vB Easy Archive - Sanyo 8100 Opinions (Bell Mobility)

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Sanyo 8100 Opinions (Bell Mobility)
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Posted by: Beel

Greetings...

A friend of mine is looking for a new flip phone. I recommended my Samsung model but I just noticed Bell now has the Sanyo 8100 available for $199 compared to the jacked up price of the Samsung A600 ($499).

I've read several posts here, but there doesn't seem to be too many posts about the 8100...perhaps that's good?

So any thoughts, opinions, stories, complaints, praises, whatever, please pass them along!

Also, any info about a data cable and where they might be found in Canada for a reasonable price would be handy. Apparently Bell doesn't have them yet (?) and who knows when/if they will.

Thanks.

Posted by: manoosie

also interested in reviews about this phone. Please share!

Posted by: EnderX

I would like to know more about this phone too.

Posted by: tabb

Picked up my 8100 2weeks ago and could not be happier. So far I have put over 100 min on the phone and have not lost/dropped/missed a single call. The RF is excellent even in an underground basement suit. Sound quality is excellent. Ear piece volume is very loud ( Mine is set to 3 of 8 bars ). Ringer is very loud also(almost too loud). There are tons of accesories available for this phone in the US and for a pretty good price. The battery life is also quite good.

The only two drawbacks I have seen so far is the external screen to too small and just about everything must be downloaded. Speaker phone would've also been nice.

If you get this phone and don't like it, You've got 15 days to return/exchange it for another.

I'm not sure if the promotion is still active, but when I bought mine, it came with a "mail-in" rebate for a free data cable.

Posted by: sneak16

Quote:

Originally posted by Beel
jacked up price of the Samsung A600 ($499).

Rape. Pure rape. That phone is worth nothing more than $300.

Posted by: Beel

Quote:

Originally posted by tabb
Picked up my 8100 2weeks ago and could not be happier. So far I have put over 100 min on the phone and have not lost/dropped/missed a single call. The RF is excellent even in an underground basement suit. Sound quality is excellent. Ear piece volume is very loud ( Mine is set to 3 of 8 bars ). Ringer is very loud also(almost too loud). There are tons of accesories available for this phone in the US and for a pretty good price. The battery life is also quite good.

Sounds like a good unit then.

Does it have ringer and vibrate mode at the same time?

Quote:

The only two drawbacks I have seen so far is the external screen to too small and just about everything must be downloaded. Speaker phone would've also been nice.

The screen is too small? Do you mean it's hard to read or you would just like a bigger screen?

Quote:

If you get this phone and don't like it, You've got 15 days to return/exchange it for another.

I'm not sure if the promotion is still active, but when I bought mine, it came with a "mail-in" rebate for a free data cable.

Hey that's pretty good...a free data cable. I wish the cell phone companies would get more involved in promoting data cables and software. It's very handy to update or transfer phonebook data using the computer - much easier than punching the little buttons on the dialpad over and over to enter names and such.

Thanks a lot for the info. I'll pass it along to my friend and let them know about it...sounds like a good phone!

Posted by: Beel

Quote:

Originally posted by sneak16
Rape. Pure rape. That phone is worth nothing more than $300.

I agree...it's way overpriced right now. I managed to convince Bell to exchange a crappy Audiovox 8600 that's full of bugs and poor performance for the A600 and got it for $250 more back in January.

It took a lot of convincing though...I had to contact the Executive Office for Customer Relations since the store personnel were downright ignorant and wouldn't do anything for me.

But since I had problems and complained about the 8600 since BEFORE christmas, they reluctantly agreed and sent me the new phone.

Anywho, I see you have the Sanyo 8100 as well. Any thoughts or comments on its performance and features?

Posted by: tabb

Quote:

Does it have ringer and vibrate mode at the same time? [/B]

Yes. Easliy controlled with the side buttons.

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[i]The screen is too small? Do you mean it's hard to read or you would just like a bigger screen?

It's not the screen, but the font size when the phone is in standby mode. When you 1st close the phone, the font is a good size. After 10 seconds the font shrinks to 1/4 of it's size and is kind of hard to see. I don't know if you can change this. Don't let that dissuade you from buying this phone. A very minor detail at best because when the call display is actvated, it is easily readable.

I should add that the Sanyo is the only Bell phone that has a colour sub display. Great for taking pictures with the flip closed.

Posted by: Beel

Quote:

Originally posted by tabb
Yes. Easliy controlled with the side buttons.

