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 2.2 inches wide). However, the curved end give it an aerodynamic and trim profile. This phone has blue color which makes it look more attractive but it also catches a lot of fingerprints and smudges easily. They make the phone look ugly.

The touch controls on the exterior are quite similar thttp://www.cdmacellulars.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2278&action=edit&message=1oo, the company tweaked the design a bit and also put in a speakerphone control. Other that that, you still have the same 12-digit keypad, Talk/End buttons, back key, four way directional arrows, and OK button in the middle. The arrangement is spacious but the surface is quite slick which makes it hard to dial by feel. There is a vibration feedback but it doesn’t help much. The external display is small and this makes matters worse. It is monochrome so you don’t get the photo caller ID. There are only a few menu options available for accessing through it.

On the right side, there you have the volume rocker and microUSB charger port. The card slot is located inconveniently underneath the battery. On the back, there is the camera lens and speaker and on top, there is a 2.5 mm headphones jack next to the power button.

The hinge of the Sanyo Innuendo SCP-6780 is as big as the left spine. It is a bit bulky but also makes the phone look very sturdy at 3.4 ounces. This mechanism is neither too stiff or too loose and the device clicks in to its place on the either end. The lid opens up to almost 180 degrees and if you don’t open it completely, the device will wobble when you keep it on the table for typing.

The internal display of the Sanyo Innuendo SCP-6780 is 2.8 inches big and you get resolution of 400×240 pixels with support for 262,000 colors. This is a bit better than Incognito both in terms of screen size and resolution and you get a richer viewing experience. The screen has landscape orientation and the OneClick interface gives you customizable shortcuts to your favorite features.

There are two soft buttons beneath the hinge. They do not directly correspond to the command of the screen and the arrangement is not intuitive. There are three rows for the keyboard; this means that the letters share space with symbols and numbers. The buttons are big and there is adequate space between them which reduces mishits.

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 wide. It weighs around 6.8 ounces and slips easily into the pants packet. The Echo features a 3.5 inch capacitive and responsive touchscreen that boasts 800 x 960 pixel resolution and 262,144 colors with comfortably vibrant and bright images. The auto backlit is very slow to adjust, while the photos and graphics are tad grainy. The screen comes with built in accelerometer and a proximity sensor and provides five different home screens for customization needs. I liked the one touch access to the main connectivity features including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Underneath the Kyocera Echo’s display, you will touch sensitive controls for main menu, phone dialer and browser, and under them there is menu, home and back touch keys. The remaining controls are of the phone are located on the left hand side. From top to bottom, there is 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB charging port, microSD card slot, volume rocker button and power key. The flash, cameras lens and self portrait mirror are located at the rear. Its design resembles to that of tilting smartphones like HTC Arrive with no physical keyboard on bottom screen; however you will find a virtual keyboard for typing. The dual screen mechanism is pretty complex, and the closing and opening process feels rather jerky and cumbersome.

When completely open, the Kyocera Echo is in tablet mode with screens joining together to form a 4.7 inch display. Some of its useful features include Google Maps and web browser. The browser touch controls, menu and phone dialer are on the right hand side in portrait mode instead of remaining on the bottom of screen. Kyocera has also added second set of menu, home and back touch controls under the screen. The simultasking mode works for seven different features, which include VueQue YouTube player, messaging, phone dialer, contacts, browser, email and gallery.

The Kyocera Echo’s phone book is limited by the offered memory and each contact holds multiple phone numbers along with fields for notes, street address, nickname, company name and instant message handle. Some of the essential features are calculator, calendar, alarm clock and voice commands, which can be synchronized with personal accounts, Google and work.

The Kyocera Echo is preloaded with dedicated Gmail applications and usual Google features such as YouTube, Google Maps Navigation, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Search including voice activated search and Google Latitude. It also features PC syncing, document viewer for PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and Excel files, USB mass storage, multimedia and text messaging features, Wi-Fi, sync for Outlook Exchange and POP3 accounts and Bluetooth. Some of the third party applications include NASCAR, Sprint Zone, Sprint Football, Sprint Movies and Television and Sprint Radio.

