[rastamanx]

There's been a lot of discussion about which phone is better between Sanyo 8100 and Samsung VGA 1000.....well...here's my 2 cents.....

I live in Oakland, CA, and tried out the Samsung VGA 1000 and Sanyo 8100 for a week driving around the east bay to test reception and quality of phone conversation. Also tested Verizon's LG picture phone too. Samsung VGA 1000 has by far the best features, including voice activated digit dial, memory for 300 addresses and speed dials, easily navigable and intuitive menues.

The problem is that the sound quality/reception of the Samsung VGA 1000 was the worst of all three phones...and i used both my phone and my wife's phone for testing. Sanyo 8100 was superior in terms of phone sound quality and reception. The Samsung VGA 1000 was so bad at times, that i refused to speak on my cell phone and had to locate a landline phone (or switch to another cell phone) to continue the call. And when it finally came down to it, i chose to go for the sound quality over the features--so i chose to go with the Sanyo 8100. Since then i've driven to canada and used the 8100 all the way up Interstate 5. Reception was good in most areas (except California/Oregon border)....

I wish the VGA 1000 had the quality and signal reception that the samsung has because i liked the features of the VGA 1000 better....especially the voice command.

Btw...both the 8100 and vga 1000 were being offered for FREE at Goodguys with 2 year activation (at least until Nov 14)....i activated at sprint store, and brought in the Googuys ad, and the manager at the sprint store refunded the $99 for each of my 8100's that i bought....

Sounds like the sanyo 5500 may offer better features than the 8100..but for a price of $349 it seems a bit steep!! Would be interested to know the cheepest price/deal people find for the 5500.

--rx