Rating: 
Summary: Hot phone
Review: The best phone ever dont waste your money .nokia,motorola or exetera thi is the phone you want to by folow my advice.
Rating: 
Summary: good phone but sprint has major overbilling problems
Review: The Phone is great, Sprint service is another issue. I, along with most people i know have had problems where sprint over bills them. Sprint really doesn't seem to care that they have a cronic overbilling problem. If u call and complain (after about 10-20 minutes on the phone with a rep) they do fix it, but u will have to watch your bill like a hawk and call monthly to get it adjusted. They really need to work on their customer service. They dont really seem to care about GOOD customer service.
Rating: 
Summary: Great phone but poor service
Review: The phone itself is a 5-star. The user interface is easy to use. The screen is bright. Battery prolongs several days on one charge. It receives better signal.The customer service is pretty bad, though. In fact, my wife is talking to their customer service when I write this review and it's been 2.5 hours on the phone and 1.5 hours in the SprintPCS store, let alone the time to get to the store. It was the technical support department that shed light on the issue which was customer service department's responsibility. Probably you want to call technical support department instead of customer service department when you have issues. Overall, a great phone with poor customer service.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Customer Service Ever!
Review: The phone may have been good, I would have found out if Sprint ever activated my service. After more than five weeks of waiting for them to transfer my cell phone number from another carrier and literally spending hours on the phone (mostly on hold) with them I gave up and cancelled. I routinely spent over an hour on hold to speak to a customer service agent, who could never actually resolve anything, although some did share that it is common with them to take more than 30 days to transfer phone numbers. I had heard Sprint had poor customer service, and now wish I had taken it seriously.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible phone!
Review: The sanyo 8100 is the flagship phone for Sprint's PCS network, with a plethora of features and lots of style points. As far as I know this phone will ONLY work with SPRINT - so keep that in mind. This is probably the reason many reviewers have chosen to factor the sprint service into thier ratings and into their reviews, which makes some sense, however keep in mind that the quality of service given by a particular provider varies greatly by region. When first looking at the phone you'll notice it's very compact, and also very stylish. the design is top notch, it not only looks good but is very functional. The flip (clam shell) design is put to good use, with a smaller LCD on the outside and a main LCD on the inside. Both of these displays are color and fairly crisp. The outter LCD is used for caller ID as well as displaying wristwatch-like info (time, signal strength etc) while not being used. Buttons are a bit cumbersome for people with big fingers... but that's the case with most cell phones anyway. Navigating the menus is fairly intuitive, although entering letters and characters in the dark is a problem. This phone is PACKED with features. You can browse the web in full color. However to anyone who hasnt used the web on a cell phone yet, dont expect an experience ANYWHERE near what you get on your computer. The small screen and akward charachetr input methods make surfing the www less of a hobby and more of a chore. That said this feature can be immensley useful. The phone has a built in camera, which takes decent, albeit small, photos. You can then email these pictures to friends straight form the phone, or you can opt to use them as "photo caller id" (the picture will display on the LCD when a certain person in your phone book calls. You can also customize your phone with full color wallpaper, animated characters, nice sounding polyphonic ringers, and a variety of games - all downloadable on the net, some for a cost however. There's also some built in aps such as a calendar with limited PIM functionality, a phone book that can store upto 300 entries, each with upto 7 numbers, an email addy and a web addy, there's a calculator, a world clock, and you can download aditional aps to provide a whole number of other uses and features (such as aps that use the phone's location features to give "onstar" like functionality). Of course there is text messaging, voice memos, and a bunch more. You can use the web through sprint's PCS vision service to send/recieve email, or log onto AIM, MSN messenger, or yahoo messenger. This is a great convenience, but seeing as how none of these interfaces are very user friendly, and character typing is a pain - you'll quickly realise that this is more for use when you need to tell someone something really quick rather than recreational chatting. With AIM, the messages take a long time to load and it's a bit tedious to use because of the web based interface - too bad there isnt a downloadable ap for it, or built in capabillities, either or which would have improved performance vastly. The phone's battery life is good, but not great, happily thanks to the travel charger you can talk while the phone is plugged in and/or charging. The antena extends to help you get a better signal, and the phone works on both digital and analog networks for roaming. The ringer and reciever are loud, which is good. A number of settings will probably overwhelm you at first, but offers a lot of power and flexabillity. The only draw back is that the phone is directly tied to sprint, so if you dont like sprint, you wont have a good experience here (remember cell phone provider service quality completely depends on where you live). Sprint offers good plans and decent (though not great) coverage, though they like to nickel and dime you any chance they get, (PCS vision package is requiered for picture sending, email and or web access). The quality of the sprint network varies, call quality is ussually very good, but dropped calls can be a bit of a problem, particularly while on the go. Also if you want to synch ur phone with your computer you'll need to buy a kit to do so, however this kit also supposedly will allow you to use your phone as a mobile modem for a laptop - very cool. All in all, I love this phone, and only have a handful of minor complaints or reservations about it. I havent seen a more complete, feature rich phone yet.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific phone, but don't expect much in image quality
