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PCS Phone Sanyo VM4500 - Silver (Sprint)

PCS Phone Sanyo VM4500 - Silver (Sprint)

List Price: $399.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THIS PHONE IS THE BEST PHONE OUT THERE
Review: WELL WHAT CAN I SAY , I HAVE HAD THE SANYO 5150 , 5300 AN NOW THE 5400 THIS IS THE BEST PHONE OUT THERE IN THE MARKET, SPRINT HAS THE BEST SIGNAL , I HAVE BEEN WITH ATT , VERIZON, CINGULAR, AN AT WORK I HAVE NEXTEL AN THERE SERVICE SUCKS , I READ SOME OF THE MESSAGES SOME OF THE READERS PUT ON AN SOME SAID THEY HAD DROP CALLS WHEN THEY HAD FULL SERVICE MEANING THEY HAD 4 BARS WELL THERE IS A BATCH OF SANYO VM 4500 OUT THERE THAT ARE DEFECTIVE PHONES , THAT SOMETIMES EVEN IF U TAKE THEM TO THE SPRINT PCS STORE TO GET THEM CHECKED THEY WILL PASS THE TEST , I HAD THAT PROBELM WITH MY FIRST VM 4500 THEN I CHANGED IT THE SECOND DID THE SAME THING AN THEY COULDNT FINE WHAT WAS WRONG WITH IT SO THEY CHANGED IT , KNOW I GOT A GOOD UNIT AN ITS WORKING LIKE A SANYO PHONE SUPOSED TO BE, ITS WORKING FINE , EXCELLENT. THE READY LINK IS AWSOME AN THE REST OF ITS FETURES THIS IS THE BEST PHONE I HAVE EVER HAD AN EVEN I HAD SOME PROBLEM WITH THE FIRST 2 PHONES SANYO IS STILL ON TOP AS THE BEST CELLPHONE COMPANY.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This thing rocks
Review: I purchased this phone two days ago, after I decided that I didn't want to go through the trouble and poor customer service with AT&T Wireless...especially after it was purchased by Cingular. I ended up saving a good $200 for switching and I'm pleased with my purchase. The Amazon.com editorial covers all the bases. This is an excellent phone. Perhaps the naysayer got a lemon or didn't fully charge the battery, or ventures into buildings and places with poor reception or copper lined ceilings which do interfere with cell phone signals. I did not need a manual to operate the phone, buttons and options are very intuitional. Clarity of calls is exceptional, perhaps even too loud. Numerous features are available to customize your phone and if you're like me, will be tinkering with it for months. The complaint I do have with the phone is the cost of the extras, such as downloads/uploads.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Big disappointment!
Review: I purchased this phone after reading all the great reviews. Boy am I disappointed. The reception on this phone is terrible, the signal bars are misleading, calls are often dropped when 4 bars appear. The main reason I purchased this phone is for better reception and that is also the reason I will be returning it. A slick phone is useless without reception.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice look; bad reception
Review: I currently own this phone and I bought it the first week in January because of the sleek design. The phone is physically appealing and has a few nice features. But, thats the only good thing that I saw in this phone-the features-. The reception is terrible and the phone will tell me that it is charging, when of course, it really isn't. This phone also loses signal while all four bar icons are still on the screen. I also have contacted sprint on numerous occasions and I was informed that if I wanted another cellular phone I would have to pay retail value-I already paid retail value for the cellular phone ($411 to be exact)-. We must remember that the main reason that we buy cell phones are for calling purposes, then the features the phone has to offer. I give the features a 5 out of 5 but the actual phone and its reception, I give it a 1 out of 5.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sorry Sanyo, your VM4500 needs a new mic. & ringer tones.
Review: I have to agree with the Sprint employee that posted a review on here. This phone has the coolest look but when it comes to its microphone and ringer tone selection it just plain SUCKS! People tell me my voice sound pretty bad and when i get closer to the mic. they say I sound like im hyperventalating. Also there is not one ring tone I like. I guess Sayno/Sprint wants us to pay and download the nice tones which im not going to do. To top is off Sprint charges its customers $15.00 a month to use the walkie talkie feature! Im returing this phone tommarow because I hate it. And im never going to get a Sanyo Cell again!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great looking phone but it pretty much ends there...
Review: As a Sprint PCS employee and former owner of a Sanyo VM4500 this type of cell phone gets returned to us alot for refunds for the very same reasons I turned in my own VM4500. 1) If you are a current Nokia cell phone user thinking of swiching to this phone BE ADVISED that you will not I repeat will not have the excellent clear and static free calls you once had on your Nokia. You will be getting comments from the same people you talked with before saying things like "your voice sounds wierd" "I cant hear you" etc. During phone calls you will hear a CONSTANT "hissing" noise in the backround that never goes away and your voice truly sounds more dull and not as clear and natural as if you were to be using any Nokia brand. 2) Another thing you will notice if you switch from any Nokia model to this VM4500 is the absolute horrible (for lack of a better word) ringer tone selection and configuration. The majority of the assigned tones will emberrass most people in public. I give this phone ( 1 ) star for its great look and another one for its nice loud working speakerphone. So the bottom line is if you want to look "cool" and have a great looking phone...go ahead with your purchase but remember that the guy or girl next to you using his or her not so stylish Nokia will be heard alot better and more clearer than you. This post is not a matter of opinion...its a matter of fact because the two complaints mentioned above are the cause of at least one customer daily, coming into our store complaining about this Sanyo saying " I was woundering if I could change the phone I bought yesterday for another one?" We of course understand their frustration and say...sure

