- 3G-enabled mobile phone with unique concealed external touch key pad and flip-open full QWERTY keyboard
- Sprint Mobile Broadband Network via EV-DO connectivity; GPS turn-by-turn directions via Sprint Navigation; Sprint TV and Sprint Music Store enabled
- 2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; MicroSD memory expansion to 16 GB; access to personal email and instant messaging services
- Up to 5.1 hours of talk time
- What’s in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 1 GB microSD card, quick start guide, user manual
Amazon.com Product Description
Featuring a unique external glow-thru keypad that disappears when not in use, the Sanyo Incognito mobile phone for Sprint also flips open to reveal a large 2.6-inch display and full QWERTY keyboard easy composition of longer messages and updating your favorite social network like Facebook or MySpace. You’ll enjoy high-speed connectivity via Sprint’s dependable 3G network (EV-DO Rev. 0.) as well as such optional services as Sprint Navigation for GPS turn-b… More >>
This phone is designed primarily to be operated on using the qwerty keypad only when the phone’s clamshell is open. When attempting to use the touchscreen keypad, you’re going to have a hard time accessing the lock button located on the left side of the phone. You’ll have to toggle the switch using either your pinky or ring finger which has less dexterity than either your thumb or index finger where the switch should have been placed. In fact no switches are placed in the locations where your thumb or index fingers hit. The volume and speaker phone switch are located on the lower right side where your palm rests. You’ll have to awkwardly slide your thumb down (if youre holding the phone in your right hand) to press these buttons. And how do I hang up the phone?… It’s a two step process; I have to unlock the keypad and then press END. How cumbersome. It may be easier to just configure the phone to manually lock the keypad. But it’s redundant when a clamshell usually locks the keypad automatically when the clamshell is closed to have to click a switch to lock keypad.
As for the touch screen, get ready to fat finger everything. You will be lucky to type in the correct number in the first time. And if you keep the keypad unlocks, get ready to fat face it. The backspace key will be your next best friend, if only you can press it the first time.
You must use two hands to open the clamshell. There is no obvious orientation of this phone because of it’s uniform shape and it’s mirror finish. You cannot quickly open the shell using one hand because you can’t tell which side is which. You end up fumbling over the phone, trying to figure out which side of the phone opens. There’s no tab to assist with opening the phone with one hand so you’ll end up using two — one to hold the phone and the other to pry it open.
Google maps is not supported on this phone. You cannot download Google Maps Mobile directly to this phone from the Google site. You will recieve an error stating that your phone is not supported. You must download Google Maps through the Google application that is preloaded on the phone. However, there is a bug in map searching. When performing a ‘search map’, the result listing is blank even though it says “Results 1-10:” I can hit # and go to the first listing and hit 6 to toggle through the listings on the map view, but when I hit # again to return to the listings, which is blank, the phone returns a “Uncaught Exception or Error ocurred during execution of Google Maps”. At first I thought this was a flaw withing Google Mpas, but this version of Google Maps works perfectly on other phones. Then to confirm my suspicions, I found another JAVA app that crapped out on this phone, VNC2Go (VNC2go does not work on this phone. It worked just fine on my Sanyo Katana!) So, until they get the JAVA interpreter fixed on this phone, don’t get it!
The only good thing about this phone is the ease of use. I’m coming off of the original Sanyo Katana, which I was ready to die with. I loved that phone, but unfortunately I fried it by using a faulty USB data cable to backup my contacts. I lost everything. Ironic. The interface on the Sanyo Incognito is very reminiscent of the original Katana. It is very easy to use and highly configureable. There are a ton of preloaded apps; most are not free (GPS, Games). These can be deleted. You’ll probably only use a few applications. I use Google Maps and Opera Mini.
It’s a sexy phone, no doubt, but form and function totally miss the mark here. If you are not in an emergency situation like I was and can wait and do proper research before purchasing a phone, then do so. Pass on the first gen Incognitos.
