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- Excellent battery life
- Lots of features
- Good reception
- Slow
- So-so call quality
- No multimedia features
- External screen useless in sunlight
The Sanyo Katana LX is a basic clamshell cell phone, but most reviews say you can find better deals for your $50, chiefly the LG Rumor and Samsung M520. The Rumor, for example, offers a slideout QWERTY keyboard, while the Samsung M520 uses the fast 3G network. Browser and GPS slowness are major drawbacks of the Sanyo Katana LX, reviews say, although MobileTechReview.com's Todd Zhang qualifies that a bit: "If this is your first time Web browsing on a phone, the Katana LX doesn't feel too bad." Most reviews say that call reception is good, but that voice quality is a bit "harsh." The Sanyo Katana LX has a camera, but it's very low-resolution VGA and has no video capability. The Sanyo Katana LX does not play music or video, and there is no microSD memory card slot. The keypad gets mixed reviews.
There are some good features like voice dialing, Bluetooth and support for instant messaging and email, although Laptop Magazine's Todd Haselton and Eric Zeman say, "The interface in our AIM Mail account was crude and ugly." Battery life is spectacular -- we saw no professional reviews that failed to achieve the promised 4.8 hours of talk time, and PCMag.com clocked in more than six hours. One oddity is that the Sanyo Katana LX's small outer LED screen is invisible until you press a button. PCMag.com's Sascha Segan says the dimness and the reflection from the surrounding mirror-like finish make the outer screen practically useless in sunlight. The internal screen is 2 inches but decidedly low-res: 128 pixels by 160 pixels.
We found the best reviews for the Sanyo Katana LX at the usual places -- PCMag.com, CNET and MobileTechReview.com. We found helpful owner reviews at CNET, but just one at this writing at Amazon.com. Consumer Reports rates the Sanyo Katana Eclipse but not the Sanyo Katana LX.
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Our Sources
1. PCMag.com
PCMag.com's Sascha Segan rates the Sanyo Katana LX as "fair," which in practice is a low rating from this publication. Although there's good reception, voice quality is "harsh" and the outer display is worthless in sunlight. Segan recommends the Katana II, the LG Rumor or Samsung M520.
Review: Sanyo Katana LX, Sascha Segan, May 6, 2008
2. CNET
CNET's Nicole Lee rates the Sanyo Katana LX as "very good" -- a "decent" entry-level camera phone for the price despite "a lackluster screen and disappointing photo quality." About a dozen owner reviews combine for a slightly lower overall score.
Review: Sanyo Katana LX -- Liquid Graphite (Sprint), Nicole Lee, May 2, 2008
Reviewer Todd Zhang says that the Sanyo Katana LX is good-looking and offers a lot of features for the price, but that the LG Rumor and Samsung M520 are Sprint phones that offer more for the same money.
Review: Sanyo Katana LX, Todd Zhang, May 3, 2008
This is far shorter than InfoSyncWorld.com's usual reviews, and while Philip Berne is usually a tough grader, he doesn't often rate a phone as "NILL," the site's lowest rating, as he does here. He does say that the Sanyo Katana LX is good-looking and might be an OK choice if the price is "free or less."
Review: Sanyo Katana LX looks sharp, Doesn't Cut Deep, Philip Berne, April 8, 2008
The Sanyo Katana LX rates 2.5 out of five stars because it lacks features found on other $50 Sprint phones: a fast 3G network connection, an external microSD memory card slot, support for Sprint's music store and video playback.
Review: Sanyo Katana LX, Todd Haselton and Eric Zeman, July 14, 2008
Like others, PhoneArena.com ultimately says the LG Rumor and Samsung M520 are better for the price. The battery test yields nearly an hour more than the promised 4.8 hours, but the keypad and small display get dinged.
Review: Sanyo Katana LX, Editors of PhoneArena.com, May 8, 2008