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great phone, but needs more functionality
Review: I got this phone a few days ago, I switched over from my old V60 with ATT that I had for 2 years prior. It was either this one or the other Toshiba top of the line phone they had at the store. The number one reason I got this phone is the speakerphone can be used when the phone is closed, which is very convenient for my work conference calls when I'm not in the office. This is the loudest speakerphone available. You can be across the room and hear it like it was right there. I only wish the microphone was as good, you have to keep the phone close to your mouth for the other party to hear you well. The reception on the phone is better than Verizon in buildings, which is contrary to popular opinion, I know. My friend has a Verizon LG, the newest one that came out and I have better reception than her most of the time and when she has no reception I have 2 bars minimum. But there are a few blackout zones like my house where the reception isn't as good (but don't go by me, I've had 5 carriers and all 5 had problems). Whenever someone calls you, you do not need to open the phone to talk to them, you can just press the button on the side and their call is transferred to the speakerphone - that's really handy. You can also call while it's closed by saying the person's name - it dials automatically and routes the call to the speaker.

The camera is great but not the best, that's the Toshiba, ditto the screen. But with this phone it is really easy to spy on people as you can turn on the camera by holding the side button without opening the phone (the camera is on the back) so you can take pictures of people without them knowing it. It has a self-portrait function that does its job, but the Toshiba is better in that respect also. The video camera makes this phone stand out from the competition at other providers, but again, the Toshiba beats this phone simply because of the quality of the video and the length allowed. However, the Toshiba has to be open to video a party other than yourself so the other person can see it. This one is better for spying. You look inconspicuous just holding the phone closed.

You cannot have different backgrounds for the main LCD screen and the little one outside, it's all one picture. You can have different pictures for caller-id for people in your phonebook but this is limited by the fact that you can only store I think 20 or so pictures in the phone's memory. A small drawback is that you cannot have a banner of any kind on the main screen and the preset animations for calling and looking for service don't want to show themselves when the phone performs these functions for some reason

In terms of the downloads for phones, Sprint is one of the worst companies out there. There is nothing good on the site to download like ringers and so on. The phone comes with all the tones you'll ever need though, a good assortment but just one full game called Bejeweled. I tried to play it but it's the stupidest game ever invented. This also has Tetris included, but it's the trial version where you can play for like 2 minutes and then you have to buy the damn thing. Each game is $2.50 to download off the website and ringers are $1.50 for the tones and $2.50 for actual songs. I've heard you can record your own ringer in the mic and assign it to the phone but I have not seen this in any of the menus. If anyone knows how to do this, please post it here.

Two things that this phone lacks is a notepad right in the menu so you can quickly store a message to yourself. The v60 had that feature and it was very useful. You could get around that by saving a draft but it is very clumsy as you have to go into the menu, select yourself as the recipient and then save it.

There are several things you cannot do while this Sanyo is closed that you could do with other phones: you can't lower the volume or put the phone on vibrate by pressing the up/down keys, you'll have to open it for that to happen. Neither can you record your voice from the outside without opening it and going into the menu.

For those of us who have had a Motorola at any time in our lives knows that the most annoying this about it is when you get a low battery the phone signals really loudly and keeps beeping until you either turn it off or charge it. This "feature" cannot be turned off. Even when you put the phone on silent, the beeping would persist! Well, with this one it's much better. The battery indicator just becomes empty and red so you know what's going on but it doesn't bother you.

Battery life is OK. I have to charge mine at least twice a day... but I am an atypical user because I use the speakerphone on full blast for hours at a time and that kills the battery life. I love the blue color, it's different from all these damn silver things everyone has. The user interface is fine, the 'back' button is the best facet of that, extremely intuitive.

