I’m always vaguely horrified by Blackberry imitators.  I mean, for crying out loud–I’ve seen a LOT of Blackberries and they only occasionally work well.  Their controls are too sensitive, they’re short on features, any of a thousand problems apply to Blackberry gear.  But then, sometimes, I see someone try to take on the mantle of “Blackberry knockoff” that manages to do a pretty good job, and the Samsung A177 does just that.

The Samsung A177 is a candy bar style cell phone with conference call capability, caller ID, included speakerphone, Bluetooth connectivity, a phone book with capacity for five hundred entries, mobile web, mobile email, the three major instant messengers (Yahoo! IM, AOL IM and MSN Messenger), text message capability, support for a variety of downloadable items, alarm clock, calendar, a .3 megapixel camera, calculator and a battery capable of yielding five hours of talk time on a single charge.

Admittedly, the components on this one are somewhat low-end.  But where this one shines is in taking that Blackberry control scheme and making it a whole lot more functional.  Control is the key to the Samsung A177.  It’s got that center trackball control that Blackberry does, but it’s larger and flatter, giving you more room to work with.  And the QWERTY keyboard included is much more responsive than a lot of Blackberries I’ve seen.

It may be a lower-end phone, and no match for the high-end gear, but for a pretty simple phone with some extras, the Samsung A177 will give good accounting.

The Good

Terrific controls

Several quality features

The Bad

Low end parts all around

Score 6 / 10

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