Why You Can Trust CNET Sanyo Juno SCP-2700 review: Sanyo Juno SCP-2700
Sanyo Juno SCP-2700
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Messaging phones have become the latest cell phone trend to sweep the country, as all four national carriers now carry some kind of full QWERTY handset made primarily for sending out texts and e-mails. The latest manufacturer to jump on the bandwagon in the U.S. is Sanyo, which has just released the Sanyo SCP-2700 for Sprint. The SCP-2700 is not a feature-rich handheld by any means--it doesn't have 3G or a music player--but it does have that full QWERTY keyboard with threaded text messaging, support for corporate e-mail, plus a 1.3-megapixel camera and Bluetooth. It's also one of the cheapest messaging phones out there at only $29.99 with a two-year service agreement.
Design
The Sanyo SCP-2700 has a very straightforward design, and looks a little like a lower-end version of a BlackBerry, or a thicker version of the Pantech Slate. Measuring 4.3 inches long by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, the SCP-2700 is encased in glossy plastic with a checkered texture design on the back. The SCP-2700 is also quite lightweight at 3.4 ounces. It feels good in the hand, but the glossy surface does make it prone to fingerprints.
On the front of the SCP-2700 is a decent 2.2-inch diagonal display with 65,536 colors and 320x240 pixel resolution. We would've liked 262,000 colors instead, but since the SCP-2700 isn't a very high-end phone, we were fine with it. The screen looks nice and bright, and the text is legible and sharp. You can adjust the backlight time, the size of the input font, and the sleep mode timer.
Underneath the display is the navigation array, which consists of two soft keys, a square navigation toggle with middle confirmation key, a dedicated text-messaging key, a back key, and the Send and End/Power keys. The aforementioned toggle is mapped to four user-defined shortcuts, while the middle confirmation key leads to the main menu when on standby mode. All the keys are sufficiently raised above the surface, and are easy to use.
Below the navigation array is the QWERTY keyboard, which is what makes the SCP-2700 a messaging phone. The keyboard is a little small, like that on the Palm Centro, but we really liked how tactile the keys are. The keys are raised above the surface, plus they have a bubble-like texture that makes it easy to type. There's also a dedicated emoticon key that brings up the different emoticons while you're typing out a text message. The dedicated speakerphone key is on the bottom right of the keyboard.
On the left spine are a charger jack, a dedicated camera key, and the volume rocker, while a 2.5mm headset jack sits on the right spine. On the back is the camera lens and an external speaker. There is no flash or self-portrait mirror.
Features
The Sanyo SCP-2700 doesn't have a lot of features going for it, but it does do messaging very well, which suits its primary purpose. It has a basic 600-entry phone book, with room in each entry for six phone numbers, three e-mail addresses, a Web URL, a street address, and a memo. You can assign contacts with a photo for caller ID and to different caller groups as well. You can also assign one of 37 polyphonic ringtones for incoming calls, text messages, picture mails, and voice SMS. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a countdown timer, a stopwatch, a voice memo recorder, and a world clock. There's also a wireless Web browser, Bluetooth, instant messaging (AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo), e-mail, and voice SMS. There's also GPS support for location-based services like Sprint Navigator.
Truly, the star feature of the SCP-2700 lies in its messaging applications. It doesn't just have the standard text message functionality; it also supports threaded text messages, which are usually available on higher-end smart phones only. This means you get to view a text message within the context of a conversation, rather than as just a single message.
The SCP-2700 also supports multiple e-mail accounts from an array of providers like Sprint's own PCS Mail, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail, as well as your own POP or IMAP e-mail account. Only PCS Mail requires a Web browser to access. Amazingly, the SCP-2700 can also receive your work e-mail. You can either use your employer's Outlook Web Access or use Sprint's own Mobile E-mail Personal Account. The latter requires a software download and a rather tedious Web interface that will link your work e-mail to the phone, so it's best if your company has OWA running.
The messaging interface is very intuitive. Navigation is easy, and you can choose how many messages you want to see in your in-box. Do note that you have to switch between different in-boxes for your different e-mail accounts. Also, for your work account, you can't get to any of your other incoming mail folders aside from the primary in-box. This can be annoying if you have filters set up to redirect your mail to separate e-mail folders.
Also on the SCP-2700 is a 1.3-megapixel camera. It can take pictures in three resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, and 320x240), and three quality settings. Other camera options include a brightness setting, five white balance presets, plus a manual mode, sharpness control, contrast, a self-timer, up to 12x digital zoom, five picture modes, multiple shot settings, fun frames, eight color tones, three shutter sounds, and a silent option. Photo quality was poor: images looked washed out and dull with quite a bit of pixelation as well. There's no camcorder built in.
You can customize the SCP-2700 with different screensavers and ring or alert tones. It comes with a few games, like demo versions of Block Breaker Deluxe 2 and Monopoly Here & Now, and Guitar Hero World Tour. It also comes with NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, NFL Mobile Live, and Social Zone in the Applications folder. If you want, you can purchase more graphics, ringers, games, and applications via Sprint's Web browser.
Performance
We tested the dual-mode (CDMA 800/1900; 1xRTT) Sanyo SCP-2700 in San Francisco using Sprint's service. Call quality was very impressive. Callers could hear us loud and clear without a lot of background sound. We could hear them clearly as well, though there was the occasional static and hiss. Speakerphone quality wasn't as good, with a bit more of a tinny quality to the callers' voices, but we could still carry on a conversation.
The SCP-2700 has a rated battery life of 4.8 hours talk time. We only got a tested talk time of 3 hours and 11 minutes in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the Sanyo SCP-2700 has a digital SAR rating of 1.25 watts per kilogram.