Samsung SGH-a717 slim multimedia phone

Samsung offers up another ''World's Slimmest,'' this time for HSDPA fans, with stereo Bluetooth and a 2-megapixel camera.

Design:

The Samsung SGH-a717 is basically an HSDPA-enabled SPH-M610, the phone launched on Sprint's EV-DO network as the slimmest flip phone. The a717 is touted as the slimmest HSDPA clamshell, and aesthetically it looks like a more rectangular version of the M610, which is actually a good thing, because we found the M610's duck-bill form to be a bit off-putting. The keypad on the a717 is an etched metal plate, as opposed to the matte-on-glossy black keys of the M610. The a717 is less than a millimeter thicker than the M610, an unnoticeable difference.

Features:

Samsung has not announced a carrier or availability for the SGH-a717, though with HSDPA support, it isn't hard to guess. The M610 worked very well on Sprint's Power Vision network, so we're curious to see how the a717 functions on the high-speed media network to which it has access. Like the M610, it will include A2DP for stereo Bluetooth, a microSD slot, and the ability to play some form of Windows Media DRM files, though we imagine this will be at the carriers discretion.

Pros:
Slim design. Stereo Bluetooth support. High-speed network.

Cons:

We still don't love the look of the external face. Music downloads? From who?

Conclusion:

The only surprise with the SGH-a717 is just how thin Samsung was able to flatten its HSDPA phone, especially considering the bulky HSDPA SGH-ZX20 we reviewed only a few months ago. The feature set is nothing new, but nothing to scoff at either. For users in search of a slim flip phone who want to eke out a bit more speed than EV-DO can provide, the SGH-a717 might pique some interest. The SPH-M610 was a good phone, but not perfect (read our full review), so we're curious to see if Samsung has made changes beyond the obvious.

Specifications

Quad-band GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
2-megapixel camera
2.3-inch, 262,000-color TFT screen, external OLED display
microSD slot
Stereo Bluetooth
USB 2.0
Measures 4.1 by 2.1 by 0.5 inches
1/14/2007 10:48:57 PM
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