Sprint's Ambassador program: Testing the Samsung A920

In early January I received an e-mail from the “Sprint Ambassador Team” saying they had visited my camera phone weblog and asked if I wanted to participate in the “Ambassador program” where I’d get a free Sprint multimedia phone and free voice and data airtime for six months.

I could download music, subscribe to television and video services, use it as a modem, etc. and there wouldn’t be any charge.  The quid pro quo is Sprint wanted feedback, as much or as little as I wanted to give them.  There was no mention of my writing anything in my weblog or anywhere else except sending feedback directly to the company.

At the end of six months I could keep the phone but the service would end and I would have to get a Sprint contract to continue using the phone. 

Scam?

At first I thought this could be some sort of scam.  The e-mail didn’t include anyone’s name, phone number or address.

But I thought, what the hell, and replied that I wanted to participate.  After all, the e-mail didn’t ask for my bank account routing number, Social Security number or mother’s maiden name!

Lo and behold, it’s for real (see below).  A few weeks later I received a package from Sprint and it was a new Samsung A920 “Power Vision” (i.e., 1xEV-DO) phone, a charger and a data cable. 

For more information by the bloggers who are part of this program, check out Google for “Sprint Ambassador.”  There is lots of information about what bloggers think, such as this entry by Jeff Jarvis, “Chip Chick,” “The Pondering Primate” and “Citizen of the Month” (not “office-safe”).

Bottom line:  I like it!

As a wireless data consultant I test lots of phones, though I’ve never been an “ambassador” before!  The bottom line is I like the A920 (pictured above in the “Sprint Power Vision Ambassador Program Login”) a lot, although it’s certainly not perfect (what phone is?).

It feels good in your hand.  It feels sturdy.  The keys are raised so they’re easy to press.  It has two stereo speakers, on either side below the flip hinge, that actually sound pretty good or, at least, good enough to listen to.

I actually enjoy watching news clips and live television news on the phone.  You could have watched five different channels covering President Bush’s State of the Union Address, for example.  You can watch video news briefs from NBC Mobile and CNN To Go or live TV from ABC News Now, Fox News, Bloomberg, C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2.

The live TV streams are delayed a couple of minutes compared to what you see on your television, but they’re the same feeds.

Multimedia

I know cellular TV is one of the hottest topics in the wireless business and I also know some analysts — and cellular subscribers — are very skeptical that people will want to watch, as this recent New York Times article points out.  I’m not skeptical.

While I don’t think people will watch a two hour movie on a small cellular LCD, they will indeed watch brief snippets and perhaps even one hour shows.  It depends on how much time they have to waste!

And I mean that semi-facetiously.  If you’re waiting in a long line, have a couple of hours (or more) to kill at the airport, as examples, there’s no reason why you might not want to watch what’s on your cellular phone. 

Sure, your phone’s content will compete with other activities — everything from working on your laptop to listening to music on a digital music player to watching videos on a large screen portable video player to sleeping — but I still think people will view what’s playing on their phones.

Fast and pretty reliable

Where Sprint’s Power Vision network is available, it’s fast and reliable, like Verizon’s BroadbandAccess.  Verizon introduced its 1xEV-DO network many months before Sprint’s but the latter’s coverage isn’t always worse than Verizon’s.

As an example, much to my surprise, Power Vision is available around much of Cape Cod, a famous resort area and retirement community in Massachusetts.  Verizon only offers the much slower 1xRTT service in that area.

Downloading music tracks and videos via Power Vision typically takes less than a minute as does beginning the stream for live TV.  I’ve also connected the A920 to my laptop via a USB cable and I’ve gotten download speeds ranging from the low 700sK bps to the low 900sK bps.

Not perfect

The A920 certainly isn’t perfect.  As a phone that’s designed for watching video, the screen is mediocre.  The viewing angle is much too narrow; you have to hold the screen “just so” in order to get a clear view. 

Also, the screen’s resolution could be increased to improve the viewing quality.

I like listening to techie podcasts and the A920 is just fine for downloading or streaming.  You also may listen to podcasts if you subscribe to MSPOT Radio and Sirius Radio, but considering the huge number of available podcasts, the fare via Sprint is pretty poor.

Also, the podcast don’t change frequently!  That’s definitely a problem that needs to be corrected by the content providers, although I realize podcasts are way, way down on the list of what most people want to hear.

Photo quality lacking

I’m also not very impressed with the handset’s 1.3 megapixel camera.  It’s better than the VGA camera phones and it’s generally just fine for posting photos and videos to the Web.  But it’s not good enough for, well, good photos.

Take a look at the Textamerica moblog I established for A920 photos and videos (see below).  I also posted some of the photos in my only non-technology weblog, “Practical Cape Cod,” in entries here and here.

You may also view a video I shot with the A920 as well as one with Nokia’s two megapixel N70 camera phone (I’m part of Nokia’s “blogger relations program.”)

If you read the entries by the other bloggers to whom I linked (above) in this article, you’ll get a pretty good idea of the phone’s capabilities.  For a very favorable recent review, check out BusinessWeek’s article.

Bottom line

There are many 3G multimedia phones on the market and many more to come.  Compared to the A920, some offer much better photo and video quality, such as the Nokia N90.  Others offer better music functionality, such as the Sony Ericsson W900i. 

Still others are better for business with QWERTY keyboards and the ability to download hundreds or thousands of applications, like the Treo 650 and Treo 700w.

But as a jack-of-many-trades multimedia handset, the A920 should be one of the phones at the top of the list for consumers.  Regardless of whether Sprint is letting me use the phone for free for six months, this is a very nice device.

Comments

[Jan Michael Hess]

Hi Alan,

I also received the email invitation to Sprint Ambassador although I am based in Germany. The reason might be that I post in English.

I also think that the invitation email was very bad and I expected scam, too.

So thanks for sharing your review experience. It looks more and more companies actively target bloggers for testing their products and services.

Are you able to share with me/us the national data plan and international data roaming plan of Sprint?

I am currently collecting more stories such as the one I wrote about Vodafone Germany and the International Data Roaming Pricing Joke.