The Swiss Army Knife of Cell Phones.
Written: Mar 16 '04 (Updated Mar 17 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: camera, good shape, games, LCD screens, reception, double batteries
Cons: not much, batteries drain faster than my v60...b/c of the color LCDs
The Bottom Line: The title says it all.
|
|
|
| jennings2003's Full Review: Sanyo SCP 5300 Cell Phone |
Two of my friends own this phone, and I have done extensive research on it. So even though I don’t own it, I have spent much time with one-games, pictures etc.
The Tale of The Tape
The Batteries
The phone comes with two batteries. That, in itself, makes the phone sweet. I mean, who couldn’t use two batteries? And the Lithium-Ion batteries last a good bit of time. My friend says that even after a day of heavy talking, he can go another day without charging the batteries. Mind you, this is a camera phone with a color display too.
But it does get better.
Size and Shape
The phone is a manageable size; roughly 3.5 inches tall and a little less than two in width. It’s not as small as my Motorola v60, but this is a camera phone we’re talking about. The shape of the phone isn’t very sleek looking in my eyes, but it’s not an eyesore either.
The Screen
The title is incorrect. It should be screens. There are two color screens. A one inch one on the exterior of the phone, and a 2.1 one inside the phone are the screens. The exterior, smaller screen, displays a picture and the time, date etc. The interior one tells you the basics again: time, date, bars of reception. You can also make a picture you have taken, your wallpaper for the interior screen. From the interior screen is where you navigate to your phonebook, camera, games, and so forth. The screen is very readable and is not hard to navigate.
The Buttons
Keypad is the more professional sounding word, but I like buttons…yes the buttons are good. Spaced out evenly; not like the crazy Nokia keypads. The set up is like a basic phone. However, you can get a little confused at first. Some buttons that look like they correspond to one option end up being for something else.
The Antenna
Awesome.
Awesome is the best word to describe the antenna. My Motorola v60 has the most flimsy antenna ever. It has broken off twice already. The Sanyo is sturdy enough and has a nice rounded tip to it.
The Applications
The phone book is very easy to use for the Sanyo. But I guess phonebooks are easy to use for most phones. You can customize your numbers with the Sanyo a little bit more than the average phone.
The games are much better than your typical “Snake”, “Video Poker”, “Memory, or “Falling Numbers”. This is when I spend the most time with my friend’s phone: to play the games. I don’t know why I use it so often, but it passes time. My friend downloaded the games (and paid for them too), and I’m glad he did. Golf is incredible. Plus, the color screen makes any games ten times better.
Voice activated dialing is on the Sanyo for 30 phone numbers (max.).
I never use text messaging and so doesn’t my friend. So we both can’t really say how good or bad this application is. (We’re too cheap to pay extra) But how bad/good can it really be?
One of my favorite features on the Sanyo are the ringtones. For this phone, you can have Polyphonic ring tones. Polyphonic ringtones sound much more realistic than the classic MIDI’s and so forth.
The Camera
Well this is the main draw of the SCP-5300. The camera is located on the exterior above the 1 inch screen, and adjacent to the flash. The camera shoots in 640x480 pixels. The quality isn’t really bad. But remember, this is a phone. You’re crazy to think that this camera will take you award winning shots. But it is fun to use, and quite easy. Three presses of buttons and you have yourself a picture. You can discard the picture after you’ve taken it, or you can save it.
The coolest part is that a picture can be taken with the phone closed. You can preview it on the 1 inch screen then snap one. This feature enables you to take portraits.
Reception
Well what good is a cell phone if you can’t talk/listen clearly? All of the special features are great, but the quality of the reception should be priority numero uno.
My friend’s phone is on Sprint, and he has very good reception with clear calls. But there’s a catch. He always seems to be in Extended Network. And a lot of time he is in the dreaded Roaming. However, the clarity is still good, but his phone bill isn’t doing as well. He uses it in central and eastern Florida.
OVERALL: B+/A-
It’s a fun phone to use that has good reception.
Enough said.
Other Information from the Sanyo Website:
http://www.sanyo.com/consumer/communications/SCP-5300.htm:
-SANYO’s first Tri-Mode Phone
-Built-In VGA Quality Digital Camera
-Flash - High Luminance LED
-WAP 2.0
-Java Fully Supports Sprint PCS Vision™(J2ME MIDlet)
-Enhanced 2.1 inch 65 thousand-color TFT LCD display
-Quality 640x480 VGA photographs
-Zoom capability up to 4X and 16X
-User Controlled Color Tone (Antique, Black & White, Negative)
-User Controlled Brightness (Auto, or 9 Step Manual)
-User Controlled White Balance
-(Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, or 9 Step Manual)
-PictureWallet Stores Favorite Pictures on phone for offline
viewing and slideshows
-Enhanced 2.1 inch 65 thousand-color TFT LCD display
-Snap pictures and instantly assign photos as caller id,
or screensaver
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 125 w/rebate
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jennings2003
|
|
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 18 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.