Samsung Solstice a887 Phone (AT&T)

Pretty smart for not being a smartphone! October 10, 2009

Reviewer:  B. Kurth  (Boston area) -

The Solstice syncs nicely (using the free PC Studio software downloaded from the Samsung website) with the Calendar, Contacts, and ToDo list on my desktop PC Outlook program, and it does so even though it's not a smartphone, which saved me from having to buy a monthly data plan from AT&T. The basic phone function works well, the battery life seems quite good, and the voice recognition feature is quite handy. I couldn't figure out how to turn on the speakerphone for a while, so I finally broke down and read the owner's manual. Ah, you SLIDE the speakerphone switch which shows up on the touchscreen, not simply depress it! Dumb me. The touchscreen works well, with only an occasional misstep. Very nice display, and I like how it can do a slide show of the pictures I put into it from my PC. The alarm is very easy to set and use, and shuts off by simply turning the phone from face up to face down. The music player even sounds good, once I set the built-in sound equalizer to the "Wide" or the "Dyna" setting (a total of 9 equalizer settings are offered), and has enough volume. No earphone jack though, so sound quality is a bit limited compared to what headphones would offer. I am very pleased with this phone!

Update: someone has just pointed out to me that Amazon lists a headphone jack adapter. I did a quick search, and it's $0.99 from Amazon. It doesn't list the a887 as one of the phones it fits, but it does list the a867 and a877, and I think those Samsung phones use the same data jack as the a887 Solstice.

Another Update: Want to be able to read a Word or Excel document on your Solstice? Just select "Save As" and save it as a Web Page on your PC. Copy it into your Solstice into a folder such as "Other Files", click on My Stuff, then Other Files, and voila! it will open up in the phone's web browser. You won't be able to edit it on the phone, of course, but you will be able to read it! This is very handy for text documents or numerical data that you frequently reference and want to have with you in your phone.

Solstice is a solid phone (even the speakerphone) September 25, 2009

Reviewer:  A. Ellis  (Dallas, TX USA) -

I searched high and low for a good alternative to touchscreen "smartphones" with all their fancy doo-dads and high monthly costs, and I found it with the Solstice. The longer I have it the more I like it.

I chose this over the Eternity (last year's model) because the touchscreen interface performs better: it is noticeably snappier and faster responding. I chose this over the Impression because of personal tastes: I liked the lighter weight and trimmer form factor of the Solstice; it fits nicely in your hand. I also do not care for slide-out qwerty's (I have big thumbs); I prefer texting with T9, and the Solstice's vibration-feedback touchscreen works great for me. Battery life is not great, but good: I have run the phone for 2-3 days without re-charging if I don't use the Bluetooth, but normally I do, so I recharge every night, but I've yet to run it down in one day. Call quality is not the best I've heard, but still pretty good. Beware that there is a real issue on this model, where SOME phones have a terrible echo on speakerphone (for the person you are calling). My first Solstice had this problem, but I took it back to the AT&T store where they cheerfully exchanged it, now my speakerphone sounds just fine to everyone I call. Web browsing is ok; I can get from the main menu to a nice animated radar loop in about 20 seconds when I'm on 3G. It has GPS, built-in clients for Facebook and MySpace, YahooIM, but not Twitter. That kind of thing was not a priority for me so I can't speak to it more. I wanted a good, easy to use, music player, and the Solstice delivers, making it easy for me to play hundreds of my favorite tunes over Bluetooth to my car stereo. Being able to customize the home screen with your favorite tasks is a very nice touch on the interface.

Cons: Can't think of many. Wish the camera was better than 2MP (Eternity had 3MP), but it takes decent pix and has a zoom. The multi-tasking capability is a little hard to get used to (especially with the music player), but that's just a learning curve.

