Samsung SGH A897 Mythic - Black (AT&T) Cellular Phone

The good: The Samsung Mythic is a slim and lightweight phone, and you can customize its home screens and menu pages. Its multimedia feature set includes AT&T Mobile TV, and it has good performance.

The bad: The Samsung Mythic's streaming video needs improvement, and its Web browser has only two zoom settings.

The bottom line: The Samsung Mythic is an admirable multimedia phone with the added bonus of AT&T Mobile TV.

I love the texting, the touch screen, the widget bar, the audio quality, the size..i love most things about this phone
I don't understand why i need 3 pages of menu options when many of the menu options are in the menus of some of the icons (suchs as the XM Radio icon, even though there is an XM Radio icon inside the AT&T Music menu.)
I dislike the battery life. I read in a review of this phone that it had great battery life and it actually does great the first day but if you plan on using the phone, it has to be charged at least once every 48 hours, so i suggest investing in a car charger if you might be away from a place to plug in the wall charger for a while.
I decided to buy this phone b/c the last phone i bought was the pantech matrix. After getting attached to the qwerty, the phone started to act up a little, taking forever to send messages, not sending picture messages if i was using the phone for something else... So i decided it was time to upgrade. I liked having the two key boards but didn't want to go with pantech's new phone b/c i like samsung phones better so i decided to go with one of their touch screens. i read a lot of customer reviews on each of the new samsung phones for at&t and ended up decided on this one.
And I'm pretty pleased with my decision so far.

Signal Strength: Great in most areas, I noticed the Mythic had as good if not better signal strength than the iPhone 3G.

Navigation: Is really good other than the fact the Mythic doesn't have a pressure/touch adjustment nor does the Mythic have a scrolling speed adjustment. "I myself would prefer to set the mythic to a low pressure/touch with increased scrolling."

The Mythic also has a customized arrangement option for icons and widgets, but moving an icon or widget from one window to another is a bit lack luster. "The pressure/touch and scrolling adjustment option would probably help fix this issue."

Widgets: Is good, but the widgets don't have a locking adjustment feature, thus if you press for to long the widget becomes mobile. Another thing I find to be an issue is the widget wont activate while on the side bar, thus

3.2MP Camera/Camcorder: Is nice but the flash can be bright at close range yet becomes not very effective in relation to illuminating desired areas at further distances. "The auto focus is nice but having the option to adjust the focus manually would be great."

Music Player: Is great and the female 3.5mm stereo input is nice. "A visualizer would be nice and a genre option would be nice."

Games: It comes with a pair of dice... The other games you have to use data to play.

Battery: Sucks, it lasts about a day or so on standby but if you use any multi-media features, bluetooth or have one/less bars the battery doesn't last very long; maybe a few hours. "Turn the phone off if you loose signal, if not it will keep searching and your battery will drain very quickly."

Overall: The Mythic isn't a bad phone it just needs some frameware updates from Samsung. This was the best phone I could find with At&t without a data plan.

FROM CNET: First off as a telephone, (remember when that was the prime reason to have one of these?), it has outstanding performance. The clarity on both ends of the call is quite crisp and has a good volume. It is easy to do extensive customizing of the contacts list. Some have complained that you can't port your contacts from outlook, but for the casual user I don't think this is a problem. Some have also complained that the touch screen and menus are sluggish, I think people are trying to compare this to the iphone or ipod touch screens. I don't think this is a fair comparison. For me the screen reacts as well as most any other non smart phone with a touch screen. Any problems can be easily solved with a simple stylus available from any number of sources for less than 5 dollars. The keys on the virtual qwerty pad are large and easy to use. I first tried an LG Xenon and found it nearly impossible to use with my fat fingers. I can finally actually make the most of my texting plan. The camera functions well and comes with a flash. I can't speak to the web or tv service on the phone as I have elected not to purchase the plans to use those features. In every sense this is the best non-smart phone I have ever owned. Perhaps one of the best things about this phone is the accessory package in the box. I have in the past been frustrated by companies that required me to buy expensive software and connection cables to link up to my computer. With this phone it is all included. The software makes it a breeze to transfer photos, music, and ringtones to and from the phone. This is a huge bonus if you have ever struggled to figure out how to do these functions without spending another 75 bucks. It is quite stylish and sleek, coming in only one color, but in the age of cases of all styles and colors this is hardly worth mentioning. I only took 1/2 star off this phone for the fact that one cannot change the lock mode screensavers. The phone will cycle through the preloaded wallpapers. I solve this by pretty much not locking my phone routinely. The second reason for the loss of half a star is the vibration. The vibration on this phone doesn't go as high in intensity as others I have owned. It is a slight drawback, but nothing to really detract from the many great features available on this phone. I have already recommended it to anyone I know who is looking for a new non-smart phone.

First off I am a 34 yr. old father of 4. I consider myself low to moderatly tech smart. I was in love with my Razor phone at one time(LOL). After they so wrongly(but appropriatly)took my phone off the market I was forced to find another phone to love. I went thru numerous phones(LG Vu, Samsung Solstice, Samsung Impression, Etc., Even upgraded to the "SMART" phone the Samsung Captivate)and I finally can say I never knew what love was until I found my Samsung Mythic. This phone absolutely has everything I want and none of the "tekkie" stuff I don't understand or need!!!!! I am the type of guy who likes to have nice things but wants to be able to know how to use them without having to take college classes. This phone is it. I don't care how many megapixels a phone has or what operating system it uses as long as the pics are clear and I can read my email and occasionally surf the web at a reasonable speed, I am happy. The pictures on this phone are phenomenal, the intrenet is exactley what I need without the "Phone Dictator Price" of $600 a month smart phone fees. The menus are exact and to the point and the reception is outstanding,(I live in rural Kentucky and if this says anything half of my town gets 3G part of the time)LOL. If your looking for a phone with an outstanding camera(by the way for those who care it is 3.1 megapixles, auto focus with flash, and a 3.5 in. display), great reception, a very crisp and brilliant display, and you use to think the Razor was the greatest step forward in phone history, LOL, then the Samsung Mythic is the phone for you. Again don't get me wrong if I had the money to spend $60.00 alone for a case for my phone(Otterbox, Iphones) or needed a "Android" phone to impress my friends(or quite possibly needed to attend Cell Phone Annonymous for my constant texting, "you know who you are") then maybe the Mythic isn't for you, but if you want a phone that's easy to use but still modern enough to keep up with the "Jones" then again I say the Mythic is for you. Before signing off I will say the only negative I have(and I being ME, again this is MY review so anyone reading this that is getting angry it's called "CELL PHONE ANNONYMOUS")about it would be it took me awhile to get used to not having an actual keypad to type on when I do text. It does have a QUERTY keyboard, it's just actually on screen(FULL TOUCHSCREEN). But after a few days of playing with it I am completly at ease with the keypad being touchscreen and actually think it's a great idea, one less thing for me to break off. LOL. Well I hope if anybody reads this, and seriously people life is too short to be angry, I hope I didn't offend any "Star Tekkies" out there, again that is MY term for you little Bobby Baker who is in your 3rd year of graduate school at 19 years old. Just stating my opinion of what "I" think is a great phone for the money and as easy to use as my "beloved" Razor. Happy Holidays!!! -JOSH-