Sanyo M1 Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 15, 2007 Comment on this |
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Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Sanyo M1 does not synchronize personal information such as contacts and calendars with your PC.
Alerts (7.0)
Alerts on the Sanyo M1 are very flexible. You can set them for any time period before the event that you want. You can set any of the sounds available for ringers to also work for alerts. When an alert goes off you get a visual on the exterior screen with the name of the alert, along with the ringer you set. Hitting any button will snooze the event. You can open the phone and dismiss the event, or you can cancel the snooze by pressing and holding the camera button on the right side of the phone.
If you miss your alert it will automatically go into snooze mode. The snooze is a preset time, 10 minutes by default, but can also be set to 5, 15 or 20 minutes via the calendar settings. Overall we were pleased with the variety of settings available for alerts with the Sanyo M1. They were a step above other phones like the Motorola Razr V3m, which don’t give you as much flexibility about when to set alerts and doesn’t allow you to set the snooze interval.
Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Sanyo M1 does not support any over the air personal information management services like Blackberry or Exchange. If you wish to simply backup your contacts there is a service available from Sprint, and other free services available.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (4.9)
To test how difficult it is to add contacts on a phone we time how long it takes to enter each of 5 different contacts with diverse names. We enter a full name and number for each contact. The Sanyo M1 took an average of 20.6 seconds to enter each contact. This is an average time for a regular phone; for example the LG Chocolate posted a similar 21.7 seconds. Smartphones are significantly faster at this, as many of them come equipped with QWERTY keyboard. For example the Treo 700p posted an average time of 17.7 seconds.
Sorting & Searching (2.5)
The Sanyo sortrs your contacts by first name or group. You can search through your contacts by typing out a first or last name using multi tap. We would have liked to see some sort options on the Sanyo M1, and would have especially like to see predictive text search of your contacts. Compared to other phones the Sanyo M1 does not offer you many sorting and searching options.
Fields (3.0)
The Sanyo M1 provides 15 fields for your contacts. This includes 7 phone numbers, 2 email addresses, a photo, ringer and a memo field where you can enter any information you like. The M1 provides an average selection of fields, for example the Motorola Razr V3m had 13 fields available. We were especially pleased to see a memo field, as this provide a great deal of flexibility.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (8.0)
The speed dial, voice tag and voice command features on the Sanyo M1 are excellent. You can assign a speed dial to any contact by opening the contact and choosing set speed dial from the options menu. Voice command is present on the phone and can be accessed by hitting the assigned key on the right hand side of the phone. It will work in either closed or open mode; simply speak your command after the beep. In our tests the voice command software recognized all 5 of our diverse contact names. If you do happen to run into a name that is not recognized automatically you can set a voice tag for it as well. We were happy to see this option available as even the best voice recognition software runs into problems from time to time.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (6.3)
To test how difficult it is to add a calendar item we time how long it takes to go from phone closed to setting a lunch appointment for the following day. We repeat this test 5 times and take an average. The Sanyo M1 took an average of 16 seconds to add our test appointment. This is very quick for a regular phone; the Motorola Razr V3m took 22.6 seconds, while the LG Chocolate took 29.4 seconds. It also compares well to smart phones, for example the Motorola Q took 19.1 seconds. The Sanyo M1 was helped by the fact that you can use predictive text entry when entering the name of the appointment, and the phone remembers this setting after exiting the application. We wish more manufacturers allowed this, as many limit you to multi-tap or require you to reset it every time you enter an application or text field.
Calendar Views (4.3)
The Sanyo M1 has 3 views available: monthly, weekly and agenda. The Monthly view shows one or two months at a time with space at the bottom that displays a list of the appointments and tasks that are due that day. Days that have an appointment or task due on that day are indicated with a small arrow. The weekly view shows a 7-day week with the days split up into half hour segments. Appointments and tasks are shown in blue. As with the calendar, information about an appointment or task is shown on the bottom when you select it.
The agenda view lists all of the appointments and tasks scheduled for that day in chronological order. The Sanyo M1 also allows you to schedule phone calls, and provides custom agenda views that list all of your calendar appointments, tasks or scheduled phone calls in chronological order. These lists however are separate from the calendar views, where you are unable to filter by type or group.
Overall we were satisfied with the calendar views on the Sanyo M1. We felt that the presence of indicators on the monthly and weekly view that showed details made them much more useful than such views on other phones such as the Motorola Razr V3m. We were also pleased with the various agenda view options, although we wish they were better integrated.
Fields (8.0)
When creating a calendar appointment on the Sanyo M1 you can fill in nine different fields. In addition to standard fields like title, start/end and reminder we were pleased to see more advanced options such as location, recurrence and priority. We were disappointed that there was no option for an all day event or the ability to add a note to an appointment. Overall we felt that the options on the Sanyo M1 were good, particularly the more advanced options such as fully customizable alarms.
To Do/Tasks
Adding ToDo/Task (5.6)
Unlike many phones the Sanyo M1 include ssoftware to create and manage to dos/task lists. To test how easy it is to add a to do we timed how long it took to add a simple to do from phone closed. We repeated this five times and then took the average. The Sanyo M1 took an average of 18 seconds to add a to do. This is fairly quick for a regular phone, and again the M1 is helped by the fact that you are able to use predictive text to enter the title of the to do.
ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
When viewing a list of your to dos on the Sanyo M1 you can filter your views by category. However you cannot do this when the to dos are listed in the calendar views. Furthermore this sort is difficult to get to as it is buried in the menu and not obvious. You can prioritize your to dos (none, high or low), however you cannot sort by priority. Overall we were pleased with the ability to set priorities, but found the sorting options not as useful as they could have been.
Fields (5.0)
The Sanyo M1 provides only the most basic fields for to dos. You can add a title, due date, category, priority and status. We would have liked to see more options, recurrence in particular would have been nice. However, even having the ability to create to dos is a luxury so we won’t complain too much.
Notes
Adding Notes (0.0)
The Sanyo M1 does not support text notes. This is a disappointment and tempers our enthusiasm over the ability to add to dos.
Note Interface (0.0)
See Above
Note Formatting (0.0)
See Above
Voice Memo (5.0)
Despite lacking text notes, the Sanyo M1 does allow you to add voice notes, which has become a standard feature on phones. Adding a voice note to the Sanyo M1 is simple as there is a dedicated key on the left side of the phone. This gives you access to the menu where you can record or play your voice notes. There might be some confusion about what the difference between Record and Record:Speaker. The simple explanation is that the first records and plays back on the phone microphone and speaker, while the second uses the speakerphone. You can also activate a recording guard, which prevents incoming phone calls from interrupting your voice note. Overall we were not overly impressed with the functionality provided by the Sanyo M1’s voice note application. We felt that it can be confusing, and it did not provide more advanced features like sending a voice note via MMS or categories.
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