Review posted Aug. 26, 2006 by Tong Zhang, Senior Editor Update, Augst 2007: Check out the Katana DLX which replaces the Katana. Sprint is the only US carrier who hasn't offered the Motorola RAZR. Instead they've found some interesting alternatives in the super-slim flip phone category. If you want a feature phone with a slim form, built-in Bluetooth, VGA camera, a large display, basic PIM (Personal Information Management) applications and the NetFront web browser that supports Sprint PCS Vision (but not PowerVision) services, the Katana beckons. Named after the Samurai sword, the Katana has a very similar 0.6" thin body and a feature set that’s similar to the Motorola RAZR. Design and Ergonomics The Katana looks like the RAZR with thin panels and an antenna bulge at the bottom. This CDMA phone measures in at 3.88" x 2.0" x 0.58" compared to the RAZR’s 3.86 x 2.08 x 0.57 inches. The Katana doesn’t look as solidly built as the RAZR since the Katana has very thin plastic covers that have more low-end look. When the phone is closed, you will use the color external screen for information such as signal strength, time, battery status and incoming caller IDs as well notifications. Above the display you will find the VGA camera lens. You can launch the camera application and take self-portraits without opening the flip by pressing the camera button on the right side of the phone. Below the LCD is a LED light that shows phone connection stats and more. The mono headset jack also lives on the right side. You will find the volume up and down rocker on the left side of the Katana along with the charging port. You will find the speakerphone grill right below the battery door. When you open the clamshell, you will see the vibrant 2.2” main color display and the earpiece above the display. The keypad on the Katana has a slightly better feel than the RAZR’s and has blue backlight. The number keys are separated from each other but aren’t raised much and won’t provide you with much feedback when dialing by touch. There is a small dot on the number 5 which centers the number pad. Above the number keys you will find a three-key row that includes Talk, Speaker and End/Power buttons. We prefer the dedicated speaker launch button on the keypad to a side button as you will often hold the sides of the phone when talking. You will find the square 5-way directional pad above the number pad and it’s flanked by two soft keys and another camera launch button and the Back key. The mic hole lives below the number pad and just above the antenna bulge. The Katana currently comes in four colors: Blue Sapphire, Mystic Black, Cherry Blossom Pink and Polar White. It's likely we'll see more colors in the future. Phone Features and Reception The Sanyo Katana is a dual-band/tri-mode CDMA phone. It operates on Sprint’s 800 and 1900 MHz digital networks with support for 800 MHz analog, a feature that’s hard to find nowadays thanks to disappearing analog towers. The Katana’s reception is middle of the road. That’s not as good as the Treo 700p on Sprint network here in the Dallas area, but it’s better than the Samsung a920. In a very strong coverage area, the Katana gets full signal strength and in good and fair coverage areas, the Katana usually can get 50% coverage strength. The voice quality on Sprint is very good: voice is crisp and loud without any distortion.

Camera The Katana has an integrated VGA camera that’s takes decent photos by VGA camera standards. With more and more camera phones weighing in at 1.3 megapixels, VGA feel outdated. But it’s certainly better than nothing when you want to snap a fleeting moment. The camera application offers basic functions such as a self timer, white balance and brightness settings and digital zoom. Maximum photo resolution is of course VGA (640 x 480), and the camera offers QVGA resolution (320 x 240) and a low resolution (160 x 120) for caller photo ID. There are also three image quality levels you can choose from depending on how good you want the pictures to look and how big a file you want to send or store. While photo quality isn’t as good as that of the Treo 650’s VGA camera (one of the best among phones we’ve tested), it’s better than many low-end VGA camera phones and images have reasonable color saturation and light balance. You will notice full sun shots look washed out, (a problem which plagues all VGA cameras), and a warm color bias in indoor shots with incandescent light (also not uncommon). Noise levels are quite low by VGA camera standards. Once you’ve taken a photo with the Katana, you can save it to the phone’s internal memory or send it to other compatible phones, email or upload it to Sprint’s picture site. The Katana’s internal memory can hold up 33 photos taken in Fine mode at VGA resolution.  You can send a photo to 16 contacts at once. The Katana doesn’t have a memory card slot or Bluetooth file transfer support. You cannot take videos with the Katana’s camera.

