Contacts can be paired with any of 11 polyphonic (32-chord) ring tones; though the phone takes picture caller ID, it doesn't have a camera, so you must have pictures sent to you. You also get voice-activated dialing, a calendar, a world clock, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, WAP 2.0 wireless Web access via Sprint's 1xRTT next-generation network, and a speakerphone that you can activate anytime during a call by pressing the left soft key.
A voice recorder allows you to make up to 20 recordings or a total of 50 minutes of voice data (this works in standby mode only, so you won't be able to record conversations). Unfortunately, there's no button on the phone itself that provides quick access to this feature, which means you have to wade through the menus. The RL-4920 can be personalized with a variety of screensavers, many of which are available from Sprint. It doesn't come with any games, but you can download titles and additional ring tones.
We tested the dual-band/trimode (CDMA 800/1900; AMPS 800) Sanyo RL-4920 in the Chicago area using Sprint's service. We found the call quality to be very good, and callers said they couldn't tell we were speaking from a cell phone. Ready Link calls were also clear, although there was a conspicuous lag of about five seconds in the initial link. Once the connection was established, however, communication was nearly instantaneous. The speakerphone is exceptionally loud, which is a good thing for those who use the Ready Link feature on a construction site, for example, but it could be off-putting, depending on your surroundings.As for battery life, we reached 4 hours of talk time, falling well short of Sprint's rating of 5.5 hours, but we met the seven days of standby time. According to the FCC, the Sanyo RL-4920 has a digital SAR rating of 1.13 watts per kilogram and an analog SAR rating of 1.13 watts per kilogram.
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