Camera Phones Plaza

In many ways, the Sanyo Katana for Sprint is a testament to the marketing and engineering geniuses at....Motorola. Motorola's marketing team taught the industry the value of a name for a phone instead of just a model designation (ie. "XYZ123i"). Their engineers came up with the new and improved clamshell/folder form factor that places the phone's antenna in the bulge beneath the keypad, and they were among the first to embed the camera module in the hinge of a clamshell in such a way that allows for modules that are thicker than the top half of the folder design itself. All wonderful things that Sanyo, and many others, have grabbed hold of and run with.

So to a large extent we can thank Motorola for the wonderful new breed of clamshell phones like Sanyo's adorable Katana.

The Katana's VGA camera has many nice features to it that I credit to Sanyo's many years of experience in the Japanese market, where cameraphones have been in vogue for a very long time. The Katana has a number of features that are rarely seen on a phone. For example, it has a number of pre-defined "picture modes" that are similar to those found on dedicated digital cameras.

These include a special mode for taking photos at the beach or of snow, which normally require a bit of metering compensation to get a correctly exposed photo. The feature I like best is the "my favorite settings" function, which allows the user to define 4 groups of settings that can be enabled quickly. With this, it is possible to define a "bar scene" setting, for example, that turns on the night mode and sets the white balance for incandescent lighting. Color tinting and picture frames can also be configured in a favorite setting.

The conclusion is that the device is reasonably good looking, and it is both thin and light. If you are a Sprint customer, this is the closest thing to a Motorola RAZR V3 that you are likely to ever find. It may not be very original, but it scores well on usability and is overall a pleasure to use. Its QVGA display is an added bonus. It scores a solid "Recommended" rating.

Another Sprint handset to consider would be the A900, also known as the Blade. It has a similar form factor but includes 3G support and stereo music playback.

Read full review here.