input requested - replace 4900 w/ 8100 or 5300?

Now where do i start....ok, im ready.

The 4900 has what is probably the best reception of any sprint phone, ever. If you switch to one of the Sanyo flip phones, youl see a very little decrease in reception, but hey, its still sanyo. BUT, the two sanyo flips are able to roam on 800mhz CDMA on top of AMPS, so if verizon has service in your area, you can roam on them.

Yeah, the 4900 is a brick. The 8100 is much smaller when closed, and the 5300 is a little bigger than the 8100.

If you do not want the camera, but want a sanyo flip, your in luck. You can always go with the Sanyo RL2500 I dont know much about this phone, but i do know it is ready link capable.

Good luck in your phone hunting!

 

I also have the 4900 and and it's the best I've used. I got the 5300 because of the camera and was planning on giving the 4900 to my daughter. I ended up keeping the 4900. I like the speakerphone (5300 doesn't have it) and after playing with the camera it wasn't that big of a deal though it's fun to have. The 4900 has a much longer battery life as well. The VM4500 does have a speakerphone so I may look at those if the battery life is good.

 

Just took a look at the RL2500 and it has a speakerphone but the batery life is still better on the 4900
4900
Standard
Talk Time: Up to 4.5 Hours
Standby: Up to 384 Hours (or 16 Days)
Extended
Talk Time: Up to 7.5 Hours
Standby: Up to 600Hours (or 25 Days)
versus
RL2500
Standard rechargeable LiIon battery gives you up to 3.25 hours continuous talk and up to 3.75 days continuous standby time in digital mode; up to 1.4 hours continuous talk and up to 14 hours continuous standby time in analog mode.

 

If the RL2500 is in your range get that.... or VM4500 if you have some cash to burn.

Between the 8100 and the 5300, go with the 5300.

The 5300 has superior reception and flash on the camera. The 8100 just has faster menus... and is a wee bit smaller. But there is a noticeable reception diffrence.

 

RL2500 extended life battery runs digital for 5.35 hours, or 168 hours standby (a week).

At extra cost...

 

the 5300 is on sale @ Radio Shack for the unveliable price of $49.99 just in case your're interested.

 

4900 was a great phone, but new times and new phones!

you can get a vm4500 scp-5500 on ebay and other price cut sites i see them around $225-300 all ova good luck!

 

If you disable the Ready Link feature on the RL2500 you will be able to get closer to 7-10 days standby. If you have RL enable you will probably have to charge your phone every night. Of course that would be if you were never using your phone for that long. Who goes a week without placing a call, right?

 

Isn't that $50 deal only for new customers though?

 

not if i renew and sign a two year contract.

 

i tried the renew thing. didn't work... dunno how you did it, or gonna do it. but i;d like to know since i was declined heh

 

Sprint usually only gives their existing customers a rebate if they add a new line of service or have had the same phone for 18 months.

 

did you go through Sprint or Radio Schack? you will find that even though Radio Schack has policies regarding phone prices, some of them will give you a promotional price even though you may not be up for an upgrade to make a sale which in my case they told me that i could get it at that price, now one thing that could make a difference in my case is that i'm on a month to month basis with Sprint.

 

matt ofcourse if i was with them for 18 months etc. but this account has been on only for about 14 months my old account was longer. but i was wondering if he did it withought the 18 month thing.. if i read his post right, i been with sprint 5 years total

 

lol..... sorry Irish, i thought you were asking me.

 

LOL no prob bud!

 

I bought a second phone and added a line because I was told by the dealer I would get the $50 phone rebate. My rebate was refused. I called and they said it was "only new customers". The additional line didn't count as a new customer.

 

Yea thats how my buddy got screwed from best buy they ironically told him het gets a $150.00 rebate if he is an exsisting holder but found out the 18 month restriction, but good thing he returned the phone 4 days later.

Some retails are tricky when it comes to rebates
e
and to be honest im damn fed up with rebate this rebate that ugh

THEY really just want you to buy it and hope you dont request the rebate or lose the proper materials needed for rebates
conspiracy i tell ya.