Panasonic X500

This Panny has a split personality - it's a camera on one side and a phone on the other. But can it be either satisfactorily? It's designed to appeal to fashionable folk, and naturally comes in three shades (silver, white and red). But hold off on that matching scarlet clutch bag, folks - indications are that we in backwater Blighty are only getting the silver version. If you can recover from that disappointment, you'll find a miniature mobile that's none too shabby at taking snaps.

In camera mode, it's used on its side with a handy shutter button in the usual place. A rubber strip on the front of the camera (back of the phone) makes it comfortable for manicured hands to hold, and the TFT screen makes an excellent viewfinder with a healthy refresh rate. There's also a built-in photo light for stopping deer in their tracks (or blinding pursuing paparazzi).

Disappointingly, the pictures are only VGA, but they're fairly decent for a non-megapixel phone. Likewise, the video camera (restricted to ten-second clips) is of reasonable quality but only captures stamp-sized catwalk footage. After that, it starts to go a bit downhill. The menu is convoluted, the picture viewer average and text messaging a chore. The casing and controller are plasticky and the keypad is cramp-inducingly small - a real pain for texting. Given its good looks, the price tag seems a steal, but don't be wooed by the picture on the box - in the hand it feels cheap. Sadly, this is more shabby than chic.

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Posted by T3 Online on 2007-10-31