design
The display and navigation array is on the front face. You can slide down the phone to access the QWERTY keyboard. The sliding mechanism is smooth and locks the display securely in place. You will find the camera shutter key and micro-USB port for USB cable/charger on the right spine. The volume rocker sits on the right spine, while camera lens is on the top left corner at rear side. As usual, the micro-SD card slot is behind the battery cover.
Display
2.6 inches LCD display of the Samsung Strive SGH-A687 has 320×240 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. It is enough vibrant and bright to exhibit good pictures and text. You can change the color, size and type of the dial font; the background color, the backlight time, the display theme, and the wallpaper. The menu interface can be arranged in both grid and list styles. We like that the menu interface is user friendly and very simple.
Navigation Array
The navigation array is located beneath the display and consists of two soft keys, four-way toggle with middle OK button, Talk key, shortcut menu button, Back button, and Power/End key. You can set the toggle with user-defined shortcuts, while the OK button launches the Web browser in standby mode.
QWERTY keyboard
The QWERTY keyboard has four rows of flat and small keys. We like that it is relatively comfortable for continuous usage. The numbers and symbols share the space with the alphabets. It is good that numbers are highlighted by purple background. The top row is not squashed to the bottom of slider. You will also find dedicated messaging shortcut and space bar in the center of bottom row.
Phonebook and PIM features
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 can save 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can save six phone numbers, notes, two email addresses, a job title with company name, a birthday, a nickname, and two street addresses. You can organize the callers into groups and pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.
The basic feature set includes text, multimedia and instant messaging, a stopwatch, a timer, a world clock, a tip calculator, a currency and unit converter, a notepad, a tasks list, a calendar, and an alarm clock. The advanced highlights are a voice recorder, USB mass storage, PC synchronization, and Bluetooth.
AT&T has debut the Samsung Strive SGH-A687 and the Sunburst, as next generation messaging device. It adds AT&T Mobile Email service and a reply-all feature for maximum 10 recipients. The Email service allows POP3 access to Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and others. However, this service has a clunky Web-based user interface.
AT&T Services
AT&T has also included its cloud and broadband multimedia services. AT&T Address Book – lets you to back up the phonebook contacts at online address book and then retrieve them via Web-based account. AT&T Mobile Share – allows sharing pictures and videos with contacts and uploading them to PC, Web-based storage locker, and social media Web sites. You will get online 250MB space for locker without any cost, but you have to pay additional 35 cents per file transfer.
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 also has AT&T Mobile Music to download wireless songs via partners, and AT&T Mobile Video for streaming video content including weather reports and news recaps. The Mobile Music also has some music capabilities such as: XM Radio Mobile; music community section with access to download and fan sites; and Music ID app. AT&T Video Share allows one-way live video transfer to compatible phone.
Camera
2-megapixel camera of the Samsung Strive SGH-A687 features digital zoom, multi-shot, self-timer, geo-tagging and video recording. The still capture options are shooting modes including Mosaic, Panorama and multi-shot, 20 fun frames, four white-balance options, adjustable brightness tool, three color effects, night-mode, three quality settings, and four resolutions. You can record video clips for 30 seconds for MMS and longer in normal mode. The recording video options are same as that of the still capture. We are disappointed that the digital zoom can only be used in the highest resolution.
We captured some still photographs and recorded clips for testing. The overall picture and video quality was average. The colors looked a bit muted. You can save the video and pictures on internal 90MB memory or at micro-SD card. These pictures and clips can be shared via MMS and AT&T Video Share.
Games and Personalization
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 comes with four demo games: Bubble Bash 2, Tetris, Diner Dash 2, and Ms. Pac Man. AT&T have also included App Center as its cloud service that offers numerous applications. It has Where 2.1, My-Cast Weather, WikiMobile, Mobile IMDb, MobiVJ, MobiTV, Yellopages Mobile, Mobile Banking, Loopt, AT&T Social Net, AT&T Navigator, and AllSort GPS.
Call Quality
We made few calls through the Samsung SGH-A687 via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was average. We received natural and loud, but a tad robotic sound at our end. The callers received good sound with few audio cuts. They could tell we were calling through a cell phone. The speakerphone calls were distorted, while the Bluetooth headsets calls were good.
Video & Music Quality
The streaming video quality is only good with a bit pixelation, but the video loaded instantly. The video frame acquired full size in landscape mode. The music quality was passable on speakers and better on headsets.
Battery Life
The Samsung Strive SGH-A687 has battery life of 19.41 days idle standby time and 3 hours of talk time. Its digital SAR is 0.58watt per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
We will recommend you to purchase the Samsung Strive SGH-A687, only if you need an eye-catching messaging phone and can use camera without flash.
