Panasonic VS2
November 14th, 2005 - Posted in Panasonic
It’s amazing how fast technology advances in the mobile phone world. Not too long ago, most phone displays were monochrome. Then came the Ericsson T68m with 256 colors, followed by the Samsung SGH-T100 which was equipped with a 4,096-color screen. More recently, 65K- and 262K-color LCDs dominated the handset market. Now, Panasonic claims that its VS2 is the first GSM mobile to sport a 16 million-color panel.
Design
At first glance, the VS2 looks like any other clamshell phone. But once we popped the flip, we were greeted by one of the sharpest and perhaps brightest TFT screens we have seen so far in our test lab. Capable of displaying 16 million colors at a maximum brightness of 300 cd/m2, the crisp image quality on the 2.2-inch QVGA LCD is great for viewing photos as well as Chinese text. The lack of an external LCD display, however, means you have to flip the phone to check for missed calls and messages.
With a thickness of 18.2mm and weighing just 98g, the VS2 is pretty slim and lightweight for a clamshell phone, and should appeal to both sexes. However, we suspect that most people will be attracted to the VS2’s design because of its close resemblance to Japanese mobile handsets like the P900 series from NTT DoCoMo. A strong build quality and availability in various colors are positive factors to consider, too.
On the whole, we found it easy to navigate the phone menus and SMS on the VS2, thanks to its responsive buttons and well-spaced keypad. Our only gripe is with the volume control buttons. Instead of placing them on the left as with most other phones, Panasonic has chosen to position it on the right, below the camera shutter/activation button. This makes it a strain to access the volume buttons.
We like the one-push auto-open feature which makes it really easy to open the clamshell flip with a single hand. It also helps to keep the paintwork on the phone edges intact as fingernail scratches are kept to a minimum. However, due to an uneven distribution of weight, the spring mechanism tends to tilt the phone when it is activated, resulting in the mobile almost dropping on several occasions. read more on CNET Asia Review