Sanyo Katana DLX Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
|
Alfredo Padilla Published on August 06, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
Dialing Speed (5.32)
To test how easy it is to make calls on the Katana DLX we time how long it takes to go from phone closed until we have dialed each of five different phone numbers and hit the send key. We take the average time for our score. The Katana DLX took an average of 3.76 seconds to dial a number. This is a solid time, better than than the Sanyo M1 or Krzr K1m. It is a little slower than the Nokia N75 or Sprint Upstage, however. We found the buttons on the Katana to be fairly comfortable to use, and the send key was comfortably placed just above and to the left of the number keys. Buttons that are pressed play a musical tone, moving up the "C" scale starting at 1. Some may find this annoying, which is why we're happy you can turn them off in the sound settings. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 3.76 | 5.32 |
| Nokia N75 | 3.34 | 5.99 |
| Sprint Upstage | 3.38 | 5.92 |
| Motorola Krzr K1m | 4.40 | 4.55 |
| Sanyo M1 | 4.28 | 4.67 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 2.96 | 6.76 |
Talk and End Buttons (5.0)
Call Management (5.0)
The Katana DLX's call management features are solid. From the home screen you can immediately go to a list of recent calls by hitting the send button. You can find a more complete call history by going into the main menu and selecting call history. Here you can view missed, incoming, or outgoing calls, as well as all recent calls. You can also erase your call history here. When viewing a list of calls you can choose to call the number back, send a message to the number, or save it to your contacts. Each item includes the time and date of the call and phone number. There is no information about call duration. Unfortunately, there were no data counters available. During a call the left soft key is assigned to the mute function. The right soft key opens a menu where you can access functions like three-way calling, speaker, and various phone functions like call history and contacts. You can also activate the speaker at any time by using the dedicated speaker button between the send and end keys. The current phone number is listed at the bottom of the screen, while at the top is a timer showing how long the call has lasted. There was no way to record a call, but apart from this all the standard features are present.
Startup to Call (4.12)
To find out how quickly you can get your phone going and make a call we turn the handset off completely and time how long it takes for it to start up and dial a number. We use the same five phone numbers as we did for our dialing test and take the average for our score. The Katana DLX took an average of 24.26 seconds to complete this process. This is an above average score, about the same as the Sanyo M1's 24.36 second time and significantly better than the Nokia N75 and Krzr K1m.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 24.26 | 4.12 |
| Nokia N75 | 40.56 | 2.47 |
| Sprint Upstage | 28.90 | 3.46 |
| Motorola Krzr K1m | 32.72 | 3.06 |
| Sanyo M1 | 24.36 | 4.11 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 22.37 | 4.47 |
Ring Volume (8.57)
To test ring volume we set the phone's volume to maximum and then find the loudest ringtone available. We measure the volume using a sound pressure meter from about four inches away. The Katana DLX's ring volume measured 85.8 decibels in our test. This is about average, with most phones ranging from 80 to 90 decibels, as you can see from the chart below.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| Sanyo Katana DLX | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Nokia N75 | 85.3 | 8.53 |
| Sprint Upstage | 81 | 8.10 |
| Motorola Krzr K1m | 88 | 8.80 |
| Sanyo M1 | 85.2 | 8.52 |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 85.4 | 8.54 |
Ringtone Customizability (5.0)
Unfortunately, the Sanyo Katana DLX does not allow you to use your own music files as ringtones. It also does not allow you to use voice recordings as ringtones or edit ringtones on the device.
Non-Audio Alerts (10.0)
The Katana DLX's vibrate alert is pretty strong; you will easily feel it in your pants pocket and may even be able to feel it in a jacket pocket. When a call comes in the external screen lights up with a red background showing you the incoming number, and the LED light flashes. These are solid non-audio alerts, certainly better than the Sprint Upstage's or Krzr K1m's terrible vibrate alerts.
| Previous Next | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