Over all Great Phone!! - Poor Speakerphone - No Gmail September 24, 2009

Reviewer:  B. Marshall  (Dallas, TX USA) -

I just got this phone a few days ago and after figuring out all the features, overall I am very happy with it. The one disappointment is that the speaker phone is no good to use; the caller on the other end says it echos and they cannot hear you ( happened to every call I did). Disappointing because I have always used it on my other Samsung phones with not problems. Another downside was that it did not come with a printed user manual, which would have help me, as this is the first touch screen phone that I have bought; 190 pages to print is a little much (located on the CD). Also you cannot use Gmail with this phone's "Mobile Email" App; is seems to have every other email system except mine under the "Applications - Mobile Email" I hope they will update this if that is possible. I did download an app from Gmail, and you can always look it up under the Web Browser too. One cool feature I found is that you can zoom in with the camera. It takes Ok photos. The internet seems to load fairly fast. It was very easy to update, change/add Contacts with the USB connection through Samsung PC Studio on your computer, which you can download from their website (not included on CD). The touch screen is very easy to use, and the full QWERTY touch keyboard is very cool and easy to use. Over all a Great Phone.

Could have been a very good phone November 10, 2009

Reviewer:  XYZ  (Bay Area, CA) -

This phone has the potential to be very good. Sadly, AT&T has crippled it, so it's a lot less useful than it could have been.

-3G can't be turned off. If you leave in a marginal 3G area, or if you simply don't use a lot of data and would rather have longer battery life, you're out of luck.
-Java is, for all practical purposes, useless. Only applications bought by AT&T are usable. Google Maps or other navigation applications can't access the GPS receiver, and every third party application that tries to access the network causes the phone to prompt you to confirm if you want to allow this very frequently. Try to scroll the map in Google Maps, and you'll yet a prompt every few seconds. Try to use Gmail, you'll be prompted whenever you refresh your inbox, try to read a message, or send a message. You get the idea.

If it wasn't for this, it could have been a good phone. It's no iPhone, but it would have been just fine for what it is.

Amazon won't tell you any of this, and I think it's very important to know especially when you take this into account:

Be extremely careful when you buy a phone from Amazon. You'd better be really, really sure that you'll like the phone. Hate the phone but want to keep the service? Too bad. Amazon won't let you exchange for a different phone under any circumstances. You have to return it, wait for several days while they "process" your return, then either cancel your service and be out your non refundable activation fees and the number you just ported, or return it and just through a lot of hoops to try to get a new phone from AT&T instead. I think I've managed to succeed in the latter, but I'm not sure yet as Amazon is still hard at work "processing" my return.

Good phone with speakerphone flaw November 13, 2009

Reviewer:  S. Wuu 

I really want to like the phone. However, one major flaw is its speakerphone is useless with bad echo for the person on the other side of the call. This problem only occurs as long as the voice command has been used once. If I reset the phone to factory setting, then the problem goes away. However, I like to use voice dial, but once I used it once, there goes the speakerphone echo problem regardless if I use voice call to initiate the call. Sadly, I like to have both voice call and speakerphone features.

For those who rate the phone highly, have you used the speakerphone and the voice call with no problems?

Other issue is I found the ringer not loud enough.

I like how the widgets can be customised (to some degree) on the desktop and the virtual keypad.

Love the Solstice! September 22, 2009

Reviewer:  Nancy R. Keller "Keller2"  (Roseville, MI) -

Great phone! I initially bought the Eternity and returned it because I found out it did not have speed dial and the battery did not last but 48 hours. It also did not have the ability to customize the Widget as the Solstice does. The Solstice is smaller than the Eternity and fits better in your hand. The battery seems to last longer and the phone is totally customizable. The camera takes great pictures and the voice quality, even on speaker is wonderful. The Internet is easy to access and the screen gives good detail. I would recommend this phone to anyone who is looking to upgrade to a touch screen.

You will love this easy to use phone! But what's up with those wallpapers? November 17, 2009

Reviewer:  Brian Stromberg 

The Samsung Solstice is a well designed phone. It hits on every mark. I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Screen: Beautiful
Sound quality: Excellent
Interface: Easy to use!
Touch Screen: Responsive
Battery Life: Good

My favorite part about the solstice is the intuitive interface. There is almost no learning curve. Just play with it a bit and you will have it figured out in no time. Some reviewers have mentioned problems with the speaker phone, however I have not experienced that. My speaker phone is loud and clear. I love that I am not tied to an AT&T data plan with this phone. My only complaint is the included wallpapers. You can NOT delete them and most of them are hideously ugly and when the phone is locked they randomly display.

Run away, AT&T Gives Customer NO Service December 12, 2009

Reviewer:  Katie 

I am updating my review after four months.

