Sanyo M1
Average Ratings
Best Phone Ive ever owned
This phone is great and the build quality is excellent. The camera for a phone takes great pictures...
The post below..I have about 700Mbs of MP3s uploaded to this phone and not single one was purchased through sprint. Just plug the phone in with the usb cable and upload whatever you want. heck I have even uploaded videos .pg2 files. As well as custom back grounds. The only con and its small for me. Is that I can not remove the memory card. But for the most part 1gb is more then enough.
Again...you can upload your own mp3's, movies, and even use it as a thumb drive for moving documents, saving pdf's to...whatever.
Finally, Sanyo did it.
This phone is as close to perfect as they've come. Its got everything, except a few minor features. But they aren't *that* bothersome, which makes this phone one of the best phones I've used in a long time.
Yeah, its discontinued. Of course, Sprint decides to discontinue it. Its got everything, why keep it around?!
I'll start with the cons first.
1. you can't set mp3s as ringtones. Thats just annoying.
2. you can't edit photo album names, or create new ones IN the phone. You can with the supplied usb cable in mass storage mode. Just create a new folder where the pictures are stored, and the phone finds it. It would just be nicer if it were possible to actually move pictures from one "on phone" album to the next. With a gig of memory, the pictures folder will eventually become VERY clustered, and you will definitely want to create another album or two.
3. This is really nothing, but the battery feels very unsturdy in the phone. It creaks like an old bed.
4. The back button, and the end button seem to be too close together for my taste. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I keep hitting the end button instead of back.
5. You can't do much with the player controls on the front of the phone. I'd like full menu control without having to open the phone.
6. This is little, but the "1" key looks like a 7. Whats up with that?
Ok, so thats the tiny annoying things that are wrong with the phone, some of which you probably wouldn't find annoying, which makes it even less flawed. Most is just personal preference.
The good though...The good definitely outweighs the bad.
1. Great reception. As expected with any Sanyo.
2. 2mp camera w/ video capability.
3. 1 gig of ram and mp3 playing ability.
4. Vibrant screen.
5. Numerous GUI tweaks that have annoyed me about the Sanyo interface for years. Finally, a phone that has fixed pretty much all of it. They've realized that you can't "fix" everything, sometimes you have to let the user decide.
It has everything but a card slot...
Great phone if you don't want to play mp3s
I purchased this phone 6 months ago. I initially thought it was a great phone. The camera and video recorder are great. The speakers are the best of any phone I have ever used. They sound good as well and have equalizer functions. The size is not bad but the buttons could be a little bit bigger.
The problems started about 3 months ago. The phone has built in memory, ie fill it up and the phone slows down. I have over 500 songs downloaded from the Sprint Music. This means they are supposed to be specially formatted to work well on this phone. This is what Sanyo Tech support is telling me now is my problem. I have tried several phones with external memory and they don't seem to slow like this one does. After 3 weeks of not getting help from Sanyo Tech support, I have been told the phone program requires the phone to catalog every song everytime the music store/player is accessed. with 500 songs on the phone this slows the process to about 8-10 minutes before the phone will play music. When you use this phone to demo the music player at work to potential Sprint customers, you can imagine a 10 min delay is a lost sale and people who may not consider Sprint. The problem is not Sprint at all, its in the phone's programming. I was called back by Sanyo tech and told that he(Shawn Brandt Sanyo tech Support supervisor 818-998-7322 ext 458) had talked to the designers in Japan and they said the problem is I filled the memory too much. Why allow songs to be loaded if they are going to slow the system down. Better yet release a program update that allows the phone to catalog the songs only once and only update it if the store has been accessed to buy more music. 8-10 minutes to catalog the music is ridiculous. Its no wonder Sanyo discontinued this phone. Well Sanyo tech told me I have to live with the problem, feel free to call Shawn at the above number if you have an issue with your Sanyo Phone.
PROS
camera-speakers-menu
music player stinks
i'm keepin' it... for now.
had the M1 for about 2 months now. fast browsing using either built-in browser, or opera mini... go EVDO! previously had the RL-4930 with the stub antenna... this phone gets just as good reception with no visible antenna, gotta love that. the earpiece is loud and clear. if you use sprint tv, the "upgraded" sprint tv app is nifty and easy to navigate, but in upgrading, the ability to watch content on the outer screen is now gone. and it's pretty much a forced "upgrade." so if you like your sprint tv, take this into consideration. besides that you can use orb to stream from your home pc, and use the built in media player which you can watch on the outer screen if you wish. you can load mp3s from your pc on the 1GB of internal memory using mass storage mode through the usb connection. i loaded gmail and google maps apps and they work great, but no gps for the maps, unless you go with sprint nav or one of the other available gps apps. i don't use bluetooth, so no comment on that. overall a great phone, i think i'm keeping this one for a while. it serves my purposes and is quite functional. oh it has a camera too! it's good for basic/emergency usage.
pros:
-great reception w/ no ext antenna (l.a. metro area)
-evdo web browsing
-1GB internal storage
cons:
-neutered sprint tv app "upgrade"
-not thin (if you're into thin phones)
-memory not upgradeable
-position of volume a bit awkward
-not really the best camera
-battery life less than my 4930
GR8!
