Panasonic GD95

Where do phone designers draw their inspiration? Architecture? Haute couture? TV remote controllers?

The last, at least, is what the Panasonic GD95 takes after. Flat, elongated and rectangular in shape, we forgive the absentminded user who points this handset at his television.

It's A Big, Big Screen
Much of the frame is down to the huge screen. For fervent SMS writers, the eleven-line text display will satisfy those epic-penning ambitions. You can see a full-sized SMS message, complete with 160 characters, on a single page.

The large screen also translates into less scrolling as you navigate the menu. For once, we may be able to make out the mess of numbers that they call the monthly calendar. Surfing the mobile Internet on WAP will also be more bearable. The screen breathes new life into the phone graphics. For instance, the menu icons appear large enough to differentiate a phone from a calculator. As for the games, instead of seeing worms, you see wide-eyed, wriggling worms.

But while a credible improvement, the GD95 doesn't fully utilize its big screen. Have you seen senior citizens who peer intently into phones that they hold right in front of their noses? The GD95 could have been their answer, but unfortunately it isn't.

The size of its text is no bigger than that of its diminutive brethren the GD75, and there's no option to expand it. Most of the time, a lot of space is wasted when it comes to SMS messages.

Long, Dark And Handsome
The GD95's screen is comparable to the Trium Eclipse's, but the Panasonic's ratios stand out because of its slim figure. When you pick it up, the 84g phone also feels surprisingly light.

You won't find the oft-employed head-turning curves here, but we think the GD95 is a handsome-looking device. It helps that the external antenna isn't overly conspicuous.

Panasonic, an early-adopter of customizable backlights, has included three with the GD95. The orange and the green lights were too deep for daytime use, and too intense for nighttime use. However, the white backlight illuminates the text and contrasts the black frame of our evaluation unit nicely.

The key feel is average, with the hard plastic buttons offering not much in the way of key depth. The five-way joystick is responsive and simple to use.

Cuckoo Clock In Your Mobile Phone
Like the GD75, the GD95 offers three-layered polyphonic melodies as well as recordable ringtones.

Following the publication of our review on the GD75, a puzzled reader wrote in to ask: "When I try to download (polyphonic) ringtones, I receive it as an SMS. How do I make it into a working tone?"

We previously mentioned the GD75's interface quirks. The same applies for the GD95. After receiving the ringtone SMS, instead of entering the ringtone menu, you have to go into "Applications" to save it.

For the benefit of current and future users of the two phones, the 23 ringtones of the phones can be broken down into the following:

• Ringtones 1 to 6: Normal ringtones
  
• Ringtones 7 to 15: Polyphonic ringtones
  
• Ringtones 16 to 20: Downloadable ringtones
  
• Ringtones 21 and 22: Recordable ringtones
  
• Ringtones 23: Composed ringtone
  

Bear in mind that the ringtones you download or record will replace one of the existing ones. So if you record the opening riff of a song to use as a ringtone, be prepared to permanently overwrite Ringtone 21 (a cuckoo clock) or Ringtone 22 (a police siren).

Other Features
Although the GD95 was originally planned with General Packet Radio Services (GPRS), that feature has since been removed. It still ships with a WAP 1.2.1 browser though.

Other features including 30 wallpaper graphics, a voice memo, a calendar, built-in handsfree and two games. The phone memory is good for 200 names, independent of the SIM card.

Both the GD75 and the GD95 do not come with Chinese text input. Instead, the phones use a European software pack that supports English, French, German and other languages.

Reception And Battery Life
We had not complaints about the reception of the GD95 in terms of both signal quality and voice clarity.

Battery life, however, proved less satisfactory. Panasonic expects the phone to last up to 5.5 hours of talktime and 150 hours of standby. On normal usage, we managed just 2 days with the Lithium-ion battery.

SAR Value
The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) value of the GD75 is 0.839 W/kg, well below the standard limit of 2.0 W/kg. For more details about phone radiation and Panasonic's statement of compliance, visit the Panasonic Web site.

Bottomline
The Panasonic GD95 is currently available at S$428 with a two-year plan--a little pricey for a non-GPRS handset. However, this phone bucks the trend towards shrinking handsets, and offers quite a unique personality.