Sanyo Zio Review after 2 Months Use

This is a follow up to the original review of the Sanyo Zio that I did when I first traded in my T-Mobile phone. I switched from T-mobile to Cricket.

After two months of using this device, I have to say that I am sure sick of shutting down programs so I can save the battery. Advanced task killer is a great program for shutting programs down. but there is no application that turns other applications off to stay off. So all of the apps on the Zio keep restarting just seconds after turning them off. The best way I know that seems to work. is go into the settings area of the phone, under Applications/ Running Services. Find the Application that keeps restarting and turn the thing off there. Why do they not make the programs any more with menu options to turn the apps off and conserve battery?
The touch screen is all over the place. Typing a message has become the longest, daunting task.
I have no resorted to getting a program called “Hey Tell”. Lets me record a short message and send it through internet. Works great on my wifi system. because I sure don’t get enough signal at home with this thing, to send a voice message.
Search opens everytime I do something that takes a lot of focus.
Sometimes it’s the web browser that opens. I have so much as held the thing with 4 fingers between both hands, so I knew I wasn’t accidentally bumping any buttons.
Everytime I pull down the top menu to get the short cut items of preloaded processes, the top slider gets stuck. The fix is to swipe again as if I hadn’t yet. Frustrating. Now I look like I have a scratch and sniff phone.
some useless apps that run all the time, you have to “root” your Zio just to disable them. and what I mean by disable, you have to remove the apps. Hope android market has the same apps, if i ever want to sell this.
Zio in no way compares to the G1. Google’s G1 blew the Zio out of the water, with older firmware and all.

I sure wish Google would pay more attention to Cricket and make something of them. Just a bit of a nudge with a handful of phones just for Cricket, would be nice. Like the G3 ??????

Review score:
6/10 useability
6/10 signal
9/10 appearance
4/10 battery life
3/10 ease of use
Full score is 5/10

Cricket’s Free Sanyo Zio Phone Android

I left T-Mobile.
Yep, I jumped ship. I went back to Cricket.
The phone that I traded my blackberry 8100 in for is a Sanyo/Kyocera zio. AKA KYOCERA M6000.
Since Cricket was giving away the Sanyo Zio if you trade in your working cell phone from your current carrier, I assumed I should.
This phone is not a brand new technology, at all. This phone was originally with Sprint back in early 2010 brought to Cricket in late 2010.
I was on a plan that gave me 300 minutes of talk time at a cost of $49 a month and I still had fave fives. To now, an unlimited everything for $55 a month.
The first thing was to call T-mobile and request my account number. The guy who answered the phone put on a sincere voice and Acknowledge that he knows that typically when people ask for their account number, they are about to leave the company. The guy asked me if there was anything i was in need of, to keep me from leaving. i let the guy know that I was not happy with how I have been treated so i am looking around, and my first step is to get my account number and that I may or may not leave T-mobile. Really, that was exactly true. I could have backed out of getting my phone number ported over to Cricket, at any time. The guy kept asking questions and hesitating, So i had to get stern with him ‘ look, I am considering leaving and you holding out like this is making me want to leave even more, i just need my number and will consider all option”. He said just about everything he could think of just short of “please don’t talk to other people, you will see how good things could be”, what ever he said. I just hung up because I got my account number. and that’s all I needed.

I gave the teller my account number, in less than 3 minutes the phone was in my hand with a temporary number on it. I got a text message and it said for me to text back with a code and my old number will be moved to cricket. I tried and it did not work. After I called the help line, I realized i wasn’t pressing they ‘*’ key first. My bad. Phone number was switched over to T-mobile just like that. Whole deal took less than 20 minutes to complete.

Cricket Splash Screen on The Zio

Cricket Splash Screen on The Zio

Ok. Time to grade the phone.
The Sanyo Kyocera ZIO from Cricket, by feel, is a lot like my blackberry, smooth.

Menu on The Sanyo Kyocera Zio Phone

Menu on The Sanyo Kyocera Zio Phone

Nice and thin, slick,no buttons to interface, touch Screen, except volume and camera. I have few complaints about
the camera button. Sensitive when I am not trying to touch the camera button, but doesn’t do squat when I hit that button on purpose. Volume buttons are excellent.

Volume Button on Kyocera Sanyo Zio

Volume Button on Kyocera Sanyo Zio

there is a data/charging connection on the lower left edge.
Headphone jack on the upper left edge, and an SD card slot on the mid right. All have caps.
Large speaker at the upper back
Pin hole mic on bottom edge.
Screen feels like plastic over glass. I could be wrong as to whether it actually is, it’s just the way the Zio feels to me.
Software.
Initial Storage space 180MB
Yes this an Android 2.2.1 system on the sanyo ZIO.

zio_display

zio software display

But
The pinch zoom feature, does not happen with this phone. Tap and zoom, yes.
Scroll ball, is a bit sticky and sluggish.
Huge Screen Perfect fit for downsized (not re-sized) hd movies
Watched Diggnation, Tekzilla and life Hacker from the revision 3 website and was impressed with the resolution and quality of the images and video, Nearly never a buffer time. sometimes The revision 3 server hiccups.
Camera takes a very high resolution video, even in room lighting. (never great to have just room lighting)
Every application I tried, all work fine.
There is some bloat ware that I had to root the phone to remove. Some bowling game demo and an “uno” game.
Many applications load constantly, you can not go into settings and turn them off like you could with the g1 on android 1.6. So battery life isn’t what it could be.
Nice fade when opening and closing apps. but again, sometimes sluggish. Keyboard seems to be miss calibrated, When you press the Letter ‘o’ you get the letter ‘p’ and so on… If you are a fast texting person, you will get frustrated. Just find the letter that the Zio mistakes you typing, and hit the far corner of the button you intend to pres. Works well that way.

Internet speeds for the Zio – using speed test app from android market
upload 700k
download 400k
That is about what I was seeing on T-mobile with their “Edge”.

Reception
At home and at work, my signal fluctuates between no signal, and two bars. but with that said, I received a call from a friend while I had 0 bars and the phone call sounded fine on my end, and the person on the other end never asked me what I was saying. I never heard anything unusual or anything that would hint of a bad signal, other than the caller’s T-mobile lag. Was sad when we both were on T-mobile, neither knew when to talk.
although I find myself back in 2003, holding the sanyo Zio up in the air to get a signal enough to send a text message. I don’t remember Cricket having this bad of a signal.

Back Of The Zio

Back Of The Zio

internet 10/10
software 8/10
hardware 5/10
reception 5/10 (I gave it a poor score then added some because the phone seemed to work even with no signal)
look 10/10

Full Over all Score is 7/10

And that is enough to make me feel as if I got another great deal.

Another unprofessional review from TruXter Tech Review and the budget Tech review