Clash
12-09-2005, 05:31 PM
The 7400 was the last phone I had. I really loved the whole rugged part, so I was saddened when the hinge on it broke. I was offered a 8300 by Sprint, but turned it down for then. After hearing about the 7500 coming out later, I was estatic and decided to wait for it. When it came out, I was hoping that I could do a warranty swap, but was unable to, so I simply accepted the 8300 as a warranty swap and purchased the 7500. Including tax, it came to $410.88, so my "wallet" screamed or something like that. I'll probably sell the 8300 later, but now onto the review!
After purchasing it, I phoned up *2 when I got home and got a really nice and laid back sounding guy. Apparently there were no instructions on how to activate the 7500, so we decided to activate it such as one would active a 8300. It was short and painless and I was happy :)
The first thing I do when I get the phone was to walk around and take photos with it while I was waiting for provisioning to occur (see below for pictures). After that vision was provisioned, so I used the Sprint music store and grabbed 4 songs since 5 are free. The quality seemed alright to me.... definately not bad for music on the go! After doing that I phoned up *2 and talked to a vision tech and verified that I wasn't be charged for anything related to data usage! I then spent quite a while trying to transfer music via the data cable to the phone, but was unsuccessful in that regard! I tried tethering and did a speed test... not too bad, about 500kbit down and 100kbit up. I was pleased. After I did the tethering, I phoned up and checked for no charges and there were no additional ones (although I have no plans to use it unless I need it).
With regards to transferring music, I eventually gave up and converted 20 songs to AAC format and transferred them over the net to my compy. Tis' a good thing that Ev-DO is fairly speedy! By now, I had used 66,660 kbyte (yes, 4 sixes) of ram and have 5,020KB left which I plan to leave for taking pictures and what not. After that fun stuff, I laid down and watched "King of the Hill" on FX and it was actually fairly decent! Oh, and I'll add that I've transferred 136MB since I've had it, yet my life timer is only 37... Ev-DO rocks!
Now, onto the raw goods and bads:
Good:
-Ev-DO is fast and a HUGE improvement over 1xRTT.
-70MB of Internal storage. The most internal memory in Sprint's line on a regular handset in-so-far as I am aware of.
-Rugged. This seems a whole lot more durable than my older 7400.
-Water resistant or so I've been told. The speaker
-The new hinge design is supposibly much stronger which is great since my 7400 and 8100 before that both eventually had broken hinges.
-It has a good "heft" to it and fells nice and solid.
-The ear piece seems quite improved over the 7400.
-I conducted several tests with the speaker phone and it seemed to be full duplex. So, I strongly believe that it is full duplex and is fairly clear. Oh, and its also "Sanyo Loud".
-The included earbuds are actually fairly decent.
-The 1.3 Megapixel allows for a larger size picture and when scaled down a bit looks fairly decent.
-Has macro view.
-The light/flash light is much brighter on this than my 7400.
-Excellent reception.
-Themes! I tried them and they seem fairly cool, but I personally will just keep mine in the "classic mode".
-The inside AND outside LCDs have 262k colors.
-The outside LCD is widescreen and is cool since it can show more info, but it looks a bit funky when one is taking a photo with the flip closed.
-The internal and external screens look fairly sharp.
Bad:
-The price of $379.99 may drive some people away.
-The internal screen is not QVGA. It is 176x220.
-The Camera is a bit blurry @ 1.3 MP... needs to be scaled down to look better.
-Currently no way for myself to transfer files via a data cable to the phone, I had to convert my music to AAC files and transfer them over the net.
-The internal screen is smaller than the 7400's.
Things that people can either like or dislike:
-About as wide and nearly as thick as a 7400.
-Shorter (not as tall as the 7400).
-About equivalent to the 8300 in size.
-The hinge "clicks" when being opened or closed.
Personal Notes:
-My 7400's leather case fits on the 7500, but it blocks part of the speaker, part of the volume control button, part of the side camera button and in order to take a picture with the camera, I had to move the camera opening on the leather around a bit. Although the case fits PERFECTLY over the internal screen, external screen and keypad.
