Samsung SCH-A930 Review - Messaging, Internet & Connectivity

Messaging, Internet & Connectivity

The A930 has support for SMS and MMS messaging.  Composing SMS and MMS messages was straightforward, as was attaching images, videos, and audio clips to MMS messages.  Samsung's predictive text input system worked well, though I prefer the messaging interface (and UI in general) on Samsung's unlocked phones over that found on Verizon branded handsets.

Email is supported through Verizon's optional Mobile Web 2.0 "VZW Email" service, which makes it easy to set up access to an AOL, MSN, or Yahoo! account.  Accessing other email accounts is possible through third party WAP-based services.  Sending and receiving of email messages is accomplished through the WAP interface, and not an integrated client.  Instant messaging, on the other hand, is possible via the built-in Mobile IM client.  Again, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo instant messaging is supported out of the box.

Internet access on the A930 happens by way of Verizon's VCast, and Mobile Web 2.0 services, all of which are optional for-fee services.  The Web browser on the A930 is WAP-based, and works well with Verizon's content as well as most WAP Web sites.  HTML browsing is not officially supported and generally does not work very well.

Verizon's VCast service offers a wide variety of streaming audio/video and downloadable audio content.  As a reviewer, it was fun to browse through the offerings, watch a few videos here and download a few songs there to check out.  As a paying consumer, however, just remember to keep track of how much all of this entertainment costs - streaming media on your phone is a fun, and addictive, way to kill time while waiting for friends or appointments.

So long as I had EV-DO coverage, the VCast service worked quite well.  Streaming content buffered quickly and generally played smoothly with only the occassional need to re-buffer midstream.  The music store offered a decent selection of songs, all of which downloaded pretty quickly to the phone in medium-quality format ready for immediate playback.  Songs may also be synched for playback on a PC. 

Going further in-depth regarding the Internet capabilties of the A930 would read more like a review of Verizon's service than the handset itself.  Suffice it to say that almost anything Internet-related that you might do on the A930 will fall under the umbrella of Verizon's content.  That being said, if you're willing to pay for it, Verizon offers a lot in the way of information and entertainment.  However, if you're looking to browse the Web beyond Verizon-branded offerings, this probably isn't the handset for you.

The A930 supports CDMA 800/1900 bands and 1xEV-DO data on the CDMA 2000 band.  The phone is locked and so may only be used on Verizon's wireless network.

Bluetooth is supported on the A930, but functionality has been limited by Verizon to support for mono audio devices only.  The phone paired easily with a Bluetooth headset and worked well for voice calling.

The phone also features a microSD slot for expansion via removable memory cards.  No microSD card is included in the retail package.

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