This cell phone does what? The Sanyo SCP-5000 has arrived...
Written: Aug 28 '01 (Updated Aug 28 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
|
Pros: PDA functionality, photo caller ID, sleek design, lightweight and compact, external LCD
Cons: battery life, no address book synching
The Bottom Line: It's cool. It's in color. It will replace your Palm. Buy it.
|
|
|
| wahoodude23's Full Review: Sanyo SCP-5000 |
General
"Hey man, that IS a cool phone, can I take a look?," my friend asks.
"Sure," I say, gingerly handing it over.
"Holy cow, this is so light and who's picture is that on there?," my friend exclaims, after opening up the clamshell.
"Oh, it's just me and my family."
"Wait a sec, how much was this phone?"
"$500 bucks," I casually reply.
"WTF!?!?!, Are you crazy?!!."
Yes, I paid $500 for the Sanyo SCP-5000 and it was worth every penny for the head-turning value of the phone alone. The first mobile phone with a color LCD to arrive in the United States, the SCP 5000, a Sprint PCS exclusive dual-band phone, will not disappoint the high-end cell phone user looking for multiple functionality from their cell phone. Aside from placing and receiving calls, this Sanyo gem also has a calendar of events to schedule meetings and important functions, a phonebook that stores email addresses, voice activation, downloadable MIDI rings, customizable wallpapers and photo caller ID, among a plethora of other features. How Sanyo fit these features into a phone this size is an accomplishment beyond me. On top of that, the SCP 5000 is by far and away the prettiest and sleekest phone on the market right now.
The Look
C'mon admit it, we're all superficial to a certain extent. We all want to be popular and well-liked. The SCP 5000 isn't going to get you a date this Saturday night, but the phone that a July issue of ESPN Mag calls the "it" phone to have among professional athletes, certainly will garner its share of "ooohhhs and ahhhhs" among your friends. It is in for lack of a better term, a beeeyoootiful phone.
At 3.7 by 1.9 by 1.1 inches, the SCP 5000 is a bit trimmer and smaller than other flip phones. It weighs just 3.5 ounces, less than Motorola's StarTac, Timeport, and Talkabout. This is of the utmost importance to me. I hate carrying around bulky items and I hardly feel the SCP 5000 when it is my pocket.
The purplish silver metallic exterior gives the phone a modern, understated elegance. The external LCD is a lifesaver as the caller ID allows me to see who's calling without flipping the clamshell. It makes it a whole lot easier to screen my calls. There is also a headphone (hands free) jack and navigation buttons on the side that serve different functionality depending on what action the user is doing (for example, when I want to silence the ringer without opening the phone, I just hit one of the side buttons and the ringer is immediately muted)
The 2" internal color LCD screen is complete with color and wallpaper customization. The larger screen allows for a highly viewable web interface that previous phone could not offer.
The Features
There are hundreds of actions that this phone can perform (voice activation, ring types, vibrate alert, volume control, web access, games, etc) and for me to describe them all would make me sound like a Sanyo infomercial, so I¡¦ll just talk about my favorite ones. If you want to see ALL of the technical capabilities of the phone, you can visit the Sanyo homepage.
Photo caller ID: Do I really need this? Probably not, but it¡¦s such a cool feature. I can download images the included synch software and associate up to 20 images to contacts in my phone book. When they call, their picture pops up in the color LCD.
Downloadable MIDI rings: Right now "Brown-eyed Girl" plays on all incoming normal calls and "Margaritaville" plays for incoming unavailable calls. I can download up to 22 different rings and associate them to contacts or different types of calls. It's almost like having caller ID for caller ID. When I hear a certain song, I know who's calling me!
PDA functionality: The SCP 5000 will not replace your Palm Pilot, but it will certainly go along way towards giving you a phone with tremendous PDA functionality. The phone book stores up to 900 numbers and 600 email addresses and URLs. The calendar offers full month in advance event scheduling with customizable alarm intervals. The SCP 5000 also stores voice memos, text memos, all while making the navigation very easy to learn and use. The SCP 5000 also employs this special T9 keypad technology that tries to predict what words you will type based on what was typed before.
Security:The SCP 5000 also offers security features. You can lock both the phone to prevent accidental outgoing calls (except to emergency numbers), and the keypad. You can also lock the side keys, set different call restrictions, erase your call logs, or store numbers in a secret location. The best part is, if your phone is lost or stolen, a special feature lets you erase your personal information and lock the phone by sending a SMS message from your computer or PDA.
Sound
For the 3 months I have owned the phone, the sound has been crystal clear and the signal strong. Any lapses in service are due to poor Sprint coverage and not because of the phone. I experienced the same thing with my previous Sprint phone, a Motorola Timeport.
Web Usability
The 2" color LCD is a vast improvement over the grayscale 4 line display of previous web-enables phones. Set the font to small and the SCP 5000 can fit up to 10 lines of text in the browser. This makes for reading so much easier and less cumbersome. The 4 way navigational keypad is instrumental in navigating the web. It acts as the mouse and the number pad they keyboard. The side buttons also allow for additional navigation. While the SCP 5000 employs the old standard WAP browser, it takes on a different feel for this phone as the web menus and pages are easier to navigate. As mentioned before, the T9 technology makes the usability of this phone unmatched compared to any other phone on the market. The Sanyo was very intelligently designed and the user will see that as soon as they start using the phone.
Note: Web service is different based on the wireless carrier. Sprint offers a very comprehensive web service that has its own starting menu. Users can now check email, movie times, news, sports, weather, etc.
The Criticism
Whenever a product breaks the mold and strives to be as ambitious as the Sanyo SCP 5000 is, it will undoubtedly garner criticism to go along with praise. While the SCP 5000 is still a 5 star phone in my review, there are things that can be improved upon and I hope to see these things in Sanyo's next attempt.
1) Battery life - The extended battery will be your best friend if you are a heavy user. The 2 hour talk time and 5 day standby are a little weak. A day of heavy usage and your battery will be on life support. Of course, Sanyo had to sacrifice the battery life to make such a small, sleek phone, so I'm not complaining.
2) No Address Book Synching Software - While the software allows the transfer of images and rings from PC to phone, users must manually enter in phone numbers and contact information using the phone's keypad. I see this as a possible hot fix for Sanyo in the near future. If they can write software to transfer compressed data, I see no reason why they can't figure out how to transfer text.
3) Cost - Some will see $500 as unreasonable and I list cost here not because it's an issue for me, but because it may be an issue for many others. You will not find another phone on the market that can do what this phone does and look as good while doing it, hence the hefty price tag. I didn't buy a Palm Pilot because of this phone, it actually made economic sense for me. This is a decision to be made based on each individuals needs.
4) Sorry No Mac Support for the synch software - Bummer! The Apple faithful get screwed again.
5) Sprint PCS Service - you guys know...
In Conclusion
Would I recommend this phone? Not for everyone ¡V but for those who love the technology, for those who are in business, Sanyo has a phone here that will more than impress. I personally love it - even at $500.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499.99
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
wahoodude23
|
|
Location: Ashburn, VA
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 24 members
About Me:
Mommy, where do babies come from?
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.