Sanyo MM-5600
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 6, 2005 by Eric Lin
In-depth review of the Sanyo MM-5600 high-end clamshell CDMA camera phone for Sprint. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
1 week later..I say "Yet another sanyo winner"
1 week into owning the phone and its been a great phone.
Pros
Everything but mp3 ringers.
Cons
Nothing but mp3 ringers.
If the phone gave you the option of using ringers in the SD card this phone would of got a perfect 5. Im not a huge fan of the size of phone but for what it does...i'll forgive.One other slight con..would be the flash and camera performance in the dark or low light areas arnt that good. 1 thing thats bug the crap out of me..that isnt a real con is the screen menu. like other sanyos the icons that are on the main screen go over the picture to make the screen bigger..but this one has the lame bar on the bottom that takes away from the size of the screen likes samsungs.
If i had to do all over again I would still buy the phone. Very solid handset.
Ergonomics and Usefulness of Sanyo 5600
PROs:
The phone works well for making and receiving calls. The screen is bright and sharp. The speaker-phone is excellent. It is nice to have media storage on a removable mini SD card. It appears to be of sturdy construction, and has many features. (See specs.)
CONs:
I don't like the way the phone feels in my hand when holding it to my ear; it seems like the weight distribution is wrong. It also feels an inch or so too long; when the is on my ear, the microphone is too far away from my mouth to feel comfortable.
The camera is satisfactory, but nothing to write home about. In bright light it takes a fairly good picture. The flash is ineffective in low light situations. The camcorder is okay for playback in the camera, but appears very small on my computer screen. (If you try to enlarge the playback, it becomes too pixilated.)
Whereas I don't need the Ready Link feature, I find it a nuisance when I press the button on the left side, inadvertently accessing the ready link menu.
The robotic voice dialing feature is cute, but not as clear or convenient as phones that playback your own recorded voice to confirm the call. Upon opening the 5600, the phone requires the caller to press a call button, then give an appropriate command, such as "Contact..." or "Call Voice Tag..." I find the system inefficient.
The multimedia features are not yet fully matured; the television media is not live nor streaming, and the format would be larger, and more readable, if it could be viewed with the phone turned sideways.
I believe I will return this 5600 phone, and buy a phone without a camera. There are many ultra compact camera's out there (Canon SD400 for example) that do an excellent job at photos. For now, I will but a cell phone for calls.
Eh.....
Pros:
It still has a better reception than Samsung and Nokia on the Spring network.
Cons:
Since I am in the field of mobile phone sales, I have a lot of experience with Sanyo models. I could not help but notice that this phone has gotten a cheap hinge in which I am disappointed about and expected it only from Samsung. I have also noticed that compared to my 8100 the new Sanyo just does not get the reception quality of the older Sanyo models. I don't know what the company is trying to accomplish, but they are certainly not scoring bonus points with me.
5600 less than expected
I'm a big Sanyo person and I couldn't wait for this phone to come out. After I got it and had it for a couple of weeks I did not like it quite as much as I hoped.
Pros:
1. Screen is awesome. So crisp and clear. (Just like everyone noticed)
2. Speakerphone sounds good, just a bit sharper than the rest, but nothing to brag over.
3. Camera is a bit better than most cameras Sprint phones have. (I have a nice digital camera so I don't really care about that)
Cons:
1. Phone is so ugly to me, although the inside is nice, but it takes both to get me. Has the worst look to it, I hope Sanyo gets back on track.
2. Very big in size. Not much bigger than some phones but it appears so large; bulky and very long.
3. Since Sanyo did not use their usual spring hinge, it feels very cheap. The hinge moves a lot, even while it is on your ear you hear it crackling. It also moves side to side and doesn't make me feel comfortable about the durability.
