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View Full Version : Review: Sanyo S750 - Orange 3G Handset



Ben
8th April 2005, 09:40 AM
Full Review: http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1259

Highlights:

"What do Steven Fry, Elton John and the guy who played Sam Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings have in common? The answer is that they could be part of the reason why Orange's 3G network coverage is so poor. During testing of the Sanyo S750, I had great difficulty getting a steady 3G signal in the three main locations I was in, namely at home, in Hertfordshire, in the office, in Ascot and believe it or not, in central London. My thinking is that if Orange had invested the money into getting its 3G network right, instead of paying celebrities huge sums for ads, it might have a more reliable network."

Never a good start!

"The design is also noticeable for the fact that there no number pad immediately visible with a central key surrounded by four directional keys and two keys either side sitting underneath the screen. The number pad in fact slides down from underneath the phone when required. However, it’s rather awkward and can’t easily be done one handed. It also makes the phone rather thick, and at 108 x 50 x 22 mm and 122g, it’s not the smallest phone in the world. It will definitely make its presence felt in a jeans pocket. The silver finish on the front is smart but the rest of it looks dull and it has a bit a of plasticky feel to it."

Plasticky isn't the most imaginable description of a plastic mobile phone, but I think the performance of the Orange 3G network had been the major hinderance.

"For expansion on the 8MB of built-in memory, the phone sports an SD card, which is useful for video downloads and MP3s. There is a built in media player and you can drag and drop MP3s onto the SD card, but I discovered that you had to format it in the phone first before it would recognise tracks. Even then I could see no way to skip between tracks in the media player so it’s not exactly going to replace an iPod any time soon. The tracks did sound good on the supplied earphones at least. The audio port on the phone is an extra small ‘micro-jack’ if you will, so you can’t use your own headphones, and while the supplied ones do have a button on the cord, I couldn’t get it to do anything. The phone will interrupt your music playing when you receive a call, though you can turn that feature off if you don’t want to be disturbed."

"Verdict

The Sanyo S750 is available free on Orange right now on any pay monthly contract but though I'm in the market for a phone, I can't say I'm tempted. The S750 has some going things going for it, such as a large screen and easy to understand interface but its cumbersome looks and Bluetooth quirks greatly lessen its appeal. But the problems I had with the Orange 3G network were the real deal-breaker leaving the Sanyo S750 well short of the 3G benchmark set by the Sony Ericsson V800."

So, really, a step backwards when compared to the SE V800. But I really don't find that surprising - the V800 is an award winning critically acclaimed handset on a network renowned for stability. The Sanyo is a somewhat fussy customer, and while the Orange 3G network can work perfectly it still leaves a lot to be desired.

miffed
8th April 2005, 10:23 AM
Firstly I should state that I have absolutely no experience of the handset or (3G) network

But I have always felt that the Sanyo has got a "rough ride"

After all , whenever I have looked , Orange appeared to be giving these away as their lowest priced 3G handset (making it the e228 of the orange range - Know which I'd prefer without even trying the sanyo , lol )

Bluetooth quirks ? (Mentioned above ) - Try the lower end of the H3G range (e228 , even the LG's to date !) then you'll appreciate what real Bluetooth quirks are (i.e. not having any !!)

I just feel that a lot of people seem to be expecting far too much from what is Oranges Budget 3G handset - (faulty handset issues nonwithstanding)

Rant over , :o

Ben
8th April 2005, 10:56 AM
I think the point you've made is a very fair and important one. The Sanyo is a great buy, and it has some great features. The V800 that the reviewer has compared it to (and absolutely fell in love with) is a substantially more expensive phone.

The Sanyo is real value for money. The Orange World compatability problems Orange have had are pretty inexcusable though.

Skyblue
9th April 2005, 08:33 PM
Very well featured for a budget phone, ever since I got mine it's actually put my LG U8150 to shame! Glad I got mine, even though there are a lot of bad reports about it. Haven't tried the bluetooth yet, but everything else seems to work fine.

TheBrit
11th April 2005, 12:32 PM
The first batch of S750 phones did have proiblems with BlueTooth but I'm glad to say that these are now sorted out.

Handsets manufactured March 2005 or later have fully working implementations of BlueTooth. The quirky file transfer issue has been straigtened out and headsets now work. If you got your S750 retail or direct from Orange you should be able to get it swapped if you make a fuss about needing bluetooth to work. If you got your hanset on ebay (like Skyblue did) then I don't know how you stand.

Skyblue
11th April 2005, 07:57 PM
I don't use bluetooth, so (fingers crossed) mine will be OK as it is. I'll probably get a z800i or 6680 once they're released, so if it stays great til then I'm happy. Even though it'll be hard upgraded back to a smaller screen again - the Sanyo's is amazing!

getti
12th April 2005, 08:39 PM
I had a S750 at Launch (1st customer in store) and was not happy with the handset issues. Returned the phone 2 days later.

Orange have sent me one to review and im happy to report it works fine.

Skyblue
12th April 2005, 09:48 PM
I've just found out at work that although we're not supposed to use our mobiles at all, as we're PCV drivers, when I start doing the motorway routes next week it's adviseable to were a headset (although that's officially against the rules too) as Control up in Scotland (who are higher up than my bosses I believe) may need to contact us urgently. So it looks like I'll probably have the opportunity to test the Bluetooth on my S750!
I'm not expecting it to work of course, and still have the wired set that works, so I'll just see what happens after I've bought myself a cheap one.
Somehow I can see it working enough to answer a call then cutting them off after a few seconds - I'm sure that'll go down well!

TheBrit
12th April 2005, 11:43 PM
The wired headset does work but prepared to get tangled! ;)

You can forget bluetooth on that early model. Indeed you might get a connection to head headset sometimes and then it will drop and go back to the handset. Then it wont work again untill you re-start the phone.