Standard features on Kyocera Echo include 2G Network: CDMA 800 / 1900; 3G Network: CDMA2000 1xEV-DO; Dual 3.5 inch TFT capacitive touchscreens that boasts 256 million colors and 480 x 800 pixel resolution; Accelerometer sensor for auto rotate; Multi-touch input method; Proximity sensor for auto turn-off; Simultasking Mode; Optimized Mode; Tablet Mode; Vibration, MP3 ringtones; 512 MB RAM / 1024 MB ROM and microSD, up to 32GB.

The Kyocera Echo is also equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Wi-Fi hotspot; 5 megapixel camera with 2592 x 1944 pixels, LED flash and autofocus; Android v2.2 Froyo operating system; Qualcomm QSD 8650 Snapdragon 1GHz Scorpion processor; SMS, Email, MMS, IM, Push Email and RSS; Digital compass; MP3/WAV/AAC+ player; MP4/H.263 player; Organizer; Voice memo and Predictive text input. Overall it is one of the quirkiest smartphones in the market that offers an estimated battery life of 7 hours in talktime mode.

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 2,048×1,536  pixels. The editing options here include 5 image quality choices, 4color effects, night mode, lighting and white balance, auto-focus, lens shading and exposure modes. After you are done with the shooting, the picture gallery app will let you manage the work and you also get a view slideshow options. The photo quality is decent, better than what I expected. There was a bit of noise on the edges but images didn’t look too dark and the colors too were natural.

The camera lets you shoot videos too and the maximum resolution is the same as that of the camera. Multimedia messages are capped at one minute but in the standard mode, you can shoot for a longer time. The phone has 512 MB of internal memory and there is also a 1 GB card bundled with the box. The microSD card can accept up to 32 GB of cards.

Being an Android phone, you get usual assortment of Google apps like Google Talk, YouTube, Google Maps Navigation, and Google Search. Cricket has put an app for checking the balance and thre is also a contacts backup service. For leisure, there are two games – Midnight Bowling 2 and Uno.

For more apps, Android Market will be your primary destination and Sanyo also has its own downloads portal. The Storefront app of the carrier has sections for ringback tones, ringtones, applications, and graphics. The Sanyo’s Zio Top Apps gives you instant access to titles like Facebook, Pandora and Shazam. I was also delighted to see that the Zio has integrated File Browser app which makes it easy to locate your files in the memory card and phone.

The Sanyo Zio M6000 is based on Android 1.6 OS and which has a pretty basic Web browser. There are features like multiple windows, copy/paste and bookmarks. For zooming in, you will have to use the magnifying glass as multitouch gestures aren’t supported.

Finally, I tested the Sanyo Zio M6000 for call quality and found that it was decent but not the best. Voices were natural and I didn’t have any problem getting a signal.

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 SPH-M150. It isn’t the exactly similar, for instance, the camera lies on the phone’s opposite side. But the glossy surface with flat and curved lines reminds me of that device quite vividly. The design is minimalist and the yet Vero is quite attractive.

Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 is 3.8 inches long, 2 inches wide, 0.6 inch thick and weighs about 3.4 ounces. There were times when thin cell phones looked very sexy but they are out of fashion now. Vero is relatively thinner than most phones and it will fit in to small pockets easily. Also, it is unnoticeable when put in a bag or purse. The plastic exterior doesn’t feel durable but I was impressed by the sturdy hinge mechanism. Also noteworthy is that the phone has reverse hinge and the front flap will fold behind the rear face when you open it. This doesn’t make much difference for usability though.

Center and front, there is a postage stamped sized external screen. It is monochrome but the time is shown in a big font. Apart from that, the screen of the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 also shows signal strength and battery life. The 2.4 inch internal screen covers the entire available area. It has a resolution of 320×240 pixels with support for 65k colors. I didn’t have any problems with the screen, you can read the text easily and the colors too look vibrant. Navigating through the menu system is easy and you can adjust the backlight time, brightness and also add a greeting.

