One Cool Cellphone. Review on Panasonic A500

Well, this is a phone with all the features one can expect of a low-end phone:

• Memory for 300 numbers (2x tel. num. + email + groups + images...)

  
  




• Reasonable battery life... 2 days of normal use even with the ultra thin battery

  
  




• A tiny but bright, colourful and clear display

  
  




• Calender

  
  




• Speakerphone (a good one at that!)

  
  




• Voice recorder

  
  




• Alarm clock

  
  




• SMS and MMS

  
  




• GPRS/ WAP

  
  




• IR

  
  




• Polyphonic ring tones for those interested...

  
  




• It's a flip-phone, press the button and it opens!

  
  

There are still some features but the above are what I normally use and find appealing.

Overall impressions: Well, this phone really looks cool and the physical features and detailing are good too. The colour (white) too is quiet different than the silver and black one normally encounters. The only distasteful part is the top part of the ''filp'' is too thick for my tastes. There is a danger of the phone ''flipping'' out of your hands and falling on the floor the first few times you try it, but you get used to it quiet soon...

The buttons are great and have good feel, though the keyboard may feel a little ''flat'' at first because the keyboard IS flat! The 4-way navigation button is great to use and works as you feel it should with all the functionality at your fingertips. The backlight is bright and everything is visible, though you can see the faint outlines of the keypad beneath and it gives a distasteful feel!

A word about the User Interface (UI): A lot has been said about how user-friendly the Nokia UI is. But believe me, this phone surpassed any Nokia by a huge margin. All functionality has been thoughtfully provided, and I challenge anyone to have a feature-for-feature comparison with a Nokia... Some examples were the Panasonic comes out tops:

• The 4-way navigation button functionality has been thoughtfully implemented (unlike in my Nokia 6650)

  
  




• The phone can be put into ''Silent'' mode by pressing a button.

  
  




• You can browse calls made, calls received and calls missed by pressing one button.

  
  




• You can enter ''handsfree'' mode immediately on dialling a number (In a Nokia one has to wait for the ringing to start)

  
  




• The alarm clock has settings to ring only on weekdays or full week or only one day... and the alarm repeats.

  
  




• You can browse contacts group-wise

  
  




• You can copy and paste text between contacts...

  
  




• The alarm/ ringtone/ alert are surprisingly LOUD though the vibration is a bit weak!

  
  

The above are only a few UI features that I found appealing. The world-famous NOKIA OS does not allow any of the above functionality and after using this (A500) phone I find them (Nokia) too irritating!

What the phone DOES NOT HAVE is also important! The following would have made the phone perfect:

• USB connectivity (there is NO way to connect this phone other than via IR)

  
  




• Bluetooth

  
  




• Calendar and engagement/ to-do list linking

  
  

Now a few problematic issues with the A500:

• It does NOT display the service provider but instead displays a 5 digit number!

  
  




• Does not have local language support (SMS and stuff)

  
  

Frankly, I purchased this phone for my wife and tellingly, I use it more than she does!