Review: The Sprint PCS 8100 is a terrific camera phone. It's the second camera phone to be sold here stateside. Size-wise, it could be a bit thinner like the Panasonic GU-87 GSM phone for AT&T Wireless; but, to be fair, the 8100 is already quite compact, and much smaller than the very first camera phone to hit the U.S. market: the venerable Sanyo SCP-5300. Compard to the 5300 (which is still being sold by Sprint), this 8100 phone has a very bright main LCD, albeit slightly smaller (1.8" vs. 5300's 2.1"). Its 56k color range is very good, and did I mention it's super-bright? Definitely the brightest and clearest phone LCD screen I've seen so far -- and I've personally checked out lots of phones on sale in the U.S. and also in Europe. BTW, an interesting thing about the 8100's screen is that, even if you turn off the backlight, the main LCD is actually still backlighted (backlit?) at a lower level. So for the 8100, backlight on means very bright backlight, and backlight off means dim backlight. The main LCD supposedly uses some new technology developed by Sanyo that draws less power than other LCD screens even when it's backlit. (I read this on some geek website.) The external sub-LCD (on the flip cover) is squarish and also capable of 56k colors, but at 96x96 its resolution is quite low. One interesting use of the external sub-LCD (other than displaying picture caller IDs) is to use it for taking self-portraits. Since I'm an unapologetic narcissist, I simply adore this feature! :) As a cell phone the 8100 shines, no pun intended. The reception is just exceptional! If you've read my other phone reviews you'd know I live in a basement apartment here in the outskirts of New York City. The 5150 and 5300 I had owned before used to get 2-3 bars on the signal strength indicator, but the 8100 regularly gives me 4 bars! I'd say 3-4 is my normal strength, occasionally it drops to 2, and very rarely it goes to 0-1. The built-in earpiece has good voice quality, and it's definitely the loudest earpiece of all Sanyo phones sold s far -- and better than other Sprint PCS offerings. Close to 20 high-quality ringers are included, ranging from simple ringing tones to melodies; they are pretty loud at the highest setting, although a perfectionist such as myself always thinks we can use a bit more volume. The phone functions are easily laid out and responsive. The user interface is clean and simple. You don't need to read the user's guide to figure most things out, as the phone uses a pop-up menu system extensively. One nice touch is the "Mi Amigo" animated character. I won't tell you what it is, though, as you have to see the fun little thing yourself. (Hint: it bathes, exercises, sleeps, beams down from Mars, etc.) Of course, the main draw of this phone is its built-in camera. Compared to the older 5300, this one's resolution is a step down, something like 172x220, vs. the 5300's true VGA (640x480) resolution. The 8100 also doesn't have a built-in flash like the 5300, and you cannot do special digital effects (e.g., digital zooming) as on the 5300. The picture quality is also lower than on the 5300. On the other hand, you get two distinctive pluses vs. the 5300: 1) it takes surprisingly decent pictures in low light, so party photos should come out ok -- in fact I've seen a lot of users take party pics using their 8100s and many would come out surprisingly well, 2) it's much easier to organize and share (or upload) picture files on the 8100 than on the older 5300, and you can also store more pictures due to the smaller size. With each picture, you can upload to Sprint's free picture-sharing website, or you can save to the "picture wallet" folder, from where you can assign them to wallpaper or caller ID. Last but not least, you can simply keep your best on-the-go pictures and laugh silly at them on your commute! It ought to be emphasized that you mustn't expect too much about the picture quality. It reminds me of the first-gen digital cameras that came out back in 1995. Fuzzy and distorted colors best describe the images. The quality is also very sensitive to hand shakes, so often I use one hand to hold the phone steady and the other to press the shutter button. This is especially true when you use the self-portrain mode. I personally find the camera work best in low-light settings like inside a bar, and also on beautiful summer days. The minimum distance to subject is around one foot in order to get a focused picture. The point is, the 8100 is more a fun toy than a serious (or semi-serious) digital camera. Snapping quick shots of people fighting outside Yankees stadium is fine, but family get-together photos are no-no on this. Now a word of warning: in places like New York City cops have started arresting people who surreptitiously take pictures of girls' behinds and legs and whatnots. Please use your phone responsibly! One more virtue of the 8100 is its affordability. In short, this is a terrific camera phone that you'll get addicted to easily. Many other users seem to agree: less than a year after its release, it's already the best-selling phone in Sprint PCS's entire history.
