THE GOOD: The Samsung a107 is a lightweight and easy-to-use basic phone. It's affordable as well.
THE BAD: The Samsung a107 is missing an external display as well as Bluetooth.
THE BOTTOM LINE: The Samsung SGH-a107 makes for a decent entry-level phone for the prepaid crowd, but you can get a better device elsewhere for cheaper.
Even though we live in a mobile age where almost everyone has a cell phone, not everyone wants a feature-packed handset. Basic prepaid phones have their place, especially if you're only the occasional cell phone user. The Samsung a107, for example, is offered through AT&T Wireless' GoPhone plan and is as basic as you're going to get. It doesn't have a camera, a music player, or even Bluetooth. We question the lack of the latter since even free phones have Bluetooth these days, but the a107 is otherwise a decent prepaid entry-level phone for the cell phone newbie. The Samsung a107 is $29.99 without a contract.
Design
Measuring 3.46 inches long by 1.73 inch wide by 0.78 inch thick, the a107 is one of the smallest flip phones we've ever tried. It's also very lightweight at just 2.61 ounces. It has rounded edges and a smooth silver front plate, whereas the rest of the phone is clad in black plastic. The phone is so basic that there isn't even an external display. In fact, there isn't even a volume rocker. The headset/charger jack is on the right spine, and that's about it for the exterior.
The flip hinge feels sturdy when opening and closing the phone. When opened, you'll see a dinky 1.43-inch 65,000-color display. The resolution is poor and images look rather blocky, but that shouldn't be a surprise for such a basic phone. We wished the display was a bit bigger, though, if only to make the text more legible. You can adjust the wallpaper, the idle screen display, and the greeting message.
Underneath the display is a simple navigation array, which consists of two soft keys, a square toggle with a middle confirmation key, the Send key, the Clear key, and the End/Power key. The toggle can be mapped to four user-defined functions; the center key acts as a browser shortcut key on standby. The navigation array feels roomy, as does the number keypad below it. The keys are also separated from each other with a defined grid, so it's easy to text and dial with speed.
Features
The Samsung a107 doesn't really have a lot in the way of features. It has a 500-entry phone book with room in each entry for five numbers, an e-mail address, and notes. You can add a contact to a caller group plus assign an image for caller ID. Since the phone has no camera, you'll have to stick to simple graphics. You can assign a contact with one of 11 ringtones as well.
Basic features include text and multimedia messaging, a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, instant messaging, a mobile MediaNet Web browser, an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a tip calculator, a unit converter, a timer, a stopwatch, and a world clock.
If you want to download more graphics and ringtones for personalizing the phone, you can do so via the phone's AppCenter, which directs you to the AT&T's MediaNet homepage. There aren't any games for the phone, however.
Performance
We tested the Samsung a107 (GSM 850/1,900) in San Francisco using AT&T Wireless. Call quality was pretty good. On our end, we heard our callers just fine, though we detected a tiny bit of static and the voice quality was noticeably hollow.
Callers also reported good call quality. They said we sounded a bit tinny, but it wasn't a big deal. However, they said that sometimes the ends of our sentences would drop off a bit, and they, too, reported a few static issues. Speakerphone quality was mediocre at best; our callers sounded harsh and there was a lot of echo and hiss on their end.
The Samsung a107 has a rated battery life of 3 hours talk time and 10 days standby time. According to the FCC, it has a digital SAR of 0.3 watts per kilogram.
