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"Katana - Solid Sanyo Performance Continues" on by Ald_Tom
Pros: A solid performing dual band tri mode phone with adequate features and good solid performance
Cons: If you expect a cell phone for making and receiving phone calls, then no cons - if you expect everything including the kitchen sink, then you may care to look elsewhere
Summary: Let me set the demographics for those who are interested. I'm 52 yr with a 6 figure salary. I sort of took offense to a few reviews that stated the appeal of this phone was to those young hip-hop teenagers. Not so. Maybe that was the intent, but there's another appeal to a different audience. I've had my present phone for almost 3 years. I like to upgrade at about 18 to 24 months. I believe that you need to upgrade technology to get the best performance. And additionally, it's fun to get a new toy like a cell phone. The reason I've waited almost 3 years to buy this phone was because I've not seen anything worth buying. Also, I've had experience with Sanyo phones, Samsung phones, Nokia, etc. The best performing phone on the Sprint network is the Sanyo phone. Period. I define performance as it relates purely to reception, drop call rate, signal strength, etc. And they make a quality unit. They are one of the only companies that truly 'gets it' in terms of having the same charger connection type for the past 4 or 5 years. Congrats to Sanyo for understanding how it really ticks us off to have to buy new car chargers, etc. How handy to have left over additional chargers in the house when you buy a new Sanyo phone. I finally upgraded to this phone because I liked the professional reviews I read, and I liked the appearance of the phone. It's also pretty much an exact update of my present phone, the Sanyo 8100. Besides not seeing anything worth buying I was afraid of buying a phone that had all kinds of things in it - cameras, video, ipod-ish, fm transmitters, ability to cruise the internet, etc. I want a phone that performs well. Focus on one thing and do that one thing very well and I'm happy. So this dual band tri mode phone will get me a signal almost anywhere. - that's cool. I want to talk on the phone and have it sound and perform well. I want a calculator built in so that in restaurants I can add a tip and divvy up the bill easily. I found little value to the camera in the phone I had before - mostly used it to take pix of people and match it to their phone number in the contact list - a cool novelty that didn't do anything for phone performance. I occasionally, like 5 times a year, will connect to the internet to get a weather forecast somewhere. I think the Katana is a well built phone. It's typical Sanyo. Someone mentioned that the keys felt slippery - yeah, I suppose they do when compared to Razr but when compared to other Sanyo phones, Nokia phones, etc., they are the same type finish. I don't get the remark. Not everything is about the Razr. And let's talk a bit about the Razr. The last Motorola I had was the Startac which was a great phone. Since then, they do not and have not made good phones. The Razr is a marketing success but a performance failure - read the articles. I didn't buy this to get a Razr look alike - I was attracted to this phone because of it's low (slim) profile, comfort, cool look and Sanyo brand name. The Bluetooth works fine - I have it, but frankly I'm unimpressed with Bluetooth - a wired cord is less distracting and works fine. The speaker phone feature works well with good sound levels. Reception so far is good with both caller and receiver having no complaints. I plan to test it next week while traveling in the USA and then in 2 weeks while in a mostly digital roaming area. If I have anything interesting to report I'll update this posting. Generally speaking, most folks that buy electronics will tell you to stay clear of do everything units - combination vhs/dvd machines for example, etc., because something is usually sacrificed in terms of performance. I bet cell phones are like that too. If you want a cell phone to make and receive phone calls with decent performance expectations - then this is a good choice. At least I think so, so far.
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"Great Phone, once again CNET misses in my opinion" on by aikenben
Pros: Slim, stylish, great reception and sound
Cons: Sometimes hard to tell if you press the buttons, location of battery/headset hookups
Summary: This is a great phone. It sounds great, looks great, feels great, and have great reception. I bought it to replace an LG MM535 (it was the 2nd of two LG phones that I have owned since I've been with Sprint, and both have been defective) that pretty much decided that the screen no longer wanted to work. In my office where I formerly had very very patchy service, I now maintain at least about 1 bar with this phone... no more dipping in and out of service constantly.
Anyway, that being said, I have a comment to make. I come to this site strictly for the user reviews, and once in awhile take the CNET review into account. They have a strong tendency to review items for what they want them to be, rather than for what they are. Yeah, this phone isn't loaded with features and all the extras, but it wasn't intended to be anyway. It's great at what it was designed for. It's not trying to be an MP3 player, or a Sprint TV phone. Yeah, it would be cool if it had those features, but to claim that as a negative aspect of the phone? It just seems naive, in my opinion. This phone IS great at what it was designed for. The reception is great and I haven't had a dropped call thus far--that's more than I can say about my previous phone, which scored a higher 7.3 on CNET.
So, for those of you looking at this phone with the intention of it being able to play MP3s and allow you to watch TV on it. Well, sorry, but it won't do that.
However, for those of you who plan to read the specifications and the feature set of the phone, well, it performs each and every one of those features with a feel of grace.
This is a great phone, and aside from a few MINOR gripes about the inconsistent feel of the keys (and by inconsistent, I mean it only feels weird sometimes), and the location of the hookups and volume keys, it's a great phone! -
"Good for what it is" on by cuchanu
Pros: Slim, Made by Sanyo, Great Screen
Cons: Poor Camera, should've made it EVDO
Summary: CNET failed to mention (when comparing the Katana to the RAZR) that 95% of RAZR's sold have the same basic features as the Katana, including only VGA camera, no music player, etc, but the RAZR screen is lower resolution. The only advanced tech RAZR's are the ones for Verizon and the V3m that just came out.
I love the way the inside of the phone looks, and I didn't find the buttons to be slippery. The outside is ok looking too me.
You cant customize the menu color though and this is surprising considering you can with even the cheapest Sanyo phones.
The screen is beautiful.
