A dainty phone with video capacity

By PETER GRIFFIN


The dainty X300 is the latest Panasonic phone to get a local release, although it's one of at least a dozen mobile phones of all shapes and sizes from the company on the market at present.

Its most impressive feature is its flip-out screen which lets you grip the phone comfortably while taking digital snaps or clips of video. Not only does it look quite futuristic, it lets you use the X300 like a miniature camcorder.

The rest of the X300's features are quite standard.

Yes, it is tri-band so you can use it in the United States. It allows you to browse WAP websites and use GPRS data.

But with the X300 seemingly built around the ability to take video, it's disappointing that there isn't more capacity to store video clips.

The X300 comes with a skimpy 3MB, that's enough for a number of 15 second clips, but you'll soon run out of space.

It would have been nice to have an SD slot built into the X300 so pictures and video clips could be stored and easily shunted across to your PC.

Also, there's no audio with the video clips. There's also no infra-red or Bluetooth connectivity, so getting pictures or clips off the phone is not easy.

The Panasonic menu is based around a series of rotating animated icons and will be easy to pick up for Nokia and Sony Ericsson defectors.

You can decorate your still pictures with the in-built software.

A simple programme lets you compose your own melodies.

The camera is of VGA resolution, so the results will be what you would expect for the technology low-resolution reasonably fuzzy shots.

Call quality is good and the microphone will pick up your voice with no trouble despite its small size.

Battery life is good.

The cramped keyboard may be too much for big-fingered people to handle, but the X300's slim profile has its advantages - you'll barely notice it in your pocket.

Panasonic X300

* Pros

Lightweight and stylish, nice flip-out camera

* Cons

Skimps on features, cramped keyboard

Price: $549

Herald Rating: 7/10