Battery Life The Sanyo Katana comes with a standard Lithium Ion battery that’s 820 mAh in capacity. That’s not too small a battery for a phone that doesn’t have MP3 and video playback capabilities. The claimed talk time is 3.6 hours which seems optimistic in our tests. Talking for 30 minutes on the phone, pairing it with Bluetooth headsets, taking 5 photos and send them to email addresses used about 1/3 of the battery life while keeping the Bluetooth radio on. If you are heavy on the messaging and web usage along with some photo taking and moderate talk time, be prepared to charge the phone everyday. There is no claimed standby time, but in our tests it lasted more than a week in standby mode. If you don’t use the phone very frequently you can put it in power save mode which will prolong the battery life on a charge significantly. If you travel a lot and can’t get to an A/C outlet before using up a charge, you can purchase an extended battery that’s 1350 mAh in capacity which will almost double your talk time. Messaging, Web and PIM The Katana offers SMS/MMS, Sprint PCS Mail and IM and chat features for messaging. Sending and receiving text messages is almost instant, but MMS take a while to get through between carriers if you are sending MMS to phone numbers on other carriers’ networks. The Sprint PCS email and IM features are handy since the phone doesn’t come with an email client. You will need to set up your account online and the speed is decent for the 1xRTT. The Katana comes with a WAP browser that takes you to Sprint’s WAP portal. The portal has links to your messages, downloads, news, weather, sports, entertainment, finance info and more. The browser displays WAP sites fine, but don’t expect it do much more. To manager your personal information, the Katana offers a contacts database what can store up to 700 phone numbers in about 500 contact entries. That’s pretty standard for a feature phone. The Katana supports several address fields including URL, email address, and several phone numbers per record. You can add picture caller IDs, special ringtones, speed dials and voice tags to contact entries. The contact database has group support and is integrated with phone dialing, voice dialing and messaging. In addition to the contacts database, you also get a calendar application that has a monthly view and a day view. You can keep your event schedules and appointments in the calendar and set alarms to remind you of the events. There is also a simple To-Do List application that allows you to keep a list of to-dos with status.  You will also get Stop Watch, Alarm Clock and World Clock applications.

Display: Display: Main display: 2.2” QVGA TFT LCD; 65K colors; 240 x 320 pixels. External display: 1.0” TFT LCD, 65K colors; 96 x 64 pixels.
Battery: Sanyo standard Li-ion battery, 820 mAh, 3.7v, model number: SCP-23LBPS.
Performance: 5 megs internal memory, indisclosed CPU.
Size: 3.88” x 2.0” x 0.58” inches. Weight: 3.4 ounces.
Phone: CDMA digital dual-band (800 MHz and 1900 MHz) and analog 800 MHz. 1xRTT for data.
Camera: VGA camera with digital zoom. Camera resolution: VGA (640 x 480), QVGA (320 x 240) and QQVGA (160 x 120). Can’t take video.
Audio: Built-in mono speaker, mic and proprietary headphone jack with 2.5mm adapter. Voice tag dialing supported. 72-Chord Polyphonic ringtone support. Voice memory, unique ringtones and vibrate as well as silent features supported.
Networking: Bluetooth 1.1.
Software: Contacts, Calendar, text and MMS client, World Clock, Alarm Clock, Stop Watch, To-Do List, Calendar, WAP browser, camera software and games.
Expansion: None.
In the Box: The Katana phone with a standard battery, travel charger, a headset adapter and a printed users guide.
                                           ( Author : Tong Zhang, Source : mobiletechreview )