Sanyo 8100 vs. Sanyo 4900 Signal Strength

[JimC]

For those that have read my other posts -- I signed up with Sprint's new PCS Free and Clear America Plan yesterday, purchasing two of the Sanyo 8100 phones.

Unfortunately, the Signal Strength is not strong enough for them to work in my home in Marietta, GA (even though I'm within 5 miles of a Sprint tower).

So, I boxed up the phones to bring them back for a refund today -- with a plan of just sticking with AT&T Wireless for now (5 signal bars in my home -- never had any problems with them in my area).

But, I really did want to go to Sprint's plan, because it will save us 59 bucks/month, and I'd get lots of features that I don't currently have with my AT&T plan (unlimited vision access, unlimited messaging, etc. with the Sprint Plan). I signed up for the new Sprint Plan with 2000 Anytime Minutes, Unlimited Nights and Weekends, Unlimited PCS to PCS Calling, Unlimited Vision for two phones at only 110.00/month -- a bargain compared to what my AT&T plans are costing me.

So -- before I absolutely give up on Sprint (which is what my plan was this morning).. Does anyone have any experience with the Sanyo 4900 vs. the Sanyo 8100 yet (signal strength in a fringe area)?

Would I be wasting my time, and the store's time by swapping out the 8100's for the 4900's and giving them a try?

Thanks

[Punk]

Just try the 4900. I myself was in your same predicament, but just with Samung phones. I absolutely hated Sprint because all my Samsungs could never pick up signals, especially in my house. So after a recommendation from my friend I decided to try my luck with the Sanyo 4900 and it was one of the best purchases I have ever made. I always have signal in my house, even full sometimes. The only times I have had no signals was in some buildings at my University, but overall the phone is still top notch. Try the 4900, you may not regret it, I don't. I have to admit, I wish I did have an 8100, so if you were willing to trade and I pay you the difference, that be great [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

(I might as well have given it a shot, heh)

[JimC]

Now back home -- returned the Sanyo 8100's to Radio Shack, and bought two Sanyo 4900's from a Sprint PCS Store (with much difficulty -- considering rebate issues).

(sorry PUNK -- already turned the phones back in).

Anyway -- it looks like the 4900's are going to work (based on what I'm seeing so far), when the 8100's would not.

See this thread for details:



Sanyo 8100 vs. Sanyo 4900 Signal Strength

[budney]

JimC - I am glad that the 4900s are working better for you. I am sorry though that the 8100 didn't work. I just picked one up today, and it is a awesome phone.

Punk - The 4900 reception is a little better than the 8100. If you live in an area that Sprint dosn't cover very well (like JimC), the phone may not be good for you. I would try one out at least, as it is an incredible phone over all.

[JimC]

The Sanyo 4900 phones are much better reception wise, but the Sprint PCS network appears to be pretty bad in this area.

We've been testing the phones again today... So far, it's looking like less than half of the calls to the phones will actually get through (some go directly to voice mail, and with others, you get multiple rings -- usually around 5, before the mobile phone starts to ring. This may be unique to Cobb County. I haven't taken the time to drive around Atlanta with the phones yet.

Overall -- most calls are "choppy" for lack of a better term (with an occasional clear call) even when getting a couple of signal bars with the Sanyo 4900's).

Interestingly, I did try something else this morning -- I tried setting the Sanyo 4900's roaming to "Analog" for a little while to see if it could find and hold an Analog Signal too.. It does, with one signal bar. So, it's Analog Reception appears to be superior to the Sanyo 8100 too. With Roaming set to Auto, the Sanyo 4900's have yet to lose the Sprint PCS signal entirely. In contrast, the Sanyo 8100's could not hold on to any signal long enough to make a call inside my house (Sprint PCS, Digital Roaming, or Analog Roaming), regardless of your roaming settings.

As far as Verizon being an option, my wife had a company phone a couple of years back (Airtouch/Verizon), that would not work in our house either. I was considering switching to Verizon before signing up with Sprint, but since the Sanyo 8100 phones were unable to stay locked on to any signal (even when the display showed "Digital Roaming" -- probably Verizon, I suspect that Verizon won't work either. Unfortunately, the Sanyo 4900's don't have 800mhz cdma for roaming to Verizon's digital service, but it may not need it -- given it's superior reception (if only the Sprint Network was better about getting calls through to the phones).

We'll try Sprint a little longer (we've got 14 days) before deciding whether the savings (about 59 bucks/month) is worth the degradation in service we're seeing compared to our AT&T Wireless Service (which works great -- it's just more expensive).

In fairness to Sprint, the problems we're seeing may be unique to our area, but it's important to us, that our mobile phones work in our home too (even though we've got two physical phone lines at home).

In any event, the Sanyo 4900 does seem to be a vastly superior phone (as far as being able to stayed locked on to a signal), compared to the Sanyo 8100.

[BCOutlander]

I just bought the 8100 to replace my 4900. And I don't see any difference in signal reception between the two. I had the 4900 for 6 months and the 8100 for a little less than a day. There are several fringe coverage areas near where I live and work and they both keep a good signal. Maybe you just had a couple of bad 8100's. Just my .02

[budney]

One thing I noticed about the 8100 & reception. Is that if your fingers or hand come close to the antenna the signal dose fade a little. The sticker on the battery case on the phone mentions this too.

[JimC]

The Sanyo 8100 would not stay locked on to a signal, even when stationary (on a table). I even tried pulling the antennas up on the phones, with the phones on the table -- watching them lose their signals.

The Sanyo 4900 stays locked on, regardless.

What I think is happening -- the signal here is very unstable here (varying constantly between 0 and 2 bars on the phones (either the Sanyo 8100's we got first, or the Sanyo 4900's we have now), with bursts to 3 bars.

When the signal drops down to virtually nothing, I think the 4900 is staying "locked on", not attempting to Roam (not deciding that "no signal is available" quite so soon). Whereas the Sanyo 8100 decides to search for a new signal immediately, as soon as the signal becomes weaker than some kind of internal "threshold" -- instead of waiting another split second or so for the signal to recover.

That's just my theory -- the signal is pretty crummy here -- going down to zero periodically (about as often as the Sanyo 8100 was deciding to quit working -- and searching for an alternative -- going from Sprint PCS to Analog Roaming to Digital Roaming) -- only the Sanyo 4900 continues to work in this environment, when the Sanyo 8100 doesn't (I'm speculating that it's deciding that "no service is available" faster than the 4900, and because the signal is varying constantly, it cannot keep locked on to anything).

P.S. -- we tried setting the roaming to "Sprint PCS Only" too , but that didn't work either -- The Sanyo 8100 simply lost service, and then found Sprint PCS Service -- over and over -- unable to stay "locked on" long enough to use the phone -- 10 or 15 seconds max during the time we had the phones.

In anything other than these conditions (signal constantly going to zerio signal bars and back up to 2 or 3 bars), it probably works fine. For whatever reason, the signal in my subdivision behaves very strange.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with our underground utilities. I only know what we found out (the hard way). The 4900 will continue to work in conditions where the 8100 will not.