-I like it, but have until the 8th of January to decide whether I will keep it or not.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3694/7500included7yl.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4281/7500inside1oq.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7788/minivanref8an.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/8229/lilbro5ku.jpg
After purchasing it, I phoned up *2 when I got home and got a really nice and laid back sounding guy. Apparently there were no instructions on how to activate the 7500, so we decided to activate it such as one would active a 8300. It was short and painless and I was happy :)
The first thing I do when I get the phone was to walk around and take photos with it while I was waiting for provisioning to occur (see below for pictures). After that vision was provisioned, so I used the Sprint music store and grabbed 4 songs since 5 are free. The quality seemed alright to me.... definately not bad for music on the go! After doing that I phoned up *2 and talked to a vision tech and verified that I wasn't be charged for anything related to data usage! I then spent quite a while trying to transfer music via the data cable to the phone, but was unsuccessful in that regard! I tried tethering and did a speed test... not too bad, about 500kbit down and 100kbit up. I was pleased. After I did the tethering, I phoned up and checked for no charges and there were no additional ones (although I have no plans to use it unless I need it).
With regards to transferring music, I eventually gave up and converted 20 songs to AAC format and transferred them over the net to my compy. Tis' a good thing that Ev-DO is fairly speedy! By now, I had used 66,660 kbyte (yes, 4 sixes) of ram and have 5,020KB left which I plan to leave for taking pictures and what not. After that fun stuff, I laid down and watched "King of the Hill" on FX and it was actually fairly decent! Oh, and I'll add that I've transferred 136MB since I've had it, yet my life timer is only 37... Ev-DO rocks!
Now, onto the raw goods and bads:
Good:
-Ev-DO is fast and a HUGE improvement over 1xRTT.
-70MB of Internal storage. The most internal memory in Sprint's line on a regular handset in-so-far as I am aware of.
-Rugged. This seems a whole lot more durable than my older 7400.
-Water resistant or so I've been told. The speaker
-The new hinge design is supposibly much stronger which is great since my 7400 and 8100 before that both eventually had broken hinges.
-It has a good "heft" to it and fells nice and solid.
-The ear piece seems quite improved over the 7400.
-I conducted several tests with the speaker phone and it seemed to be full duplex. So, I strongly believe that it is full duplex and is fairly clear. Oh, and its also "Sanyo Loud".
-The included earbuds are actually fairly decent.
-The 1.3 Megapixel allows for a larger size picture and when scaled down a bit looks fairly decent.
-Has macro view.
-The light/flash light is much brighter on this than my 7400.
-Excellent reception.
-Themes! I tried them and they seem fairly cool, but I personally will just keep mine in the "classic mode".
-The inside AND outside LCDs have 262k colors.
-The outside LCD is widescreen and is cool since it can show more info, but it looks a bit funky when one is taking a photo with the flip closed.
-The internal and external screens look fairly sharp.
Bad:
-The price of $379.99 may drive some people away.
-The internal screen is not QVGA. It is 176x220.
-The Camera is a bit blurry @ 1.3 MP... needs to be scaled down to look better.
-Currently no way for myself to transfer files via a data cable to the phone, I had to convert my music to AAC files and transfer them over the net.
-The internal screen is smaller than the 7400's.
Things that people can either like or dislike:
-About as wide and nearly as thick as a 7400.
-Shorter (not as tall as the 7400).
-About equivalent to the 8300 in size.
-The hinge "clicks" when being opened or closed.
Personal Notes:
-My 7400's leather case fits on the 7500, but it blocks part of the speaker, part of the volume control button, part of the side camera button and in order to take a picture with the camera, I had to move the camera opening on the leather around a bit. Although the case fits PERFECTLY over the internal screen, external screen and keypad.
-I like it, but have until the 8th of January to decide whether I will keep it or not.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3694/7500included7yl.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4281/7500inside1oq.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/7788/minivanref8an.jpg
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/8229/lilbro5ku.jpg