pardon me a moment, but there's a hamster trapped in my shirt
Written: Apr 02 '01 (Updated May 28 '02)
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Pros: ease of use, documentation, value for price, good keypad
Cons: battery drains fast if you talk a lot; not one of the sexy brands
The Bottom Line: meets most users' needs; doesn't look snazzy, just does the job--a lunchpail-carrying phone that can cut the mustard
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| jkkelley's Full Review: Sanyo SCP 4000 Cell Phone |
Note: this review is geared for the fairly simplistic user who just wants an easy-to-operate, uncomplicated cellular phone. It's the only one I've ever owned. For totally comprehensive reviews of features used by the more intensive cellular user, I encourage you to check a few other reviews and not rely solely on mine.
A cellular phone? How in the world am I going to make this amusing? This is the most boring topic in the world, except for maybe 'How to Choose and Use Gravel', or 'What You Should Know About Cardboard Boxes'. Tell about the woman in Taiwan who had to go to the ER to remedy a creative use for one? No, goofball, everyone heard that one a month ago. Good for a sophomoric joke or two at best, which everyone has also heard. How about the fact that it cuts out near Ritzville (a real place, I assure you) as you enter the Black Hole of Sprint PCS? Like they care. Even the name of 'Ritzville' is more amusing than that.
I guess this time I'll have to fake it, and write about the actual product a little bit. I promise I won't make a habit of it, dear reader; just indulge me this once, if you might. It won't be so bad.
The Sanyo SCP-4000 has the distinction of being the first product I've purchased for which the primary prepurchase research came solely from Epinions. At the time, I didn't know jack about Epinions, but I knew that 96% of the people who had rated it, recommended it. Sounded pretty promising to me (stop with the guffaws already, I didn't know, everyone's a newbie once). The only phone crystalled for Sprint with a higher percentage was one of the Samsung models, and I made the choice of those two finalists based upon the tactile feel of the keypad.
When purchasing the phone I not only did not know jack about Epinions, but about cellular phones either. I ran my computer consulting business for a full year and a half successfully without one, and was dragged squawling forward into the holstered-phone era by my wife. She simply vetoed the notion of any more business road trips--which are profitable--unless I got a cellular phone. "Yes, dear."
(Despite my skewed portrayals of her as always mocking me, about which she has the wonderful grace to laugh, my wife really is a sweet and affectionate lady. I do not have to say mindlessly 'yes, dear' ten times a day to keep the peace; it's somewhat of a joke with us. However, once in awhile Deb digs trenches, fortifies her position, lays concertina wire, and prepares to hold fast or, if need be, die on the hill. At those times, I have learned that it's best to go along with what she says, especially since I tend to do that probably about as often as she does, and she's accommodating enough of my legendary obstinacy. Lesson #47 on How To Enjoy Married Life.)
Since I blissfully don't know enough about 'How to Choose Cellular Phones and Service' I can't write that essay separately, but I can include tidbits here and there that I wish I'd known going in. Here is the first thing to know: unless you have multiple phones and services to compare, it will be hard to know whether it's the phone or the service that's at fault for some problems. I am using the SCP-4000 with Sprint PCS, and I think the service consistency is mostly Sprint and not the phone.
Of the competing cellular services (Nexthell, Splint PMS, AT&Trap, US Cellulose, Voicescream) in my area it was universally agreed by everyone--even many of their own sales reps--that they all sucked to high heaven. I was assured that this was particularly true of the Tri-Cities (Richland, Kennewick and Pasco, WA), for the same reasons our only 'Greek' restaurant (imaginatively named 'Apollo') serves mostly 'Greek Style' pasta variants: because we are a backwater and supposedly know no better. All right, so it goes. (See if we sell you any nuclear fuel rods, you finks. We'll fix you. Someday you'll want some plutonium-239 reactor cores, and I assure you, you'll wish you hadn't popped off.)
Cheerily accepting the tendency of the competing field toward vigourous suction, I essentially tried to choose the service whose access areas I was mostly likely to find myself in. I suggest that the potential cell phoner give this consideration strong weight, because if you have to 'roam' (translation: 'use a secondary service and pay in blood out the honker for a crappy connection'), it will be bad. Your bill will actually feel physically heavier.