Rating: 1 / 5
We bought the Sanyo Incognito for my teen son and he has been very pleased with the form and function. After spending some time learning how to use this cool little phone, I have to agree. Here are my observations:
Pros –
+ Attractive Design – Important to teens
+ Small Body – A very compact phone
+ Solid – Can be carried in pocket, without a case
+ Full QWERTY Keyboard – Good for email and texting
+ Good Web Browser – Easy to surf the web
+ Intuitive Interface – Easy to access functions
+ Vibration Feedback – Vibrates when numbers are pressed on the front panel
+ Built in Email, IM and Social Networking apps (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter)
Cons -
- Keyboard Lock is tricky and hard to get used to
- Easy to “Fat Finger” numbers on front panel
- Poor photo and video quality, especially in low light
Misc -
* Shows fingerprints on glossy outside
Overall this is a very good phone for people who want a relatively simple phone that has a wide range of Internet option, but don’t want the hassle of a larger touch type phone.
Recommended!
CFH
Rating: 4 / 5
I have this phone with Sprint and their network is great so simply as a talk-phone, no problems and a good review. But this review is about this phone as a whole and I have to say this phone is quite disappointing. My phone just prior was a Palm Centro and I also have an iPhone.
I put in a *summary* at the bottom if you want to skip the details.
A couple pros…The phone is smaller, looks good and has good battery life. Hence my title ‘Good Form’
The cons, pretty much everything ‘Function’
This has to be one of the most clunky interfaces I have worked with in a while. It has a side scrolling / linear interface, which they misname as the Carousel. This is horrible and I have had multiple people comment on how much of a pain it seems. It often violates the ’3-click’ rule, which is a common interface design rule that anyone should be able to reach any functionality within three or less clicks.
The front screen touch system takes getting used to and even then it is bad. You can access contacts and call history but here is how bad it is.
If you look at the picture of this device, you will often see the time displayed near the top. That is the entirety of the ‘info’ window, and it can display three names at a time. I need to get the tech specs but it is around an inch wide and 3/4 an inch tall, very difficult to read and it is a blocky display at that. It seems very cheap and hard to read with just white blocks alternating for a black/white display.
The buttons on the exposed qwerty keypad have a poor quality feel but spacing and function work well. They did put some of the more frequently used buttons as main buttons like question mark and the @ symbol, which is nice and the Fn key, tapped twice, enables quick number entry, so other than feeling like I broke a key every now and then, the keypad is mediocre.
The camera is poorly placed indeed. I would very much pose a single question to the designer.. Why? Here is my problem with this. If you hold the phone with the display open in text entry mode or landscape mode. You usually use both hands, with your thumbs typing and the remainder of your fingers held behind the phone. (Go ahead and do this in the air) Your right middle finger, or so, will completely cover the lens. This leaves you with a few options…hold the phone with your left hand only and use the button on the left, but because you remove your right hand the right side, still in landscape, fall toward the ground, tilting the camera. Fix-exert more counter clockwise torque with your left hand and you are ok, but why?. Or you can fiddle around with your right hand in a position, such as when someone picks up a string with your index and thumb, to hold the right side up, or hold the bottom as if there was a bird on your finger; I’m sure there are other positions but I wanted to illustrate how very bad of a location this was in, this has to be one of the worst I have seen.
The pictures are of a quality that I will not use it for anything I want to keep, like pictures of friends or family. I would use it for those odd moments where I see a funny sign, or bumper sticker, or something in a store I wanted to give someone an idea about.
The outside of the phone has Keyguard slider on the left bottom side. Other reviews mention it, it is in bad place. You will pocket dial if it is not locked. You have to make an awkward movement to slide it down each time you want to dial. Again I’d ask the designer what they were thinking.
*Summary*
I am still under my 30 day ‘cool-off’ period Sprint offers and I am very very thankful, because this phone is going back as soon as possible. I don’t want to get stuck with it at all.
I can honestly say I would not recommend this phone to anyone with options for a different phone…anyone.
I very much feel stupid for being swayed by the look when at the store, I think this phone is not worth it at all and this phone makes me feel like I got sold something by a door-to-door salesperson or bought something from those old-time panacea carts. “Dr. Sanyo’s Incognito Potion”
I gave this phone two stars because I have seen other phones that are much worse, but at two stars I feel I might be a tad generous.
