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Kyocera Slider Sonic KX5B (Virgin Mobile) review: Kyocera Slider Sonic KX5B (Virgin Mobile)

Kyocera Slider Sonic KX5B (Virgin Mobile)

Ben Patterson
6 min read
Kyocera Slider Sonic
Virgin Mobile puts a multimedia spin on its phone lineup with the sleek but ultimately disappointing Kyocera Slider Sonic. Armed with a VGA camera, a video recorder, an above-average music player, and a 32MB TransFlash card, the lightweight Slider Sonic--easily Virgin's most powerful handset to date--gets off to a strong start but stumbles with its subpar photo resolution, lack of Bluetooth connectivity, crippled TransFlash and USB features, and stiff sliding action. Virgin Mobile customers who crave music on their phones might enjoy the Slider Sonic, but pay-as-you-go chatters who want a cutting-edge multimedia phone might be better off jumping to a powerhouse such as ESPN Mobile's upcoming EV-DO-enabled Sanyo MVP. It's also costly as Virgin Mobile phones go, with a price tag of $249. The all-black Kyocera Slider Sonic is made for the nightlife; its smooth lines, silver navigation buttons, brilliant, ample LCD, and slider form factor is bound to make an impression. Unfortunately, the phone's actual sliding action is disappointingly rigid compared with that of other slider handsets we've tested. Rather than springing open with a nudge of a thumb, such as with the Samsung MM-A800, the phone slides open stiffly, and two hands are needed to open or close it all the way. But at 3.9 by 1.9 by 0.9 inches, the Slider Sonic is reasonably compact, although its stubby antenna makes for a tight fit in a jeans pocket. And at a svelte 3.9 ounces, the phone feels pleasantly light for its size.

6.3

Kyocera Slider Sonic KX5B (Virgin Mobile)

The Good

Sleek form factor; light for its size; MP3/WMA player; camera and video recorder; 32MB TransFlash card; speakerphone; stereo headset with in-line remote.

The Bad

No Bluetooth; low picture resolution on the camera; stiff slider mechanism; can't transfer photos to a PC with TransFlash card or via USB; no 3G or 2.5G support; tinny sound quality on the headset; so-so battery life.

The Bottom Line

Virgin Mobile puts a multimedia spin on its phone lineup with the sleek but ultimately disappointing Kyocera Slider Sonic.

The Slider Sonic has an eye-catching style.

The Kyocera Slider Sonic's bright 262,000-color display looks splendid, though it's tough to see in direct sunlight. Measuring a little less than 2 inches diagonally, the razor-sharp screen made our snapshots look rich and detailed. We also enjoyed, however, the cool Wheel of Fortune-like menus that were also on the Kyocera KX2 Koi. Just below the display are the Kyocera's primary controls, including a five-way navigational keypad (which doubles as a shortcut to four user-defined features), a pair of soft keys, Talk and End buttons, and a small Back button. The keys are well sized and easy to manipulate. Sliding open the phone reveals the blue-backlit keypad, complete with dedicated speakerphone and music player buttons; and yes, for once, you can turn on the speakerphone before beginning a call. The handset's keys are broad and easy to push, though they are flush with the surface of the phone.

Along the left edge of the phone sits a volume rocker and a plastic flap covering the 2.5mm headphone port, while a dedicated camera button sits on the right edge, just above the TransFlash card slot, which is also protected by a rubber flap. Turn the phone around, and you'll find the speaker grille, along with the camera lens, a self-portrait mirror, and a small flash. The Kyocera Slider Sonic comes with a nice selection of extras in the box, including a plastic belt holster, a USB cable for file transfers, and stereo earbuds with an in-line remote/microphone.

Beginning with the basics, the Kyocera Slider Sonic comes with a 500-entry phone book with room in each contact for multiple entries. There's also a calendar with week and day views but no week view; text and multimedia messaging; a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser; voice dialing and memos; a vibrate mode; a speakerphone, which, as we mentioned above, can be activated before a call; a tip calculator; an alarm clock; a calculator; a countdown timer; and a world clock. In addition to the phone's 16MB of shared memory, you get the 32MB TransFlash card for storing music but no photos, unfortunately (see below). If you need more space, the phone can support cards up to 512MB. Missing from the mix are Bluetooth and a streaming video player, which would seem a natural fit, given the phone's other multimedia capabilities.


