- Sleek clamshell phone in black with unique lighting effects that can be assigned to callers, messages, alerts
- Sprint Mobile Broadband Network via EV-DO connectivity; Sprint TV and Sprint Music Store enabled; GPS turn-by-turn directions via Sprint Navigation
- 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth for handsfree devices and stereo music streaming; MicroSD expansion up to 8 GB
- Up to 4.6 hours of talk time; Sprint One Click navigation interface
- What’s in the Box: handset, battery, charger, 256 MB MicroSD card, quick start guide
Amazon.com Product Description
In addition to access to the advanced speeds and features of the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network, the Sanyo Katana Eclipse X ratchets up the fun with unique lighting effects that help to identify a caller in dark restaurants and nightclubs. Offering the same specifications as the regular Eclipse, the Eclipse X model is updated with Sprint’s new One Click navigation interface. It also provides access to music downloads via the Sprint Music Store and on-demand TV from Sprint TV, as well as GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service. Named for the famed Japanese sword, this crisply designed clamshell phone also features a 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth connectivity for handsfree communication and stereo music streaming, MicroSD memory expansion, and up to 4.6 hours of talk time. This package includes a 256 MB MicroSD card to get you started listening to your favorite tunes and saving photos while on the go.
Sprint One Click’s customizable home screen enables you to optimize your experience by providing quick access to the things you use the most. |
Sprint Service
Supporting the EV-DO high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps. With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.
The Sprint Music Store enables you to buy, download, and then jam out wherever you are with new songs or old favorites. Offering a growing selection of more than 1.6 million songs, the store provides you two copies of each song–one for the phone and another for the PC, as well as the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player. Save your songs to a memory card with a capacity that’s right for you.
This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.
With Sprint Mobile Email, you’ll get easy access to your favorite home email services including AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail, and MSN/Windows Live Hotmail and more. And Sprint Mobile Email Work enables you to access email from corporate servers, including Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007 and Lotus Notes Domino versions 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 (with the latest software update).
Phone Features
The Sanyo Katana Eclipse X features a unique illumination capability that allows you to assign lighting effects to specific callers as well as alerts and messages. The 40 different lighting effects include blink, pulse, echo, and multi-color patterns. They’re handy for identifying a call in low-light situations like movie theaters where you need to turn your ringer off as well as a noisy environment such as a nightclub. In addition to customizing calls and messages, the illumination patterns can be assigned to the music playing mode, just for fun, or can be completely disabled for those times when the feature is not desired.
When new calls or messages come in, the front of the phone can illuminate using 40 different lighting effects. |
The exterior of the phone includes dedicated music playback controls. |
This clamshell phone sports dual LCD screens, with an interior 2-inch screen with a 176 x 220-pixel resolution and 65K color depth complemented by an external 1-inch, 65K-color screen. The outside of the clamshell also includes dedicated music playback controls (which provide part of the phone’s lighting effects, in addition to the lights along the side of the clamshell). The phone has an internal 10 MB memory, which can be expanded via MicroSD/MicroSDHC memory cards (up to 8 GB in size). The phonebook can store up to 500 contact entries (with the ability to store 700 phone numbers, 1,000 email and 500 Web addresses) and support for caller groups and picture/ringer ID.
This phone features Sprint’s new One Click navigation interface, which places eight shortcut tiles along the bottom of the home screen. Instead of navigating through endless phone menus, you can put the things you use the most–features like call logs, texting, Web access and GPS navigation–right up front with instant information related to each feature. For example, when you scroll to text messaging, you’ll see the number of new messages received and a single click takes take you to the newest messages. Here’s how it works:
- Add your favorite items to the carousel, which is a row of tiles along the bottom of your phone’s home screen.
- The carousel can hold up to 15 tiles, which you can add, remove and rearrange to suit your needs.
- Highlight a tile to reveal its menu on your home screen.
- Add up to 8 “bubbles”–at-a-glance items that display on your home screen, like the weather or your daily horoscope.
- Browse and download new tiles from your phone’s “Personalize Home Screen” tile. New tiles are available every two weeks.
- Press your navigation left or right key to select a tile; up or down to select a bubble or menu item.
- The “Home” tile always stays put, so you can easily get back to your default display.
Sprint’s One Click navigation interface. |
Handsfree communication is easy thanks to the integrated speakerphone. This phone also provides Bluetooth wireless connectivity 2.0, and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and file transfer. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking–surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server (requires Phone As Modem Service Plan).
The 1.3-megapixel camera offers three resolution options (1280 x 960, 640 x 480, and 320 x 240 pixels), and it features a 12x digital zoom three quality settings, five picture modes (including night and snow), multi-shot capabilities, and a self-timer. You can also capture video clips up to QCIF resolution (176 x 144 pixels) in short clips capped at 25 seconds for sending via messaging or for as long as you have room on your memory card for saving.
