Samsung MM-A880 (Sprint)

Design of Samsung MM-A880 (Sprint)

The Samsung MM-A880 sports the same basic look as other handsets the manufacturer has designed for Sprint PCS. With this model, however, the brushed-silver casing is attractively accented on the outer trim by a slight shade of lavender. That said, it's not too flashy to whip out in the middle of a business meeting. It's fairly compact at 3.35 by 1.73 by 0.93 inches but a touch hefty at 4.7 ounces. The postage stamp-size external display supports 262,000 colors and shows the date, time, battery life, signal strength and caller ID (where available). It also serves as a viewfinder for taking self-portraits, and you can assign pictures taken with the integrated megapixel camera as screensavers or as photo caller ID for individual contacts. Above the screen is the camera lens and a small flash.

Open the lid and you'll see a vibrant, 1.8-inch-diagonal 262,000-color screen. It's great for viewing photos and the user-friendly menus (available in two styles), but it disappears in direct light. Unlike with the external screen, you can change the backlighting time, as well as the font size and color, but you can't alter the brightness. We liked, however, that you could choose from nine clock styles, including an option that shows two times simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the MM-A880's dial pad feels cramped. Add to that that the buttons are both smooth and flush, dialing by feel is difficult. That said, the blue backlighting is sufficiently bright. A button on the right spine provides access to camera and camcorder functions, while the left spine features a volume rocker and a standard 2.5mm headset port. A four-way navigation toggle just below the hinge provides shortcuts to user-defined features.

In standby mode, the OK button in the middle of the four-way navigation toggle accesses the camera functions. Given that there's already a dedicated camera button, we would have preferred the option to assign this button a different function in standby, as well. On the other hand, we could designate the toggle to act as a shortcut to four user-defined functions. There are also two soft keys that open the menu and contacts when in standby mode, a Back button, and the basic Talk and End keys. The VOD (video on demand) button on the inside hinge provides one-touch access to the phone's media player, where you can watch television via Sprint TV or listen to radio programming.