The Slider Sonic's camera comes with a flash and a self-portrait mirror.

While the Kyocera Slider Sonic doesn't connect to a 3G or even a 2.5G network, it boasts solid multimedia cred, including an MP3/WMA player, a camera, and a video recorder. The VGA camera packs in plenty of features, even if its 600x480 resolution pales in comparison with that of the latest megapixel camera phones on the market. You can snap photos ranging in resolution from VGA quality down to 160x120, and you can tweak brightness, white-balance, and low-light settings. You get your choice of color tones, including Black and White, Negative, and Sepia, and you can pick from eight picture frames--not bad, as long as cartoonish hearts and flowers are to your liking. Even better, there's a self-timer (from 3 to 10 seconds) and a multishot mode for capturing rapid-fire action. Once you're done snapping photos, you can send them to your pals over a multimedia message, upload them to the paid VirginXL service, use them as wallpaper or screensavers, or assign them to a buddy's contact book entry. One thing you can't do, however, is save pictures to the TransFlash card or transfer them via a USB cable.


The Slider Sonic has average photo quality for a camera phone.

The Kyocera Slider Sonic also comes with a reasonably full-featured video recorder, which shoots up to 30-second clips of video in 3GP videoconferencing format. You can adjust the white balance and brightness or turn on the LED flash for some limited lighting; and unlike photos snapped with the camera, the Sonic's videos are saved to the TransFlash card automatically, so you can transfer them to your system without running up your monthly bill. For a camera phone, the Slider Sonic has fair photo quality. Our pictures looked a little grainy and washed out, but that's to be expected with a VGA-resolution camera. Meanwhile, the movies we shot with the video recorder looked blocky and murky, but again, even the best camera phones falter when it comes to video recording.

The Kyocera Slider Sonic's notable MP3/WMA player boasts a slick interface, complete with track, artist, and album names, time elapsed/total time info, a progress bar, and a small diagram of the player's controls, which include play/pause, skip/back, song list, and stop. You can create playlists on the fly, shuffle and repeat your tunes, and jump ahead 5 seconds within a song. Even better, you can transfer tunes from your PC to the phone via USB or with the TransFlash card--an unexpected bonus. However, we wish the player had an equalizer so that we could tweak the sound, especially since the included earbuds are so tinny.

Personalization options on the Kyocera Slider Sonic are a mixed bag; you can use snapshots as wallpaper or screensavers, choose one of nine color schemes, tweak the greeting banner, or change the menu style; choices include the standard list, plus the animated icon and wheel options. But while you can assign pictures to your contacts, you can't give them individual ring tones or even set a ring tone for a customized caller group--a sore disappointment for a multimedia phone such as this one. The phone comes with a trio of Java (J2ME) unlocked games, including Jamdat Bowling 2, Tony Hawk's Underground, and the puzzle game Bejeweled; you can also download more games and apps to the Java-enabled handset from VirginXL.

We tested the Kyocera Slider Sonic (CDMA 800/1900, AMPS 800) in New York City; our callers sounded loud and clear, and they couldn't tell we were on a cell phone. We also tried the Sonic in our interference-heavy living room--complete with a 32-inch TV, a Wi-Fi network, a microwave oven, and a wireless phone--and didn't run into any trouble. Speakerphone quality was diminished, but calls were still relatively clear.

Kyocera promises nearly 4 hours of talk time and about 6.5 days of standby time from the Slider Sonic; in our tests, however, we got about 2.5 hours of talk time--a bit skimpy in our book. For standby time, we came away with 7 days on a single charge.

6.3

Kyocera Slider Sonic KX5B (Virgin Mobile)

Score Breakdown

Design 6Features 7Performance 6