Sanyo PRO-200 and Sanyo PRO-700 are two new handsets manufactured by the Japanese company recently acquired by another, bigger Japanese company, namely Kyocera. Sprint will soon offer its customers (or its non-customers that want to become customers) these new phones, together with exclusive features.

The phones leverage on the speed of Sprint's Mobile Broadband network and come with the Nextel Direct Connect PTT (push-to-talk) service which provides Direct Connect (for quick call set-up times), Group Connect (a "one-to-many capability" that allows users to communicate with up to 20 people at once, through QChat) and Call Alerts (users can send repeated PTT alerts).

John Garcia, chief marketing officer for Sprint, declared: "Sprint customers rely on Nextel Direct Connect for instant communication at the push of a button, allowing them to do more, faster. Now Sprint is giving customers the ability to be even more productive with the industry-leading performance of Nextel Direct Connect, plus the speed of Sprint Mobile Broadband and a larger voice calling area. Sprint is proud to build on the 15-year leadership of Nextel Direct Connect with this exciting evolution of the portfolio, featuring the sub-second connectivity to millions of users that our customers depend on."

Sanyo PRO-200 (or Sanyo PRO 200) is a clamshell that comes with an internal 240 x 320 pixels display, Sprint Navigation, email, Instant Messaging, Bluetooth, Mobile Sync, and a battery that should enable it to work for up to 4.9 hours in talk-time mode.

Sanyo PRO-700 (or Sanyo PRO 700) is also a clamshell that comes in a rugged case and it's "certified to military standards" for shock, vibration and dust. The handset packs features similar to the ones of PRO-200, including a 240 x 320 pixels internal screen, Bluetooth, Sprint Navigation, Instant Messaging and email, Mobile Sync and a battery that can provide up to 5 hours of talk-time.

The new Sanyo phones will be available from Sprint later in April. Sanyo PRO-200 will cost you $49.99, after a $50 mail-in rebate, with a 2-year contract agreement, while Sanyo PRO-700 is priced at $69.99, also with a 2-year deal a $50 mail-in rebate. No word yet about the handsets' availability from other carriers or in other countries besides the US.