Review: Sanyo Katana for Sprint

Sanyo Katana

Sanyo Katana

Sanyo Katana

In many ways, the Sanyo Katana for Sprint is a testament to the marketing and engineering geniuses at....Motorola. Motorola's marketing team taught the industry the value of a name for a phone instead of just a model designation (ie. "XYZ123i"). Their engineers came up with the new and improved clamshell/folder form factor that places the phone's antenna in the bulge beneath the keypad, and they were among the first to embed the camera module in the hinge of a clamshell in such a way that allows for modules that are thicker than the top half of the folder design itself. All wonderful things that Sanyo, and many others, have grabbed hold of and run with.

So to a large extent we can thank Motorola for the wonderful new breed of clamshell phones like Sanyo's adorable Katana.

Physical Aspects

There is no denying the Katana's RAZR heritage - both in name and form. Measuring 97mm x 51mm x 16mm (3.8" x 2" x .6"), the Katana is 2mm narrower, 1mm shorter, and 2mm thicker than the original Motorola RAZR V3. It is also about 2.5g lighter than the RAZR V3, coming in at 95g (3.3oz). Those are very respectable numbers by most anybody's standards.

The Katana seems to be solidly built, and there are a number of nice touches in the design that show some thought was put into its making. For example, the small plastic bump guards that straddle each side of the volume rocker and camera shutter buttons prevent their accidental activation (even though there is a software keylock function as well). Rubber feet and another pair of bumps on the back of the Katana provides space between the Katana's speaker and the surface of your desk, ensuring that you will be able to hear your ringtones.

Some of the more mundane features of the Katana's exterior include the two covered ports that deal with the power adapter and headsets. Each port's rubber cover fits snuggly and is easy to open and close. The headset port is of further interest because it is not a normal 2.5mm headset jack. The Katana does ship with an adapter that allows for the use of such headsets, though.

Once opened up, the Katana's large 320x240 pixel (QVGA) display and low profile keypad are exposed. Apart from the somewhat dished out shape of the 5 key, the keypad is completely flat. Each key moves slightly when pressed and provides a soft click to let you know that it is working. The d-pad controller and its center menu/OK button work decently enough, but probably are not going to win a lot of praise. It is flanked on either side by a pair of softkeys that sit above dedicated camera and back keys. Between the red and green call control keys is a dedicated speaker button for activating the speakerphone.

As of this time, the Sanyo Katana is available in black, blue, pink, and white.

 

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