Samsung SCH-A930 Review - Display & Audio

Display & Audio

The internal 2" TFT screen on the A930 is quite nice - bright and vivid, though hard to read in direct sunlight.  Capable of resolutions of 176 x 220 pixels at up to 262,00 colors, the main display is more than adequate for everything from menu navigation to video playback, if not quite state-of-the-art.

As mentioned, Verizon's interfaces are fairly locked down, but wallpapers and text styles are customizable.  Animated clips may also be used as wallpapers.  Another nifty feature is that the user can change the font used to display numbers as they're dialed.

The external OLED display is small, simple, and aligned to be held horizontally.  While limited to just four shades of blue-green and fixed font sizes, the screen does show quite a bit of information, including time, date, voice and EV-DO signal strength, battery level, caller ID, and music player information.  While also a bit hard to read in direct sunlight, this display proved quite handy if not as flexible as the full-fledged mini displays now found on many other flip phones.

I tested the dual-band CDMA A930 on Verizon's network in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Voice quality was stellar.  Calls came through loud and clear on both mine and the other end, and I kept the volume no higher than the middle of the range.

Calls on the built-in speakerphone were also loud and clear, as were ringtones and audio alarms.  Ringtones are limited to the ten that come with the phone or additional ones purchased from the VCast store.  The dual internal speakers also worked fairly well for music playback - for a cell phone, anyway.  A 2.5mm headphone jack supports optional wired headsets, including stereo earphones.  As always, I scratch my head wondering why a carrier wouldn't include stereo earphones with a music-centric phone like this.  Wouldn't a great out-of-the-box music experience drive customers to buy more music from the online store?

The A930 supports Bluetooth audio devices.  I was able to easily pair a Bluetooth earpiece with the phone, and voice quality with the earpiece was good.  It should be noted that some other reviewers have reported problems with certain Bluetooth earpieces, so your mileage may vary.  Stereo over Bluetooth is not supported.

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