Sanyo Katana Eclipse Review

Introduction:

The Katana Eclipse sits atop the Katana line as the best Sanyo has to offer. It has gotten a complete makeover from the Katana DLX it replaces, including two light bars that run along the sides of the phone. This is one of the highlights of the Eclipse, and the LED color and pattern can be customized for different events and callers. Music playback keys are present on the external flip, but other than that the Eclipse is basically a redesigned DLX. Features remain the same, including a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSDHC expansion and EVDO data. Included in the box you’ll find the AC charger and a 256MB memory card.

Design:

Like the Katana LX, the Eclipse has departed from the slim design language of earlier Katanas.  Unfortunately, like the LX, it has also downgraded the build quality.  The Eclipse has a 176x220, 65K color display instead of the 262K color QVGA panel found on the DLX.  The feel is decidedly more plastic than its predecessor, and overall the Eclipse feels like a step backwards from the DLX.



You can compare the Sanyo Katana Eclipse with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The Eclipse feels narrower in the hand, but in reality dimensions are overall very similar to the DLX.  The understated design, however, is gone.  The silver version (it will be offered in pink and black in the coming months) has a mirrored yet plastic finish, with the small external screen situated just below the horizontal centerline.  The 1.3MP camera is perched at the top, with the skinny speaker running vertically below.  Under the display are the multimedia keys, which are mechanical as opposed to more common touch sensitive ones.

The screens are of poor quality, though they are easy to read in all conditions.  Both are only 65K colors, so images are washed out and color gradients appear grainy.  The internal display is 2”, but looks tiny with the massive amount of space around it.  The outside is just 1”, a norm for Sanyo but way too small nonetheless.  For comparison purposes, the Motorola RAZR VE20 sells for the same $99 but features a 1.6” external display with touch sensitive controls.  In short, Sanyo needs to step up its game.

The keypad is typical Sanyo as well.  The keys are hard, translucent plastic and offer good travel but poor feel.  The d-pad is set in a silver rectangle, with the left and right softkeys, camera and back buttons being the corners.  Send, speaker and end are actually part of the dialpad, which can be a bit disorienting.  We often found ourselves pressing the back key when we meant to press end due to the unconventional placement.



The left side of the phone has a covered microUSB charging/data port at the top with the volume rocker and a camera button below.  On the right side is a 2.5mm headset jack and microSD slot, both of which are also covered.  The back of the phone is completely bare.

The illumination feature is one of the main selling points of the phone, sadly enough.  Users can choose from 7 different colors and several patterns, with 42 choices overall.  Patterns and colors can be set for just about any event, such as text messages, calendar, key presses and can also be used to identify different callers.  It’s a fairly juvenile feature that we just can’t get into.




Overall we are unimpressed with the design and materials of the Katana Eclipse.  It is, in our opinion, a definite step back from the more grown up DLX.  The illumination is straight out of the Japanese market, but we don’t see it being very popular with most people over the age of 16 here in the States.  The plastic feel is not reassuring, and we expect it would easily be scratched.  Furthermore, when you’re at the same price point as much more capable phones such as the Curve and Touch we’d expect some serious “wow” and premium materials, but the Eclipse fails to deliver any of this.  As the cellular world moves at an even more rapid pace Sanyo is increasingly falling further behind.

Sanyo Katana Eclipse Video Review:

User Interface:

The UI of the Eclipse is similar to that of the VE20, which we recently reviewed.  Interestingly, On Demand is nowhere to be found so Settings and Tools are now back to separate menu items.  Instead of a Navigation option the Eclipse has Maps, which houses Family Locator and Live Search in addition to Sprint Navigation.  We like this move, except that Live Search isn’t preloaded and the download link is dead.  There are no themes on the Eclipse, so what you see is what you get.



The Eclipse runs smoothly, with no menu lag or delay in opening items.  Sanyo is getting much better with their submenus and naming, which makes it less intimidating to a novice user than in the past.  We continue to enjoy the security options Sanyo employs, such as hidden contacts, locked phone book and parental control over both incoming and outgoing calls.  We’re not sure why things like that aren’t standard on all phones.

The phonebook can store 500 entries with up to 700 total numbers, 1000 email addresses and 500 websites.  As noted, it can be locked and incoming/outgoing calls can be restricted to contacts only.  Other than that it is pretty basic, just as with the DLX.



Messaging is fairly standard as well.  Users can send text, picture and video messages and check both personal and corporate email via the included Sprint Mobile Email program.  The Eclipse has basic calendar, calculator and alarm clock.

Multimedia:

Sprint’s lineup of multimedia applications is supported on the Katana Eclipse.  Sprint TV has received a slight cosmetic makeover, but still appears as you would expect a TV guide to.  Videos look ok at best on the low resolution screen, and are pretty small unless viewed in full screen mode.  They play on the external screen when closed, but that’s even smaller the display is square, not 4:3.  Sprint Radio and the Music Store are also on board, nothing new there.



The 1.3 megapixel camera takes mediocre pictures.  Colors were washed out in all but the best lighting conditions, and indoor pictures were grainy.  Users can adjust white balance, brightness, sharpness and contrast.  Videos are similarly poor, and options are sparser.  The camera on this phone is more of a novelty than anything else.

Performance:

Callers were pleased with how we sounded, saying it was better than most but not great.  They ranked us at a 7.5/10, saying we sounded a bit thin but overall good and easy to hear.  On our end the quality was not as good, and callers sounded relatively poor.  We had no problem hearing them clearly, but voice reproduction was off in just about every metric.  Reception was good on the whole, and we had no issues making, receiving or holding calls in any areas.  Battery life is rated at a very good 4.6 hours of talk time, and we were actually able to achieve just a few minutes shy of 5 hours in our testing.

Conclusion:

We came away pretty unimpressed with the Katana Eclipse.  The materials are subpar and overall design a mess.  Illumination is not a feature that should define your phone, but unfortunately its one of the few selling points of the Eclipse.  Sanyo has long relied on good performance and customer loyalty, but with the likes of Samsung and LG putting out quality products Sanyo may find themselves left out.  The Motorola VE20 out features the Eclipse, and the upcoming Samsung Rant, Highnote and LG Lotus all offer unique features .  The Eclipse, on the other hand, doesn’t have anything compelling to offer and will most likely get passed over for competitor’s offerings.