Sprint SCP-5150: The luxury car of cell phones, complete with a color screen!
Written: Jul 14 '02 (Updated Jul 14 '02)
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Pros: Color screen!! Stylish, lightweight, compact, filled with neat features
Cons: Doesn't come with the data cable
The Bottom Line: The Sprint SCP-5150 is well worth the price, containing neat features such as a color screen and picture caller-ID.
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| trulyalive's Full Review: Sanyo SCP-5150 Cell Phone |
I have gone over to the dark side. Due to an utter lack of inspiration, I’m here writing an electronics review for my cell phone rather than a detailed essay of the music playing in the background. I am actually quite surprised no one else has written about the Sprint/Sanyo SCP-5150 yet, as it is currently one of the top selling cell phones in America.
Epinions has this under the Sprint heading, but technically, it’s made by Sanyo, exclusively for the Sprint PCS digital network. I have had mine for two months, and I must say this little jewel was quite a jump up from my very basic Nokia 5165. While my Nokia was a nice beginner phone, I liken it to, say, a used Ford Escort while the Sanyo 5150 is new Lexus. This baby is loaded with some really fantastic features, and it most certainly looks cool. When I pull it out in a group of people, everyone wants to hold it, play with it, watch it work! This is rather amusing, I must say, as I never really expected this reaction from a cell phone, especially among fickle young adults.
Essentially, the SCP-5150 is the newer version of the SCP-5000. They share the same flip-top body style and several features. However, I have no first-hand knowledge of the 5000 model, and I don’t think they still sell it, so this review will focus solely on the 5150.
The Phone:
The SCP-5150 is tiny, only 4.11 inches long (including the stubby antenna), 1.81 inches wide and .83 inches thick (or, should I say, thin). It has a sleek, matte-silver tone casing with a shiny silver "swoosh" on the outside that looks like something out of Star Trek. The phone is very light, 3.4 ounces, and virtually disappears inside a handbag or backpack. While I’ve never gone out with it in my pocket, you could if you wanted to and wouldn’t be bothered because it’s so light.
Inside, the buttons are a decent size for a small phone. I like the separate "talk" and "end" buttons, which eliminate any dialing confusion. Also, there is a 4-way directional arrow pad, an "OK" button, and 5 other buttons used to configure the phone.
The phones comes with Sprint’s "medium battery", which will work on standby for approximately 5 days, although I keep the phone in the included charger every night and have yet had it run out on me. The talktime for the battery is between 2 and 3 hours, fair enough time for an average user, though I wouldn’t mind an extra hour or two.
Features:
The SCP-5150 is loaded with features. If I listed and commented on each and every one, this review would be 10 pages long. Therefore, I will give an overview of the main features and the ones I use most.
First and foremost, like its predecessor, this has a 2’’ color screen (256 colors), something relatively new to cell phones in the USA. This, simply put, is very cool. Say goodbye to boring ole black and grey displays. It has 10 lines of display and really good visibility, except in the brightest of sunlight. Now, you may be asking yourself, what good is a cell phone with a color screen? Well, coupled with the other features, it makes this phone highly customizable. For example, the font and font size and color are all changeable.
If you are able to get your hands on the compatible data cable, it allows you download any picture (after cropping it with their software) to be used on the phone, up to 20 images in all. With this, you can assign pictures to certain entries in the address book so that when that person calls, the picture pops up on the screen to produce a picture caller-ID. These images can also be used as the background or "wall paper". Here is an important note, though: the data cables are extremely difficult to obtain. They do not come with the phone, and they have been out of stock for months. After a month of dying to try out this feature, I broke down and bought one in an online auction, though it wound up costing a ridiculous amount of money.
Having already spoken about this, the phone also has caller-ID, even though epinions says it doesn’t. Trust me, this has caller-ID. Like I said, with certain people, their picture pops up when they call, and with everyone else, just their phone number.
Related to this is the second, external screen. On the outside of the phone, there is a small screen that functions as a caller-ID when the phone is closed. This is very nice, because I don’t have to open up the phone to see who’s calling. If I don’t want to answer, a button on the outside can shut the ringer off.
While the phone comes with a standard selection of ringtones, opting for Sprint’s "Ringers and More" package allows you to download up to 8 MIDI ringtones a month. This might not seem like a lot, but I’ve found that it’s a good number. Downloadable ringtones are nothing new, though they weren’t compatible with my old phone, so I get a kick out of hearing You Give Love a Bad Name, by Bon Jovi, every time someone calls. I haven’t gotten around to this, but different rings can be programmed to play when certain people call.
Contrary, again, to epinions, the SCP-5150 also comes with a vibrating ringtone, which I keep on most of the time because the high volume setting is sometimes hard to hear in crowded settings.
The call screener requires incoming callers to state their name before giving you the option of answering the phone or not. Some might find this to be rude, but in my city, the Sprint service is very popular and the screener eliminates the annoying "wrong number" callers.
The phonebook can hold up several phone numbers for the same person and up to 300 entries, which is quite sufficient. There is also a calculator, which is great because I don’t have to carry around a separate calculator for my checkbook. Also, the calendar is convenient for remembering important upcoming events and provides useful reminders.
I have never used this feature, but the phone can be used as a wireless modem, but again, this needs the data cable. If I ever need to use this, I will edit my review to include something more substantial about it.
The anti-feature
I have yet to be able to get the wireless web browser to work. Apparently, I should be able to check my email, get sports scores, etc. But nope, nada. This could be due to the free trial of the wireless web that I was supposed to get with my plan. I’d rather use my airtime minutes to talk, and I really don’t need this feature, but it would be cool to try. Again, if this ever works, I’ll edit this review.
Other remarks
In the two month I’ve had the SCP-5150, it has only dropped one of my calls, and that was while in a car. The sound is very clear, more than on any cell phone I have used. While the sticker price is a whopping $299.99, you will never have to pay this much. I bought my phone at a Sprint store and, along with my plan, the phone was $79.99. This still might seem like a lot, especially since many cell phone service providers offer free phones, this phone is well worth it. Also, to repeat a previous comment, this phone is only available with Sprint service plans. Sprint is pretty much concentrated around bigger cities, so if you live out in the middle of nowhere, far away from a big city, this phone will probable not be in your options. I am giving the phone 4 stars because I had to pay an arm and a leg for the data cable, which ought to be a standard feature. Otherwise, I highly recommend the SCP-5150 for anyone who wants a high-tech, fun cell phone that looks cool and has some very neat, customizable features.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 79.99
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Epinions.com ID:
trulyalive
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 8 members
About Me:
sowing my wild oats, in a PG kind of way
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