After being a longtime user of the Motorola V220 (yeah, super popular phone), I’ve finally upgraded to a new phone. At the AT&T store, there were quite a few choices of phones. There was the Blackberry/Palm collection, the 3G collection, the outdated Razr’s, and the supper crappy phone section. Considering I didn’t want a Blackberry and that Razr’s are getting old, and that I wanted an upgrade, I decided to check out the 3G phones. Now, what really sucks about this is that you are required to purchase a 20 dollar per month data plan to go along with the phone. Since almost all the phones in the store required this, I decided to go with the super-thin Samsung SGH-a727. This was the only phone that stuck out to me and had some pretty cool features.

The Design

The a727 has a very cool design that is starting to dominate the phone business. Slim, slim, slim. It looks a lot like the old SLVR. We’re talking a really thin phone that still packs a punch. The phones dimensions are perfect for me: 1.98″ wide, 4.5″ tall, .35″ inches thick, and it weighs only 2.2 ounces. The thickness really appealed to me, because you can’t deny that this phone looks pretty slick. On the backside of the phone there is a camera that juts out at the very top just a little. Although this makes the phone not a clean box shape, it does actually provide good balance to the phone, and it lets you orient yourself through tactile means by just feeling the back of the phone. Overall this phone looks really nice, and has a concise, simple design that looks great in black.

User Interaction

The a727 doesn’t break any phone metaphors. It’s got the typical keypad and the typical buttons. It has two soft keys (very usual), hang up, accept call, a 4 way navigation button, and a center select button. The phone also has a dedicated music key and a dedicated swap key. The right side has a button that you hold down to activate the camera (typical) and the left has up/down volume (all common). What’s nice about it is that if you’ve ever used any other phone, you’ll feel right at home with this one. The phone’s OS and GUI is identical to almost all other phones. There’s no learning curve here.

There is one thing to mention about the buttons. The front panel buttons all rest right into the case, and there is little tacticle distinction between buttons, so you may have a difficult time handling this phone without looking at the keys. It takes getting used to, but after a few days, you won’t have any gripes with the phone’s buttons.

The Screen, Camera & Accessories

The a727 has a vibrant LCD screen with a 220 x 176 pixel dimension. I’ve been extremely pleased with the screen. Of course, this is no iPhone, but it’s a well-taken upgrade from my V220. I’ve had little problem viewing the screen outside or inside. Everything on the screen jumps out and makes reading extremely easy. The phone is battery-conservative in that the screen will be at full brightness for a little bit after you press a button or if you are in a menu. Once there is a bit of an idle, the screen dims a bit, and after more idle time, it turns the screen off. This is great because I’m sure the screen draws a lot of power, and the phone handles it all by itself. I should also say that the phone has a hold option (hold down *), yet it’s probably not necessary. The buttons are set in like I said, and I don’t believe I’ve activated the phone while it’s been in my pocket.

I’ve only taken a few pictures with the phone, but it’s the typical camera-phone. You’re not going to be taking an Ansel Adams style pictures with this, but it does come in handy to catch the odd camera-phone moment. The phone also has video capture ability, so you can take videos, which I have done. I’ve been pleased with the camera although I doubt I will use it much.

The phone has two accessory ports. It has a MicroSD card for extensible media, and a plug port for charging, which doubles for all its accessories like headphones, etc.

Overall Thoughts

I’ve never been a big phone addict, and my time using a phone is usually very short, but the Samsung SGH-a727 has worked very well for me so far and combines style with functionality. If you’re expecting web browsing experiences like the iPhone, this isn’t the phone, but for the few times I’ve gone online, it’s been bearable. It can stream video through the 3G network, which can be nice while waiting at doctors/airports. If you’re looking for a good phone that won’t get in your way, but still has a good featureset, I highly recommend this one.