iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
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Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great Basic Phone"
Pros: Voice clarity, voice dialing, appearance, bluetooth operation
Cons: Thinner than I'm used to, causing me to drop it a few times while carrying it from the car; no obvious voice command for calling account info
Summary: First of all, I'm the kind of user who wants a reliable, compact cell phone without a lot of frills. I would have actually preferred a phone without a camera. As an avid photographer, I have several choices for taking photos, some of which are not much larger than this phone, so I use a CAMERA to take photos, not a phone. Having a camera phone is also a hassle with security at some companies where I do business, so I definitely hoped to avoid this "feature" in a cell phone. Since few, if any, newer phones are offered sans camera, I had to simply get over this.
My wife and I have had common phone models for awhile now, and we've enjoyed a bit less clutter because of this since we can share chargers. I initially wanted the "free" SCP-3200 even though it was a bit older. My wife liked the sexy look of the Katana LX, however, so that got me looking at this phone.
What swayed me was the newer bluetooth technology, coupled with the fact that this phone was also free after rebate from third party websites. As a bonus, the third party website also offered several service plan options to returning customers that Sprint's site doesn't even mention, even after you sign in as a customer. So we now have a better service plan for our needs and it's $10 cheaper per month than the old plan.
On to the phone itself. I'm coming off a Sanyo SCP-200 that I was never very thrilled with. Sometimes I could barely understand my wife on her SCP-200, while I could hear most other callers just fine. I've had 3 people I talk to frequently all comment that this new phone has a noticeably clearer voice quality. And the quality in the earpiece is also a noticeable improvement over my old phone. Based on that alone, I am happy we chose this model.
The phone itself looks "cool", and is surprisingly even smaller than my old phone. Without the external antenna, the phone is actually both shorter and thinner than the old SCP-200; antenna aside, however, the body of the Katana LX is slightly taller than the SCP-200. The thinner package makes me worry a bit about it falling out of my phone holster, but that hasn't happened yet. I have dropped it, however, carrying it among a handful of other stuff when entering my house from my car. The shiny surface is a bit slippery and its small size makes it easy to lose track of when also carrying keys and other small items.
Voice activated calling is something I didn't think I would care about, but I do like it. Especially when using my bluetooth headset (SoundID SM100), the voice commands make operation especially useful. The only thing that I find disappointing is that I've found no quick voice command for getting my account info (which is *4). Even though the callee name of "Account Info" shows when you dial *4, you cannot simply say "Call Account Info", nor does "Star-4", nor "asterisk 4" work. I've worked around this by making a contact entry named Account Info, and that works.
Finally, at least while in its new state, the battery life has been impressive. I haven't timed it exactly yet, but I went 5 days after intial charge before I had to charge again, and that was with call useage. Much better than I expected!
One final note is that the translucent display on the outside of the phone is tough to read in bright sunshine. But on the other hand, so are most other electronic displays, so I don't think this is significantly worse. I was able to tilt the body to get an advantageous angle that worked, though, so all was not lost the one time I needed to see it thus far.
One other nice feature that I plan on using in the future is the voice memo feature. My previous phone had 72 seconds total for this feature, but this phone can record up to 30 minutes of memos! This will come in handy for recording stat information at my son's hockey games!
Bottom line, if you want a basic phone with good call quality, this phone fits the bill nicely. I don't text or use my phone for a camera, so I won't comment on those aspects of the phone. The phone is compact, yet comfortably large when unfolded; it can fit in a pants pocket, yet is comfortable to talk on. The sleek appearance is a nice bonus, and bluetooth connecting is simple. My rating reflects how it has delivered as a simple, basic cell phone.
- 1 reply to this review
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I am about to resign another 2 year contract with sprint, and would love to pay less! what company did you go through?
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