Panasonic VS2

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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.

Features
Of all the features on the VS2, we were most impressed by its onboard gaming capabilities. Most notably, the preinstalled Sonic the Hedgehog game, which has been one of Sega's all-time popular games, will bring back fond childhood memories for those who once owned the Sega MegaDrive console. The vivid graphics and smooth console-like gameplay will certainly keep most people entertained during their daily commute. The Panasonic phone also comes with a 3D soccer game and supports 3D gaming. More games can be downloaded via the WAP-based Panasonic Box site.

For an entry-level phone, the VS2 offers plenty of multimedia functions, from MP3 playback and voice memo recording to video capturing (H.263) and viewing (H263 and MPEG-4). The onboard speaker functions as both an audio speaker and speakerphone, though we find its limited volume range lacking for proper music enjoyment. Ringtone options on the Panasonic handset include support for 40-chord polyphony, MP3 and M4A audio file formats.

The WAP 2.0 browser on the VS2 is powered by a Class 10 GPRS data connection which is supported by triband (GSM 900/1800/1900) coverage. During tests, we found the settings for the three local operators in Singapore already preconfigured in our test unit, so we could use WAP and MMS straight out of the box.

Photo buffs will be delighted with the 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera which produces decent images, though the lack of an onboard photolight makes it less than ideal for shooting in low-light conditions or at night, even with the night mode activated. Macro shot is surprisingly impressive as we were able to capture the text off newspapers clearly. For golfers aiming to perfect their strokes, the 15 frames continuous shooting mode will come in handy. The 4x digital zoom doesn't work in the highest image capture resolution. Saving photographs and videos to the phone memory can be quite slow especially for lengthy movie files.

It's a pity that the VS2 does not come with a memory expansion slot, which can really limit the number of pictures you can shoot or the number of MP3 songs you can store on the phone. There's no Bluetooth, too, but the Panasonic clamshell does offer infrared and USB (cable included) for connectivity to other devices.

Performance And Battery Life
During our week of testing, we found it easy to do text messaging on the VS2, thanks to the intuitive Chinese and English T9 predictive text system. Adding to the experience for frequent text users is the fact that Panasonic has included storage space for a generous 500 SMS entries.

Overall, we didn't encounter network coverage problems and reception was generally good for a phone with internal antenna. Even with a large and bright LCD screen, the supplied 830mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery could last for about two days on average use.