Review: Sanyo SCP-8400 entertainment phone

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	Review: Sanyo SCP-8400 entertainment phone	By Philip Berne, Tuesday 3 October 2006

GALLERY

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Sanyo's colorful flip-phone graduates to full 3G status and packs in a 1.3-megapixel camera, GPS navigation and push-to-talk. See if the SCP-8400 survived our torture test.

Review summary of the Sanyo SCP-8400:

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The Sanyo SCP-8400 makes for a fine addition to Sprint's Power Vision EV-DO line-up. Streaming video looks great full-screen on the phone, and Sirius radio sounds so good you'll wish there were more channels to hear. Web browsing is clunky, which is unfortunate because the phone is obviously fast. Though Sanyo tries hard to make the camera worthwhile with innovative features such as a macro mode and loads of imaging settings, ultimately, mediocre image quality and a confusing interface hold it back. Happily, calls on the phone sound great, a nice reminder that Sanyo hasn't forgotten the "phone" in "mobile phone." Release: October 2006. Price: $100.

Pros: Smooth video streaming; 20 channels of Sirius radio; GPS navigation with points-of-interest database; above-average call quality.

Cons: Tricky keypad; too easy to sign out of the for-purchase IM client.

Poor

Mediocre

Good

78%
VERY GOOD

Excellent

Full review of the Sanyo SCP-8400:

Multimedia - Very good

Though it suffers from a feeble Web browser, multimedia offerings on the SCP-8400 are good thanks to Sprint's online content. Plenty of tunes are available from the Spint Music Store, and the player can show artwork and group music into playlists. Sprint TV also works well: shows look good, with a little blockiness on some programs, and the phone can display video full-screen in landscape view, revealing a nice, wide picture. Sirius offers 20 music channels through Sprint's Power Vision network, at an additional cost, of course, and these sound great, although track titles and artist listings would have been nice. The browser, while snappy, cannot handle any complicated content. The New York Times homepage looks jumbled, with overlapping fields and missing images. We liked the phone's GPS navigation abilities, courtesy of Garmin Mobile. Directions were accurate, though the maps were not very detailed. The GPS software can recommend nearby points of interest, including the cheapest place around for gasoline.

Camera - Good

The camera on the SCP-8400 is above average for a multimedia phone, but it won't be competing with Nokia's high-end camera offerings any time soon. Image colors were accurate, though bright lights tipped the balance toward overexposure. Sanyo claims a dial near the lens will switch between macro and landscape images, but there was no visible difference between the two. Time between shots was a little slow, about four seconds, and navigating the camera's settings was confusing, as menus had ambiguous names such as "Picture Mode," and "Image Controls." The photo album viewer was disappointing, with no zoom and no quick method for sending pictures to the computer via Bluetooth. The camera boasts an LED flash, but it was hardly effective, as low-light pictures were too grainy to be useful. The camcorder -- low resolution though it is -- functions well, without stutter or blurring.

Messaging - Good

The screen on the SCP-8400 displays text at tiny font sizes, making it easy to fit a couple hundred characters on screen in your IM client. Yahoo, MSN, and AOL clients are available for an additional fee, and, once purchased, function more or less like their desktop counterparts. Typing on the phone is made difficult by the recessed keys, and the sluggish interface had a hard time keeping up with our speedy keystrokes. The phone does not handle multiple applications well, and though it is possible to leave your IM client running in the background while you access other functions, it is too easy to accidentally quit your client and go offline, which means you won't get new messages until you sign on again.

Calling - Very good

Call quality was very good on the SCP-8400. Voices sounded clear and accurate. Sound was a little muddy on the receiving end, but background noise was suppressed, and there was no audible static. The contact list looks good and is easy to edit, but while-typing lookups are not supported, so be prepared to scroll if you have a long list. The phone has enough fields for contacts, with the ability to add numerous phone numbers, but naturally isn't as robust as an Outlook-style client. Three-way calling is not difficult, but requires a step or two into the menus to make the final connection. Reception was always good, Power Vision, Sprint's EV-DO, seemed to always be available. Finally, Sprint's Ready Link service should appeal to anyone looking for push-to-talk chatting.

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When: September 2006 Worth: $10 Carrier: Sprint