I would recommend the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 to people suffering from visual impairments as all the buttons are marked with large numbers and text. I liked the spacious navigation array; it is very well designed. The array consists of a four way navigation toggle with OK button in the middle, two soft buttons, dedicated speakerphone control, camera shutter and back key. The End(power) and Talk are colored in red and green. The buttons on the keypad are big enough with bright backlighting for typing in the dim light environments. The keys are a bit flat but I could still dial easily by the feel.

The back of the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820  is made up of plastic material too. On the top, there is the speaker and camera lens. The microUSB port and volume rocker is located on the left and on the right, you will find a 2.5 mm headphones jack. I would have liked a 3.5 mm headphones jacks as it accepts any standard pair.

Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 has a 600 entry limit phone book and a single entry can take multiple phone numbers, e-mail address, instant message handle, URL, street address, birthday, job title, company name and notes. You can make groups of your callers and also attach a photo to them. There are 37 ringtones to choose from. Sprint, the service provider, has also given wireless backup service for the contacts in case you ever lose the phone.

Basic features on the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 include threaded and multimedia text messaging, alarm clock, calendar, calculator, countdown timer, speakerphone, stopwatch, and world clock. Few advanced features here include stereo Bluetooth, instant messaging, voice recorder, speaker-independent voice commands and dialing, PC syncing, and USB mass storage. There is also support for Sprint Navigation, the Family Locater service of the carrier.

Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 has a 1.3 megapixel camera which offers three resolutions for the pictures. Editing options on the phone include adjustments for image quality, sharpness, brightness, contrast, color tone and white balance. There is also a cool collection of fun frames, digital zoom, self timer, 3 shutter sounds and multishot mode. The camera cannot be used for recording videos.

The photos can be stored on the phone’s internal memory. You just get 12 MB which is really low but still acceptable in an entry level phone like this. Photos can be transferred from the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 through MMS or you can upload them to Sprint’s online album or you can transfer them through Bluetooth to a printer. I found the photo quality OK for such a low resolution camera. You cannot take self-portrait images.

Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 can be personalized with a lot of screensavers and clock styles. There are a lot of ringtones and customization options available from Sprint through the phone’s WAP 2.0 browser. There is just one application on the phone – ScanLife but more can be downloaded according to the requirements.

I tested this phone for call quality with Sprint service and it was quite decent. The signal was strong and I could carry on clear conversations without any interference or static. My friends said that I sounded great. Most of them could tell that I was on a cell phone but that is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the audio quality warbled at its highest level. You can still talk easily in places with lots of crowd but the voice from the other side may not sound natural.

Calls made through speaker too were decent and I was happy to see that they got loud enough. But here too the audio distorts at the highest level. Bluetooth call quality was great but that also depends on what headset you are using. The manufacturer says that the rated talk time of the Sanyo Vero SCP-3820 is about 5.2 hours which is quite good.

Pros

• Accessible design will work great with people having vision problems
• Decent call quality
• The phone has all the basic features for communication

Cons

• Plastic skin isn’t really durable
• The phone has a 2.5 mm headphones jack instead of a 3.5 mm one
• Audio quality distorts at the highest level
• Speakerphone quality could have been better

The Bottom line – Sanyo Vero SCP-3820’s call quality is far from the best but the functional feature set and the user friendly design makes it a good choice for people looking for a basic messaging phone.

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 800×480 pixels resolution with support for 262,000 colors. The handset is 0.48 inch deep, 2.3 inches wide, 4.6 inches long and weighs 3.7 ounces. Yet, I can confidently say that the Sanyo Zio SCP-8600 has its own distinct style. The Cricket version was all black but this one has chrome finish on the edges. It’s a really good touch on relatively plain phone. Features on the exterior include a 3.5 mm headphones jack, microUSB charger port, and volume rocker on the left. On the other side, there is the microSD card slot and camera shutter button. The manufacturer gives you a two GB memory card with the phone.

