Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Easy to use phone that works great
Cons: Won't like it if you are searching for more than a
phone
The Bottom Line:
A simple cell phone
No real bells and whistles
But talking is great
Sanyo's Katana LX Proves to be a Great First Cell Phone
I got my first cell phone just over 3 years ago. Yeah, I know - welcome to the 20th
century. Even my parents had them before
I did. As exciting as all the flashy
cell phones are, I was going with a simple minutes only phone plan, so I just
wanted a simple phone. While Sanyo's
Katana LX looks flashy on the outside, it is a pretty basic phone and has met
my needs.
As I recall, the phone came in three colors, pink, blue, and
silver. I got mine at a Sprint booth at
a festival, so silver was the only one they had. They also had a special promo going that day,
so I got mine for free when signing a two year contract that day. The phone normally would have been $280 or
so, so I got a great deal.
It's a flip phone.
When closed it's maybe half an inch thick and three inches long. I keep it in my pants pocket all day and
never even notice it. The front display
on mine is a mirrorized silver. Here's
the really cool feature. There's a small
display in the front that lights up when you get a phone call that tells you
who is calling. Or, if you press the
buttons on the side, it displays the time for you. On one side is the opening for an external
headphone jack. The other side includes
the opening for the power cord and the volume and camera buttons. Both openings for cords are closed with
rotating rubber toppers which keep the sides pretty smooth.
Flip the phone open and the top half features a display
screen while the bottom half has the keyboard.
It's a traditional phone keyboard, so those who want to text a lot will
quickly grow tired of the repetition. I
don't text, so this is fine for me, although I did find entering lots of new
contacts via that keyboard to get repetitive.
Making and receiving calls has been great with this
phone. When a call comes in, it answers
as soon as I flip the phone open and hangs up when I close it. And since I keep it closed in my pocket, I
don't make any random calls to people.
The reception has been good with this phone. The instruction book that came with the phone
talked about special ways to hold it so that your hand doesn't get in the way
of the internal antenna. I never had a
problem holding the phone however I wanted.
My condo has spotty reception, and many of my roommates can only talk in
the living room. I've been able to use
the phone wherever I wanted, even in the garage.
As far as making calls goes, it is easy to search contacts
by first or last name. You can set up to
100 speed dials, but I never bothered with that. If you are entering a number by hand, the
keypad is big enough that you don't have trouble hitting the number you want.
In addition to the phone, I got a battery, the instruction
book, and a wall power cord. I thought
about getting a card charger, but never actually did that. I am still on my first battery as well, but I
don't talk on my phone all that time. I
used to be able to go around 5 days between charges, that's how little I used
my phone. Now it seems like I need to
charge it two or three times a week, mainly because I have spotty reception at
work, which draws more power from the battery.
(For the record, I work in a canyon and all my coworkers have spotty
reception no matter who their provider is.
This isn't a phone issue but a location issue.) I definitely notice it runs down much faster
during the week than on weekends, and I tend to use it more on weekends, so I
think the location of my office is effecting things. Still, I'm not complaining since I am rapidly
approaching three and a half years with the same battery. When I do charge my phone, it charges in
around 3 hours, and I can still use the phone to talk if I need to during that
time.
The phone does come with few basic ring tones. I splurged and bought ring tones of a couple
of songs I liked at the time. Both those
clips sound great coming out of my phone.
This phone doesn't have a built in mp3 player, so I wasn't expecting
much and have been pleasantly surprised.
In addition to the traditional holding the phone to your ear
option, there's also a speakerphone and a blue tooth option. I've used both various times over the years,
and I've thought both worked well. The
volume on the side of the phone works the volume for both of these as well, and
I can always find a comfortable volume for talking no matter what is going on
around me. Both of these options work
with the phone opened or closed.
Earlier, I mentioned the camera button on the outside of the
phone. I must confess I have used the
camera twice, both times to back pictures to set as my background. I have never tried to download the pictures
or view them anywhere else. The screen
is small, so they look fine on that, but I don't know what is involved in
transferring them to a computer or how they would look. My guess is they wouldn't be the best
quality, especially since there is no flash for the phone.
There is also the option of web surfing. I used it once or twice three years ago but
quickly determined it wasn't worth attempting to use, especially since I would
be charged extra for it. The screen is
so small, you can't seen much anyway. If
you want web surfing, I highly recommend getting another phone.
A few games were on the phone, but only demos. After a brief round or two, they were
disabled until you bought subscribed to them for a monthly charge. Needless to say, I didn't purchase them.
There are 300 contact slots in this phone, which has been
more than enough for me. I finally broke
100 contacts a few months back and could probably go through and trim out
people I don't talk to any more like former roommates I was never that close
to.
The phone does have the usual assortment of features like
stop watch, calculator, timer, and alarm clock.
I use the alarm clock part when traveling, and I find it to be easy to
use and very helpful. I've used the
other features a few times over the years as well, and they were great, too.
For a three and a half year old phone, it still looks
great. I've got a small ding or two in
the outside, but that is all. The
numbers on the phone are still legible with no visible wear. The inside screen comes in contact with my
face when I'm talking, so I have to wipe it off every so often, but that's
about the only issue I really have with it.
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