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- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 22 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Great budget phone that excels at making calls."
Pros: Build, Voice Quality, Bluetooth
Cons: Skinny volume keys, no speaker independent voice dialing
Summary: The build quality of the Katana II is excellent with the phone feeling solid and well-built in my hand. Its slim profile is nothing new nowadays, but still appreciated. The battery life is decent, not great. Not surprisingly, the glossy surfaces do attract smudges and fingerprints.
The Katana has OUTSTANDING voice quality. I think Sanyo is one of the few manufacturers out there that has remembered that primary purpose of a phone is to, well, make calls. With the Katana II, it is truly a pleasure to carry on a conversation with the speaker?s voice always sounding loud and very clear. The speakerphone turns in an equally great performance. I also love the fact that there is a dedicated speakerphone button so that you can initiate calls or answer a call using the speaker phone.
The Katana II paired easily with my Jawbone Bluetooth headset (odd choice you may say, to buy a headset that cost me more than the phone ? but I just needed something good but inexpensive to ride out my contract). Voice quality sounded great using Bluetooth as well. The previous phone I tried out (STAY AWAY FROM THE SAMSUNG M300!!!) made me critical of the volume through my pricey Jawbone. Using the Katana, it became obvious that the blame laid with the inferior M300 and not my headset. I was also able to transfer contacts with other devices without any issues.
Like many other phones without a QWERTY keypad, the Katana uses the T9 predictive typing. I have to say that the Katana?s implementation of T9 is more appealing than others I?ve used. As you type, the word options appear below allowing you to quickly choose the word you intended without having to cycle through words using a NEXT key. I was wary at first but have come to love this method. Of course, no predictive typing is going to be as natural as a full QWERTY keyboard, but this is the next best thing. The keys are not as large as the previous Katana, but I am able to text easily and quickly.
Couple of nice features are the ability to screen calls though the phone and also a HOLD function. If you press the button on the right side in response to an incoming call, the caller gets a message to please hold for a moment. A nice feature to allow you to politely end a conversation and still get to your caller. Do be careful that if you press the volume buttons too often to suppress a call that it will actually answer on speaker phone. I had a couple of embarrassing moments before I realized this.
The display is nice and bright, even in direct sunlight. It has the standard Sprint menu layout, but the graphics are nice compared to other phones. The Katana also has a Favorites menu where you can link to your most used menu options, like enabling Bluetooth, etc. It nice because you don?t have to dig through a number of menus to get to the functions you use most. The menus are very responsive with no delays.
The VGA camera on this phone is only so-so and won?t win you any Pulitzer Prizes. However, this was not an important feature to me. Especially given that the phone lacks any memory card slots and I?m not willing to pay for Sprint?s Vision Plan to get a grainy picture off my phone.
One thing I really wish that this phone would include is VoiceSignal?s speaker independent voice dialing. This is the ONLY thing I missed from giving up the crappy Samsung M300. Coupled with a Bluetooth headset, it made for truly hands-free operation.
My other gripe, is the placement of the skinny volume buttons on the upper-half of this clamshell phone. Also, the placement of the earphone relative to the mic can sometimes cause me to position the phone in a less than optimal position. On rare occasion, I have to adjust phone?s position to my face for someone to hear me better. I also wish the external display was better.
Bottom line? if you?re looking for quality budget phone that has outstanding call quality, Bluetooth, is customizable, and has some nice phone features ? this is a great choice. If you?re looking for a phone that is less phone and more a multimedia messaging device, then you?ll be very disappointed. Me ? I was looking for the former and am extremely happy with this phone.
Where to buy
Sanyo Katana II 6650 - black (Sprint):
$49.95
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eBay
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$49.95 | Yes |
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