This is a great phone.. I now the have upstage and thats going back uhh what a mistake!
--Pros
*GREAT speakers for mp3s and ringers
*holds alot of music
*GR8 battery life
--CONS
the only con i had was it was a lil bulky and thats not even really a con for me bcuz im learning the thin phones cant compare to the m1!
Ole'Phone still relavent.....
The speaker loudness brought me right back to the joy I had with my first Sanyo(4900).
A friend just got the Nokia 5300 and I loaded some of my MP3's on it, and played them vs. the M1...and, the Nokia knock the M1 out the box. My friend jus' got the HTC Mogul and he is jealous of the M1's Speaker.
As, for the Pros' scroll through the other reviews because the other submitters covered them all.
I had my phone now about 3 weeks, i had to ask a friend in a another state about a 2 hr drive to pick the M1 for me. all, my local salepeople..told me that I made a wise chose then getting the Muziq....4 different stores in the NY,NJ...area.
The sickest phone i've had in a long time
Pro's
mp3 player
2mp camera W/ auto focus
streaming videos
recording time on the camcorder
bluetooth is just awesome
doesn't break when you drop it
plus you can close the phone and still watch video clips
stereo speakers
the memory
Cons
camera location
that's pretty much it. I've been thru a lot of phones and this by far the best phone i've had in a while. i use to own the hero by pantech. it was a good phone until it just stopped charging all together. so i trashed it and got this phone and i have a feeling that imma keep this phone for a while.
SIMPLY GREAT
Pros:
**Just about everything about the phone
(style, camera, internet, reception, battery life, games, music, memory, features, etc)
Cons:
*Technology is kinda out dated
*Easy to get finger prints on (but easy to wipe off)
CONCLUSION:
Screw the Iphone, RAZR2, Katana, Envy, Sidekick, whatever... THEE BEST PHONE ON THE MARKET HANDS DOWN!
Best Flip Phone out There
Switched from the Samsung A940 to the M1.
(now have the mogul, but wanted a pda instead of flip)
Pros:
1)Great Reception, On par with my A940 and usually better than most other sprint phones)
2)Speaker is loud and clear for music with 16 levels of volume to choose from.
3)Camera is the best 2 MP camera on a phone I have seen. Pictures are taken rapidly and are never blurry like my A940.
4)Sprint TV, Music, Navigation, On Demand and Web Browsing with mini opera are excellent features and work perfectly in almost any area in Oregon. Faster web surfing than the Iphone (of course the network really is the difference.)
5)T9 texting is great and suggests words that I actually use.
6)Feels durable, I have dropped many times and still works perfectly.
7)1 GB memory internal saves you from purchasing a mem card.
Cons:
1)Camera is in awkward position, where fingers get in front of the lens (not a big deal but takes some getting used to.
2)No optical zoom on camera (my A940 had a 2 optical zoom
3)Speaker phone distorts when turned up all the way. (turning it down to medium volume is still louder than most phones anyway and is clear.
4)Battery dies really fast when speakerphone is turned on. (this is a common con for most phones though).
Overall this is still the best non pda phone available, I only switched so I could view flash videos on the web on my mogul. I still miss the ability for sprint tv, navigation, and ease of use of my m1. Too bad sprint doesnt have sim cards so I could use both.
Not overly impressed
This is basic flip phone with huge internal memory (1Gb) for songs and pictures. As a basic phone it works fine. Typical good Sanyo reception and battery time. Battery lasts about one day of heavy useage.
The phone has a media player and allows you to copy songs to play on the phone which sound great from the included ear buds. An adapter is included to allow use of aftermarket headsets. The memory is nice but you cannot add an external card so what you got is what you got.
The camera is average. Really pretty typical for a flip phone. Nothing great here.
The software on the phone is outdated. Prob why Sprint recently discontinued it. If you are hoping to use Sprint's new email solution for Push email, it will not work. Also, you cannot sync calendar or contacts. Need to import and must do one at a time. Very cumbersome and not a workable solution on a daily basis.
Overall works fine as a basic flip phone with a media player but other phones do the same for less money and have more up to date software.
