The Samsung Access is the second phone from AT&T to offer support for the carrier’s silky-smooth Mobile TV service, and it’s great for catching shows on the go. We especially like this phone’s large and sharp display. However, at $199, the Access doesn’t offer much else in the way of cutting-edge features to justify the high price. Unless you’re willing to fork over 15 bucks a month for TV, look elsewhere.
Access Design
The matte black Samsung Access looks strikingly similar to the BlackJack II, and its dimensions, 4.5 x 2.3 x 0.5 inches, are nearly identical, but it has a standard alpha-numeric keyboard instead of the full QWERTY that the BlackJack II has. The Access’ 2.3-inch screen is comfortably large, bright, and colorful. Its keyboard, call buttons, and soft menu buttons have a reflective surface, and the rest of the unit is matte black. Under the display is a quick-launch button for the TV service, two soft buttons, and a Back button. Below those controls is a Call and End button, and between them, a round four-direction menu button with a Select button in the middle. On the left, you’ll find a power port, which doubles as a headphone jack, and volume controls. From top to bottom on the right side you’ll find a microSD slot for adding extra storage and buttons for the camera and the task manager.
Just because a phone isn’t a smart phone doesn’t mean it can’t have a full QWERTY keypad. We’re left wondering why Samsung decided to put in an alpha-numeric keyboard on a device with plenty of room for the same keyboard found on the BlackJack and BlackJack II. But we appreciate the space that the alphanumeric keyboard has, and the softness of each key-press makes it a decent keyboard overall.
The Samsung Access has a similar interface to most of AT&T’s other multimedia phones. Inside the main menu are icons for TV & Video, Media Net, My Stuff, Address Book, Settings, AT&T Music, Recent Calls, Messaging, and AT&T Mail. Two soft keys, Menu and Options/Back remain on-screen at all times.
E-mail and Messaging
The Access comes with AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo Messenger preloaded, and we appreciated the ability to chat with our AIM friends on the go. The Access also has a host of preset e-mail providers, and you simply need to enter in your username and password to log in. Onboard e-mail clients include AIM, AOL, BellSouth, Comcast, Earthlink, Juno, MindSpring, NetZero, Windows Live Mail, and Yahoo Mail. Unfortunately, you can’t add your own IMAP or POP account.
Mobile TV
The Mobile TV service was stellar in New York City, one of the 58 markets in which it’s currently available. Others include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Diego (type in your ZIP code at www.wireless.att.com to see if you’re covered). The service will set you back an additional $15 a month for access to its 11 stations, which include CBS Mobile, CNN Mobile Live, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile TV, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go, Nickelodeon, and a Sony movie channel called PIX. There’s an eleventh channel called CNCRT, which broadcasts music concerts, but it’s only available through June. You can also opt for a $13 news station package, which includes four of the news channels listed above, but it’s worth dropping the extra $2 to get all of the channels. When you first start the TV feature, it takes a few seconds for the full picture to load. But we loved watching The Colbert Report in bed and ESPN in the back of a cab with the phone’s crisp speakers. The picture was bright and sharp, and it didn’t require any buffering time or have pixelated scenes. We could also easily read the ticker during an NBA playoff game on ESPN.
Notwithstanding that it has a smaller screen and lacks the landscape view of the LG Vu, the TV experience on the Access was just as impressive.
Music Performance
We were pleasantly surprised by the loud and crisp performance of the built-in speaker on the rear of the Access. When we played Lupe Fiasco’s “Paris, Tokyo,” the sound was comparable in quality to what we expect from a budget laptop. We appreciated the ability to listen to MP3s directly off our sideloaded microSD Card, and you can multitask while you’re listening, too: pause or skip songs directly from the home screen using the omnidirectional pad. Music sounded decent over the included headset, but we wish the Access used a 3.5mm jack instead of Samsung’s proprietary one.
You won’t find many over-the-air download options, but you can use Napster to purchase songs that you can play back on your computer. It’s best for grabbing a song on the go that you know you’ll want in your library later, but we wish we could download the tracks right to our handset. Like the LG Vu, there’s a musicID application on the phone that you can use to identify tracks to purchase. Like many AT&T phones, the Access also supports over-the-air XM Radio streaming, but you’ll want to make sure you have an unlimited data plan and the $8.99 monthly XM Radio Mobile subscription. XM quality was mediocre in suburban Pennsylvania, where music continually skipped, even with a 3G connection.
