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As most mobile phone makers, Panasonic pays a lot of attention to both technology and style. So now this Japanese maker started paying more attention to devices that are becoming more and more popular among majority of users: smartphones. So we have the first smartphone from this maker - Panasonic X700.

Design
Panasonic X700 is a clamshell phone, which is quite unusual to smartphones. Its has a size of 97x49x24 mm and weighs 107 grams. Overall X700 looks a bit similar to Panasonic GD87 and more like a image-class phone than a smartphone.

On the front panel (in a closed mode) we can find an inner display, a speaker, camera and infrared port. On the back panel phone has a slot for miniSD memory card and a port for an external antenna. On the right side phone has a multifunctional button and a port for headphones on the left. On the bottom X700 traditionally has port for a charger, data cable and other accessories.

Because Panasonic X700 is a quite large handset, there were no problems with making a comfortable keyboard. All buttons are big enough and comfortable for usage. Keyboard is split into two parts: control and digit buttons.

Group of control buttons include buttons for answering and rejecting calls, 2 soft-keys, a 5-dimension joystick, menu button, a pencil button, which changes input text type and C button for deleting text or symbols. Panasonic X700 also has a button for quickly launching the web-browser and for turning a phone on/off. They are located bellow the group of control buttons. On the left side phone has a button, which is used for taking photos in closed mode.

On the one hand, X700''s keyboard is quite comfortable. It is lighted with a blue backlight, which is not too intense, so all buttons can be seen very well in the dark. But on the other hand, a big keyboard may cause some problems for those, who have smaller hands (for example, ladies), because hands get tired after longer usage of such keyboard.

Phone''s equiped with CSTN, 65K color outer display and has a size of 96 x 64 pixels. It can work in three modes: stand-by mode (time and some additional information are displayed), incoming call mode (callers ID with photo is displayed) and camera-mode (display works as a viewfinder). Panasonic X700 is also equipped with TFT, 65K color inner display, with a size of 176 x 208 pixels. Differently from the outer display, the inner one has a lot of settings, such as brightness, themes, welcome screen and others.

Functionality
Connectivity. Panasonic X700 can be synchronized with other devices via Bluetooth, infrared or data cable. We tried exchanging files between phone and a PDA via both Bluetooth and infrared and we experienced no problems: files were successfully transferred to both devices. Usage of a Bluetooth headset also caused no problems.

Camera. Panasonic X700 is equipped with a built-in VGA camera. The largest resolution of taken photos is, unfortunately, only 640 x 480 pixels. Most today’s phones have built-in cameras with 1 or even more megapixels, so the X700 is behind them in this area. Traditionally camera has an ability to record short videos in 3GP format. Both photos and videos can be saved in either memory card or phone’s memory. A handset also has a small flashlight, which allows taking photos in the dark, at a distance of about 1 meter.

Memory. X700 is equipped with 5 MB of inner memory, but of course, it can be extended using miniSD memory cars.

Sound. Panasonic X700 supports 40-tone polyphonic ringtones. Ringtones are played loudly enough, so chances of missing a call are really small. X700 can playback various audio formats, including Real Audio, WAV, MIDI, WVE, RAW, XMX, MMF. But unfortunately, device can''t playback the most popular audio formats: MP3 and WMA.

Menu
Menu of Panasonic X700 is similar to other phones'', based on Symbian OS 7.0. Menu can be viewed in two modes: list (4 items per screen) and grid (9 icons per screen). As in most handsets, first 9 menu items can be quickly opened using digit buttons. Menu items can be sorted or renamed in any way, user likes.

Settings menu contains all phone''s settings, such as ringtones, themes, time and date, quick dial, an alarm clock, voice dial, menu language, connectivity settings and others.

Tools menu includes a calculator, converter of currency and measurements, notebook, voice memo function, which also allows recording phone conversations, file manager, application manager and Photolight, which turns on/off a small flashlight (which also can be turned on using the * button in stand by mode).

Calendar is simple and very similar to calendars in other devices. It has an ability to set different types of tasks (meeting, reminder), choose the start day of the week and has other simple features, common to this type of application.

Contacts. Size of X700''s phonebook depends only on the free memory. It is possible to add a lot of information for each phonebook entry, such as up to three phone numbers, home and office address, email, URL, additional notes, picture or photo, individual ringtone, assign to one of caller groups.

Media. This menu contains videos, ringtones and pictures. It also has a shortcut for recording a video clip and the Real One player. Player is able to playback MPEG4, 3GPP and Real Video format video clips.

Messages. As most today''s phones, Panasonic X700 supports SMS, MMS and email messaging. SMS typing can be improved using the T9 predictive text input. As in most handsets, MMS messages allows sending text, pictures, audio and video clips (up to 100 KB). Email client supports POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP protocols.

Call register menu contains all information about incoming and outgoing calls, transferred data and messages. Everything is simple here.

Connectivity menu contains tools, necessary for connecting X700 with other devices. Settings for modem, USB connections, Bluetooth and infrared are located in this menu. It also contains a web-browser and a connection manager.

Games. Panasonic X700 has only two pre-installed games: Minigolf and Balloon-Headed Boy. But because it is a Symbian OS device and it supports Java, Symbian or Java games can be easily added to this handset.

Quickoffice menu contains tools for working with Microsoft Office files. Panasonic X700 allows viewing and editing Word and Excel files and also viewing PowerPoint files.

Endings
Phone is equipped with a Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 780 mAh. With a fully charged battery Panasonic X700 was working about 1.5 days. Such work time is average for smartphones. Quality of the sound during the conversations is also really good. Display quality is high and even in the bright sunlight information can be seen well. Phone is also quite comfortable to use and hold in the hand.

Panasonic X700 comes with a standard set of accessories: a charger, 16 MB miniSD memory card, a manual and a CD with PC software.

As a conclusion, we can say that Panasonic X700 is a typical Symbian OS smartphone and it doesn''t differ a lot from other Symbian handsets, especially from Nokia smartphones. In our opinion, one thing that puts X700 higher than Nokia, is its better-looking design. But of course, this is only our personal opinion.