First of all, my advice:
DO NOT buy this phone because it means you have to use AT&T as your carrier. After being with AT&T for over eight years and never having a problem, I have found that AT&T is not reliable and will not help with problems. Run away! If you get this phone, know going into it that if your phone fails it will NOT be replaced with a NEW phone. AT&T will only replace it with a refurbished phone. Also know that you cannot speak to a supervisor, they will only pass you from one department to another.

I don't know if it the Samsung Solstice's fault, but in January both our phones quit working in our home (after the first 3 mos. of good service with these same phones). They work everywhere else. AT&T has no answer for us, and after 8 years of great service with three different phones, suddenly we cannot make or receive a call without it dropping. Again, AT&T is not interested in getting our service back to us.

AT&T has offered us a "REFURBISHED" phone, but refuses to provide us with a new phone. But, again, I don't think it is the phone because it is not likely that both of our Solstice phones would drop calls consistently. Remember, they work everywhere but in our home. AT&T Cell tower is less than 1/4 mile from us, can see it out my window.

My only option is to pay the $300 and change carriers. AT&T does not care if we move to another carrier. We will pay the $300 because we need our phones and it is our only solution to having service, shame on AT&T.



Pros:
Great for Texting
I love the speaker phone (no echo on either of our phones)
Sound Quality is good.
Camera isn't that great, but works.


Cons: Using the internet is worthless on this phone. Too small, too slow.

GPS feature costs yet another $10 per month (Sprint provides this as part of the package, and it works well) My daughter has it on her Samsung Instinct Phone and it is really a wonderful feature. But, that's with Sprint.

The lock on my phone doesn't always work.

Bottom Line: Happy with the phone, disappointed and unhappy with AT&T customer no service.

Great phone but still has some quirks... December 14, 2009

Reviewer:  SammyT  (Honolulu, HI United States) -

I bought the Solstice the first week of this month (12/09). After reading most of the specs and reviews on this item at least it was a step up from my Pantech Duo which wasn't a bad phone just for some reason it started to really go downhill a couple weeks before I bought the Samsung. I'm no stranger to the Samsung phone line as I had one before owning the Pantech.

I like the way the phone emulates the look of the iPhone but none of the size or weight. Finally I bought a phone that actually works with the AT & T network (I still don't know what is happening with their network as I said, my Duo started being sporatic at best when I came back from vacation in TN...Dunno why).

At anyrate its a great phone and I can upload custom ringtones and pictures for the "desktop". However, I do agree with many people that there should be a User way of changing the screensaver when the phone is locked--albiet the provided graphics are nice, just want to personalize it more.

I have been without "groups" for my contact list in a couple years as the past two (including the Pantech) did not allow me to put contacts into groups. At this point I was happy until I found out that you can't text a group if it has more than 10 people--so if you have more than 10 people in the group you want to txt blast then you have to A) split them up in to groups of 10, B) select 10 people from the group at a time and text them or C) just use the contact/address book and add them one by one. ***Note I still have not tried to text more than 10 people at a time--The Pantech did not allow me to text 20+ people at a time and w/o the group feature sending holiday wishes became a chore.

The virtual keyboard is a hit and miss--literally. You'll find that sometimes you will be certain you hit the correct key, however, it either types the wrong key, just beeps w/o entering a character or places a space. I have begun to notice that sometimes the necessary keys (such as "OK" or "enter") interfere with the punctuation or sometimes you send a partial message because of hitting the "ok" key twice while your intent was to add an ellipses.

The camera is decent, however I would have like to have an option to zoom and it doesn't auto focus well. Yet the automatic resize option when sending an MMS message is welcome.

Overall the solstice is a pretty decent phone for what I need it to do.

great!!! November 27, 2009

Reviewer:  Sean "Sean"  (colorado) -

This phone is great. just got it a few days ago and i am nothing but in love with it. the touchscreen is very responsive (and Durable). the virtual qwerty keyboard is very reliable and easy to use. when i was at the at&t store i tried other (what i considered to be, later found out otherwise) comparable phones, primarily the lg vu. i was VERY dissatisfied with the touchscreen response, accuracy, and "buttons" on the qwerty. it also helps that i am loyal to samsung. i have owned one other brand (Nokia e71x) and it was a piece of crap.overall a great little, and stylish, phone.

ps- i do recomend a screen cover, but thats just me