Sanyo released the Incognito last year from Sprint. I liked its call quality and spacious keyboard but tiny display and the exterior touch screen left much to be desired. The design was original and attractive but it didn’t suit my tastes. It is been 11 months since then; Sanyo and Sprint has given the phone a redesign with Sanyo Innuendo SCP-6780. It is less angular and slimmer but is still not that easy to use, just like its predecessor. This device will cost you $49.99 and you will have to sign a two year contract with $50 mail-in rebate. Sanyo Innuendo SCP-6780 has a lot of similarities with the Incognito, its predecessor. Both phones have the same flip-open design and the same features on the exterior. The size is the same as Incognito (4.2 inches long, 0.6 inch thick, and  [...]

Kyocera Echo is the world’s first dual-screen smartphone that offers responsive touchscreen, ability to use two applications at once and acceptable call quality. Its design provides some unique advantages, but its appeal is hampered by monotonous feature set and usability quirks. The Echo is one of the most unusual Android smartphones of Sprint, which unveils the second screen that flips out from behind the first to form a large 4.7 inch display. It also offers some advantages such as additional space for Web browsing and mapping and optimized and simultasking modes for unique user experience. The dual screen comes with few disadvantages. The line between two screens might be distracting for some as the flip out hinge is not that durable. The feature set is standard with excellent data speeds at 3G and Android Froyo operating system. The Kyocera Echo is an angular chunky touchscreen smartphone that measures 0.78 inch deep, 4.45 inches tall and 2.2 inches  [...]

Sanyo Zio M6000 is a pretty basic phone from Cricket Wireless based on Android interface. One disappointing thing here is the phone has a dated 1.5 version of Android OS. There will be an update provided soon but I thought it was a bit lame to give such an old version in the first place. For entertainment purposes, you get a Donut music player which supports AAC, MP3, eAAC+, and AAC+ file formats. Features here include shuffle mode, playlists, album art and repeat modes but apart from that, there is nothing else worth mentioning here. The design too is pretty basic. I haven’t been a great fan of Android music player in the past and the dated OS here makes matter worse. On the bright side, it is really easy to transfer music. You have two options – memory card and USB cable. The Sanyo Zio M6000 has a 3.2 megapixel camera giving you four options for resolution, the maximum being 2,048x1,536  pixels.  [...]

Kyocera has touched a lot of corners in the cell phone world last month with the Sanyo line of mobile phones. The Zio is powered by Android and is a good choice for entry level users. The Innuendo is made for messaging enthusiasts and the Vero that I have got here is another communication-oriented phone. It has a simple design with a good feature set. The handset is user friendly and the performance is good too. However, I think the name is a bit too much. Vero is 'true' in Italian and Sprint says that the name relates to the handset's small and stylish design. This phone will put you back by $9.99 with two year contract and after a $50 mail in rebate. The full price of this phone is $209. If you have been following cell phones for a long time, just like me, you’d notice the similarities of the handsets, even if they are released with a few years of gap. When I first saw the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820, I immediately thought about the earlier Sprint handset – the Samsung  [...]

This is not a new phone in my labs, I have previously reviewed the Cricket Wireless’s version and Sprint has now given us its own version. The two phones are very much similar but there are a few distinct hallmarks like extra chrome around the edges and it also has Sprint ID feature. The biggest difference is Cricket’s Zio was powered by Android 1.6 where as this phone runs on Android 2.1 OS. This phone is made by Kyocera and Sanyo is marketing it. Sanyo Zio SCP-8600 will cost you $99 and you will have to sign a two year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. The phone is also available without any contract obligations for $349. In terms of design, the two phones are quite similar. The design is still utilitarian but you still get the touch screen and the intuitive controls. The display is 3.5 inches big and gives 800x480 pixels resolution with support for 262,000 colors. The handset is 0.48 inch deep, 2.3 inches wide, 4.6 inches long  [...]

This is a clamshell phone which goes by two names in the market - Kyocera Neo and Kyocera E1100.  This phone is covered by MetroPCS. The handset has a very glossy body which easily attracts a lot of fingerprints. I would recommend you to keep a cleaning cloth close, if you are a hygiene freak because the prints make the phone look very ugly. The phone is very stylish and the coolest thing about it is the light pipe which runs on the lid. The light blinks when you get a call and this adds to the aesthetic appeal of the phone. This light pipe surrounds the camera lens too.  Being a flip type phone, there is an external display on the lid which is very small. It just shows the time and date and is not visible when the backlighting is off. Characters on the external display are very small and not easy to read. To switch it on, you just have to press the volume rocker button. I wish the screen was a bit bigger, I was expecting the numeric caller ID too. The external display is also hard  [...]

Kyocera Laylo M1400 is here to prove that not all cell phones need to be packed with features. Most people don’t use all the features in the handset and hence it makes no sense in buying a high end smart phone if all you are going to do is make calls and send text messages. Kyocera is a big name when it comes to entry level phones particularly with small carriers like MetroPCS. We will recommend this phone because even though it lacks high end features, you can do basic cell phone tasks very well and also the compact design makes the handset easy to carry around. Call quality is the most important thing that you look for when it comes to basic phones. We were glad to see that the quality lived up to our expectations. All this costs $59 and there are no contract obligations. The phone has a slider interfaces which is much better than a candy bar design when it comes to looks. Opening up a slider there is an incoming call always looks stylish. Display The  [...]