Product Review of the Sanyo Katana Cell Phone

I have this nasty little habit of yearning for a new cell phone every year or so. Suffice to say, when the Sanyo Katana came out, provided by Sprint, I had to have it. Marked as Sprint's competitive version of the popular Motorola Razr, I had high expectations for the Katana. As with any phone on the market, there are positives and negatives when considering the phones look and performance, but to me, the positives outweigh the negatives for this phone.

The Good

The Sanyo Katana is very stylish and original, allowing it to stand out from others in the field. The superb lines and styling of the phone are sleek and match with its Asian-toned namesake. The Katana comes in three main colors: blue, pink, and black. My phone is white; the white version of the Katana is only available through Radio Shack. Each color allows for a more stylized and personalized phone.

The build of the Katana is also a plus. Although it is a slim flip phone, it does not feel weak or fragile. It seems stronger and more rigid than other popular flip phones, and my personal phone has handled a fair deal of drops and scratches. The smaller, outside screen is customizable and handy, and the large, inside screen is clear and vibrant. The actual buttons of the phone are also well stylized and user friendly. I'm personally a fan of the blue backlight of the keys.

The Bad

One of two major complaints I have with the Sanyo Katana has to deal with the speaker itself. The call clarity of the phone is good, and the ring tones offered by the phone are loud and clear. When downloading ring tones, however, the phone only allows for the low memory downloads, leading to an incredibly poor sounding result. I have had other sprint phones that had crystal clear ring tone playback for the ring tones downloaded off of the sprint site. The Katana, however, lacks in this department under the same situation.

The other negative of the Katana is the camera within the phone. The pictures often show up grainy or blurry; there is no flash on the phone, and any attempt to zoom automatically ruins the clarity of the picture. Again, with older phones from Sprint, I have had better cameras than this that have had a flash and had better without-flash clarity. Sanyo's Katana is somewhat disappointing when it comes to its camera capabilities.

While the two problems I found with the Sanyo Katana are more than noticeable, I was aware of them prior to purchasing the phone through online research. The Katana is very stylish and sleek, and performs well when it comes to the actual purpose of a cell phone: making calls. The Katana is blue-tooth compatible, and has all of the usual features; the alarm clock, calendar, calculator, and web capability are all there and easily accessed. I'm happy with my Sanyo Katana so far, and actually plan on keeping the thing longer than a year.