I went by the Bell store this morning to have a closer look at the phone. It took me a while to figure out how to get the ringer and vibrate to work at the same time - turn up the volume PAST the level 4 setting...duh.

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I know what you mean now...

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I don't know if you can change this.

Actually you can. Under the settings for sleep mode you can set the timer on the outer display or disable it so it doesn't go into sleep mode. The same applies to the inside display. And you can just tap the side buttons to light up the outer display and return the font size to normal - presuming you haven't disabled the side button lock.

Quote:

Don't let that dissuade you from buying this phone. A very minor detail at best because when the call display is actvated, it is easily readable.

I'm not buying the phone, just inquiring for a good friend.

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I should add that the Sanyo is the only Bell phone that has a colour sub display. Great for taking pictures with the flip closed.

Camera features are a nice toy, but I don't think that's the real strength of the phone. It has a very good feature set and works very well. I called my friend and told her to get one...she's picking it up on the way to work and we'll play with it tonight. Seems like a good choice and not too expensive with a contract.

Thanks for the input!

Posted by: sneak16

Quote:

Originally posted by Beel
I agree...it's way overpriced right now. I managed to convince Bell to exchange a crappy Audiovox 8600 that's full of bugs and poor performance for the A600 and got it for $250 more back in January.

It took a lot of convincing though...I had to contact the Executive Office for Customer Relations since the store personnel were downright ignorant and wouldn't do anything for me. But since I had problems and complained about the 8600 since BEFORE christmas, they reluctantly agreed and sent me the new phone.

Anywho, I see you have the Sanyo 8100 as well. Any thoughts or comments on its performance and features?

Well, I have Sprint service, so it may very a bit, but I'll share my opinions.

Phone: great RF performance; won't drop calls even in elevators, volume is high (albeit gets a bit distorted), and the screen isn't bad. The camera is very ho-hum, and I don't suggest buying this phone for the camera alone.

Size: bit too big for me. Not too tall or wide, just too thick in my opinion.

3G browser: fast, excellent NetFront 3 browser. Not sure of how Bell's 'net service is set up, but this browser is very customizeable with 30 bookmarks and font colors, etc. Nice browser.

Overall: 4/5. Great "phone" phone, poor "camera" phone.

Posted by: EnderX

Any suggestions on good accessories for this phone?

Posted by: sneak16

Body Glove Scuba Suit is a must. Bought me one on eBay for $.99. Best case available for it. I also have a car charger and a Jabra headset.

Posted by: tabb

Yep! I've got the suba suit too and the desktop charger. If you're not eligible for the data cable offer, they are aprrox $20-$30US. Much chaper than the $90+CDN Bell wants.

Posted by: Beel

Quote:

Originally posted by tabb
Yep! I've got the suba suit too and the desktop charger. If you're not eligible for the data cable offer, they are aprrox $20-$30US. Much chaper than the $90+CDN Bell wants.

Seems like the Body Glove is the one to get...I'll pass that along to my friend, thanks.

Now for a little review on the new 8100 my friend just bought:

It's a great phone, simple as that. The performance is excellent, easily as good as my Samsung a600 if not better, and much better than the Audiovox 8600 I had before that.

RF perf, voice and ringer volume, clarity, menu speed, are all excellent. The layout of the menus is good although some of the more obscure options are buried pretty deep. It's slightly easier to navigate than my Samsung though. The main display is very bright, crisp and fast to update. The outer display is also surprisingly bright, and it has adjustable colours which was a very nice touch. The digital vocoder is likely just 8k since Bell's network seems to force it regardless of setting, but it's very clear with few artifacts - much better than the Audiovox 8600 and equal to my Samsung, if not a bit better.

Everything about the phone seems great. The only exception is the camera image quality. While it's not really bad, it's certainly not as crisp as my Samsung - resolution seems to be the main factor here, as my phone has a larger 640x480 image compared to the 8100's 352x288 size. The trade off for size is better colour saturation though. So it's adequate for the intended purpose, to show picture caller ID and send images to other phones. I haven't been a big camera-phone advocate anyway as I actually use my phone to make calls.

In conclusion, I'd have to say if you're a Bell Mobility user, this is the flip phone to get. It has excellent performance, great features, it's easy to use, and its cost is reasonable ($350 or $200 on a 2yr contract). Sure the Audiovox 8600 is a lot cheaper, but then so is its build and design quality - it's a piece of junk by comparison.

I'm confident my friend will be very happy with the phone. Thanks for the help people.

PS - I forgot to add that a card to order a free data cable and software was included in the box for the 8100. The offer is good till the end of July 2004. Nice bonus.