Sanyo Taho Review: Sydney's First Impressions

So, say you're the kind of person that's a little rough on their phone. Maybe you work outside or you do a lot of traveling and your phone tends to get dropped, thrown around, and banged up throughout the course of a day. Is there a phone out there that can withhold all of what you put it through? Yes, there is, at least according to Sanyo. The Sanyo Taho is a rugged phone that meats military standards. Other than that, it's a pretty basic flip phone. I've been testing one out for about a day so here are a few things I've taken note of:

- It's very rubbery. I tested out the Casio G'zOne Ravine, which is also a rugged phone, and I remember it having a more hard plastic feel to it, but the Taho has more of a grippy rubber texture. We'll have to see which one is better in terms of durability.

- The Taho is pretty big, but that's to be expected from a device like this. With the flip closed, it's about 4-inches by 2-inches and is nearly one inch thick! One inch isn't much, but it is when you're talking about the thickness of a phone. However, like I said, this is expected from a phone of this nature, so it's not too big of a deal. Obviously, it feels pretty solid, as it should.

- I'm impressed by the camera specs - 2 megapixels with an LED flash. It amazes me how these basic rugged flip phones can have a decent camera with a flash, but some standard messaging phones ship with a 1.3 megapixel camera and no flash. The Taho's camera also has a night mode and a few other basic editing features.

- Again, I'm impressed by the fact that it ships with a 1 GB microSD card and a microSD  adapter. If only we could get that kind of product support with our $100 messaging phones. The Taho supports up to 32 GB of external memory and has a 2.5mm headphone jack.

- Sanyo has no official numbers on how long the 1050 mAh battery will last on standby, but the size of it and the estimate of 6.1 hours of talk time are enough to tell me that battery life should be pretty good.

- The $99 price tag seems a little steep, but I suppose it's because there's more to the phone than other basic flip phones. Comparing it to other rugged phones, this price is about what you'll pay for another device in the same category.

So far, I'm pretty impressed by the Taho. Granted, a phone like this is only meant for a certain demographic, but it seems to fit the bill nicely. I'll put it through further testing, including a couple of durability tests, and see how the Taho holds up under pressure. In the meantime, check out the Taho at your local Sprint store.