Sanyo MM-5600
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 6, 2005 by Eric Lin
In-depth review of the Sanyo MM-5600 high-end clamshell CDMA camera phone for Sprint. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
A nice improvement!
First off, owned the Sanyo 5500, so I could compare the two well. A very nice improvement over the 5500, w/ all the features that I'd care to have in a phone.
PROS-
Beautiful display
Camera w/ macro mode looks great
90 Min. Video!!
Memory card slot (mini sd up to 1gb)
MP3 Player sounds great
GPS Voice Navigation
Voice activated dialing/ready link
Ready Link
Quick Web
CONS-
No MP3 player controls on the outside
Pics in low light not too good.
No Bluetooth (but, have yet to be impressed w/ bluetooth)
Excellent reception in Tri-Cities, WA
Overall, a great improvement. Sanyo seems to impress me w/ every flagship release they do, something I can't really say about Nokia/Motorola/Samsung. If you're in the market for a Sprint phone, and you want a high end phone that's gonna last you a while, I gotta suggest the Sanyo MM-5600!
Nice job Sanyo!!!!
Pros:
-bright QVGA screen is crystal clear
-the media player is excellent!! mp3s sound good through the external speaker and even better through the supplied stereo headphones + you can upload movies and tv shows to the miniSD card and watch them using the media player.
-voice recognition works great
-good speakerphone for half-duplex
-good color scheme with silver to metallic gray
-phone is heavy, especially with the extended battery, this along with the heavy duty hinge gives the phone a real sturdy feeling.
-battery seems to last much longer then the 5500, this goes for both the standard and extended life(I had both batteries for my 5500 as well).
-earpiece is clearer then any other phone I have ever used
-good signal strength in rural michigan area...not one dropped call in the 2+ weeks I've had the phone.
-the multi-color LED is back again!!!
Cons:
-camera requires bright light to take good pictures and the flash is really no help. My verdict on that is that it is a phone first and foremost.
-no Bluetooth, but for myself that does not really bother me because I don't use a headset anyway.
Overall verdict:
I paid $470 after taxes and shipping for just the phone and I do not regret it at all. I will have no problem using this phone for at least a year...all depending on when Sanyo releases another multimedia phone.
Evolution of a Great Phone
Impressive update to the 5500!
Pros
Slick interface (transparency effects, etc)
Good Photos (check Forum for links to photos)
Easiest Transfer of photos to PC or Printer TO DATE!
Included Cable works tor Data Sync too
Mp3's and AAC's sound good.
Voice Ringers Sound AWESOME
(including the ones I made myself)
Built-in Voice command...finally!
On Default Voice Ringer phone announces:
1. The number of the caller
2. the Name if the caller is in your contacts
The default Voice Ringer for messages does the same thing! "New Message From...(person or number here)
Great Screen! Almost shows an entire web article on one screen.
Contact List Entry View shows assigned pic.
Stopwatch function great for running.
Stereo Headset sounds good and people I've called say they hear little to no wind noise when driving with the top down/windows open.
Can Receive and send SMS while on a call!
Voice Memo function finally worth using. 60 min in low quality hi gives you 30 but you can copy them to the mini SD
Cons:
Much Lauded MP3 ringer capability is missing (the mp3s converted for the phone sound just like the orig. mp3 though)
Streaming Media...doesnt stream.
Signal Strength compared to my older Sanyos shows MUCH lower bar count but phone works everywhere my old sanyos do.
Cant print photos directly from camera. have to copy to miniSD first.. not a real con. It's the first sprint phone I know that let YOU have so much control over your images.
No Bluetooth :-(
Bugs:
Cant choose a downloaded ringer as a Ringer ID from the contact list. You HAVE to go to the Ringers screen and assign from there. Videos can be assigned from the contact list though :-/
Overall, if you've had your phone a year this phone is a good buy. If you've had it 18 months it's a GREAT buy with the discounts.
8-10 Months from now look to Sanyo to kick it up another notch...BAM!
Great Phone
Sanyo has done it again. The Sanyo mm 5600 is a little bigger than my Sanyo SCP-5500, but their is alot more packed inside. Quality wise the phone is just as well built as all the other Sanyo models. GREAT PHONE!
A very nice upgrade from the 5500 and 7400
Pros
1)QVGA screen
2)MP3 Player
3)1.3 MP camera
4)expandable memory
5)60 minute voice recorder
6)good battery life
7)very loud and clear ringtones
8)very clear earpiece
9)macro mode for close up shots
10)rainbow LED's
Cons
1)expensive
2)only 3MB internal memory
3)no night mode
4)can't assign ringers from minisd card
5)no #777
6)camcorder is very choppy
7)phone is large and bulky
8)pictures suck in low lighting
I expect sanyo to make better and smaller phones in the future. Therefore im rating this phone a " 4.5 " because it has a lot of upgrades over previous sanyos.
