Well with the T68i which is a GPRS phone, when I first got the phone with the older firmware it was quite bad. At times I would miss calls since the phone; in my pocket was displaying low signal. A Nokia with internal antenna in the same area had better reception!

But after numerous software upgrades, about 5 revisions it is a LOT more stable I hardly get bad reception/call dropouts etc, since GSM/GPRS coverage here in NZ is almost 90% of the country.

It really does depend on the coverage areas of your carrier, in your case SprintPCS. CDMA in NZ is also almost 80% of the country, I don’t see that there will really be reception problems with the T608 especially in Auckland.

Since you say that the Sanyo with external antenna does give you problems, I wouldn’t be confident in recommending a phone with an internal antenna. However to be sure you'd really have to try it for yourself. Since we are comparing apples with bananas i.e. different phone brands different power/reception levels...