Sanyo Katana Eclipse
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)Sprint has announced that it will launch an update to the Sanyo Katana Eclipse, dubbed the Katana Eclipse X. The primary difference is that the Katana Eclipse X will have Sprint's new One Click user interface. One Click, as seen on phones like the Samsung Rant, the Samsung Highnote, and the LG Lotus, consists of eight shortcut tiles along the bottom of the home screen that gives you quick access to your favorite applications. Aside from that, it has the same unique lighting effects of the original, as well as EV-DO, a megapixel camera, and more. The Katana Eclipse X will be available in Nightlife Black and Hypnotic Pink.
Sanyo Katana Eclipse
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)Sprint brought back two popular cell phones for another round on Sunday when it announced new versions of the Sanyo Katana and the Motorola Razr.
Sporting thin designs (of course) with GPS and multimedia-friendly feature sets, the Sanyo Katana Eclipse and the Motorola Razr VE20 offer two takes on the thin-phone craze that just won't go away. And before you start grumbling about rehashed versions of ancient designs, we advise you to give these models a decent look.
The VE20 is more like the original Razr V3m than the Razr2 V9, but it shows some design tweaks that give it its own style. Performance is great, particularly the music and video quality, and call quality wasn't bad, either.
The Sanyo Katana Eclipse also shows some design tweaks over the original Katana. The feature set is similar to the Razr VE20, though its 1.3-megapixel camera is a step down from the Razr VE20's 2-megapixel shooter. Performance was satisfying, thought not quite as sharp as on the Moto phone.
Motorola Razr VE20
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)Both phones are $99 with service. For the full story, check out our Motorola Razr VE20 review or our Sanyo Katana Eclipse review. Or for just the beauty shots, take a gander at the Razr VE20 slide show or the Katana Eclipse slide show.
(Credit:
Bell Mobility)
Sanyo has recently made its new Katana Eclipse phone available for Canada, courtesy of Bell Mobility. This latest Katana flip phone is quite a stylish number, and features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, 10MB of internal memory, an MP3 player, and Bluetooth, all of which makes it much more of a mid-tier offering when compared with the decidedly basic Sanyo Katana LX.
Engadget also reveals a few convincing photos that the Katana Eclipse is also coming to Sprint USA sometime soon, but there haven't been any reports on when that'll be, exactly.
(Via Engadget Mobile)
Sanyo Katana LX
(Credit: Sanyo)We saw it at CTIA earlier this year, but the Katana LX has now finally launched with Sprint. The sequel to the Katana II, the Katana LX retains the same basic feature set--Bluetooth, VGA camera, and speakerphone--but it has a whole new look. The Katana LX has a much sportier look and compact shape, plus a translucent OLED front display. Sure it isn't much, but for $49.99 with a two-year service agreement, it's meant to be an entry-level phone anyway. It's available in Pacific Blue, Elegant Pink, and Liquid Graphite, and you can take a peek at it in our Sanyo CTIA slide show here.
Sanyo Katana LX
(Credit: Sanyo)Sanyo only had a couple of basic phones to show at CTIA, but there's still a market for these things, so we're fine with that. First up is the Katana LX, which is a shinier successor to the Katana II, plus it has a translucent OLED display. It only has a VGA camera however. Then there's the Pro Series phones, the Pro-200 and the Pro-700. Both of them support Sprint's new QChat push-to-talk service, and are made for business use. The Pro-700 is the more rugged version, and is military certified to withstand harsh environments like dust, shock, and vibration. Take a closer look at these phones in our Sanyo slide show.
Day two of CTIA 2008 is over, and it was quite a breather compared with day one. Our feet actually did not hurt at the end of the day! Here are some highlights from day two of the show.
Nokia kicks off the day by announcing two new basic CDMA/AWS handsets: the Nokia 1606 and the 3606, both of which are probably set for the entry-level to midtier market. Next, Senior Editor Kent German talks up the Samsung Alias, which we knew about before, but was officially trotted out at CTIA.
Sanyo also put out a few new devices, namely the Pro-200 and Pro-700, both are push-to-talk phones using Sprint's QChat service. It also introduced the Katana LX, which promises to be a shinier successor to the Katana II, plus it has a translucent OLED display. UTStarcom snuck in with a new basic handset as well--the CDM7126 is a AWS capable phone that will be available to both Cricket and MetroPCS in different designs.
On the smartphone front, rumors swirled around a phone that's not even at the show. Senior Editor Bonnie Cha waxed about the potential BlackBerry 9000 as well as a GPS-equipped BlackBerry Pearl 8110. And, as far as movie tie-ins go, the only product of that nature is the Iron Man branded LG Shine, which is clad with, we kid you not, a solid 18 karat gold battery cover. It won't be available for retail, and will only be available to a select few who are lucky enough to win it via movie-related contests. Which is fine, because we probably won't be able to afford it anyway.
In other news, Yahoo unveiled an upgrade to its OneSearch product, which CNET Download.com editor Jessica Dolcourt had the pleasure of trying out. Also, Vodafone CEO tells us something we already know--that the mobile Internet is for real and that consumers want it--not just some dumbed down version of the Web.
After the big Samsung Instinct announcement yesterday, Kent German wondered if the Instinct can truly take on the iPhone's dominance, and we invite you to chime in to provide your thoughts.
Rounding out the second day are SMS 2.0 (the capability to text in color), cell phones you can't have, and a pair of cute Samsung speakers. Stay tuned tomorrow as we try to wrap things up and let you know what we thought was the cream of the crop.
Sanyo Katana LX
(Credit: Sanyo)Aside from their two Pro-Series phones, Sanyo and Sprint also announced the Katana LX at CTIA. A replacement to the Katana II, the LX is a fairly basic handset with features such as a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and a speakerphone. It sets itself apart from the other Katanas with a brand new design however; it has a much shinier surface, complete with a translucent OLED LCD right on the front face. It's available in Pacific Blue, Elegant Pink, and Liquid Graphite. Pricing and availability is unknown at this point, but we expect it to be out before the end of the year.
Sanyo Katana LX soon for Sprint?
(Credit: Engadget)I guess the rumors of Sanyo's cell phone demise were premature, because information about a new Sanyo Katana LX for Sprint has surfaced. The Katana LX purports to be a replacement to the Katana II, and we hope it has a lot more features than its somewhat disappointing predecessor. That said, a leaked picture of the Katana LX shows that it looks to be a rather shiny and attractive device, no matter what its features. We'll have to sit tight to see what else the Katana LX has to offer however, since we couldn't find any other details about the handset. [Source: Engadget Mobile]
The Sanyo Katana DLX in pink
(Credit: Corinne Schulz/CNET Networks)The Sanyo Katana DLX is one of the best Sanyo handsets we've seen so far. Not only is it a slim and sleek flip phone, it also comes loaded with lots of features: a 1.3-megapixel camera, EV-DO support, a music player, a microSD card slot, and more. This is certainly a far cry from last year's Sanyo Katana, which didn't have nearly as many features. Take a closer look at the Sanyo Katana DLX with our Katana slide show.
Sanyo Katana II
(Credit: Corinne Schulz/CNET Networks)The first Sanyo Katana was hailed as one of Sprint's rare Razr competitors, but it didn't quite live up to its potential. That said, we still liked it as a decent, basic camera phone. Fast forward a year later, and Sanyo and Sprint have come up with the Sanyo Katana II. Though it does have a nicer and more modern design and it has a memory upgrade to 21MB, most of the features remain the same. Here are a few photos of the new Sanyo Katana II.
