Sanyo Katana DLX Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
The most important feature of any phone is the ability to make calls. To test the quality of calls made by the Katana DLX we use the same professional testing equipment many manufacturers use; a HATS (Head and Torso Simulator) that simulates the human head and ear, and an electro-acoustic analysis program called
SoundCheck. This allows us to analyze the performance of phones in depth, analyzing the quality of the sound the phone sends and receives. For more details on how we test see
this article.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (5.46)
This test measures the frequency response for sound the phone receives . The graph above shows the phone's frequency response (the blue line), with low frequencies on the left and high at the right. The red lines show the margins of the standards against which we test. Ideally the phone's frequency response would fall within these margins. As you can see the Katana DLX does not accomplish this, falling off too quickly at lower frequencies and peaking too high at the low- to mid-range of frequencies. In practical terms this means you won't hear much of the bass part of voice, and the mid range will be overly exaggerated, which may make some voices a little hard to understand. As you can see from the table below, the Katana DLX performed worse on this test than any of our comparison phones except the Sanyo M1.
| Cell Phone |
Sanyo Katana DLX (On Sprint)
|
Nokia N75 (on Cingular) |
Sprint Upstage (on Sprint) |
| Score |
5.46 |
8.73 |
8.34 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |
 |
 |
 |
Sound Send Frequency Response (7.80)
The Katana DLX performed much better in this test, which measures the frequency response of sound sent from the phone, such as you talking into it. Unlike the sound receive test, in this case the Katana DLX's frequency response curve (blue line) generally stayed within our limits (red lines). It did fall off a bit sharply at the high end of the frequency curve, and in the low- to mid-range it was closer to the limits than we would have liked, but these are minor deviations. Your voice will generally sound natural and easy to understand to those on the other end of the call, although it may sound slightly clipped if you have a particularly high pitched, squeaky voice. So it's probably best to lay off the helium.
| Cell Phone |
Sanyo Katana DLX |
Nokia N75(on CARRIER) |
Sprint Upstage(on CARRIER) |
| Score |
7.80 |
7.57 |
7.36 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |
 |
 |
 |
Handset Side Tone (7.77)
Cell phone handsets inject a small amount of your captured voice back into the speaker so you can judge how loud your voice is; this is called Side Tone. This test measures how much of your own voice phone passes back. We measured the Katana DLX's side tone at -20.23 decibels. This is a bit below our ideal of -18 decibels, but not enough to pose a problem. You will generally be able to tell if you are speaking too loudly. As you can see from the table below, the Katana DLX did better on this test than any comparison phone except the Chocolate VX8550.
