Is it a phone? Is it a camcorder? Anthony Newman meets the Panasonic X300, a quirky-looking phone with a bit of an identity crisis.
Panasonic is very much a marginal phone manufacturer, in comparison with Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. It's been making phones for donkeys' years, but few can be branded outright successes. The X300 is the company's latest stab at the mid-market, offering a unique design that's reminiscent of a digital camcorder.
 | When closed, Panasonic's X300 looks as unassuming as any other candybar headset...
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It's a gimmick, albeit a cool one
The X300 is an odd little phone. It's compact, measuring 92 x 49 x 21 mm, and weighs 87 g, which is fairly standard. Yet in the hand it feels squat, rather like a fat bar of soap. Its 128 x 128, 16-bit CSTN screen is small; lighting is uneven and we found the display of generally poor quality. But that's not the worst of it: the screen is dwarfed by its bezel, which is so large that it crams the keypad into the bottom section of the front face.
All this is explained by the 'innovative' camcorder design of the X300. To explain: a VGA still and video camera is mounted on the left side of the phone, covered by its own vanity mirror. Pulling this downwards exposes the lens and flips the screen out 90 degrees to the right. At this point, the phone is held like the handle of a gun, with the lens being the barrel. A button on the opposite side takes pictures, with the screen becoming the viewfinder.
The mechanism works well, and reliably, but the feature is a gimmick if we ever saw one. Although the camera performs well for what it is, it's hardly a camcorder replacement. The sacrifice it makes in screen size and key usability is hardly worth it. Contrast with the Samsung E800 for a design that complements ergonomics.
Moving on, we find a combined headset and charge port on the bottom, which is a problem if the user wishes to make a headset call while the phone's on charge. Meanwhile, the design of the X300 doesn't lend itself to those with big hands. The keypad, while not bad, is far from the best. On the plus side, the phone is both pocketable and safe to hold thanks to grippy sides, and in camera mode works well - provided the user is right-handed. Build quality seems average.
 | ... but a flick of the wrist is all that's required to transform it into a camcorder
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For a phone that has only recently become available, and not at a budget price, either, the X300 is quite light on features. Tri-band GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz and Class 8 GPRS provide fundamental connectivity. However, there's no IR port, no Bluetooth, no memory card and no data cable - which for a phone that claims to be a good camera and camcorder is unforgivable. MMS is the only way to get pictures and video off of the phone.
The camera takes decent VGA stills and records QVGA video in short clips, but 0.3 MP just doesn't cut the mustard these days - especially when it's the main selling point of the handset. Also, a mere 3 MB of RAM is horrible given the absence of PAN connectivity, leaving room for only a few photos and videos in addition to the imposed maximum of 250 SMS messages and 500 contacts.
In terms of other features, we find an average phonebook, calendar, calculator, currency converter, picture caller ID, WAP 2.0 browser, ringtone composer, wallpaper and themes.
Round and round we go
Rather than using a 3x3 grid of icons, as most modern phones do, the X300's OS adopts a spinning ring of icons, which corresponds to the up-down rocker in the absence of a d-pad. Although good-looking, this is a slow way to move around.
Reception proved slightly better, and voice quality was pleasant, too, even over the speakerphone. In terms of battery life, which scrapes just under 3 days (against Panasonic's laughable 11-day claim) from the removable 780 mAh cell.
Availability
The Panasonic X300 is available now in European markets for approximately 275 EUR.
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