We don't hear too much about Sanyo's cell phone offering in the United States, but they've been among us for a while and sell a lot of phones in Japan.

Here in the U.S., Boost Mobile offers several, including the Incognito, a cool phone that could be good for the text-savvy person in your household.

The first thing you'll notice about the Incognito is its shiny mirrored finish, unlike your typical U.S. cell phone. The mirrored finish is enough to get oohs and ahs from your friends who might not have seen it before -- and it's handy because it takes the place of a pocket mirror (for those of you who won't go anywhere without one -- no, it doesn't have a space for cosmetics).

The mirror design is functional as a phone, too, as it is somewhat translucent, allowing Sanyo to offer you buttons that are backlit through the mirror.

This set of buttons is a typical telephone style keypad and a display of the incoming number or digital clock. It does not show you a full QWERTY keypad, and my daughter insists the external keyboard is almost useless for texting because the response is slow.

However, the keys are nice and large for easy phone calling. And we like the vibration feedback it gives you when you press a key.

For texting, you flip open the phone to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, reminiscent of many of the other text-oriented cell phones and smart phones. Its hardware keyboard is oriented horizontally to better fit the keypad. The keys are small, but generally usable -- especially for teenage fingers that seem more dexterous than the ones on older hands like mine. There are three rows, as the numbers are superimposed on the letter keys, giving you a bit more room in between keys, helping those who don't have teenage fingers.

The internal 2.6 inch color display is bright and large enough to be easily readable; and the phone includes a 2 megapixel camera/camcorder and a slot for an SD card.

One of Incognito's appeals for the cell phone generation is an interface that makes it quite easy to update your Facebook, communicate by chat or send SMS messages.

Facebook is directly on your screen menu. You can see your page, update your status, see birthdays and make posts to your Facebook wall without difficulty or extra clicks. Uploading photos to Facebook is a bit more difficult.

You need to log in to your PC to move them properly to your wall, instead of straight from the phone.

There are several idiosyncrasies that detract from the Incognito's design, though. For some reason, the designers put the camera button on the inside; so you have to open up the clamshell before taking a picture.

And even though this is a texting-centric phone, we were unable to find a notepad. Perhaps the designers figured you don't need one because the Incognito includes a voice memo recorder.

The phone itself seems sturdy, but the mirrored finish less so.

Over a few weeks, the finish cracked in places, revealing that it's really shiny plastic. The gray sections that remained detracted from the cool look of the mirror.

And it shut down and restarted occasionally, for no apparent reason.

The most bothersome aspect of the Incognito is that it annoys people around the user due to its consistent clicking noises. The button clicks are loud, and it clicks every time you open the clamshell.

The Incognito will cost you $130 from Boost Mobile, usable with Boost's pay-as-you-go plan.

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