Very Comparable to the Nokias
Written: Jun 28 '01 (Updated Jul 09 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Talk/Standby Times, Audio Quality, Size, Vibrate, Clearglo Display, Durability, Design
Cons: Ugly Fonts, Quiet Ringers, Cramped Screen, Directional Key a Little Uncertain
The Bottom Line: My positives definitely outmatches my negatives for the 4000. A great substitute for the Nokias.
|
|
|
| bonka's Full Review: Sanyo SCP 4000 Cell Phone |
I've had this phone for several months, and it has worked flawlessly since purchase. Although I have heard opinions on both extremes, I definitely prefer this phone over my buggy 6188.
Build:
This phone looks and feels solid. There are no creaks and lose fittings. The battery fits streamlined with the phone and the batteries available for the 4000 are the same thickness as the phone. The candy-bar shaped design is very easy to hold but may be a problem for people with larger hands.
Screen/Display:
The 4000 features the unique "Clearglo" display, which illuminates the screen in a blue flourescent colour. It is by far the brightest backlight that I have seen to date. I had little trouble reading the screen and often found using my 4000 as a flashlight. However, the excellent backlight display is offset by one of the ugliest (if not the ugliest) font display system used in a cellular phone. The fonts used are not very appealing to the eye and comes in a fixed display, meaning, only a 1 sized font. I also found the display to be a little cramped and found the standby screen to be a bit generic. Overall, most people should not find this too big of a problem.
Keypad:
The 4000's keypad was very nice to use. The buttons clicked nicely when pushed, and had good tactile feel to it. However, I found that sometimes, I would accidently activate a key unknowningly. The Keygaurd solves this problem. Moderate pressure is best to use the keypad. I don't know how the keypad will fair out in prolonged use as I fear that extensive use of particular buttons may make them feel less tactile and would not click when pressed. Nokia's 6100 and 8200 series have the best keypads around.
The 4 way directional key in the center of the phone is very neat. The left option will select the page/text msg menu while the right option will select the phonebook. I sometimes found the directional key to be a little uncertain. I may click left but the key will think I've selected up. It should not cause too many problems.
Phonebook:
The 4000 has by far, the best phonebook system I know of. Instead of making separate phonebook entries for the same person with different numbers, (ie: John Smith Home, John Smith Cell), each phonebook entry has its own phonebook tree for you to put numbers under the same person. This tree gives you 7 options to choose from for each entry. Very efficient use.
Network:
Uses the 1900 CDMA digital band and 800 AMPS analog band. Since I am a Clearnet customer, I do not have the option to force the phone into analog. Once Telus reflashed all phones, I think this feature will be included.
Sounds:
There are 10 ringers to choose from. Five of them are different variations of oscillating ringers and the other five are your familar musical melodies. Although I find the melodies to be a bit cheeky for my tastes, there are very usable.
In terms of ringer volume, the 4000 is not as loud as some phones. A "high" setting on the 4000 equals perhaps a medium on another. In most situations however, it shouldn't be a problem as you should be able to hear it fine.
The vibrate option is a very nice feature on the 4000. I found the vibrate ringer to be very strong, and you would be able to feel it even if you wore a thick jacket or perhaps if it sat deep inside a pocket or backpack. Omitted was the ability to have both the vibrate and ringers go off together. However, I hear this feature is available on the 4500.
Battery Life:
Battery life is probably one of the enigmas on the 4000. Since purchasing the 4000 in late February, I've been using this phone everyday. Yet, I have not lost even 1 bar on the battery meter. I have made several 1hr+ calls and the battery meter doesn't even blink. Maybe it might be a little pessimistic, I don't know, but it seems to keep on going. Granted, the 4000 does come with a 1300MaH Lithium Ion battery. Charging with the included rapid charger was a breeze. I would think a few hours is good enough to fully recharged a drained battery. If battery life is solely the only priority you have for a cellular phone, look no further. To sum up, I would be pretty optimistic about the claimed talk and standby times posted by Sanyo.
Reception/Signal:
In most instances, I have found that the 4000 can be used whether the signal meter read 0 bars or full bars. Sometimes, I was able to place a call even with 0 bars, with an extended antenna. I found that I never really had to extend the antenna, unless in fringe digital areas. However, the antenna does make a difference in going into analog mode or hanging to a digital signal, and the 4000 does remarkably well. Although I am speaking here purely as a Clearnet customer, I cannot make a assumptions for other users of the 4000 on a different network.
Analog:
The 4000 has very good digital to analog handoffs. At first, I was never able to place a call in analog mode even with a high meter reading. However, now, I have no trouble placing calls in analog mode even with a low reading. The audio quality is very clear and background noise is present, but minimal. Very good for analog.
Sound Quality:
Probably one of the biggest qwerks for me is audio quality. I like to know that What I'm hearing is the person's natural voice and what the other person is hearing through my voice is natural sounding as well, hopefully, resembling as close to as a corded phone and as far away as a cellular phone.
Incoming sound quality is very good. In most cases, I found that the 4000 produced clarity and very little static and background noise. The low volume setting for the earpiece is very loud, especially when considering this against a low setting on a Nokia. In most cases, I had to turn down the volume of the earpiece. Sometimes however, the incoming sound was a little tinny, and somewhat hollow. Although this doesn't really create a problem because you would still be able to recognize the voice on the other side, really nit picky people would claim this as inferior. Granted, I myself had heard better (Nokia 6100's), but nonetheless, incoming quality was still very good. I have heard alot of problems concerning about the echo exihibited on the 4000. All I can say is that, I have found no instances of echo since my use. It may be the network but it could be well the phone itself. I've had no problems with echo for the 4000 so I will not comment on that.
Outgoing quality was fabulous. People who I called literally claimed that they could not tell that I was on a cellular phone, and rather, a corded phone. There are better sounding phones out there in terms of outgoing sound quality, but the 4000 is atleast a contender to that respect.
As Expected, sound quality does degrade somewhat with a weaker signal, but the 4000 does a very good job at taming choppy audio and background noise. None of this should be any problem for the everyday user.
Conclusion:
Other than a few design flaws, and some omitted features, the 4000 is a well rounded phone. Its sleek, lightweight, and small design really tops up the phone with its usability and features. If the 4000 had come with dual band technology, the 4000 would've been much preferred over the Nokia 6185.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bonka
|
|
Member: Warren
Location: Vancouver
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
The Swedish chef says "borgy, borgy, boo."
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.