The reception is great and it has analog too, which gives you the best coverage in the middle of nowhere.
Good speakerphone for a slim phone.
The white balance on the camera is way off, so you have to adjust it to get a pic that isn't orange.
It would have been nice to see a more advanced phone, feature wise, but it is what it is.
Great choice for somebody who isn't concerned with having all the advanced features, but who would still like to have a good looking, good performing slim phone. It's reception is better than the Blade, and it's probably going to be more reliable than the Blade or the RAZR. -
"Good but a few issues" on by ipcalbano
Pros: Price, design, size, good quality
Cons: poor display in the sunlight, bad camera, no ring and vibrate option
Summary: I am pretty sold on the Sanyo brand after having great experiences with two other models (the 4500 and the 6000). When it came time to upgrade my phone I was delighted to see the Sanyo released this phone. I read some reviews online and thought this was a good option for me. I wanted to see the phone in person so I headed off to my local mall to check it out. I’ll try to not to be overly negative here but I have to say Sprint’s online service and in-store customer service was not at all helpful and disappointing experience. I’m not a mall fan but it was nice to be able to bounce to Best Buy and Radio shack after my bad experience at the Sprint Store.
Jumping ahead, I bought the phone at Radio Shack after demoing it at the store. I recommend this phone to folks who use their phone for practical purposes but if you’re looking for fancy features (camera, music, watching TV) this might not be the phone for you. I’m very happy with design, size, and options it has. I have to say that I’m a little disappointed with a few things. Those disappointments are: (1) the camera is very poor quality (everything has an orange hue to it; (2) I’m outdoors a fair amount and the display is very difficult to see in the sun light (it’s fine indoors and, of course, at night); (3) Unless I just haven’t figured it out yet, it seems you can not have the phone ring and vibrate at the same time. That’s a major disappointment to me if that is the case. There is an option for ring tone and voice but that doesn’t help when you’re in a noisy space and are looking for the vibrate function as a back up.
I’m glad this phone was released at an affordable price and I’m overall happy with the sound, the speaker phone, and most of the features. Again, I’m a fan of Sanyo products and like this phone but do feel that it came up short in a few areas. -
"Sanyo Knocked This One Out of the Park" on by SizRoch
Pros: Excellent Sound Quality and Reception
Cons: Very Few - Flip Action, Slightly Weak Hinge
Summary: The Katana just may be the one that retires my old trusted Sanyo 4900. I am a gaget guy who has all of the toys including the Sprint PPC-6700, the Treo 700w, and the Sprint Broadband card. But, nothing has come along to taking the place of my Sanyo 4900 as a MOBILE PHONE until maybe now.
We just bought the Katana pink version for our daughter. I was not impressed with the phone at the Sprint store while checking it out on the display. Sprint marketing reps and Sanyo should take notice that the harness placed around the Katana to prevent theft in their display cases do this phone no justice.
But, once I got this phone home, I became more than impressed. This phone rocks. Having had a Power Vision phone before, the Katana connects to the internet faster than the EVDO phones. The sound quality and reception is excellent. So far, the battery life appears to be good (although no match for the Sanyo 4900). The speaker phone is very good; better than the 4900. Blue tooth works well. Text messaging is ergonomically pretty good with keys that are actually not bad.
Areas of improvement include: 1. a little better build quality on the hinge would be nice, but, really no complaints for now - time will tell how it holds up; 2. Blue tooth works ok, but, the mic quality could be better (this is likely as much to do with the headset mfgr); 3. Unlike the 4900 (I believe), the Katana cannot verbally tell you who is calling on an incoming call. I will test this some more to confirm this to be true; 4. As a flip phone that can be used with one hand, well, it's a little too slim for that (at least for the size of my hands) - would be nice if the lip of the phone was notched out to more easily get a finger in there for the quick flip manuever.
Regarding durability, again time will tell. My Sanyo SCP-4900 has dropped, kicked, and stills keeps on delivering. If the Katana can provide half the life with all the goodies it packs, I think it's one to go for.
By the way, one complaint that I've read multiple times involves the volume control. It's actually not as bad as reported. When in the closed position (something you may do when talking on bluetooth), the controls are right where you'd expect them. In the open position while in a call, the up and down buttons on the navigation wheel become the volume control as well. So, there's no need to use the controls on the side of the phone.
Finally, the reviewer who said CNET got it wrong again is on the money. CNET reviewers should stipulate how long they reviewed the product before rendering judgement. A 7.0 rating on this phone is undeserving.Updated
I incorrectly stated that the Katana was unable to announce an incoming callers name; I stand corrected, it CAN. This feature is activated by assigning a voice tag to a contact and then setting the ringer for that contact to announce the voice tag. This can be annoying if you are in an environment where others can hear your phone ring all day. But, if you're in the car or house, it's a great feature to know who's calling when the phone is out of reach.
One Other Note: Sanyo very smartly has once again carried over the power charger adapter to the Katana. This means most Sanyo phone chargers made after the SCP-4500 series phone will work on the Katana. Smart because knowing your existing car and home chargers will work with the latest Sanyo phones encourages loyalty to the Sanyo brand. As an IT manager for a large mobile workforce, I have had them all and Sanyo for the past 5 years has consistently made the best phones out there, bar none. Sprint is fortunate to have this relationship with Sanyo.
Add Another to the Improvements List: The Katana can connect to a conventional wired headset as well. Unfortunately (and after boasting above about their adherence to a power charger standard), the Katana requires an adapter for the headset. Fortunately, the adapter is included with the phone. However, inserting it into the phone is not as easy as the standard 2.5mm round pin type which could be awkward if trying to plug in while driving. Alternative: use bluetooth instead.
Sanyo Katana 6600 user reviews (black, Sprint)
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