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[WHEN PHONES WERE FUN: SANYO'S FORGOTTEN PHONES]

If you were choosing a cellphone in the United States in the early 2000s, the options seemed limitless. Sure, prolific stalwarts like Motorola and Nokia preserved their dominance by churning out model after model, but with cellular plans finally dropping low enough in price for the middle class to afford them, the mobile market was suddenly large enough for players of all sizes to dip their antennae into. Companies like Pantech and Panasonic came and went; brands like Sony and Ericsson floundered separately ... then together ... and then separately again; while LG and Samsung laid the groundwork that would make them goliaths.

In the midst of all this, a company known mostly for its appliances quietly began to bring the best of the Japanese cell phone scene to the States. Sanyo was behind the first US phone with a color LCD; the first with an integrated camera; and one of the first with video recording – alongside strong fundamentals like RF reception, in an era when counting bars on a signal meter mattered a lot more than it does today.

But in 2024, Sanyo is gone – done-in by the double indignity of two acquisitions, with precious little record of the trailblazing devices that set the tone for the way we would use mobile phones for the next two decades. Today on MrMobile, let’s take a look at a handful of the handsets that make Sanyo a name worth remembering.


[ABOUT WHEN PHONES WERE FUN – SANYO]

This is the 25th in a series of MrMobile videos exploring the mobile tech world's most vibrant period in design and experimentation. In “When Phones Were Fun,” Michael Fisher re-reviews cellphones from the golden age of mobile, the decade-long span from the turn of the century to approximately 2013.

When Phones Were Fun: Episode 25 was produced with devices donated from Christian of The_Flipside_Story; Jason Rabinowitz of AirlineFlyer; and app73n3rd.

MrMobile does not offer manufacturers the opportunity to preview, edit or approve content before publication. Neither Sanyo nor any other manufacturer provided compensation in exchange for this coverage. The lone sponsor of this video is Surfshark.


[LINKS]

The Flipside Story [Instagram]:
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Jason Rabinowitz / AirlineFlyer [X]:
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app73n3rd [X]:
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[CHAPTERS]

00:00 A name worth remembering
01:57 SCP-6200 "The Slim"
04:07 SCP-5000 – First US color-screen phone
07:37 SCP-5300 – First US camera phone
11:14 Surfshark
12:12 The Katana (and beyond)
17:01 Acknowledgements & disclosures


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[DISCLOSURES]

This post may contain affiliate links, which afford Future plc a commission should you make a purchase. This does not affect MrMobile’s editorial content. See Future's disclosure policy for more details:
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Additional information concerning MrMobile’s ethics policy can be found here:
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#sanyo #sanyophones #katana #2001 #2003 #2002 #throwback #whenphoneswerefun #mrmobile #retro #flipphone

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