Katana Questions

[easy]

Hello,
I am looking at replacing my A680 with possibly a Katana. I have considered Motorola options and even the new Samsung M610 or even the A900. I want a thin phone and I know that this comes with a battery life sacrifice. From what I have read the Katana probably has the best battery life out of those mentioned. My wife and kids have Sanyo 2400's and a 3100. I like the fact that I can use my car chargers on any of my current phones and would like to be able to do that with my new phone.
I have done a lot of reading about the Katana and would like your opinions on these questions.
1. Do you find the battery life to be acceptable?
2. Is the ringers as quiet as others have mentioned? I need to have something that I can hear if it is in my pocket in a relatively loud environment.
3. Does this phone use the standard round battery plug or only a flat style plug?
4. Can you feel the vibrate function or is it really weak?
5. Is the reception on this phone as good as other Sanyo phones?
6. Some have mentioned that this phone needs two hands to open, is this true?
7. Finally, are the buttons sized and spaced good enough for larger hands to operate without hitting two buttons at once?

I know that this is a lot of questions, but I would appreciate your help.

[merc]

#1. I've only had the phone for 36hrs. So far I'm impressed, but I'll see when I go back to work (weak signal in building)

#2. The ringers do seem quieter than I'd like, but it seems to have a strong vibrate function.

#3. The phone does not accept the round charger plug. Only the flat sanyo charger.

#4. Seems strong. atleast stronger than my Vi-660. It also has different vibrate patterns.

#5. So far, I've had very good reception. The test will be at work tommorow (see answer #1)

#6. It can be opened 1 handed, but it is not as easy as on a small phone.

#7. I'd say go to a store and try out a display model, and see for yourself.

[merc]

For the 1st day at work, I sent a couple of text messages, surfed the net some (20 minutes or so), showed off Opera mini, google maps, made or recieved 6 phone calls of 1 - 10 minutes each, took a couple of snapshots, and wandered through a building most everyone considers a cellular "black hole." When I got home after 9-1/2 hours, I still was showing "full battery" on the display. I never completely lost signal anywhere in the building, although in the inner hallways it went to digital roam. With my old Sammy 660, if I was more than 6 feet from a window, forget about using the phone. I imagine that is the main reason the battery life is better, as it is not searching for signal all of the time, which the 660 would do 90% of the time.

Here's a strange question. If you have a Sprint phone (my Katana), a Verizon phone (samething as the Vi-660), and an Altell phone (old looking candybar phone), all in the same room, and they are all digital roaming, who are we roaming on?? this is in Wichita Falls, Texas. Is there a way to tell whose network you are using? I think we covered all of the CDMA carriers in the area, and all of us were roaming. Is US Cellular CDMA??

[mmace1]

Is US Cellular CDMA??

Yup, they are.

[johnnaryry]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (MobilePhone SCP-6600/US/1.0) NetFront/3.1 MMP/2.0)

For the 1st day at work, I sent a couple of text messages, surfed the net some (20 minutes or so), showed off Opera mini, google maps, made or recieved 6 phone calls of 1 - 10 minutes each, took a couple of snapshots, and wandered through a building most everyone considers a cellular "black hole." When I got home after 9-1/2 hours, I still was showing "full battery" on the display. I never completely lost signal anywhere in the building, although in the inner hallways it went to digital roam. With my old Sammy 660, if I was more than 6 feet from a window, forget about using the phone. I imagine that is the main reason the battery life is better, as it is not searching for signal all of the time, which the 660 would do 90% of the time.

Here's a strange question. If you have a Sprint phone (my Katana), a Verizon phone (samething as the Vi-660), and an Altell phone (old looking candybar phone), all in the same room, and they are all digital roaming, who are we roaming on?? this is in Wichita Falls, Texas. Is there a way to tell whose network you are using? I think we covered all of the CDMA carriers in the area, and all of us were roaming. Is US Cellular CDMA??

Yes, US Cellular is a CDMA provider.

[npolite]

I traded my Katana for an 8400 and couldn’t be happier. For one the way and material the earpiece is designed, bothered the heck out of my ear to the point I didn’t want to use the phone; I would constantly switch the phone from one ear to the other. Also there was no SD card and no USB cable so you couldn’t transfer any wallpaper or ringtones to the phone off the bat without spending more money. The reception while it was ok with 2-3 bars in my home is no where near my 5-6 bars on the 8400, to be honest I didn’t notice a problem while talking on the Katana. My only gripe with the 8400 is that the buttons are green and can be sometimes hard to see though not impossible. Try it out for a while at a Sprint store 15 minutes may save you a lot of time in the long run hating your phone

Hope this helps

[coachpelkey]

If I could I would get the 8400, I have had my katana for 3 months now...way past the whole 30 days thing. oh well.

[Rose4uKY]

I have the 8400 and yesterday I got a Katana for my friend on my account. I played with it all morning. The Blue Keys is my favorite thing about it LOL!! If it had the loud ringers and more space I would of gotten it. I didn't care about Power Vision since I am was on an old granfathered plan and the Micro card is nice but I have a small MP3 player.. My friend is coming to get her Katana today and she curretnly has an old 8200.. So the ringers shouldn't bother her and will be pretty much the same. She doesn't do internet she just uses the phone for a phone so I think it will be good for her.. I need to know what bluetooth headsets you guys like with this phone..

[MOOALL]

Hello,
I am looking at replacing my A680 with possibly a Katana. I have considered Motorola options and even the new Samsung M610 or even the A900. I want a thin phone and I know that this comes with a battery life sacrifice. From what I have read the Katana probably has the best battery life out of those mentioned. My wife and kids have Sanyo 2400's and a 3100. I like the fact that I can use my car chargers on any of my current phones and would like to be able to do that with my new phone.
I have done a lot of reading about the Katana and would like your opinions on these questions.
1. Do you find the battery life to be acceptable?
2. Is the ringers as quiet as others have mentioned? I need to have something that I can hear if it is in my pocket in a relatively loud environment.
3. Does this phone use the standard round battery plug or only a flat style plug?
4. Can you feel the vibrate function or is it really weak?
5. Is the reception on this phone as good as other Sanyo phones?
6. Some have mentioned that this phone needs two hands to open, is this true?
7. Finally, are the buttons sized and spaced good enough for larger hands to operate without hitting two buttons at once?

I know that this is a lot of questions, but I would appreciate your help.
If you are intested in keeping the chargers you could get a LG Fusic. It uses the same round plug for Sanyo.