Returned my M610 for the M1

[bgeddes]

Just thought i'd share this info regarding my reasons for returning my new M610 for a Sanyo M1...

I recently renewed my contract and upgraded my phone. My previous phone was a Sanyo MM-7400. I had it for over 2 years and was happy with it but I guess I kinda took it for granted because it was my first and only phone i've owned in the new era of media phones. I decided to try the Samsung M610 because I wanted to give another brand a try and i've heard a lot of good things about Samsung. Within a few days I quickly noticed that I was missing the quality and feel of a Sanyo phone. I encountered a major disappointment when I loaded a bunch of custom photos into the M610 to use as picture caller ID's and found that they do not display full screen when someone calls. In fact, the pictures were displayed severely cropped, in many cases cutting off half a person's face. I checked with the sprint tech's and there is no setting to correct this. Also, the Samsung phone had a much "cheaper" feel to it, the flat dialpad was difficult to get used to, battery life and reception not as good, etc. I was also missing a lot of calls because I couldn't hear the ringer. I guess i've gotten used to the luxury of being able to leave my phone in another room while at home with the Sanyo and be able to hear it because the speakers are nice and loud. The Samsung simply uses the earpiece with a volume boost as a speaker, far inferior to the seperate, built-in speaker on the Sanyo.

Not to discredit the Samsung too much, I was extremely impressed with the screen on the M610. Best screen of any phone i've seen in fact, better than the M1. Also, using my bluetooth headset worked better with the M610 because I was given voice prompts by the phone when using voice dial which gave me an indication of what the phone was doing. With the M1 unfortunately, all you hear is a beep and you have to look down at the outer LCD of the phone to see what it is asking you. This almost defeats the purpose when using the phone while driving.

Nevertheless, I quickly realized that a lot of the features and "general design quality" I had come to depend on with my previous Sanyo were simply not available in the Samsung. Unfortunately I was spoiled by Sanyo quality. I ended up returning my M610 and getting an M1. I didn't buy the M1 at first because it wasn't nearly as stylish as the M610, and the M1 was blocky and clunky feeling. However, once I got the M1 in hand the other day and started using it, the shortcomings of it's design quickly became irrelevant as the relief of once again having the Sanyo quality becaome apparent.

I guess this means i'll be dependent on Sanyo from here on out, unfortunately. Oh well. Thanks for reading. Please share if you have anything to add regarding an M610 vs. M1 comparison.

[Cheatachu72]

same thing happened to me...the first two phones i used for an extended period were an 8100 and a 5500. I took for granted that any phone i got would be bug free, and have an intuitive user interface.

when my 5500 kicked the bucket (my fault, thrown against the wall at a bar) i got the a900....BIG mistake. I took for granted that t9 would work, the phone book would search, oh yeah, and that got reception and didnt drop calls left and right, not to mention that the phone would have a battery life longer than 9 hours.

i happily 'downgraded' to an 8300 and have been very satisfied, rock solid phone that text messages and places calls.

[BrettW]

all i gotta say is the m1 is a great phone, its the one device that has survived my phone addiction so far (ive had it sine January)

[Burrito75]

I am sitting here with a 610 next to me wishing I had not sold my M1. The other day I tried to blue tooth my contacts onto my new macbook and after relizing I could only send one at a time I went back to my Sanyo 8400 and sent them all at once in a few seconds. I have stayed with my 8400 and am missing my M1. I was also tired of the caller ID not showing up. Once again I have realized the superiority of the Sanyo brand. I agree you made a good call going with the M1.

[bgeddes]

8400 is still a great phone.

[nohbdyshero]

I too have traded my m610 for the m1 and the battery life alone makes it better. I wish it had speaker independent voice dial but oh well i shall live.

[Marlon_JB2]

Heh, enjoy your Sanyo! I felt the same way as you did. However I am not about to buy a new phone right now. Sanyo has disappointed me as of late. I just wish they'd bring out something that isn't the same as the one before it.

[bgeddes]

With the M1 unfortunately, all you hear is a beep and you have to look down at the outer LCD of the phone to see what it is asking you. This almost defeats the purpose when using the phone while driving..

I stand corrected! It looks like I overlooked the "voice prompt" setting. You see, that's another thing that makes Sanyo phones so great. There is a setting for everything! :)

[Freak4Dell]

To the OP, while the majority of Sanyo phones are solidly built, the M1 does not feel like it is. It feels cheap when you hold it.

I can't say anything about the pictures because I've never used an M610, although that will probably be my next phone.

The flat keypad is just something you have to get used to. After having my a900 for so long, it's hard to go back to using a regular keypad. It took me a while to get used to the M1 keypad.

I also don't know anything about the ringer volume, but I would assume the M610 has hidden speakers somewhere because it's a music phone. If it doesn't, that's one amazing earpiece.

Battery life isn't as good because it's a thin phone. None of the thin phones get as good battery life as the thicker phones do.

[Burrito75]

I thought the 610 felt much sturdier than the m1. However other serious flaws, one of them being the speaker, made me change.

