Sanyo M1 multimedia flip phone: Part2

Messaging - Very good

Messaging on the M1 is a pleasant affair, thanks to the phone's nicely raised, easy-to-find keys. The navigational keys were a bit of a jumble (why does the phone need two camera buttons?), but typing was comfortable. With different available font sizes, the phone displayed hundreds of characters on screen for incoming messages, and the text was among the smallest we've seen on any phone, but still quite legible. On outgoing messages, more than 160 characters were viewable at once. The phone has built-in access to AOL, MSN, and Yahoo for both instant messaging and e-mail, as well as Sprint's PCS mail. MMS messaging and voice SMS messages are also supported.

Camera - Good

Almost every camera we've tested on a mobile phones has been disappointing, and the Sanyo M1 -- which excels at almost all other functions -- is no different. Indeed, the snapshots we took using the phone's 2-megapixel looked fuzzy and cold. Videos from the camcorder were better, but still showed a great deal of pixilation and noise. The phone has a plethora of editing options, including cropping, fun frames and color effects. Also, it is easy to send your (lousy) images to your computer via Bluetooth or USB, to friends via MMS or e-mail, or even to a printer via PictBridge.

Video - Good

Though the content offering on Sprint's Power Vision network is excellent, streaming speeds to the M1 were not as good as we've seen recently on other phones, such as Samsung's SPH-M610. The Sanyo M1 did display videos full screen, in either portrait or landscape modes, a feature that's lacking in the M610 (and in most other Sprint Power Vision phones, for that matter). Initial buffering speeds were fine, usually about five seconds to start a video, but videos sometimes became blocky or stuttered. Our Bluetooth stereo headphones worked with the M1's audio player but not with streaming audio or video. Also, video content was poorly organized, with the same content found in multiple locations, and sometimes within multiple player applications. Sprint needs to do a better job organizing and consolidating its Power Vision content.


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