Best Phone For SPCS YEt
First of all this phone is not for the person who is looking for a basic phone. But if you are looking for the most featured packed phone outside of the Treo or PPC660x this is it.
Pros
Screen- The best screen since the Toshi 4050
Reception- Superb!!
Sound Quality- Finally a Sanyo phone that sounds great through the earpiece
Speakerphone- It works just fine.
Camera- Takes great pics with good or better lighting plus pics can be saved directly to the MiniSD card
Media Player- It is pretty nice to have some videos on hand to watch and kill time while waiting on what ever.
Cons
Only one for me and that is the terrible pics once you are in less than ideal lighting. But then again this a phone and not my Elph.
Top Quality Phone
This is the best phone I've ever owned and I've owned more then a dozen Sprint models over the years.
Pros:
-Good quality camera for a phone. It takes excellant pics on the macro setting.
-Inside screen is absolute top quality. As good or better then any other I've seen.
-Speaker is Loud and clear for ringers. (I don't use it for speaker phone unless I'm on hold, so I won't comment on that).
-MP3 player works well and sounds great.
-Comes with stereo headset/mic, and USB cable.
-The menus are all easy to navigate and respond very quickly.
-Voice dialing inside the phone that doesn't need to be trained. You just say the name as you typed it in the phone book and it recognizes it from that with no voice training whatsoever.
-Has the capability to say the name of the person in your phone book as the ringer (the phone reads it in a computer voice, it is not a recording).
-Battery life so far has been excellent. I thought it would suffer when using the speaker phone and MP3 player, but I was playing with them all day yesterday and I didn't even go down a bar.
Cons:
-It's big. It is at the very upward limit of acceptable size for me. For some people this will be more of a consideration the others.
-You can not use MP3's as your ringers. You have to convert them to MP4 (AAC) files first. It's a bit of a pain, but not too bad. Someone in the forums posted info on how to do this.
-Outside screen is not great resolution. Not bad, but nothing special.
-Video does not display on the outside screen. It's kind of strange that the phone features video ringers (using either video you recorded, or one's you buy from Sprint), but you can only see them if you happen to have the phone open when the person is calling.
-Internal memory is only 3MB. All of the ringers that you have, need to be stored on the internal memory, not the card.
-Card that comes with it is only 16MB, so you pretty much have to buy one to use the MP3 player effectivly.
Sanyo 5600
I sell phones and have always had a Sanyo phone for as long as I've had sprint. While this is not the best phone I've had (the Sanyo 6000 would have to have been my first pick for all the phones I've had for sprint) this is still a very good phone. I did not buy it for the camera as many people may have
Pros:
-mp3 capability is great. you just need to buy a bigger card
-screen is nice and clear
-speakerphone is loud and clearer than my old 8200
-signal strength is great. my reception is about as good as I had with my 8100 (my 6000 had better)
-comes with both a headset (stereo for the mp3s) and an USB cable to connect to your computer for dl'ing media
-voice activated features
-media player and vision is faster than previous models. I compared them to the 7400 and the samsung multimedia models and it loads everything faster
I probably forgot a couple of things but off the top of my head that's what I can think of.
Cons:
-hinge is not the same "spring" type as the others but never the less it feels solid
-its a bit on the heavy side (but with all that's built into it its understandable and it doesn't bother me too much)
-battery life is short. even when I don't use my phone very much I still have to charge it every 2-3 days and for a brand new battery that's short. on all the previous phones I've had I got atleast 4-5 days between charges. for those of you who charge your phones every day this should not be a problem.
Basing the reception solely on the little bars on the screen is ridiculous. the phone needs to be USED and then see how it performs. the 5600 gets better reception than my 8200 did.
as a note for all Sanyo phones, getting the ones that say "Made in Japan" is better than the ones made elsewhere. as an example, I've seen almost no problems with the 8200s made in japan as compared to the ones made in malaysia (only the first 8200 silvers were made in japan). the 5600 is made in japan which is a very big plus in my book.
just awesome
i just got this fone and it just mind blowing i theink there are no flaws watsoever with this
pros-
1.camera qvga nice!
2.screen
3.ringtones
4. the list is endless i cant add all of them (well i can but im lazy)
cons-
1.bluetooth there relly isint any and i relly dont mind cuz im not a head set person and u honestly dont need for hand-free talkin it because the speaker fone is so clear
2.taking pics at night is a hassle but ussualy i dont take pics at night so its relly no flaw for me
i fell so important with this and i only had to pay 250 for it cuz im a ne w sprint owner so its all good and for the money belive me its worth it
