Back To The Future: Samsung A900

Two years -- that's how long I've survived without a cell phone in our world of ultra-connectedness. It wasn't always easy and I'm sure I've broken a few records! The last time I was part of the easy-communication community was with the help of a Nokia 8260: tiny, old, light, simple, no-fuss, phone-only phone.

Three weeks ago the need to be always-reachable drove me to investigate cell phones again. The Motorola Razr looked good but reviews seemed to hate its user interface. Samsung had just come out with its direct Razr response, the Samsung A900 a.k.a. "Blade". I played with it briefly in the Sprint store and a few minutes later I was trendy again. (Or so I'd like to think)

Wow. Culture shock. Reality check. Phones are not phones anymore! Two years suddenly feel like an electronic eternity! I am back to the future and find myself saying "Kit! Kit!" to my phone. But my car won't move.

After three weeks with the Blade, I'm still excited over it. The user interface feels very intuitive. I didn't have to use the manual much and when I did I easily found what I was looking for. The phone is light, skinny, razr-like looking (people say "oh you've got the razr, too") and in general does everything pretty well. The battery doesn't last long for sure (you'll find several posts out there talking about it) but if charged every night, it's reasonable. If you talk a lot, have bluetooth, gps and the screen on max brightness you'll certainly have an issue though :)

The thing can play mp3s, stream music (with stereo speakers, mind you), stream video at a decent rate, take photos, shoot movies, surf the web (not limited to any site, very cool!) and the screen is big enough that it's even useful. The java apps don't take too long to start and work in general pretty fast, I'm impressed :)

What really did it for me though is two things: Google Local for Mobile and Gmail Mobile. Google Local is simply awesome: download the little java app, and you have Google Maps in your phone! It works really well with both map- and satellite- views and search of local businesses/addresses. Scroll around, zoom in/out... It has saved me a few times already :) Gmail Mobile just works as you'd expect: read your gmail email from your phone with a convenient mobile-specific interface. These two things have convinced me to keep the $15/mo PowerVision data plan, I love it!

Um, of course the real reason of my excitment over the phone is that I can talk to my girlfriend all the time now ;) When I'm not talking to her it's definitely a nice toy to have around!