Sanyo SCP-5500 / VM-4500
Average Ratings
AWESOME...OVERALL PHONE!!
This phone is definitely chock full of toys and USEFUL features. Sound reception as well as clarity are great. The RL is useful but will be better as more users get RL phones. The Camera and Camcorder feature provide a quick way to document something, however the quality is only Good.
Speaker-phone sounds great and is Very useful. LED offers many options and settings for different things, an attractive toy. Style of this phone is EXCELLENT. the keys are laid out conveniently. The Blue LED keys are also easy to read day or night. Voice Dialing works well except in very noisy areas.
This phone while not perfect is as close to it as I've experienced and I've owned many phones.
Battery life with the extended Lithium Ion battery is respectable.
Voice memo recorder is a handy feature with easy access.
Sanyo did their homework on this phone!
And lastly the phone so-far has performed flawlessly
The best handset to hit the Sprint network (or any other for that matter), ever.
I've now had a few days to play with it.
First and foremost, as always, Sanyo's RF performance astounds me. Sanyo gets service where others fail. Sound quality = amazing
Speakerphone is damn good, though not the level of the 4900 IMO.
The camera is good, the level of the 5300. Far better than that of the 8100. Obviously, it is NOT a 1mp camera. People need to understand that they can't email these to grandma and grandpa so they can't print them out in a glorious 8x10 (or even 3x5) format. It simply isn't going to happen. They added some new fun frames.
The "camcorder" is also quite decent, all things considered. It will get some use, probably more so than the camera which I find as more of a bonus, rather than a selling feature.
The multicolor LED is trick. As is the blue backlit keys.
ReadyLink = Killer. Absolutely blows Verizon's PTT service away. Interesting, as they use the same exact software and hardware from the same company to perform the PTT services. Sprint obviously put MUCH more time and effort into PTT development than VZW.
Battery life is fair right now. I'm used to the extended battery on my 8100, so this is a bit short. Granted, it's only been 4 days, so the battery hasn't peaked yet.
And, a not-so-famous Sanyo feature, the "Screen Call". Basically, it's your own personal little answering machine built into the phone. I use it exclusively.
My only gripes;
Damnit Sanyo, get some folder support for the phonebook! Business, Family, Friends, etc. I hate to say it, but take a lesson from Samsung on this.
Let me mute the speaker for Screen Call when someone leaves me a message. Highly annoying.
And for everyone moaning about WLNP and Vision. WLNP CAN take up to 2 weeks to port over from other carriers. Deal with it.
Vision provisioning CAN take up to 2 days, so don't whine because your web doesn't work the second you get the phone.
All in all, you want this phone. Well done Sanyo!
All I can say is WOW!!!
I am not going to spend too much time talking about the pros on this phone because there are just so many.
PROS:
Video Camera (not as good as digital but best in phone)
Camera
Speaker phone
PTT
Color Screen
DESIGN DESIGN DESIGN
Blue is awesome(great great great)
Reception is impeccable
Ease of menu
Blue back lit instead of Green
Compact yet technologically advanced
Quality of the sound
SMS SMS SMS SMS SMS SMS (WOW)
ETC...............
CONS:
Ummm.........Battery is not best but good.
Basically if your looking for a phone that can fit in your pocket but still have all the features that you are looking for, this is the phone to get. Even if you are not going to use the camera all too often, you still need this phone. It is well worth the $400.00 if you are an existing customer and anything less for New is totally awesome. I usually upgrade my phone every three months, I am going on 4 months with this one now and not a scratch (That you can see because of the blue color). Basically all i can say is WOW.
It's junk!
I have 2 of these POS.
I bought hi cap batteries trying to fix the problems on both.
You cant talk for more than a few minutes without the called person complain that I'm cutting out.
Ready link is hardly ever available and has the same problem as a regular call. No more that a few minutes.
Many calls go straight to voice mail without the phone ringing.
A friend bought the same phone and already ditched it for the same reasons.
Dropped calls are absolutely outrageous even to land lines!!
You will want to stomp on this phone after you are done playing with the other features!!
Again, the hi cap batteries do not fix the problems!!!!
Top Dog vs Top Dog
In the ongoing war between Samsung and Sanyo to produce the best Vision phones, we can compare their phones that are currently considered top of the line: Samsung's A600 and Sanyo's VM4500.
Ever since Vision launched, the two companies have pretty much followed this pattern: Samsung launches first with a pretty good (if flawed) device, while Sanyo maintains a more patient approach and releases a phone that just seems to blow everything else out of the water (N400 vs 4900, A500 vs 5300). This pattern is maintained with these phones.
The review is for the 5500, so I'll focus on it. What you've come to expect from Sanyo is here.
Pros: the best reception; maximum battery life; a sweet speakerphone (how can people complain about this--the speakerphone is thisclose to being as good as the 4900, which is THE best speakerphone ever put on a wireless device...and this is on a FLIP phone! the speakerphones on other flips...N400...Toshiba VM4050--need I go on?); and of course, the famous Sanyo Snap when you open/close the phone.
The bad: you have to find that sweet spot in the earpiece to hear the best; Sanyo's adamant refusal to realize that there are people who have more than 15 characters in their names.
Vision is a Sprint network thing, not a device issue, but the 5500 does have a pretty nice browser, although not anything decidedly better than the A600. The camera is nice, although I DO think that the still camera on the A600 is a bit nicer and smoother to operate. Then again, the Sanyo gives you the video camera. You also get the ReadyLink option which is currently available only on Sanyos.
This phone continues in the tradition of every top phone Sanyo has released recently, meaning it will be the best phone until the newest top Sanyo phone comes out. Samsung has their pluses in a few small areas: you can put someone's birthday in their phonebook entry, having a notebook, ALARM CLOCKS (hello, Sanyo?). And Samsung did launch the TFT screen.