Rating:
Summary: Everybody sounds like a tin can
Review: This phone has nice features but I've never liked it. Everything is great except actually talking on the phone. I've always had trouble hearing people and their voices are often rattly, if that's a word. Also the small size makes it difficult to dial.
Rating:
Summary: Great phone...not so great service...
Review: Well first of all let me say when I first got the thing..i couldn't put it down...for three days straight..this phone is freakin awesome...most of the time...yes i have had the prob with the earpiece..the thing just doesnt direct sound very well is all..you realize you're off and adjust a bit and you're fine..i dont know what ppl are talking about when they say poor picture quality...what do you expect from a camera that's smaller than a dime..the thing is really quite amazing..and 640x480 really isn't something to scoff at..it'll take some great photos...where this phone has really failed me is reception and overall service..let me just say sprint is a pos...if at all possible..stay away from them...it's very unfortunate that such an awesome phone must be tied to such a horrible service...dropped calls all over the place..and that free and clear digital buisness? it just means that rather than hearing static, you'll just hear the phone cut out periodically..i don't know if their network is weak here in So. Cal or what but i can have to walk about 20 ft away from my house to get a signal. and the data transfer? FORGET ABOUT IT...I've never been so frustrated with my text mesaging in my life...the thing will lead you in circles and not get a single thing done..Personally I plan to switch to ATT mMODE will do the same things better than PCS vision ever could. The ring tones are awesome, but a bit of a ripoff at 1.50 a piece...the ringer itself i did have a problem with: when set to high, the polyphonic tones will crackle and come out sounding not all that great. Also one last note...the more things that are packed into a phone, the higher the chance that they will break...I used to have my trusty old-school nokia and i could dropkick the thing, dunk it, and it wouldn't phase it in the slightest..I left the 8100 in my pocket when i fell asleep and when i woke up, the screen was dead...when the screens did work though they were incredible..when i flipped open my phone for the first time the display took my breath away. The sub-lcd is pretty trick also; the photo color id is one of the coolest things the phone does...
overall here's what i thought of the phone: Pro's:
Chocked full of features,
nifty camera takes nice pics
very vivid color displays, some of the best available. Con's:
Horrible service and support
Questionable quality Verdict: An overall great phone that just happens to be paired with a not-so-great service. If you don't absolutly need the clamshell, go with the Nokia 3650; you'll get a better service with ATT and it'll do everything the 8100 will and more...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent choice for quick pictures!
Review: While you shouldn't expect this phone to replace your digital camera, there is something great about having the ability to send someone a picture on a whim. The Sanyo SCP-8100 would be a great phone even without the camera! The menus are very easily laid out, and very easy to read. The screen is large enough to read 9 - 10 lines of text off the web (I love reading SI.com's writers' columns). Adding the ability to take pictures just makes it better! I travel some with my work, so I enjoy getting pictures of my children while I'm on the road. Photos can be sent to up to 10 e-mail or phone addresses at a time. Voice messages can be sent along with the photo. Sprint's service even allows people to reply to the photo, so I can get comments attached to the photos. The only reason I don't give this phone 5 stars is due to resolution for pictures. It would be nice if the resolution was a little larger, so you could print off small photos. In spite of that, I'd certainly recommend this, along with the plans provided by Sprint. Great plans...great phone!
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