| Sanyo SCP-6600 Expert Reviews |
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Sanyo SCP-6600 -- by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter--March 22nd 2007 |
| Full Review |
| The Sanyo Katana might not have all the latest bells and whistles, such as a 1.3-megapixel camera, an external storage card, or a music player, but it does a great job with the features it does support. More importantly, it's what a cell phone should be: reliable. It has decent call quality, impressive battery life, and a bright display that’s easy to view in most lighting conditions. If that’s not enough for you, it's also one of those cell phones that gets its fair share of "oohs" and "ahhs" when you pull it out of a purse or a pant pocket.
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Calls and speakerphone: For the most part, calls were loud and clear on the Sanyo Katana, though we had to use the side keys to lower the volume occasionally, and a few times, we could detect some static on the line. We also appreciated that two people could talk and be heard on this phone simultaneously. Speakerphone quality was impressive but not stellar, though we particularly appreciated the dedicated key for activating the feature. We did find that we had to turn the Katana face down to hear clearly, as the cell phone’s speaker is located on the back. |
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Menu/phone book: We found using the phone book and navigating through the menu intuitive. Both were easy to use and view; even entering and accessing phone numbers was easy. You can store up to 500 contacts, each of which can include 7 phone numbers, an e-mail address, a Web site, and even a home address. You can customize the Katana by editing the Favorites list. There are 9 slots available to assign to your most frequently used features, which is plenty since there aren’t a lot of extras on this cell phone.
Camera: Although the Sanyo Katana doesn’t sport a 1.3-megapixel camera, it takes decent pictures for a VGA camera. Image quality, though occasionally blurry when trying to capture moving objects, is decent on this cell phone; some images were even crisp with detail. The Katana doesn’t have a flash, but we didn’t miss it. While we do appreciate the ability to send pictures immediately after snapping them  , we don’t like that they aren’t stored in the Sent box located in the Messages menu. This is likely because you should be logging onto the Sprint Picture Mail site to track what you’ve sent.
Connectivity/Bluetooth: We were able to easily connect to a Bluetooth headset (call quality was acceptable with the Motorola H500). |
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Look and feel: If you’re interested in the Sanyo Katana, style is clearly a priority. There’s no denying it’s an attractive cell phone, especially if you go for a model that sports a color other than black. Luckily in this case, fashion doesn’t overtake form. Case in point: the volume adjustment keys; they’re actually located on the side of the display instead of the side of the keypad. This is a much more ergonomically friendly position since your fingers are naturally resting on the display portion of the headset during a call. We’re not as crazy about the camera button located on the other side of the display since we could rarely find it when we needed it, but at least there’s a dedicated camera button on the keypad.
Style aside, the real head turner is the cell phone’s large display. Colors are rich, and images are crisp. Plus, if you’re typing in a number, the font is larger than what you'll find on most cell phones. Additionally, the display is easily viewable in most lighting situations.
Keypad: Flat keypads are all the rage, and the Katana didn’t forsake this trend. The blue-backlit keys are actually cool and a bit retro, with clear plastic casing covering each key. Don’t worry, it's still a flat keypad. The keys are large and spaced far enough apart that misdials rarely occur. But our favorite key by far is the dedicated Speaker button; it’s easily visible and in a spot where it’s never accidentally pressed. The best thing about this keypad is that it’s comfortable to use, whether you have small hands or larger digits. |
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| The Sanyo Katana does a good job in regard to battery life. In fact, we got decent battery life even when we had the Power Save Mode turned off. On average, we needed to charge the cell phone every four to five days when using it regularly to make calls and send/receive text messages. But when we made two to three 10-minute calls a day with light texting, the Sanyo Katana lasted slightly over a week without needing more juice. Additionally, we should note that leaving Bluetooth activated doesn’t have an adverse affect on battery life. |
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Sanyo SCP-6600 Expert Rating
