Why You Can Trust CNET Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito (Sprint) review: Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito (Sprint)
Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito (Sprint)
Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito (Sprint)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito for Sprint has quite a bit in common with AT&T's Pantech Impact. On the exterior, the Incognito and Impact are a bit quirky with their touch keypads and tiny displays. Both handsets also open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and they share several features including 3G, a music player, and a 2-megapixel player camera. Yet, we're a bit divided on the end product. We like the Incognito's sturdy build and its keyboard is as easy to use as they come, but speakerphone quality is low and the exterior touch interface is sure to draw sharp opinions. You can get the Incognito at Sprint for $49 with a service contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Design
The Sanyo Incognito takes a cue from a few other cell phones before it. We've seen its horizontal flip design on handsets like the LG enV Touch, but this is the first time it's been on a Sanyo phone. The sturdy handset measures 3.7 inches tall by 2.2 inches wide by 0.7 inch thick and is a tad heavy at 4.3 ounces. Its reflective skin catches the light and doubles as a mirror, though it also attracts smudges by the ton. The flap opens just short of 180 degrees, but you can view the internal display at a slight angle when holding the phone in your hands. Also, we like that the Incognito doesn't wobble when you rest it in a table in the open position.
The face of the Incognito is more than just a shiny surface; it's also a large alphanumeric touch pad and navigation array. It's invisible when the backlighting is off, but a flick of the small switch on the left spine will activate the controls that include a standard 12-digit keypad, a back key, the Talk and End buttons, four directional arrows, and a central OK button. The keys need just a light press and a vibrating feedback lets you know that your touch has registered. The arrangement is quite spacious so you shouldn't have a problem pressing the wrong key.
Though the Incognito's design is unique, it's not always easy to use. As you'd expect, the touch surface is slippery and you'll leave a visible fingerprint with every press. We'd also like more customization options--as it is you can't change the backlighting time, the touch sensitivity, or the intensity of the vibrating feedback. We also didn't like the tiny external display. Not only is it monochrome so it won't show photo caller ID, but you can access only a few menu options. Though we admit we'd rather use the internal display under most circumstances, we'd like to see some color here at the very least.
On the Incognito's right spine you'll find the microSD card slot, Micro-USB charger port, a voice dialing control, and the volume rocker. The latter is a bit small and located too close to the bottom of the phone. The camera lens sits on the rear side next to a speaker. The Incognito doesn't allow for self-portraits. On the bottom of the device is the 2.5mm headset jack; we'd prefer a 3.5mm jack on a music phone.
The internal display measures 2.6 inches and supports 262,000 colors (320x240 pixels). It's bright and vibrant with sharp colors and graphics and the menu interface is easy to use. As on similar phones, the display has a landscape orientation for easier messaging. Sprint also adds its own spin with the carrier's OneClick interface, which offers customizable shortcuts to favorite features. You can change the display brightness and backlighting time. Users with visual impairments should note that the font size on both displays can be quite small.
Below the Incognito's display are two soft keys. Unlike on some other handsets with this design, the keys are placed directly below the corresponding commands on the screen. The keyboard has just three rows, which means letters share space with numbers and symbols. However, the keys are large and separated well from each other. We could dial and text quickly without any issues and we appreciate that the buttons aren't completely flush. In all honesty, this is one of the most comfortable keyboards that we've seen on a messaging phone.
You'll also find a navigation toggle and a fair number of shortcut and command keys. There are Talk and End/power buttons; a back control; shortcut for the camera, speakerphone, and messaging menu; a key for accessing emoticons; and a spacious, well-positioned space bar. Symbols are available through a separate onscreen menu.
Features
The Incognito's 600-contact phone book has room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, an e-mail address, a street address, an instant-messaging ID, a URL, and notes. You also can organize callers into groups and pair them with a photos and one of 37 (72-chord) polyphonic ringtones. Sprint offers a wireless backup service for your contracts in case you lose your phone.
Essential features include multimedia and threaded text messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a countdown timer, a speakerphone, a stopwatch, and a world clock. You'll also find Bluetooth with a stereo profile, a voice recorder, instant messaging, speaker-independent voice commands and dialing, USB mass storage, and PC syncing. The Incognito also supports Sprint Navigation, the carrier's Family Locater service, and most POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail accounts.
The Incognito 2.0-megapixel camera takes pictures in four resolutions: from 1,600x1,200 pixels down to 320x240 pixels. For editing options, you can adjust the image quality, brightness, sharpness, contrast, white balance, and color tone. The Incognito also offers a digital zoom, a choice of fun frames, a multishot mode, a self-timer, three shutter sounds, and a few "scene" modes like beach/snow and night. The camcorder shoots clips with sound in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96). And video clips for multimedia messages are capped at 35 seconds, but you can shoot for longer in standard mode. The camcorder also offers editing options similar to the still camera.
After shooting photos, you can save your images to the Incognito's internal memory. You get a respectable 60MB, and the memory card slots can handle cards up to 16GB (a 1GB card comes with the phone). You can copy photos from phone via a multimedia message, upload them to an online album hosted by Sprint, or transfer them to a printer via Bluetooth or PictBridge service. The carrier also has an arraignment with FujiFilm printing retailers. Photo quality is quite good with natural colors and little image noise. Video quality is just average.
As a Sprint 3G device, the Incognito offers access to Sprint TV, which includes live and on-demand programming from a wide variety of channels. You also can access Sprint Movies for longer programming and Sprint Radio. You can use the Sprint Music Store for simultaneous downloads both to your PC and wirelessly to your phone. The music player interface is similar to other Sprint 3G phones with album art, repeat, and shuffle, an airplane mode. You also can send the player to the background while you're using other features.
You can personalize the Incognito with greetings, wallpaper, clock styles, and screensavers. You can get more customization options and additional ringtones with the WAP 2.0 browser. The handset comes with three demo games--Sonic the Hedgehog, The Price is Right, and Uno--you'll have to buy the full versions for extended play. The Incognito also offers access to three social services (Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace) and four applications (Google Search, Sprint NFL Mobile Live, Social Zone, and Nascar Cup Mobile).
Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1,900MHz) Sanyo Incognito in San Francisco using Sprint service. Call quality was quite decent with a strong signal and no static or interference. The audio was clear and our friends sounded natural, but the volume level was rather low. We could hear well in most places, though we had trouble when we were next to a busy street or anywhere with a lot of background noise. The Incognito is compatible with M4 and T4 hearing aids.
On their end, callers said we sounded good. They did know that we were using a cell phone, but we had clear conversations most of the time. Some of our callers reported a slight buzz during calls, though we didn't hear the same on our side. However, even with the buzz, our callers were positive about the audio quality.
Automated calling systems could understand us as long as we were in a quiet place. The Incognito's speakerphone call quality was just average. The sound is a bit distorted even at the lower volumes and the rear-facing speaker can muffle the sound if you make a call while the phone is resting on a table. However, the speakerphone does get pretty loud. Bluetooth headset calls were about the same as regular voice calls.
The Incognito's EV-DO connection was mostly strong. The WAP browser loaded pages quickly, but keep in mind that you'll be looking at the mobile versions of most sites. Streaming videos loaded quickly as well and we never paused to buffer. Video quality is about average for streaming video--some visible pixelation and colors could be a bit off--but the audio was in sync. Yet, we were disappointed that the frame size takes up such a small portion of the internal display. Music quality is fine over the external speaker, but a headset will offer a better experience.
The Incognito has a rated battery life of 5.1 hours talk time. It has a tested talk time of 4 hours and 56 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Incognito has a digital digital SAR of 1.28 watts per kilogram.