Samsung Mythic SGH-A897 (AT&T) preview

The Mythic is sleek and weighs around 3.8oz withvibration mode, multimedia and text messaging,
4.49in long, 0.5in thick and 2.06in wide. The display ofcalculator, calendar, task list, memo pad, unit converter,
Mythic is 3.3in which supports 262K colors and has aalarm clock, timer, tip calculator, sketchpad and a world
resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. The colors are lively andclock. Some of the advanced features are available
vivid with sharp graphics. Touch Wiz interface fromtoo like USB mass storage, mobile emails, voice
Samsung is also available which helps in customizingcommand support, PC syncing, GPS with AT&T
up to 33 shortcuts or widgets. There are 3 homenavigator support, stereo Bluetooth and instant
screens which can be tossed by filching the fingers onmessaging.
the screen horizontally. The home screen can beMain big feature of Mythic is AT&T Mobile TV
customized by dragging and dropping the widgetswhere you can watch TV on your phone with the help
from the interface tray to access particular functionsof a network called Qualcomm’s MediaFLO. Wait
quickly.time due to buffering is not there because the
Shortcuts for main menu, phonebook and phone dialerbroadcast doesn’t happen through cellular
are present at the foot of each home screen. All ofairwaves. For $10 you can avail a monthly package.
these shortcuts are present even in the main menuThere is a 3.2MP camera which can take images in
with a slight change that the main menu option issix resolutions from 640 x 360 pixels to 2048 x 1536
replaced by the new text message shortcut. Menupixels. Some of the other settings are flash, self timer,
pages are multiple in Mythic where navigationauto flash, 5 white balance presets, macro focus, three
becomes easy as on the home screen. As I told you,exposure meters, 5 color effects and 3 quality settings,
menu pages can be customized by dragging orand a silent option with 3 shutter sounds.
removing the icons from it. Though some apps icons6 modes for shooting and scene presets are also
can’t be removed like music player or Webavailable. The quality of photo is promising. The pictures
browser but some others like camera, alarm clock canare rich in color and are also sharp. Videos can also be
be removed which doesn’t imply that these will berecorded in two resolutions 176 x 144 and 320 x 240
permanently removed from the phone itself.pixels; hence this phone even becomes a camcorder.
The digits are big on the keypad of phone dialer andVideo can be shot in normal mode which doesn’t
you have an ease to send a message or save thathave a time limit or in MMS mode which lasts long for 1
particular number directly from the dialer. Forminute. AT&T Video share service is also
messaging you have many options here like virtualsupported by the Mythic which lets you to stream in
QWERTY keyboard, T9 alphanumeric keypad entryone way live video to a video share compatible phone.
or handwriting recognition. Whenever you want theEven AT&T Mobile Music can be streamed with
QWERTY keyboard then only a slight rotation of theMythic.
mobile to landscape mode is enough. The keys areYou can even load your own songs to the phone via
large, roomy and easy to use with the basica microSD card. Mythic runs with the HTML browser
punctuation marks on the virtual keyboard. Texting andbased on Opera Mobile. Welcome screens are three
dialing are very easy in this because of the veryin number where two of them are for popular and
sensitive touch screen. Vibrating feedback intensitylocal Web links. Internet bookmarks is in a visual tile
can be adjusted, and for better precision you can goassortment where customization can be done by
to calibration settings and adjust.logging into AT&T account and sending shortcuts
Brightness of the display, font type, wallpapers,via ‘Send to Mobile’ option. Toggling between
changeover effects between page pitching, backlightdesktop and mobile versions of Web pages can be
time and greeting messages can be customized fordone and even Web pages can be zoomed in and
each and every home screen. Back, talk and end /zoomed out wherever it is necessary. Some of the
power physical buttons are at the bottom of theapps which are included in here are Yellow pages
display. These call keys are easy to press and backMobile, My-cast weather, MobiVJ, WikiMobile, MusicID 2,
key is slightly inflated for easy access. To the left ofJuiceCaster, Mobile Banking and Where. Some of the
the phone is the volume rocker and to the right is thegames are I-play bowling, Bejeweled etc. Even more
camera and screen lock buttons. There is a shortcutgames, apps, graphics and ring tones can be
key at the right which opens up the shortcuts for thedownloaded via AT&T mobile application store.
music player, Web browser, games menu, messagingLanding to the performance of the phone, quality of
menu and phone dialer and also you can end all thecall is good and only a little distortion was there on the
running apps with the same button. Charger andrear end. Even calls over speaker phone were decent
3.5mm headset jacks are present at the top of theitself but with some echoes. There are mono
phone. At the back are the LED flash and camera.speakers which produces tiny and plane sounds. Via
Behind the battery flap is the slot for microSD card.headset, sound quality seems to be normal. The 3G
Coming to the features of Samsung Mythic, around 2Kperformance is very pleasing in the Mythic. The
entries can be stored in the phonebook where 4downloading and the buffering time are very quick. The
added phone numbers, a note, birth date and one emailquality of video was not that much impressive but the
id can be stored. The photos can be paired with theresponse time was snappy. The channels were
contacts for caller ids and it can be added to the callerchanging very swiftly with no loading time. Though the
groups by assigning them with particular ring tonescolors looked haze sometimes, the picture quality was
from 8 polyphonic ring tones and assign a vibrationsharp. The battery life has been rated up to 3hrs and
pattern from 5 types. There is a speaker phone,with 10.5 days back up time.