In addition to voice calls, text messaging, and MMS capability, the phone is also compatible with mobile email. T9 text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for entering text on handsets, is built into the unit–a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.
Other features include:
- Voice-activated dialing
- Text and SMS voice messaging capable
- High-quality speakerphone
- Built-in productivity tools including a calendar, scheduler, to-do list, world clock, calculator, stopwatch and alarm clock
- Record and store as many as 300 different voice memos, with hours of playback anytime
- HAC rating of T4 for hearing aids operating in the telecoil mode
- Restrict and Lock allows the user to set limits on when and how the device is used
- Wireless Backup to manage contacts list in the event that the phone is lost, stolen or damaged
- Downloadable screen savers, ring tones, applications and games
Vital Statistics
The Sanyo Katana Eclipse X weighs 3.4 ounces and measures 3.6 x 1.9 x 0.7 inches. Its 840 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.6 hours of talk time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO frequencies.
Sanyo Katana Eclipse X Phone, Black
First, the phone is stylish. It is well-designed and the different lighting on the surface of the phone is a nice feature. Buttons are well arranged too.
But the phone does have two big drawbacks: The small and tiny LCD main screen. The main LCD is obviously outdated giving such a small size. The four-year old Samsung A900 has a much bigger and better LCD screen than this. The second drawback is the camera. Only 1.3M? It is outdated too.
Hope that Sanyo can come up with something better soon!
Rating: 3 / 5
So, about two months ago I decided to drop off of my parents verizon wireless plan and go with Sprint and get myself a brand new phone. I had looked at this phone before and just thought the world of it. So one day I went and bought it, and life was great for the first week.
A week and a day after owning the phone, at around 10:20am the phone COMPLETELY lost reception (I could not make calls, texts, or even call 911 if I needed to). I find out later through my frustration that Orlando has a 99% success rate for calls and there is no reason I should have lost reception. I drove about 12 miles from where I lost reception to their store and I still had none. Up until dropping my phone off, it had no reception for about 4-5 hours. I take it to the store, they tell me they programmed it wrong.
I get it back the next day and they tell me it’s working and I have no reason to doubt them. I get to work and discover the phone still has no reception (my fault, I should have checked, let’s give Sprint this one and don’t complain about it). Come to find out the tech forgot to link my phone to my phone number, but there also was another issue so i had to get a different phone again. Irritating, but still my fault for not checking, I can’t ‘really’ blame them for it.
Well guess what? A week and a day after getting my phone back around 10am to 10:30am (that seems to be a bit coincidental yea?) the phone completely loses reception….again. After driving back to the sprint store, completely frustrated and angry about this piss poor phone (which by the way, this is the 3′rd phone I had recieved in around 2.5 weeks, which meant all three different phones had some problem with it), the customer service tech had the balls to tell me, and I quote “Oh you are the guy that ____ has been helping right? Well I know the issue you are having, I don’t know what the problem is and I don’t feel like looking at your phone, so you can either buy a different type of phone or cancel your service”
Obviously, I ate the $36 activation fee, got all my money back, told Sprint exactly what their tech had said to me, and delightfully told them that her rudeness and obvious dislike for her job was 80% of my reason for cancelling my service.
I have yet to see another review on this phone with the problems I had, so I guess the store I went to just didn’t have trained professionals, but if you go to get this phone, I wish you luck. It looks great and I love the LED feature, but for me it just didn’t work out
Rating: 1 / 5
Eclipse has a great style. I find this black phone impressive. It has lights on the outside. If you’re wondering whether to go for the Eclipse or the LX, go for the Eclipse because it has a better build quality, a better design, is not as easy to scratch and the display outside has three buttons. This phone does not come with headsets, you’ll have to buy them. The battery life is excellent and the interface is much improved over the Katana LX. The Eclipse is available in Pink, Black and Silver. The keys are silver and firm to touch while the keys on the LX were black in colour. I would take either the Silver or Black Eclipse for myself but honestly the black just makes you feel so good. Light, easy to operate, loud reception, this phone is near perfect. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
I purchased the Eclipse to upgrade from the original Sanyo Katana. My only complaint about the original Katana was that the ringer was too soft. Even at the highest volume setting, it was sometimes difficult to hear the phone ring. I was very pleased to see that the Eclipse does not have this problem. In fact, I actually had to turn the volume down a bit. This is a huge improvement from the original Katana.
The phone is stylish with a huge, bright LCD screen. The case of the phone lights up when you receive a call, and you can customize the color of the lights to personalize the phone. The battery life is excellent. The phone itself is very durable, the buttons are firm and spaced far enough apart that you’re not likely to accidentally press the wrong button. The camera and camcorder work well, and it’s nice to have the option to save photos and videos to the microSD card.
I’ve had my phone for over a month, have used it regularly and it hasn’t dropped a single call. I highly recommend the Eclipse.
Rating: 5 / 5