Size/exterior: about that of a Snickers, weighing slightly more and a bit thicker. The antenna stem sticks up about 3/4", and can extend a very flimsy 4". I almost never extend it because I am sure that its every extension will somehow be its last. (Curious, I gave my arm ten lashes with it as hard as I dared, and it survived--but it didn't even hurt, it was so floppy. Faaaa.) The SCP-4000 doesn't spread open like the Motorolas and some others, so there is no cupping of sound and no native protection for the keys. It is black with mostly black buttons, and does not look very hi-tech; if you are buying the phone as a trendy fashion statement, this isn't the one you want. It is the cell phone equivalent of granny underwear.
The keys stick up rather than being recessed, which means that most people need to keep the Keyguard feature on (to keep from accidentally pressing them). They're kind of like short oval pencil erasers, firm and rubbery. As mentioned, these influenced me a lot; I have very large hands and long feminine fingers (especially when I do my nails), and recessed keys are inconvenient for me where they might be just fine for someone with small hands. I find that it fits comfortably and snugly in my hand--just the right size and diameter.
The screen is the size of a postage stamp and is normally the black on olive of the standard LCD (when not backlit). When the backlight is operating it lights up both the keys and the screen, the latter's background changing to a bright cyan. It can be set to stay on awhile if one wishes. It also lights when the phone rings or vibrates. It kind of feels like someone is whispering me a secret when it vibrates to tell me a call is coming in and quietly lights up.
User interface: reasonably easy to use. As is my normal custom, I never bothered with the documentation for the first three months that I had the phone, and I was able to figure out most of what I wanted. However, I'm sure I made a goat rodeo out of keying in my phone book the first time; that part I found moderately challenging, though as I admitted, I probably could have simplified my life a lot had I been willing at all to bother reading the directions. (No. I will not stop and ask directions. I know where we are and where we are going. Those people over there won't hurt us.)
Clarity: usually ok when in Sprint's area. I've only tried roaming once, and it was the most worthless experience I've had since the Clif Bar overdose (q.v.). This phone is duel-band, which means that you can challenge your adversaries to a.... ahem. It means that if you get out of Sprintland you can pay more to 'roam' as described previously and, assuming you're in range of at least some form of tower, still talk on the phone. I must mention here that I'm slightly hearing-impaired and have never really cranked the phone's volume to see just how loud it will get.
In Sprintland, I was fine once I figured out that this phone must be in a specific position relative to my face in order for me to carry on a conversation. Too low and I can't hear; too high and no one can hear me. I have learned to press it lightly against my cheek with the bottom edge of it at the corner of my mouth. I'm sure this probably makes me look a bit odd, but when you have a flattop crewcut and a wavy beard down to your nipples, you have already committed yourself on the oddness thing and may as well go the whole nine yards. In my case, my hands can actually hide the phone--I look like I'm leaning disinterestedly on one arm--so that it's hard to tell I'm even listening to messages.
The phone has a 'strength of signal' indicator on the display, which is SH. It's only SH because you can often sit there and watch it fluctuate up and down (what's happening... is the tower swaying in the wind, or changing in height?). Also, at least using Sprint, the phone has a nasty habit of leaving the service area in certain spots, at which time it beeps--and I can't figure out how to stop that beep, which is a real pain in the rumpus if I'm trying to talk to a client and have to explain that, when I lean down to insert a CD while seated at their particular computer's point in space and time, I 'leave the area', then return shortly.
Features: the SCP-4000 can hold several hundred phone numbers. It has a Keyguard mode that will allow incoming calls but will lock out every key except the 'CLR' (to turn off Keyguard). It has an insipid little game called Crabcakes or something, a hard-to-use calculator, updates its time on its own for Daylight Savings, has a call history, one-touch checking of your voice mail, a 'minibrowser' that I presume can access the 'Wireless Web' (assuming anyone would care to Websurf on a postage stamp--personally, I think it's daft), and can be hooked to a headset for safe use while driving. You can password-protect it so that no one will learn the dark secrets you keep within, nor get any benefit from swiping it.
You can choose not to let it roam at all, and you get a prompt if what you ask of it would require you to stray into another service. I'll say this for it: if you simply abhor the idea of paying roaming charges, this phone will let you give or withhold consent individually to each instance. It has Caller ID, but I don't rely much on it as I'm pretty selective who gets my number most of the time.
