Quick Rundown of Strengths & Weaknesses
Written: Mar 28 '01 (Updated Mar 30 '01)
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Pros: Long Battery Life, Indiglo, Non-Flip-Style, Travel Charger, Feature-Packed
Cons: VERY Poor Signal Strength, Cost
The Bottom Line: My biggest fault was signal strength but that may depend on your home area.
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| six41's Full Review: Sanyo SCP-4500 |
Initially, this phone swept me off my feet. I am a gadget fanatic and I loved all the features it had to offer.
Here is a quick outline of what I feel are it's shining features and tragic flaws. You will note that I write in the past tense because as of yesterday I put my phone out to pasture and opted for a Samsung 8500.
UNBEATABLE FEATURES (not characteristic of other PCS phones [as far as i know]):
1. Indiglo-type backlighting. I am so happy that more devices are coming with this feature. The contrast and light were well balanced and adjustable based upon user settings.
2. Weight. This phone seemed to weigh nothing. My previous phone was a Nokia 5160 which had the same shape but was not even close when it came to weight.
3. Battery life. This phone never seemed to need charging. how can you ask for more than that?
4. Remote security. I have been told that you can send a text message to the phone to deactivate it (through the internet) if it gets lost, etc. Very nice!
5. Travel charger. This may seem petty but the small size of the charger was terrific! You can easily carry it with you without devoting a lot of space to it.
TRAGIC FLAWS:
1. Signal strength. For some reason the Sanyo phones seem to have trouble with signal strength. I held my phone right next to friend's Samsung phones in locations all over Portland and I would ALWAYS have 1/2 the signal strength. Something is wrong with this picture! Perhaps it has something to do with the Portland network? The folks at the Sprint store didn't seem to have any information for me when I asked about this though.
2. Volume buttons. While talking on this phone I always fumbled for the call volume buttons. I was never sure if I had my finger on the button to increase or decrease the volume.
3. Speakphone. This is a great feature, in theory, but it's operation was only marginally effective. You had to make a concentrated effort to remember that only one person should speak at a time. I did like the feature when I was dialing a call or calling my voicemail. This way my hands were free and there wasn't the hassle of subjecting another caller to the nuances of the speakerphone.
4. Ring options. I know that some folks find the ringers this phone offers pleasant but I felt like my options were very limited. The classical tunes didn't really do it for me.
5. Speaker size/placement. When I first got the phone I had times where I was holding it to my ear and thought I had lost the call because I could not hear the conversation anymore. Actually I found that the speaker was just small and that I had trouble keeping it placed over my ear.
After only a month I assumed that the signal strength issue was a problem with my phone so I returned it. Well my replacement had the same problems. At the time I also thought that the vibrate function was broken but later found that the vibrate mode's "volume" is initially set to OFF. Somehow that does not make much sense to me.
Well after two months my replacement 4500 started having trouble making calls. Over two weeks it degraded to the point where I could not make any calls at all. I could accept calls, but one-way calling is not my ideal way of communicating. I brought it to the Sprint store and they allowed me to exchange it for a Samsung 8500. Oh, the beauty of signal strength! With the 4500 I had to shut the phone off at my girlfriend's house because it kept searching for the PCS network (I guess there was a powersave function I may have been able to activate). Well the Samsung 8500 gets 2 to 3 bars of signal and I am now a happy guy.
Buy with caution and heed my remarks. It might be slick and effective in your hometown.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
six41
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Location: Portland, OR, USA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 2 members
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