4. Looks like an extra bulge in your pocket.
Overall, I didn't really care too much about the phone. The only thing I really liked was the screen and how nicely everything was displayed. I traded my brother back to the 7400 because I used to have that phone and liked it a lot. 7400 is exactly the same phone without the mp3 that I never used and a bit duller screen but still very clear. 7400 also is very neat looking and very customizable which I like a lot. I'm happy with 7400 until something nicer comes out. If you planned on spending the $460 with tax on this phone I suggest you not have an ipod and you not have a camera because it really didn't live up to the hype we all gave it.
sanyo 5500 still better
i had sanyo 5600 for couple of days, i switched back to my 5500. sanyo 5600 is big and bulky. the reason i switched to 5600 was i thought it might store phone book on sd card, but it didn't, which is the most common need and sense. multimedia is not great, movies , tvs are still running on 15fps.signal strength is bad. sanyo use to make good phones but not anymore, after establishing a good repute with sanyo 4900, sanyo 4500,8100 and 5500 they start making cheap phones like 8200, 4920,7300 and this 5600.i didnt find any pros in this phone.if you put old sanyo and new sanyo phones togather you will see the difference in workmanship and signals stuff.
Sound Quality 1.5
The pros and cons have been reported over and over. Some good reviews some trivial.
I've had this phone for about 4 weeks with 1200 minutes of talk time.
The pros and cons have been covered well. I kinda like the phone but I'm going to mention the real problem with this phone; the ability to hear clearly.
1. I think there is something wrong with the physical design of the ear piece. If you don't hold it over your ear canal the opening is such that your ear blocks the sound and you can't hear. Annoying.
2. The biggest problem; both the ear piece and the speaker phone distort at high volume. Real real Annoying.
It's hard to believe Sanyo settled for this most easily correctable SOUND problem!!!
Also, no redial?
Phone Geeks suck this phone is Amazing
This is the best phone i ever had. the mp3 is awsome. I can play it on speaker or the earphones and what is a duplex forget that crap it doesn't matter its a phone. and who needs a back up chip for phone numbers who ever has more then 500 numbers is a freaking loser and they don't know how to get rid of the numbers they don't use any more. I sell phone and it has one of the best reception. This is by far the best phone i ever had and its worth the money.
Great Job Sanyo! Sprint, you've lost a customer!
I've had the Sanyo MM-5600 for a few days now and without doubt, it is by far the best Sprint handset i've ever had. (This paticular handset makes number 12 or so)
Pro's -
* Excellent quality QVGA display
* MP3 playback was better than I had expected
* miniSD expansion
* Talking Caller-ID (also found on the 7400)
* Voice independent voice activated dialing - good, not as good as Samsungs, but better than the 7400
* MANY options to play with in the menu, including the ability to overlay a "large" clock over a picture, rather than just on or the other.
* ReadyLink is lighting fast
* The "photo phonebook" is quite trick
* Battery life seems to be above average from previous RL handsets
* Excellent ergonomics and menu layout
* Speakerphone is, like usual extremely high Sanyo quality. See note under Con, however.
* Reception is top notch. Besting both my Sanyo 7400 and my Toshiba VM4050
Con's -
* Bluetooth would have been nice, but I can deal without that. I've yet to hear a good quality BT headset and OBEX seems to be disabled on pretty much all of the CDMA US phones that have BT, so i'll keep my hopes and dreams grounded.
* Speakerphone, while quite good, is still half-duplex. What is it going to take to get a full-duplex speakerphone going!? I was REALLY expecting this model to be full-duplex.
* Sanyo really needs to pickup a menu cue from Samsung and get folder support for their phonebook.
And lastly, this one killed the entire handset for me. The Sanyo 5600 cannot function as a modem. I've been using my Vision as a wireless modem for close to 2.5 years now. After speaking with Data support, the 5600 no longer supports that and I have the choice of buying an air card, reverting back to my 7400 or simply not using at all. The tech quite literally yelled at me, saying that i've been skating the line for 2+ years and he can't believe that I "got away with it" for that long. I'm taking my service elsewhere.
