Liliputian Locomotion: Phone on the Go
Written: Feb 23 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: small, long battery life
Cons: no alarms, few good ringers
|
|
|
| DanCallaway's Full Review: Sanyo SCP 4000 Cell Phone |
The SCP-4000 caught my eye when I was shopping for a replacement for my Sprint PCS Touchpoint. Why was I looking for a replacement? The Touchpoint served my needs in general, and it had a few diamond-in-th-rough features. However, I was on the market primarily for three things: smaller size, longer battery life, and dual-band operation.
The Sanyo came through in spades on each of these counts. The phone is obviously dual-band, and it has amazing battery life. I can go on 3-day trips and leave the charger at home with no problems - talk, talk, talk. As if that weren't nice enough, the wall adapter for the SCP-4000 is the best I've ever seen - it's a tiny, lightweight unit with folding prongs, so it winds up being the size of a roll of dental floss.
The Sanyo also attracted me because it was among the smallest phones on the market. It manages to retain the vibrating ringer, which some of the other mini-mites fail to accomplish.
Feature-wise, the Sanyo is packed. It has a slick, speed-dial phone book, call logs, Wireless Web browser, arithmatic calculator, a game, and the requisite multitude of annoying ringers. One thing I miss about the Touchpoint, though, is the alarm ringer feature - it's nice for those of us who don't wear a digial alarm watch, and of course when you're in a hotel or away from home, it's nice to wake up to your own alarm. I think it's a fairly foolish oversight on the part of Sanyo to exclude this basic feature.
I'll nag about one other thing: the ringers. There are a lot of them, but they are almost ALL musical themes: Vivaldi, Ravel, Chopin, etc. For crying out loud, it's bad enough that we have to bear 'Bolero' at all without it beeping out of cellphones! There are so many musical rings on this phone that the diversity of the non-musical ringers is diminished. There are 5, and they all sound the same! The Touchpoint had a nice array of chirps, beeps and chimes to identify different callers, etc. Of course I often use the vibrate feature, so it's not that big a deal . . . but hasn't society risen above this crappy tune rings yet??
According to Sprint, and you may take that as positive or negative, this is the most trouble-free phone they sell. Maybe they told me that to keep me from buying the Samsung Flip-Phone, which is in such hot demand. I don't like flip phones myself, and I find that model to be bulky. If any of the Samsung, Sanyo or other PCS manfacturers are reading this, here's a can't miss formula for your next phone:
• Small, THIN design. Narrow is good, but always make the 'pocket profile' your bottom line. The SCP-4000 is not a huge winner in thinness, so its size efficiency is spoiled somewhat. Still nice, though.
• All, and I mean ALL the good features: Speed-dial, quick-find phone book, multi-alarms and lots of good quiet rings, a calculator with as many functions as possible, a card game, an action game, and whatever else you can think of.
• Buttons on the side for volume (not on the SCP-4000, too bad)
• An unobtrusive antenna! Let's face it - PCS phones barely need antennas. The antenna nub on the SCP-4000 sticks out enough to make the phone bigger, and there's no reason for it. Who cares if the antenna is cheesy or hard to reach . . . no one uses it.
• A few different vibrate patterns. I like the idea of this beacuse if I am sitting in class and the phone vibrates, I can have my ringers sorted into 'important people' and 'I'll call them later' people. I used to think different vibrate patterns were silly, but I wish the SCP-4000 had them.
• Good backlighting. The SCP-4000 really comes through with its IndiGlo light. Very nice, and the contrast on the screen puts the clunky, dim Touchpoint to shame.
• No cheesy switches. The Touchpoint had a little power switch on the top of the phone, and it got jostled occasionally, turning the phone off. Come on, the electronics industry is SO far beyond switches! Buttons do it all for a cell phone.
• Notebook connectivity. The Touchpoint didn't have it, and the SCP-4000 does. You can plug in your laptop and use this as a modem . . . beautiful.
• A good 'mouse,' or multidirectional button. I can't believe some other phones are still hobbling along with little side buttons and soft keys! They are miserable - it's really a better method to have a mouse on the phone.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
DanCallaway
|
|
Member: Daniel Callaway
Location: Baltimore, MD
Reviews written: 63
Trusted by: 76 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.