Any current good deals on the Sanyo 5150? Or should I wait for the 5300?

[SFCaller]

Hello everyone!

I just returned my Samsung A460 and reactivated my Motorola timeport since the web connection kit hasn't been released for the A460.

So now I've decided to get a Sanyo Flip phone....either the Sanyo 5150 or the 5300.

I don't mind even if the Sanyo 5150 is not a 3G capable phone, I just wanted a reliable flip phone that can carry a good signal and would work well with my laptop as a wireless modem. However, I'm really not willing to pay $300 for the 5150 especially since it's been already discontinued. Do you guys know where I can get a new 5150 for less? Is it worth trying to buy a used one?

I would like to try and wait to get the 5300. However, I have a feeling that the price for this phone would be around $400-$500 which I think is ridiculous considering all I need is a phone to use as a phone and a wireless modem.

Thanks for the info! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

it is going to be around 400 for the 5300.........you are paying for an internal 256,000 colour TFT lcd screen and external 65,000 colour screen as well as digital cam and flash built into the phone. unfortunately sanyo does not make any affordable flips which is what they need to do IMO.

[SFCaller]

Thanks for the info. Any idea on when the release date is? I'll think about it. I'll try it out and see if it's worth all that dough.

[SprintTechRep]

you mentioned you use your phone as a wireless modem too, in that case you should really wait for the 5300 or another 3G phone. I know best buy is selling the sanyo 5150 cheaper than sprint for $250. It is still $300 at sprint. The price should drop real soon though.

Thanks for the info!

Why should I wait for the 5300 or the newer 3G phones? I'm not really going to use my phone to surf the web itself.

Are the new 3G phones going to be quicker and faster when I use it as a wirless modem for my laptop? To take advantage of this increased speed, will I be required to get a 3G Vision plan? (I understand that these plans are WAY more expensive than my current free/clear plan.)

I really wouldn't mind just using the current plan I have now with a quicker phone just as long as I don't have to switch to a Vision Plan. I'm on the 200 peak/2800 off peak plan right now. I have NEVER used up all of my off peak minutes so I won't mind having the wireless option that uses up my minutes.

Thanks again for the advice.

You don't need a vision plan for a vision phone.. Although if you stick with the free and clear plan and use any of the data services, it's something like 2 cents a kilobyte. The sprint people in the stores will be very sure that you have to have the vision plan and can't keep your old plan though. They also won't know how to activate a vision phone on a free & clear plan. But it works, it's in the small print that it works. I upgraded to a sanyo 4900 early this week with my old plan, and love it. Just bought the phone outright and activated over the phone, works great. If the vision plans ever get more reasonable I'll probably upgrade then.

The one thing I'm not clear on though.. If I plug my 4900 into my laptop to use as a modem.. Will it essentially operate as a slower 2G device and stay within my F&C minutes, or will it default to 3G and cost me 2 cents a kilobyte? Not sure yet..

[SprintTechRep]

you dont need a 3G plan with vision phones. But I dont think (dont quote me) you can even run 2G on a vision handset. I cut down to very few hours at work, so i am a little behind on my 3G facts. But you would need vision if you want high speed, on the phone or connecting to a laptop.

[JBird]

Originally posted by: IdiOTeQnoLogY it is going to be around 400 for the 5300.........you are paying for an internal 256,000 colour TFT lcd screen and external 65,000 colour screen as well as digital cam and flash built into the phone. unfortunately sanyo does not make any affordable flips which is what they need to do IMO.

Sanyo knows what they're doing. If they start making "affordable" flip phones. I got 2 letters for you

L.G. nuff said

And Samsung has some junky lower price flips, $150 for a non color flip that has less then 2.5 hours talk time? HAHA

I do feel Sanyo should have made the 5300 without the cam and had a 5350 model with the cam. The cam might help me get girls "can I have your #, and take your pic right here to put on my phone"

I don't exactly expect much quality wise from the camera, but this phone gets tons of cool points. I wonder if the external screen supports picture caller id?

[mrmister]

To Anonymous: From what I was told over the phone by a Sprint PCS representative, if you purchase a Vision phone and activate it on a Vision plan, you can use a usb cable to hook it up and use it as a wireless modem for your laptop just as you were able to with the old "circuit-switched" data plans that Sprint offers. However, you could only use it up to the 2mb data-transfer limit that is included in the basic $10 Vision plan; after which, they begin charging you 2 cents for each additional kilobyte that you use. That might not seem like a lot... but at that pricing rate, going just one megabyte over your limit will add an additional $20 to your bill!!! (On top of the $10 that you had already paid to have Vision in the first place). Sure, they let you purchase an additional 6mb for like 10 bucks or something, but this is still not a cost-effective means of using a laptop and wireless phone to connect to the Internet.

Personally, I feel that the Vision pricing scheme so far is a total rip-off. I wish Sprint would just let you use some or all of your regular included plan minutes to access the web from the Vision phone and/or from a laptop. (Just like they did with the old circuit-switched wireless web that they had before Vision.)

Seriously, I can use up the two megabyte data limit, just by checking and downloading my email for a few days. And to make matters worse, I was told by the Sprint PCS representative that I had spoken to that once you get a Vision phone, you cannot continue to use the old "circuit-switched" wireless web (the one which had let you use up your plan minutes to access the web from your phone or laptop).

Having said that... could someone please answer this question for me? What good is having a phone and service which allows you to access the internet wirelessly and at higher speeds than before, if this simply means that you will reach your data limit that much faster with casual browsing from a laptop.... and then will make you have to pay outrageous per kilobyte charges afterwards? Personally, I'd rather keep my modern Vision phone and just access my email and the web using only my phone and my laptop at the old 14.4kbps speed, while just using up some of my plan's included minutes. Jeez.... with all the free minutes that they give us these days on cell phone plans, you could surf the web using the old circuit switched method for hours and hours on end (well, at least, until your phone's battery dies) and not have to worry about accumulating additional charges.

I HOPE that Sprint starts to allow Vision users the "option" to use at least some of their included plan minutes in order to use their phone as a wireless laptop modem, instead of keeping this rediculous "per-kilobyte" method of billing that they have now. If not, I will be removing the Vision option from my plan after my introductory period expires. It's a shame, because the new Vision phones, as well as the increased data-transfer speeds of the 3G network are really neat, but the cost is not something that the average Joe like me will most likely pay. By the way... why is it that I could access a wireless "text" page faster using the old circuit switched data transfer method, than I can using the Vision method? I swear that it only used to take me like 5 seconds to load an all text page on my phone using the old method, but with Vision it takes an average of 35 seconds just to acess a similar-sized text page.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

If you dial #777 or connect to the Vision data network with the USB (PCS Connection Kit), you're eating against your 2MB.
If you use your phone to dial an ISP that is not #777, you will be charged $.39 per minute.

Don't ask me why, that's just the way it is. SPCS plans are not condusive to data usage AT ALL. Consider another carrier if you're heavy on the data, or milk Sprint until the 3 months are up and they figure out what to do with competitive rate plans.

[zberger]

i agree.. they need to go back to the minutes based service.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

to JBIRD........yes the external caller id should support photo caller id....that is why it is 65,000 colour

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

if you are going to use your phone as a modem for a laptop then no the data plans are not conducive for you. if you are going to use the data only on the phone then they are fine. the aircard plans are good cause there is an unlimited one.

however ill find the link and post it. someone found a page on the sprint site that lets you use a software dialer to use minutes........and after i find it i think it may work with vision phones. ill look around. just got a new harddrive and its not on my home pc anymore but i think it is in my work email. ill put it in this post when i find it.