The bottom line is that if the most important thing for you is the camera and a good screen, get the Toshiba because it has better resolution than this Sanyo. But if you want a phone for what it was made for -- great communication and a user-friendly interface, then this is the phone for you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: whoever says this phone is dumb, is dumb themselves
Review: honestly this is the best phone i've had in years. it has a digital camera that takes clear pictures when taken in high quality resolution and also takes pretty decent videos for a camcorder hybrid. as for that guy from houston that said this phone sucks, READ THIS! you CAN set a different ringtone for each contact in your phonebook AND you can also set personalized images for when somebody calls...for example you can take a picture of your friend and set it so that everytime he or she calls you, their picture shows on the external and internal lcd. ALSO, you can view the pictures you take without using a PC. all you have to do is select the picture, go to its options and click expand..and VOILA!
this phone is truly one of a kind. i've had it for almost a month now and it has been through hell in that time. i've dropped on the street, it's fell off the top of my table, it got wet in the rain and it still works at the optimum level. the sound quality and reception is excellent compared to the samsung N400 and sanyo 8100..which happen to be the last two phones i owned. so to everyone out there that's still debating about whether to buy the phone or not... BUY IT. it really is worth the money. besides if you're a new sprint customer and you purchase it from amazon.com, you get back more than half of the money you spend on the phone.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: All around excellent phone
Review: I have had this phone 2 weeks. I switched from AT&T who has just about the worst service of all the major phone carriers. I never had signals going into buildings with AT&T and the Nokia 6310i (more a fault of AT&T rather than the Nokia). I ate the ... early termination fee, I was that fed up with AT&T. I live in Orange County, CA. The service with Sprint at least in all the places I have gone thus far has been FANTASTIC!! I have been all over OC, gone up to Victorville, and to Torrance, with 4 bar reception almost everywhere! The reception on this phone is without equeal. My brother and several of my friends have Samsung phones with Sprint service. When they have 0, 1 or 2 signal strength bars, I have 4 bars, full strength!! The phone you choose absolutely can make an impact on the quality of reception, and a reduction in "lost signal"/"dropped calls". It pays to buy a high end phone rather than struggle with the "free after rebate" or even the [money] after rebate phones. Yes [money] is a ton of money, but for me who uses about 2000 minutes/month, it is absolutely worth it.

The speaker phone is great. I have used it several times, this is one of the reasons I wanted this phone. The video clips while only 15 seconds in length each, are a lot of fun and include sound. I do think the one area Samsung is better is the quality of the image from the camera. I think photos are somewhat but not significantly cleaner looking with the Samsung. However, with bright lights or direct sunlight, the image from the camera in the VM4500 phone seems to be overcome and hide the main object you are trying to take a photo of. But beyond that, NOTHING currently available from any other carrier is as good as this phone, in my humble opinion. I do wish the phone had bluetooth and modem capabilities however.

The voice dialing features built into the phone work wonderfully. You don't need to pay the $5/month to Sprint to have their voice dialing service as voice dialing is built into the phone. You can attach voice dialing to 30 phone numbers.

If you are a heavy talker like me, I would buy the extended battery especially if you use the web, camera, and video clip funtions much. The extended battery doesn't add that much depth to the phone either. You can extend battery life significantly if you turn off some of the "bells and whistles" the phone has. Things such as sound and animation when the phone is turned on or off. Shorten the length of time the displays and kepad are lit after a phone call is completed. Turn off the Nextel like "Push To Talk (PTT)" service Sprint now offers, called "Ready Link" if you don't know anyone else that has Sprint service with a PTT capable phone. The PTT function when enabled is constantly on, communicating with a cell tower waiting for an incoming PTT call and eats up battery life. Turn off the flashing led's which notify you of events like missed calls, received voice/text/email messages, etc. The lights are cool looking, but unless you are in a meeting or a movie theatre, they are not necessary. Turn off the GPS tracking function which is continuously sending location information to the nearest cell tower to track where you are (Did you know that phones are now doing that?). Emergency 911 calls however will still be able to track you but that is good. All these functions I just mentioned are cool, but not necessary all the time, and as a result contribute to a shorter battery life. By turning off or shortening the time in use of these functions, I have been OK with the standard battery, but I bought the extended just to have in case.

I would have ranked the phone 5 stars had it had the previously mentioned bluetooth and modem capabilities. All in all, I absolutely love this phone. A friend of mine 1 week earlier signed up with and bought the Verizon/LG6000 camera phone. I prefer all the features of my Sprint/Sanyo VM4500. The reception seems to be about equal with both phones in the area we live. However the LG6000 camera is really, really bad, especially at night. Just FYI.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worth Every Penny!
Review: I've had this phone now for about a week and have absolutely NO COMPLAINTS! I bought it off of Ebay brand new for a more reasonable price. I love the navy blue color, it's very unique compared to all of the silver phones out there. I don't know what another reviewer was talking about, but you CAN take self portraits while you see yourself on the screen (you just choose "self portrait" in the options screen, duh!). The viewing screen is a nice size as well. You wouldn't need any other phone after this, you have the phone,camera, camcorder,speakerphone, walkie-talkie etc. You can even make and receive calls without opening the phone! This phone is one of the best on the market right now.


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