The virtual keyboard, phone dialer and main menu of the Sanyo Zio SCP-8600 all sport the typical Android design but the home screens are a bit different courtesy of Sprint ID. Just like LG Optimus S and Samsung Transform, the Zio is one of the five devices to have Sprint ID which gives you deeper customization as compared to typical Android interface. Sprint ID gives “ID packs” which can be changed by pressing the dedicated touch control button beneath the display. Each ID pack has a combination of home screen shortcut buttons, wallpaper, widgets, and apps. All these come together for giving a themed experience. When you switch through the ID Packs, elements like home screen will be changed accordinly. There is a good collection of ID packs on this phone and you can download more or create your own. For instance, the Spring ID Pack has yellow wallpaper and gives you access to the dedicated Sprint apps like Nascar Mobile and Sprint Zone.

You might like these ID Packs but I wasn’t a big fan of it. The experience feels forced upon and hence I was uncomfortable with it. There is one advantage for the feature though; the Sprint ID is compatible only with Android 2.1 and above so Sprint to give a newer version of the OS for Zio. Cricket’s Zio runs on Android 1.6 which is pretty outdated. I would have preferred Android 2.2 OS out of the box but the upgrade will be offered soon. Benefits of having Eclair include 5 home screens and some cool improvements in the interface.

Apart from that, a lot of features are still unchanged. You get a 3.2-megapixel camera along with video recording, personal organizer, Bluetooth, speakerphone, Wi-Fi, PC syncing, music player, USB mass storage, GPS, e-mail and messaging, voice commands, Android market access, and the usual collection of Android apps. The only disappointment is that there is no File Browser app that was there on the Cricket handset.

I tested the Sanyo Zio SCP-8600 in San Fransisco on Sprint’s service. The call quality was pretty good and the clarity too was admirable with little interference or static. Also noteworthy is that the volume level here is louder than the Cricket’s version so you can easily talk in environments with a lot of background noise.

On the other side, my friends told me that the call quality was good. They could tell that I was on a cell phone but most of my friends didn’t have any problems. One of them didn’t mention some static but it was too disturbing. Speaker phone calls too were loud enough but there was also some shrill on my end. Sanyo Zio SCP-8600 has a rated battery life of 4.6 hours for talk time as compared to 6.9 hours on the Cricket version.

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 to see in direct sunlight.

The internal display of the Kyocera Neo E1100 is a bit smaller but not a deal breaker in an entry level phone like this. The colors are vibrant and the screen too looks bright enough. Reading text on the screen is easy. One thing I really liked on the phone was the ‘info’ feature for the menu items. Select this and you will get tiny boxes which explain the feature to you. It is great for someone who hasn’t used a mobile phone before.

The navigation array of the Kyocera Neo E1100 is made up of two soft buttons, Send-End keys, back button, speakerphone button, and the traditional four way navigation button with OK button in the middle. These lie flat on the surface and hence you have to press a bit hard. Underneath this, there is the numeric keypad and these buttons too are flat on the surface. There are ridges around the buttons and I won’t recommend this cell phone to people who message a lot.

Kyocera Neo E1100 has a 1.3 megapixel camera and the photo quality is pretty mediocre. But I won’t complain about it here because this is an entry level phone. The manufacturer could have at least put a two megapixel camera. The photos are usable just for photo caller ID and nothing else. Other features on the phone include voice activated dialing, Bluetooth, speakerphone, etc.

Voice quality of the Kyocera Neo E1100 is fine but I wish the volume was a bit louder. You won’t be able to talk clearly in environments with lots of noises. For the speakerphone, I had to keep the handset close to my mouth while speaking or else my friends couldn’t hear me. This phone is made just for people who want to make calls and nothing else. There are no high end features here at all.

Attractive slider design, has VGA camera, and the call quality too is good.