If you miss calls, it'll display a message and an icon. Sometimes I can't feel the phone vibrate, so I miss a few. I've never had the phone in any other mode except vibrating ring, because I elected not to be a cell-phone jerkwater taking his calls at the restaurant table and while careening down the freeway. This was an alarming sensation the first few times; in fact, it still is. How to describe it... let's imagine a slightly tranquilized but insistent hamster was suddenly confined against your clothing. That's what it feels like when this thing vibrates.... VVVVVVVVVVVVV. It takes some real getting used to, as would the sensation of any small rodent under one's shirt, or someplace else close to the skin. Sort of like one of those back massagers, except more subtle.
Battery life: I don't have much frame of reference on this, but lately I've gained more of one. If I leave it on for sixteen hours with 4-5 voicemail checks and maybe ten minutes of talking, it will perform for three full days without recharging, at which point the battery is nearing the end. The battery indicator is poorly designed and deceptive; the first dent in the icon takes some time to make, but the second lasts a relatively short time. The final one lasts a relatively long time. Why it was not possible to simply display a numeric percentage instead of this stupid, deceptive icon is one of those mysteries we may not learn until it's too late.
One day I talked on the phone for maybe an hour and hoo, boy, did that suck the battery down. If you do that, you'll need to recharge daily, and maybe even buy a charger for your car. The vibrating ring uses a good deal of juice, too, which I suppose limits some folks' options. After about four hours of charging an empty battery, it's full and ready to go again.
Documentation: when I've had to use it it's been just fine. There is a well-indexed 86-page manual, a perusal of which makes it readily apparent that I don't use most of the fancy features of this phone and have probably left some to your imagination.
Daily experience: at first I hung the phone on a clip I bought for it. While this was really convenient, it didn't protect the screen, and I eventually gave in and bought a holster (by Belkin, I think). It's well designed; you can punch keys through the acetate if you want, talk on the phone with it in there, even charge it. The one I bought says it's for the more expensive SCP-4500 but worked fine with the 4000. I didn't have to take the clip's stud off the phone to fit it in the holster, and said holster has elastic sides which enable it to expand and comfortably sheathe the phone.
Best way is to hang it on a buttpack, belt or pocket. A heavy belt or thick clothes may well make it hard to feel a vibrating ring; I sometimes don't feel it when I'm intensely focused on driving. You may want to have it inside a large pocket to help smother the beepy sounds from leaning to your left and thus inadvertently leaving the Sprint area, if you use it with Sprint. Don't even think about using it without the Keyguard feature. You may want to look at the signal strength icon before calling; in my area, at least, even if I tried to talk on it with the car moving, I'd surely be cut off during most calls. I'm pretty sure that it's the side of my body it's on that affects this, since I can get it to 'leave' the service area simply by enveloping it in both my hands.
My advice when purchasing a phone is this: get the sales rep to call the display phone, and make it vibrate; when s/he does this, hold it against the part of your body (usually the waist) where it will ultimately ride. That way, you can have some idea of whether it will even vibrate hard enough to meet your requirements, or if it's so pronounced that it gives you a creepy sensation, as though someone's trying to slyly feel you up.
Overall: Thanks to the ability to program in pauses and additional number strings, I can very easily check the business' voice mail from this phone with a few lazy keystrokes, and that's really 95% of what I want from it. I cannot stress it enough: my entire review should be filtered through this. I'm a simplistic user. I don't know Everything There Is To Know About Mobile Phones And Service, and I don't want to. It's not what all you can do; it's how you want to go about it.
If I'd intended it to be more than a heavily glorified extension of my main voice mail, I probably would have purchased one of the $200 phones, and you probably should as well. However, if your main goal is to have a very usable phone that enables you to chat some, doesn't cost a mint and can stay functional for a couple of days without recharging, I now see why the SCP-4000 has such a high recommendation percentage: it satisfies the needs of the vast majority of users. Those with intensive needs, who talk a lot, who like to show off and be seen, or who want to fool around with technology just for the sake of technology will surely want a more horsey phone.
As for me, I'll just keep working on getting used to the hamster in my clothing.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
jkkelley
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Location: Ana-Tolia
Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 308 members
About Me:
Farewell, Mr. Grover.
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