Sanyo 5150 User Buys Samsung A500 - A Review

Overall, I'm quite please at having switched from the Sanyo to the Samsung.

The biggest complaint I had with the Sanyo 5150 was the screen brightness. I could BARELY see the thing in the daylight. Horrible in this regard.

The second biggest complaint was that the color interpretation of uploaded picture files. They looked REALLY bad. These two factors pretty much made the color screen worthless.

It was also a very "quiet" phone - often times had trouble hearing people I was talking to. Uploaded ring ones were low in volume too.

The Samsung addresses all these concerns. Rich, vibrant, bright screen that can be seen in any light conditions easily, and uploaded pictures look great. Also, no problem whatsoever in ring volume or hearing someone on the other line. At its highest volume setting, you can set the thing down on your desk and clearly hear the person on the other line! Its practically like a speaker phone in that regard.

The outer LCD is the best I've seen of phones with this feature. In the phone book, there are selections of cartoony faces you can associate with phone numbers that show up on the outer LCD. Neat.

Shortcomings of the Samsung? Very few.

-Battery life of the standard issue battery is short. The free extended battery from Samsung addresses this issue to a large degree, as will a car charger.

-Phone book name entries are limited to 12 characters. That stinks.

The single biggest complaint about this phone seems to be the proprietary nature of the Sound and Vision service. You are NOT limited to paying Sprint S&V for ringers, images, and games. There is quite a bit of free content out there. I've already downloaded several ringers and pictures (taken with my own camera might I add). This shouldn't be a problem, really. Yes it would be nice if Sprint was less draconian about this. Yes, it is a bit complicated to get ringers and screensavers outside of Sprint. But, this is a power user phone and anyone who purchases it should have the technical know how to get what they need outside of Sprint. Check out these sites:

http://3gvisioncorrection.com/index2.html
http://pcs.ctcellphones.com/web/index.html

I would add that the good folks at futuredial.com will be releaseing SnapSynch for the A500 later this month. SnapSynch was a must have utility for the Sanyo 5150. The good news is, if you have already purchased SnapSynch, an update will be available to allow you to use the software with the A500 (or any other supported phone). They even sell the USB cable needed for $30.00.

I may not actually buy the cable, even thought I already own SnapSynch (and could get the free update for use with my a500). I only have about 20 numbers and have plugged most of them in already. Unless there is another use for the cable, it hardly seems worth it.

-John

[Pocketpc]

Hi John,

I have the samsung A500 and is it possible if you can email me the snapsync software has I already have the cable.

My email is mail000000@aol.com

Thanks