Samsung MM-A800 Multimedia Camera Phone This review was based on a pre-production model.
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Unique Phone Features

I have been using the MM-A800 as a portable digital camera for the past few weeks but haven't had the opportunity to spend much time on it as a phone. I did, however, get a chance to play with a few of the other features of this phone and thought I would report on my findings. This is surely not a complete review of the phone's features but should help you when comparing this phone to other models that are out there.

Business Card Scanner
Taking advantage of the built-in camera lens, Samsung has included a feature on this phone called "Business Card Scan." Using this feature is as simple as taking a photo of a business card, then answering questions by moving a box to highlight appropriate fields. Example: When the phone asks you to verify the company name, you just move a box over the company name part of the photo and click "OK." The phone will then prompt you to locate the work phone number and, again, just highlight the work phone number with the box highlighter and press "OK." It's that easy. Recognition was perfect each and every time, except when I tried to capture a business card in low light. This is a great way to add contacts to your phone, especially when compared to using a keypad to enter all that information.

PictBridge Compatible
PictBridge is a photo industry standard created by the Camera & Imaging Product Association (CIPA) for direct printing. It allows images to be printed directly from digital cameras to a printer, without having to connect to a computer. The Samsung MM-A800 not only supports PictBridge, it also includes the special USB cable needed to make prints. Most of today's inkjet printers from Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Olympus, and Sony support PictBridge, so compatibility shouldn't be a problem. Just connect the phone to your printer, select the images you want to print, select the paper type and size, number of copies - then PRINT. It's that easy.

Voice Recognition and Dialing:
I have had mobile phones in the past that have featured basic voice dialing, but the Samsung MM-A800 goes way beyond the others. Slide the phone to the open position, and the phone will ask you for a command. Say the word "Call," and the phone will ask you to say a name or phone number. That's right. You can speak a phone number, even if it's not in your phone already, and the phone will dial it - after confirming it with a voice prompt. You can also choose to say a name. If there is more than one person with the same first or last name, the phone will go through each similar name, one by one until you say "YES." It will then dial that contact. You can speak the first name or last name - it doesn't matter -- the phone will find it. I tested this feature in my car and the accuracy amazed me. Also, considering that one of the most dangerous feats of using a phone in the car involves looking at the keypad to dial - this feature is a real life-saver.

Message Dictation:
As far as I know, this is a first in a mobile phone and one that will revolutionize the way messages are entered, once accuracy is improved. When first using this feature, the phone will put you through a TRAINING exercise that involves speaking approx. 125 words into the phone - as it prompts you. Once this is done, you are now ready to speak and have the phone convert your words to text - in real time. To send a voice message, just press and hold the camera's shutter button while you speak into the phone, pausing between words and speaking slowly and clearly. In the car, with background noise being a possible factor, accuracy wasn't very good. Testing this feature at home where there was much less background noise, accuracy was almost perfect. Instead of the word "Waiting," the phone mistakenly recognized it as "Waking," and instead of the "Flowers," the phone understood it as "Powers." The phone does make it easy to correct those words that are incorrectly recognized. The poor accuracy that I achieved in the car might have to do with the fact that I trained it in the house where background noise was minimal. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to re-calibrate the recognition for use in the car.

Media Player with SPRINT TV
TV on your phone? Sort of. The media player built in to the Samsung MM-A800 has the ability to play MP3's, streaming audio, and streaming video clips, including Sprint TV ($$$). Since the size of the video window resembles a moving postage stamp, you probably will find the streaming video feature of this phone to be "cool," rather than useful. Streaming video and audio clips suffered from choppy quality and frequent "re-connects," disrupting the usability even further. Adding insult to injury is that Sprint wants to charge you for each video and audio stream ($4.95 FOX Sports, $5.95 - Music Choice, etc.) I recommend purchasing a larger Transflash memory card ("256MB sells for about $35-$39) and fill it with your own music and/or video clips. From what I can tell the phone will ship with a Transflash to SD adapter, so you should be able to get music and images to and from the card using a traditional SD card reader.