Fabulous
Taking a page from the Sanyo 8100, the Sub Lcd (Default setting) shows you the next thing on your schedule for that day. It's just a reminder but it helps, Especially when days are filled with many commitments (Hate pulling out the daytimer). In Denver with Sprint I'm getting signals where I have not before. Calls are as clear as I had with the A500 and it's great having a speakerphone on a flip. The bright blue keypad is awesome compared to that green glow of most sanyo's. The feel of the phone is nice in your hand. The dark navy blue color is better than the normal silver of most flips. The rainbow LED is cool but you can stick to one color if you feel less confident or just want use your favorite color. The battery was completely drained one time and was back at over 90% in less 90 minutes, I like that the battery gives you a little more talk time than with the 8100 when the battery is about to die. I have over 230 Individual Names in my phone book which I stored over 470 different Home, Work, mobile, pager, data, misc, E-mail addresses & Web addresses and I still can add more. The Camcorder feature will set you apart from the others. Before I got this phone I was just Sweet Science J. Now I can add FABULOUS !!!
BEST PHONE EVER, PERIOD!!!!!
I had this phone the day after it was released (NOV 22). It was just a blessing giving to from Sanyo. This phone is everything the Sanyo 8100 wasn't (my previous phone). I consider myself a phone freak, daily phone changes every now and then. I think cause I get bored easily with the same phone. I must say that I will be keeping this phone for a while base on the value it has, and plus its nice to have a phone that will be kinda rare (due to the price) compared to the Sanyo 8100. I had thought the Sanyo 8100 was a great phone but was lacking some items that would of made it prefect, here is where the Sanyo VM4500 steps in and brings Sanyo up to the very top of their game. I like the nice blue color, I'm so tired of silver phones, at least for right now, and plus no one is going to mistaking it for the Sanyo RL2500 due to it being silver and not blue. Beside the awesome design of the phone, the menus and layout are so easy to make out. I will be sticking to Sanyo phones from now on if I can, due to I like how they setup everything with their phone. They think on a consumers level not like Samsung, which have confusing and annoying layouts/menus. And please don't start with the reception also. Reception for Sanyos were always great for me, being I had 3 total phones from Sanyo itself. I will be honest and say that the Sanyo VM4500 is not a total prefect phone, leaving room for improvements, which I don't mind at all, it makes me look forward so what else they could squeeze into their cells. Price is a little high, but well worth it w/ or w/o rebate. I had brought this phone at $379 due to being with Sprint for only 10 mths. Customers service isn't that great, but they make up for it with their clear quality calls. Price for service is a little higher then others, but if you are tired of dropoffs, definitly give Sprint a try. I will end with the fact that I call my VM4500 my baby, and sometimes my gf gets a lil' jealous =)
Great Phone!!
I have waited a while for this phone, due to having speaker phone with camera/video. I was concerned that the speaker phone would not compare to my Nextel, however, it is as good or better. It is extremely loud and clear. The picture quality it the best I have seen from phone. The screen is bright, and I love the menu, very user friendly. I did lose the ability to record both sides of a conversation with this phone. Will make good voice memos, but when talking on the phone, will only record the other person and not me. My nextel recorded both sides. It is set up for "speed" picture sending, I can snap a picture and send it to 10 people within 15 seconds. The external screen is not very bright and is hard to see when in idle mode. I like to check the time from the phone, but I can not really see it, when idle. The phone is set up for text messaging, but Sprint is not. For now, must send "short mail" through phone web. I would have scored this phone a perfect 5, but SPRINT customer service makes me ill. They still have not transferred my nextel phone number, but gave me a temporary number. In the two weeks that I have had the phone, I made 17 calls, and spent 7 hours on hold or talking to sprint customer care personnell. They never return calls and have not transferred my number yet. PS: The sprint network is loud and clear as a bell so far.
Best Phone by Sanyo Yet !!
Coming from a Sanyo SCP-4500 phone.This has it all,I was debating on getting a camera phone,but I wanted also the speakerphone option.And this phone ROCKS!!-Pics,Camcorder
,ReadyLink,Speakerphone(and its loud too).
Pros-Lightweight,Brightkeypad,Easy to use,
Tons of Options,now the Cons-Expensive,
Battery life,and that's my 2 cent$.
Worth the money if not more
I'm not going to go in detail on the specs of the phone, you can read those on the previous page. However, I am going to give background. I work in the wireless industry, in a location where I am not biased by commission or lack of carriers... I currently handle 5 out of 6 major post-paid providers. I was a Sprint PCS customer for nearly 4 years, from the time they launched in Lansing, Michigan until a little over 2 years ago. At the time I left Sprint, I swore up and down I would NEVER go back to Sprint. I would NEVER sell another Sprint phone due to the amount of dropped calls and what I viewed at the time as poor customer service. I have also said I would never write a review on a cell phone because I don't want to add to the hype. Most people tend to embellish a little bit. Well here I am writing a review for the 5500 and giving it a perfect score. This is the best phone I have ever owned! I go back all the way to bag phones! I have run the gauntlet on carriers. At&t, Tmobile, Sprint, Verizon, Nextel, and can say without a doubt, I have NEVER been happier. I will admit, I was a skeptic of paying close to $400 for a phone and PTT... does Verizon's horrible reviews ring any bells? But have found that Ready Link is incredible. I only have 3 friends with RL at this time, but, am positive more people will pick it up once they witness the power and stand in total awe of the Sanyo 5500. I honestly feel that this was $400 well spent, I would do it again and after using the phone feel that if faced with the decision again, having used the phone would pay more than the original price. I have used the phone for almost a month now and have dropped one call, it happened today. Those of us in the wireless industry do our customers a disservice by not recommending this phone to our customers.