Against:

Nothing in particular.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Kyocera Laylo M1400 is 1.9 inches wide, 0.7 inches deep, 3.7 inches high and weighs 3.3 Oz. Technology is CDMA2000 1X and supported band is CDMA2000 1X 1900/800 / AWS 1700/2100. Phone book capacity is 500 entries. Supported email protocols are IMAP4 and POP3. Messaging services include Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger), AOL Instant Messenger Service (AIM) and Yahoo! Messenger. Messaging/Data features include WAP 2.0, E-Mail, Multimedia messages (MMS), Instant messages and Text messages.

Downloadable content includes Screensavers, Wallpapers and Ringtones. The camera sensor resolution is 1.3 mega pixels and has 5x digital zoom. The screen is 2.2 inches big and has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Display languages include Spanish and English. Included accessories Vehicle power charger, AC travel charger, Standard lithium ion battery and Bluetooth headset. The 700 mAh lithium ion battery has rated talk time of 200 minutes and standby time is 200 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

Low end phones are often characterized by boring and lackluster design but the Kyocera Laylo M1400 is an exception. This handset has a stylish look with rounded corners and smooth curves. The phone is clad in soft matte touch plastic and it feels comfortable when you hold it in the hand. The handset is 3.73 inches long, 0.67 inch thick and 1.84 inches wide. At just 3.17 ounces, it is not that heavy either.

Inside Dope:

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 Kyocera Laylo M1400 has a 2.2 inch QVGA display that gives a resolution of 320×240 pixels and supports 262k colors. The default menu interface provided by MetroPCS doesn’t seem to take advantage of the big screen. The menu doesn’t feel vibrant and colorful as expected. However, all this is forgivable considering this is an entry level phone. You can adjust the display’s menu format, banner text, brightness, backlight time and also the appearance of date and time.

Navigation array and keypad

Underneath the display of the Kyocera Laylo M1400, there is the navigation array which gives you Talk and End keys, back key, speakerphone button, four way navigation key with OK button in the middle, and two soft keys. The keys are mostly all fine except for the four buttons on the corners of array which feel a bit flimsy. The keypad is located beneath the phone, you have to slide the handset to access it. The buttons are roomy, large and we liked the tactile feedback when the buttons were pressed. Our only gripe here is that the top row of number keys are too close to the bottom of the slider.

Phone book and PIM features

Kyocera Laylo M1400 comes with 500 entry phone book and a single entry can hold six phone numbers, an IM handle, 2 e-mail addresses, 2 street addresses, note and 2 Web site URLs. You can make groups of your friends and give them a separate ringtone. Photo caller ID is also supported and there are nine ringtones to choose from. Basic features include memo pad, stop watch, timer, scheduler, tip and standard calculator, world clock, alarm clock, multimedia and text messaging, speakerphone and vibrate mode. Advanced features included here are GPS, online backup service, Web based e-mail, instant messenger, Bluetooth, wireless web browser, voice memo recorder and voice command support.

Camera

Kyocera Laylo M1400 features a low end VGA camera but that is hardly something to complain about in an entry level phone. There are three options for resolutions: 320×240, 640×480, and 1,280×1,024 pixels. Other settings include fun frames, brightness, color tone, white balance, multishot mode, self timer and eight shutter sounds to choose from along with a silent mode. The picture quality is not that bad considering this is a VGA camera. They may not look as sharp and crisp as a standard megapixel camera but they are still bright enough and decent. The camera cannot be used to shoot video.

Call quality

Kyocera Laylo M1400 was tested by us for call quality and it was stellar. We had no problems talking to our friends, they sounded natural and the volume level too was loud enough. There was occasional static but it didn’t bother us much and we enjoyed solid, good signal strength. Our friends said they the quality was as good as that of a landline and though there was a bit of harshness, it wasn’t that bothersome. Speaker phone calls were not as good, the echo overwhelmed our friends. On our side, we could hear them quite well but they did sound a bit soft and tinny.

Verdict:

We will recommend you this phone if you are looking for basic entry level camera phone just for calling or sending text messages.