Good Sprint Phone for $50 or Less (After Rebate)?

[Toreno]

I'm a Sprint customer in the DC area. I had a long run with my Sanyo RL-4920 until I accidentally took it swimming the other day, but now I'm in search of a new phone. I'm due for a new phone from Sprint, and I'd like to pick one up for $50 or less (after rebates, etc.). According to the Sprint site, my choices seem to be the following:
LG LX-160Samsung M300Sanyo SCP-3100Sanyo KATANA IISanyo SCP-3200Motorola MOTORAZR V3mSamsung M510
My intent is to use this phone primarily as a phone, so those are the features I care about most. Related to that, I'd like to be able to sync my contacts with my computer. If possible, I'd also like to be able to occasionally look something up on the web without it being too painful, but this won't be a primary use of the phone. I don't care at all about camera features and care very little about media player features, as I already have a good media player (SanDisk Sansa e260). So here is a list of my priorities on features:

Important
Long battery life (esp. standby)Good receptionSync contacts with the computerAt least 100 speed dialsVoice dailingReasonably stable OSGood web browsingDecent UI

Less Important (non-essential)
mp3 ringtonesAbility to read email (GMail, IMAP)

Unimportant
Camera functionsMedia player functionsMultimedia messaging
All-in-all I was pretty happy with my old Sanyo RL-4920, because it had incredible battery life, good reception, and I can't remember the OS ever freezing. I never had a cable to hook it to my computer, so I never tried syncing it or installing new software on it, but I intend to do those things with my new phone, and I'm ready to get a slightly more modern phone.

As far as syncing my contacts, I really want to do this on Linux, but I realize that a lot of people here won't have any experience with that, so I'm just looking to find out if it's possible at all (with some software on some OS).

As far as web browsing, on my previous phones I always found that it was so slow and navigating the pages was so painful that it was not really worth it except in the most dire need. I'd like something a little more usable, but I'm not springing for an iPhone. I'm thinking that maybe if I get a phone with faster data and the ability to run Opera that it'll be somewhat more usable.

I've looked at the specs, but it's hard to judge which has a decent UI or good reception or OS stability, I'm interested to hear about real life experience with battery life, and no one seems to tell you how many speed dials these things have. I'm also interested to hear about the usability of the web or email on the different phones.

So, give the list of possibilities and the list of priorities, any suggestions?

 

[BabyGuRL2002]

I just recently bought the M300. I can not tell you a whole lot about it, other than what I know. I charge my battery every night on my phone, and that gives me just enough charge to take care of everything (standby for about 15 hours, 1-2 hours of talk time & at times taking pictures. I recieve fairly descent reception, not the absolute best, but quite far from the worse. The one benefit I do like about it, is the camera in case I do need to take pictures of something & don't have my digital camera around (already had to several times), along with the fact it has blue tooth, which although I never used & never thought I would need, I decided to buy a bluetooth headset & I now don't know how I got by without. I'm the Commander of a Search & Rescue Team, so I am constantly on the phone & need something good. The phone does suit me pretty well for my needs & I'm overall pleased with it. I can't say on the internet or anything, as I never use my phone internet, and same for syncing with a computer. The amount of contacts on M300 is perfect for me, which is a maximum of 299 phone numbers, and you can put up to 5 numbers per person, so if you did 5 numbers for every person you could put 59 people at 5 numbers & 4 people at one number. So you could put well over 100 contacts if you use less than 5 numbers per person. You can also assign a ringer or picture to each caller & also enter email address, etc for each contact. Hope this info helps you out.

 

[kool skool grl]

Thanks, that's all helpful information!

 

[hpfan7524-5102]

Just ordered 4 Katana II's for $30 each. It is getting great reviews for its price. The Razr V3m is now free after rebates and has certain better features than the Katana II, but the reviews indicate a poorer build quality and a history of more problems.

A friend has a SCP-3100 and it is a very solid phone. I would assume its successor, the SCP-3200 is also very good. It has Bluetooth, but is missing AMPS support.

Overall, the Sanyo's are probably the most solid of the bunch...