Pay as you go flip phone

The Sprint PCS International Phone IP-A790 by Samsung ($549.99; as low as $369.99 with contract) looks a lot like its cousin on the Verizon network, the Samsung SCH-a790. But we found Sprint's version superior because it's open. In other words, you can plug in a foreign SIM card while abroad and save big-time on calls.

The Sprint IP-A790 looks and feels just like its Verizon cousin. It's a chunky flip phone that looks like part of an executive desk set and has a weird but acceptable keypad. The VGA camera takes clear pictures with a very sharp blue cast.

Let's get to the heart of the matter: The Samsung 790s are designed for international travelers. They're the only Sprint and Verizon phones that work in Europe and most of Asia.

Verizon's version requires you to use Vodafone service when traveling overseas. You keep your U.S. phone number and pay a pretty steep price: It'll cost you $1.94 per minute in Europe, a $1.29 base fee plus a 65-cent long-distance charge. (You get one bill at the end of the month.)

Sprint offers its own international roaming service for $1.50 per minute plus $6 per month, but you can put any SIM card into the handset. By popping in a foreign, prepaid SIM, you will end up with a foreign phone number and local call rates that can be as low as a $0.10 a minute.

You can find these foreign SIMs at any of the local cell-phone stores in your destination country or get them from U.S. distributors, such as Telestial (www.telestial.com). Using foreign SIMs isn't supported by Sprint, but it's easy enough to do. And if you're uneasy about doing this, you can simply use Sprint's own service, pay the price, and keep your Sprint number worldwide.

The Sprint IP-A790 performed very well on the JBenchmark Java applications tests. (This isn't a gaming phone: The keypad would drive gamers nuts.) The phone comes with Sprint's media applications, including the Sprint TV video-streaming service. Photos taken with the VGA camera are quite sharp, but they're also awfully blue. (Go to our camera phone test gallery to compare images for yourself.) CDMA talk time was very good, at 4 hours and 41 minutes; we anticipate well over 7 hours of GSM talk time. And the phone smartly uses the excellent VoiceSignal voice recognition system to let you dial numbers without having to record voice tags. There's only one downside of the IP-A790 compared with Verizon's model—text messaging doesn't work while you're overseas.

Because it's unlocked, the Sprint IP-A790 is an excellent choice for international travelers.

Benchmark test results: Jbenchmark 1: 4480 Jbenchmark 2: 208 Continuous talk time (CDMA mode): 4 hours 41 minutes

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Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.