[thrashjazz]

with sprint, my list goes as follows

sanyo 6200->sanyo 8200->audiovox 8920->sanyo katana->samsung a920->sanyo 8400


when i got my 6200, people's jaws dropped. the 8200 introduced me to color displays and its exceptional (for the time) camera captured some really great pictures that we now consider classics, not to mention the voice/build quality. the audiovox was free after a friend ditched it for the toshiba and i then busted up my phone. the katana was pretty much as perfect as a straight up, non-multimedia, fully functional cellular phone device gets, but it wasn't geeky enough so i checked out my first samsung. it was a great phone but i lost it and i was about to replace it with another, but i felt like it was just pointless to not go ahead and get the latest sanyo.

maybe i'm just used to them, and maybe i wish they'd be a bit more ballsy with their style and ditch their commitment to take over the low-end phone/soccer mom demographic, but i've had mostly sanyo phones for the last 5 years and nothing to complain about that doesn't involve some novelty feature.

[CaseyGirl]

I have both and I enjoy both. I will have to admit that getting used to the m610's flat keypad was not bad and I actually really enjoyed texting on that even after using a Treo. I know, I'm weird. :rolleyes:

The M1 has great sound quality and I absolutely LOVE that flashing red light for missed alerts that is absent with the m610. The pictures that I have taken with both phones are great an I can't even say that one is better than the other although there are some people who use the M1 as their digital camera. :hee:

The ringer on the m610 is loud enough for me and it doesn't bother me as much. As far as the feel goes, I think the m610 is more solid feeling than the M1. However, I love my M1 just because it was a gift ... so that in itself negates why the m610 could be much better than the M1. :lol:

I'm a girl. I'm entitled to have purely subjective reasons. ;)

[bgeddes]

The M1 has great sound quality and I absolutely LOVE that flashing red light for missed alerts that is absent with the m610.

The little red light! There's yet another little feature of the Sanyo that makes it great. It's those little things that other manufacturers seem to overlook. As a consumer, I get used to those little bells and whistles with the Sanyo models and it makes it tough to switch brands even if another manufacturer has a much better looking phone.

[w7excursion]

The 610 has no hidden speakers lol. The only things I liked were the internal screen and the option to use gifs. Why samsung made this phone with few options/features is beyond me. Now its on sale for $80 and its buy one get one free on the sprint site.

[KAT]

Well, I have yet to fall out of love with my m610. While I know the M1 has more features, most of them are not high priority for me.

I did hold a M1 once, and well, there's no comparison to me when it comes to the feel, craftsmanship and just the over-all smooth thin sleekness of the m610. I'd take the smooth flat keypad anyday, especially with the much larger, better spaced 'buttons' on it. I also love the crisp, brightly lit... EVENLY lit keypad.

While others have complained about the speaker 'crackling,' on the m610, I never had any such issues, and also prefer it over any Sanyo speaker I've ever heard, which to me have always sounded 'hollow' 'boxy' or just distorted. This earpiece factor has always been my biggest beef with Sanyo.

My ringers are loud, and crisp, very good quality sound. Music sounds good, wish it went just a tad louder maybe. Speaker phone works very well, but of course the phone must stay open, no real deal breaker for me here.

While the M1 does take better pix/vids, I'm quite happy with the m610 camera, many people are surprised the pix I send them were taken by a phone. I've learned how to use the settings to the best advantage in different lighting situations, which makes a big difference. I do wish it had a flash, but the flash on any phone I've had have proven to be pretty much useless anyway. With new phones having much better cameras lately, they really should upgrade the flashes on these things if there really gonna be useful.

I was a bit bummed with the m610 battery life, probably the worst I've had on any phone, but being so thin, it didn't shock me. I fixed this big time with the seperate Samsung charger, so I can charge a 2nd battery while using another... case closed!

But the best part is the screen. This has to be the nicest flip phone screen I've ever had. When I browse and use apps like I do, it's a joy to behold. This was maybe the biggest deal breaker for me with the M1 when I noticed the obvious difference in size. It's just as tall as my friends Toshiba 4050, but his looks ever so slightly wider maybe. And since the latest update, I really appreciate viewing streaming vids/TV in full widescreen/landscape mode now with a screen as large and nice as this.

Just for the record, I'm not knocking the M1 or Sanyo at all here. Don't mean to sound that way. The m610 and M1 are obviously both great phones, so it just depends on the needs per the individual. I've had the 7400 and the 9000 and loved them both. I'd go back to Sanyo in a heartbeat depending on what they release in the future. But it will be hard for me to imagine not missing the m610 to some degree no matter what my next phone is.

[bgeddes]

Your points are all valid. No argument that the screen on the 610 is better and that the look and feel of the phone is superior to the M1. Personally, I just got used to Sanyo's attention to little details and customization options. The deal breaker for me was when I had my M610 and I got a call from someone with a Picture ID and the phone displayed a horribly cropped version of the image cutting off half the person's face...and then finding out there is no setting to fix this. Hopefully Samsung will release a software update to fix this like they did for the full-screen video. I didn't want to wait. Now that i've had the M1 for several days now, I am very happy with it and relieved to once again have all the Sanyo features that I am used to. With picture ID's and wallpapers, you can actually adjust the framing (for both the main and sub LCD's seperately) so that the image is displayed exactly how you want it. As you say, for some this may be irrelevant. For me, as a photographer and someone who is a big fan of images, it is definitely an appreciated feature.

Like you said, it's all personal preference. The M610 is definitely a great phone, probably the best screen of any compact phone on the market. I wish I could have the 610 screen on my M1. Oh well, maybe a future M2 will be even better!

[KAT]

Now we're talkin.' m610 screen on maybe (hopefully) a slimmed down M2.... I'll be right behind you in line! (if not in front of you ;) )

[shoocream]

my m1 creaks like crazy!! and screen is not bright enough.