Outdated.. Review on Panasonic GD 68

Hi,

I owned Panasonic GD 68 for about a year.. till I switched to my new one. I bought it in Chennai from the grey market, for Rs. 6200/- (Apr 13 2003). and thought this was the best cell for that kind of money.. till now. But that was last year!

The best thing I liked about it was its copy/cut paste facility that no other phone has. Means you can use the mouse to get sections of your SMSs to form new ones, or enter them directly into your phone book! Also when needing those special symbols for SMS, you can enter multiple ones at one go, unlike most phones where you can select only one symbol at a time, then you have to re-enter that mode, if you have to enter yet another symbol.

The next best feature is a 30 sec. voice memo. You can record conversations upto 30sec. So no need to hunt for that pen, when you friend gives his details etc.

The sound clarity is good.. not exceptional. Comes with a 256 colour display. which is brighter than my current cell.. I think they have gone for an active TFT type of display.. which explains the low battery life.. It goes to about 2 days max.. a day if you are a heavy user.

Supports 4 tone polyphonic ringtones. Most in built ringtones are quite weak.. and its best to use a shrill monotone if you are a guy who travels a lot.

Composer is not compatible with Nokia. So if you are buying a cell for great ringtones and jazzy images.. this one isn't for you.. the only place you can get the images is https://panasonicbox.com via WAP. Great site.. provided you can afford to browse and get it. But these days you get data cable for this cell.. so you could simply xfer the stuff directly.

The SMS typing is a breeze.. and the joystick comes in handy when you wish to insert symbols. There are short cut keys for almost everything you do with the joystick.. so if you are the type who finds using the joystick a bore.. use the keys.

Quite sturdy. I've dropped it plenty of times.. use a plastic cover.. else the grey parts start wearing out.

Comes in 5-6 languages each with its own T9 dictionary! Thats real cool if you travel around a lot. Learns new words very fast, and you can choose the alternatives with the joystick.

Has SMS. No MMS as far as I know. Has a WAP/GPRS browser though. Two dull games.

The cell has a tendancy to reboot when it feels like! Boom... and it just resets.. for no reason.. sometimes when typing a long-long SMS. Besides that, has no problem/

A great phone to own, with lots of features at that cost ( last year). Buy it if you get it below Rs.4000/- or so.

Else look for something else.