12:00 PM
The Samsung A736 brings to the table:
Quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Dualband HSPA 850/1900
172x220 TFT screen
MicroSD memory slot
2.0GIG MicroSD card included at time of writing this
Video record/send via MMS
Reception:
The A736 was very good in my usage. Being a Rogers branded phone the ability to manually select 3G or GSM was not present to I was only able to reliably test it's 3G performance within the GTA. Your mileage may very in non 3G areas, but based on the 3G aspect it's safe to assume it's GSM handling will be just as capable.
The A736 handled all my daily needs easily. It provided excellent network quality and reception in my travels across the GTA. The A736 handled my drive test* easily and really provided no challenge for this model.
*The drive by test is:
Yonge and 16th, east on 16th to woodbine. North on woodbine to 19th. West on 19th to Yonge. North on Yonge to Bloomington. East on bloomington to Bayview. South on bayview to Stouffville sideroad. East on Stoufville sideroad to Leslie and Leslie back to the Hill
Sound Quality
incoming
THe A736 has good sound quality. It was sufficiently loud for my needs. I never left it on 7/7 often leaving at 4/7 and putting up as i needed. I found the A736 to be a bit on the bass heavy side. There was no heavy hissing tough which was very nice.
to sum it up, the A736 sounded good for my needs and was more then loud enough when I needed it to be.
outgoing
The outgoing quality was fairly decent. Some said it was a bit muddy at times but other then that there were no real complaints. In the louder enviroments it faired decently but you could tell you weren't in the library.
Speakerphone
The A736 is equipped with a speakerphone like many phones these days. It wasn't all that great, like many phones these days. you could use it in a quiet room and it dod the job but like most, you proably don't wanna be using this in a car or louder enviroment.
Camera/Vision
The A736 has a 1.3mpix camera that shoots vids as well.
standard equipment in this day and age i'd say. The camera itself takes a decent shot outside and in sunlight
Vision
AS of May 1st 2008 the 100.00 vision credit will be applied instantly on new activations. No more waiting for a bill credit on bill 2 or 3
TheA736 is a very capable Vision phone. Although the screen is small by today's standards being 176x220 instead of a QVGA 240x320 the smaller screen results in smaller phone. You can easily pocket the A736 as it's one of the smallest 3G / Vision phones that is currently on the Rogers Vision line up.
I was able to run 2.75 straight hours of mobiTV on the A736. I came to work full charged the A736, set it to MuchMusic and kept waking it up the odd 10 minutes when it asked if i was still there. For 3G phone, of continous transmitter use i was very impressed with the 2.75 hours of TV the A706 was able to put out.
It's worth noting that the back plate of the A736 was warm when running TV which is normal and completely withing it's operational spec.
It's also worth mentioning here that the A736 is $49.99 on a 3 year term with 3 year Vision term as well. It's the lowest priced visoin handset on the Rogers market to date. however, lot cost doesn't mean it's not playing with the bigger boys. It may not have the 5.0Mpix camera of the K850, or the QVGA TFT screens of the V9 but it doesn't have their bulk or battery drain either.
Video calling
The Video calling experience is pretty much the same as others. Looks like a webcam and is up to the individual user as to how important that is for you. Many people think the feature is a gimmick, but I have a few clients that use it religiously. Mainly fathers with their significant others and the new babies to see them but that's not the only limitation.
Connectivity
Sync
The A736 comes packaged with Samsung's PCSuite and all the drivers you'd need to get it off the ground. You can sync up the A736 with Outlook and get all your contacts over. Although ths sync is one of the most simplistic and not that complicated. If you're a user who needs full sync on a phone this may not be the phone for you. If on the otherhand you're running sim card contacts then no worries there.
With the Samsung PCsuite you can get media on or off the included 2 gig Memory card ahtough it feels like USB 1.1 speed. The cable is also proprietary samsung and not mini or Micro USB.
Bluetooth
The bluetooth on the A736 is competent and gave me no issues. Is supports all the major profiles and also has A2DP stereo fo headsets.
It worked fine with my bluetrek ST1's and broadcasting music to my car radio. It was equally adetp at handling calls from the same ST1 headset or Car headunit.
External Memory
At the time of writing this the A736 comes packaged with 2.0 gig MicroSD card which is a nice touch. No memorypromo redemptions to wait for or extra media to purchase. Right out of the box you get a healty amount of memory suitable for most except the true media hawks out there
Aesthetics
The A736 is a very well built, solid, slider. The sliding mechanism provides feedback up and down and the whole package feels well built. I didn't find excessive creaks and moans as time progressed and the slider didn't get worse. Granded I had it 2 weeks, but being my main phone in that time I make sure to seriously run it thgough it's paces.
Keypad
The keypad, while decent, is cramped @ times. Those of you with sausage fingers may find you're hitting 2 buttons at the same time or that your hitting a 5 when you wanted 2. Overall, most hofo'ist will just adjust as usual and find the keypad to be fine for most.
Dpad
The Dpad and keys surrounding it are very nice. Clustered in a 4 way Dpad, with centre key and 6 more side buttons is great. And it's in a nice small area.
OS
The OS on the A736 is tried and true samsung. Graphical front menu is what first greets you, followed by a listing with popup to show you what's further in that menu. You can disable that popup as well if that's not your taste
The OS on the A736 is fairly fast as well, the only slowdown i found was when my SMS started filling up. When i'd pass messaging the popup menu would lag as it loaded up all my messages. Again, not a deal breaker for me since the popup menu can be disabled, or delete your inbox regularly.
Battery
The Battery life on the A736 pleasantly surprised me. One night I had forgotten the charger @ the shop so I had effectively used the A736 all day, all that evening and well into the next day before it started complaining about battery low. I was able to get about 1.75 days out of a single charge. 10 am till about 7pm the next day. While i don't generally recommend this, I charge every night, it's good to know that the A736 can last longer then a day which seems to be standard faire in the 3G / HSPA world.
PRO's
*Small light package
*Low vision priced handset
*Fantastic battery life in a 3G / Vision model
*Excellent build quality
*Excellent slide feel open and close
*Nicely clustered Dpad and 6 side keys on top slider
*Excellent battery life for 3G
*2 gig's in box
CON's
*176x220 screen
*Proprietary USB cable
*basic sync
*slightly cramped keypad
