Samsung Impression Leaves an Impression

At first I was about to purchase the Apple iPhone until the representative stated that if I wanted an iPhone then I would have to add the iPhone data plan and there was noway around that catch. If you're like me then you are probably one of the many people who wanted a smart phone but didn't want to pay the extra $30 or more on data by force from the mobile companies. Luckily, I have found a way around this dilemma after purchasing the Samsung Impression A877 from AT&T. Sure, it's not an iPhone or even a smartphone but it sure does the job like a smartphone and unlimited data for only $10 a month.

The Impression features a touchscreen interface along with a slide out qwerty keypad, but if you close the keypad then you can use the touchscreen keypad instead which rotates to however you are holding up the phone. If you want a qwerty touchscreen keypad then turn your phone horizontally or if you want a regular number keypad then hold your phone vertically and watch the screen change. Personally, I prefer a physical keypad over the touchscreen keypad so it's a slider all the way for me. You can text, IM, and email with ease. The only gripe with the mobile email feature which doesn't require data to access is that they only offer certain email providers which most people do not use except for Yahoo mail. If you want to access your email accounts such as Gmail then you would have to use data and access it through your web browser.

The camera is a 3 megapixel camera, which produces a nice and clear picture. I uploaded pictures taken from the Impression and you would think the pictures came from a digital camera because the pictures are just that good. You can crop and add text to your pictures, which is great if you like to play around with your pictures. The one major flaw with the camera is there is no option for flash.

The music player is loud and clear so for those who like to bump the music and dance then be sure to play the music via the music player so that it will play your playlist automatically. If the 200 MB onboard memory isn't enough for you then you can slip in a micro SD card with your loaded music and videos.

The Impression is a great phone for the price but there are a few major things that you can gripe about. The quick key selection isn't as customizable as you would like it to be because you can only select from a fixed list of selection. You can drag the quick key selection anywhere onto your home screen is a nice feature but that is as far as customizing your home screen as it gets. The other problem with the phone which is normal for other smartphones and non-smartphones are there is that it will freeze up once in a long while so you would need to restart your phone to fix the problem although I have only seen the phone freeze up when texting. If your text doesn't send then restart your phone.

Regardless of these gripes, the phone also features capabilities that aren't common on other phones. You can easily select numbers to block and you can easily select to keep your phone number private on demand. The phone also features dual world clocks so you can always know the time in certain places of the world along with unit conversion and currency conversion. There are a ton more features and you can have all this without having to buy any applications although you can download some for free from AT&T.