Customer Reviews

PCS Phone Sanyo RL-4920 (Sprint)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For the last two years, I've carried a Sanyo 4900, which has been well known as being the best phone available for Sprint PCS users, with it's unmatched reception strength and lengthy battery life. I'd still be carrying mine except for an unfortunate incident with a washing machine. This phone, the 4920, follows up and improves upon that tradition.

The reception is just as good as the 4900, and the battery life, if anything, is better. The USB cable I bought at Radio Shack still allows me access to the Internet from my Powerbook, and I can still use my old chargers.

In addition, the phone is slightly smaller, and the new screen and GUI is much prettier with more vibrant and lifelike colors. Navigation is faster, web browsing is faster, and it's packed with nice little features like showing the state of origin of an incoming call.

So, if you are a 4900 user like me, and are worried about ever getting a better phone, and don't need it to take pictures or other non-phone nonsense, then this is your next phone.

Update: After 6 months use, the phone still works, but the headset jack has gotten very intermittent, another trait it shares with its older sibling.

I've had the phone for about a week now, and I can't find much to complain. It's a basic phone which gives you basic features, and heck it's got the best last battery power! I used to have the Sanyo SCP-6200, and just switched to this one. Love the color screen. Very good reception at all places that I've visited, and heck it never heats up! (like my last phone!!)

This is my first review on anything. I have had this phone for a few days now and still learning it. But one thing that stands out right away is the reception. When I drive to university from home, there is a strip where on my Nokia had no reception, a DEAD spot. With this phone, I have reception the entire area. It is also more clear with voices that were garbled on my Nokia.

I need to know how to create folders for my address book, I had folders on my Nokia so I didn't have to scroll through ALL the contacts list. I can't find that on my Sanyo.

But I really am pleased, so far, with this phone.

Bought this phone in January and boy am I impressed! The battery life is excellent as well as the speakerphone. This would be my 4th Sprint Phone since 1999 and overall the best of the bunch. My only gripes are that this phone lacks a camera, and the color screen is hard to view in bright sunlight. But this seems to be a problem with all these color gadgets these days. This is yet one reason why my GPS will remain in monochrome. Maybe one day companies will get color mastered, and devices will be viewable in the bright sun. But so far nothing beats monochrome for this.

I BOUGHT TWO OF THESE PHONES AND SO FAR I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS EXCEPT FOR THE WAY SPRINT HAS BEEN SCREWING AROUND WITH THE BILL. THIS PHONE HAS A LONG BATTERY LIFE AND I'VE DROPPED MY PHONE A COUPLE TIMES AND NOT A SCRATCH ON THE SCREEN JUST A FEW SCRATCHES ON THE COVER. ALL AND ALL THIS IS A GOOD PHONE !! =)

I don't know why, but I was thinking of buying a new phone today just because I like the cool looks of some of the newer phones, but after researching for a while, I think I'll stick with this phone. I've had it about 14 months and have never regretted my purchase for even one minute. That's 14 continuous months of great service, great battery life, everything has been perfect. I use the phone for about 2,000 or more minutes a month and signal is awesome, battery life is spectacular...I'd be stupid to take a chance just for a "better looking" phone. This phone is really all I need, so screw it...I'll keep it til it breaks some day! A+++++++

This phone I have had for more then a year now very reliable with a talk time of 5 1/2 hours best time on the market for this generation of phone with also a standby time of 15 days really good. I would but this phone again if I could..

I got this phone for free by switching to Sprint, but I think I'm going to stray away from any phone that has this particular user interface firmware in the future.

First the good:
+Battery life for the phone is pretty nice, lasting about three days from a full charge with moderate use.
+I've had no problems with signal reception at all with this phone. The signal will work just fine whether I'm inside an elevator or making a call from inside an airplane after it has landed.
+The display is very clear and easy to see in dark places
+The user interface is nicely menu-driven, which means you don't have to remember how to use the phone as the instructions are always on screen. This does make navigation more cumbersome as you wade through menues instead of use quick key combos, but overall, it makes this an ideal phone for those who are not inclined to memorize hotkeys on their phones.

Now the bad:
-The speaker phone is a great feature, but the sound quality of the speaker is pretty bad to the point that I end up not using the speaker phone at times because I can't make out what the other side is saying. Also, it seems that this same hardware is used for the non-speaker funcationality as well, so sometimes, I have to ask the other person to back away from their phone and speak in a softer voice so that the sound from their voice doesn't saturate the speakers and become an unintelligible mess of squared sounds with a capped off amplitude. Turning down the speaker output doesn't exactly help with this. I've never had these speaker issues with other phones. Getting an earpiece for the phone will solve this problem, completely.
-The user interface for unlocking the phone is annoying. To unlock the phone, you must hold the BACK button for one full second. Not a big deal, but I just came off a phone that allows you to unlock the phone with a specific keypress combination, which gets me to dialing faster. In this case, you must press the BACK button once to wake the phone up from sleep mode, and then hold BACK again to initiate the unlocking of the phone so you can dial numbers.
-Pressing a button on the phone while the keys are locked does not light up the keypad, so it requires some memory and touch sensitivity to find that BACK button in the darkness.
-Here's the kicker, HOLDING DOWN THE 9 KEY WHILE LOCKED WILL CALL 911 REGUARDLESS OF WHETHER THE KEYS ARE LOCKED OR NOT. This is a biggie. I keep the phone in the pocket of my jeans, and I've had the phone call 911 twice from within my pocket, even though the keys were locked. I'm not sure what the dispatcher hears when "my pocket" calls 911, but I can only assume that they are not amused.

The other features of this phone, like ReadyLink and Internet Downloads, were services that I turned off as soon as I could. I just didn't have any real uses for those kinds of frills.

I purchased this phone a little over a month ago. I just cant believe the battery life on this phone. I can talk for so long and still have full bars. I have gone as long as 4 days without recharging and been able to use it as if it had been recharged. I travel alot and sometimes recharging is difficult. With this phone I need not worry.

Its a great phone..the speakerphone and the ease to find a contact and call the previous caller etc can be better but all in all its not a bad choice.

I like the speaker phone feature and the ready link feature and its great for text messaging....i like this phone and its easy to carry and use.....