End review = Thumbs down, No, much better phones out there.
Rating: 2 / 5
Pros: Comfortable keyboard for email/texting. Nice sized screen and pretty good web browser for mobile web. Decent build quality and nice look/feel.
Cons: Cover keypad auto-locks too quickly during a phone conversation – can be quite annoying when you need to enter numbers. No advanced productivity features. Very poor app support.
Bottom line: A good phone if you just use it for browsing/texting/email. The browser is good, and the email interface (with common mail servers such as Google and Yahoo!) is easy to use. This phone is clearly designed for a younger group of customers who mainly text, browse, use Facebook and Tweeter. It is not designed for professionals at all. If you want a smartphone that loads Google Maps with full features, runs various productivity softwares and is great for voice calling and multimedia, look elsewhere.
I purchased this phone not from Spring but from Boost Mobile for its pay as you go plan with wireless 3G data service at a very, very reasonable price. If you are like me, someone who spends a lot of time in front of computers at work and at home, mostly make internet voice calls on computers, doesn’t need so many minutes as on regular monthly cell phone plans and doesn’t want to pay for the over-priced data plan for mobile web… then for you this would be a good little extra device for mobile web browsing when you don’t have a computer or WIFI connection on you main cell phone.
If you need a monthly calling plan with data service and are willing to pay for it, many other phones are much, much better.
Rating: 3 / 5
This phone looks good. I actually have the version for Boost Mobile that is like a mirror and I paid $125.00 for it with no plan.
What I like.
1. The front of the phone looks cool and you can dial from the Keypad in front
2. It has a little slide bar in the bottom that unlocks the phone. I once had a phone with dialing in the front and it was always dialing numbers. I like that I can’t accidentally dial out.
3. The Keyboard is very spacious for a phone keypad lots of space in between the numbers I don’t need to use my fingernail to text on this phone.
4. Contrary to another post. This phone uses standard Micro USB adaptor for charging. I was in a hurry to be complete and wanted the ability to easily make return in the event that the equipment wouldn’t work so I bought it at Target. It uses the same adaptors as the Blackberry. No proprietary charging interface like someone else wrote
5. It has a 2.5mm jack at the top. My Motorola phone didn’t so I had needed to buy a funky adaptor to use with the Motorola phone. This one I can use a standard headset. Naturally it also has bluetooth but for me bluetooth is another battery to charge.
6. Another nice feature was that the guy in Radio Shack hooked my old phone with this one using BlueTooth and transferred all my contacts phone to phone. My daughter was disappointed because usually when I buy a new phone I pay her to transfer the contacts but I was thrilled. Walking out of the store with a phone with all my contacts was sweet.
What I don’t like.
1. It is a little proprietary in the software so if I want to use a GPS system I have to pay for it. It won’t operate with the free Google GPS. It will access Google Maps so you can get directions but you can’t use the GPS feature without paying.
2. That slide bar can be a little hard to find when answering a call. I found a way around that though. You can set the phone in settings to “answer any Key” and to answer the phone just open it really quickly and tap any key on the inside close the cover and you are off and running.
3. I don’t like that as soon as you are on a call key guard comes in to play and to hang up the call you have to use the slider than hang up the call. I tried disabling Keyguard but the front of the phone is activated electrostatically and my cheek making contact with the phone caused vibrations. So disabling Keyguard is not an option.
4. In Bright sunlight I was unable to see the front display. I was able to access my contacts and make a call in bright sunlight by opening the phone
5. The front display, when phone is closed is a little small so I would have liked a few extra lines showing. Would make it easier to find contacts.
In summation this is a really great phone for texting and all around use. The spacious keyboard and the Styling make up for the drawbacks. I am satisfied with my purchase. Also the pricing is a sweet spot for me. I just didn’t want to pay the extra $100.00 for the BlackBerry and the Keyboard Layout is superior to the BlackBerry too.
Rating: 4 / 5