Samsung Siren SCH-A870 Review – Cricket Wireless
Samsung Siren Review of a Cricket Wireless Cell Phone.

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Overall Score: 7.5/10 - Good Phone
Pros:
*Small Size - Very Thin/Compact Design
*Great Signal/Reception
*Loud Ringtones & Voice
*Bluetooth
Cons:
*Akward Keypad
*No extras like MP3 Player, Movie Player, Etc.
Bottom Line: One of the best entry-level offerings from Cricket Wireless.
Review:
After unboxing our new Samsung Siren we were stunned by the bright red color that really draws your attention immediately. Being the only color offering from Cricket this phone will surely draw attention! The phone feels like a normal flip-phone in your hands. However, once you power this bad-boy on you begin to notice it's a little different than the rest. My first test that I was dieng to try on this phone was my dead service zone in my basement. I had my friend anxiously waiting on the other end for my call and I began to dial the numbers. Whereas my Motorola RAZR typically doesn't get service this phone was showing two bars! This was surely too good to be true...
Ring, Ring, Ring... Hola!?! My friend responded. I was astounded, it worked. Not only that but the speaker phone was pretty dang loud too.
It passed the dead zone test! For being an entry level phone this phone truely gets some remarkable service. I further tested it in two seperate cricket markets both San Diego, California and Houston, Texas both got great reception and surpassed my MotoRAZR. If your looking for a phone that gets good reception for a cheap price this might be the one.
Next test, playing around with the VGA camera. Being a VGA camera I didn't expect much. And, as my expections were correct the pictures were mediocre at best. There is a useless flash and not many adjustable options but, I guess this camera is good enough to picture message your friends what your doing in the daytime. Playing around with a couple of the other extra features I found the voice recorder to be of no use. On some phones you can use the voice recorder to record music then set it as your ringtone. However, with this phone I was unable to doso.
One extra feature that was actually useful was the voice recognition. It was very user friendly and was able to dial for me, prepare a text message and several other voice recognition features that could be useful in combination with its bluetooth offering. The bluetooth worked fine pairing with my motorola H700 headset without any problems. Unfortunately it was unable to connect to my Dell XPS M1210 laptop but, it could be the compatability issue of Bluetooth V1 vs. V2.
The Cricket mobile web service worked fine on the Siren and kept a decent speed for surfing various websites. Cricket Clicks allowed me to download a free ringtone I recieved with the purchase of the phone.
Overall, this is a great phone for most basic features and especially if reception is an issue. If you crave more advanced things then this might not be the phone for you.
Technical Features:
Physical Characteristics
Size Small
Dimensions (H x W x D) 3.614 x 1.84 x 0.9
Weight (w/standard battery) 3.49 oz
Antenna Type Internal
Colors Red
External Display 96 x 96 Color
Internal Display 65K Color, 128 x 160
Wireless Network Capability
Technology CDMA 800/1900 &, Analog 800
Mode Tri Mode
Battery
Battery Type Lithium Ion
Talk Time Up to 280 min.
Standby Time Up to 510 hours
Additional Features
Speakerphone Yes
Vibrate Alert Yes
Voice-Activated Dialing Yes
Predictive Text-input Yes
Contact directory Yes
Ringtones included Yes
Browse news, sports, etc Yes
Downloadable Ringtones Yes
Preloaded wallpaper, screensavers Yes
Downloadable games / applications Yes
Productivity Tools (including scheduler, calculator, alarm clock) Yes
Headset Jack Yes
TTY Capable Yes (M4, T4)
Camera Phone Yes
Bluetooth-Enabled Yes
Language Options English, Spanish
Service / Support 1 year warranty
Additional Reviews:
C-Net
Phone Scoop User Reviews
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