I bought this phone for £130 in October of 2002. The main features which attracted me to it were the small size and light weight, the 256-colour screen, and the polyphonic ringtones. The latter two of these features are still quite rare, especially on a Pay-as-you-go mobile.

The polyphonic ringtones, of which there are 20 preset in the phone as well as the ability to download more from the Internet, are clear and sound very 'authentic' compared to the soulless beeps emitted from other phones. There is also the ability to record your own ringtones, although this feature is all but useless since the recorded ringtones are virtually inaudible, even if you shout into the phone. This is one of the few problems with this handset - in common with most polyphonic phones at the moment, unfortunately the phone struggles to make itself heard in noisy environments even with the volume set to maximum. Which is a shame as when people do hear the ringtones, their reaction is usually one of amazement. The vibration feature, by contrast, is amply powerful and has never failed to alert me to a call, even when I shouldn't really be taking one! One niggle on this front is that the vibration and the ringtones can't be enabled simultaneously; it's one or the other I'm afraid.

The quality of reception on the phone is good; calls are loud and clear, and people have commented on how clear my voice sounds when I'm talking to them. The phone also has a handsfree feature, useful if you need both hands whilst talking.

Control of the phone is easy, although it may take some time to get used to if you, like myself, previously used Nokia phones. The key to the control of the phone is the central 'joystick', which can be pressed and moved in all four directions. Pressing the joystick works rather like the central key on many Nokia phones, ie. it's used to accept choices as you move through the phone's menus. There are two buttons to either side of this. The topmost key on the left is used for most of the tasks that can't be accomplished with the joystick, such as changing the text mode whilst writing a message. The opposite key on the right is used for moving backwards through the menus or rejecting choices. If you're at the idle screen, these buttons bring up the phonebook and text messaging screen respectively. These shortcuts are useful. The two buttons below these are simply used for answering and rejecting/ending calls. The green button on the left answers, and also brings up the list of dialled, received and missed calls. The red one cancels actions or calls, and also doubles as the on/off switch. The buttons on the keypad are easy to press, though a bit small for my liking.

The phone is also well endowed with other useful features below the surface. The GPRS internet browser allows you to browse the mobile internet faster and cheaper than with normal WAP phones, if your network supports it. On the down side, browsing may be faster, but the actual WAP browser itself, like the text messaging, is slow to respond to key presses. This gets irritating after a while.

Other features the phone has are an efficient schuduler, voice memo recorder, and a calculator and currency converter. All of these are easy to use and make the phone much more useful.

Overall, though, I'm very pleased with this phone. Panasonic have produced a handset that's ground-breaking and intuitive, with many unusual features, for a very reasonable price. The price you'll pay is the lack of compatibility with the much more popular Nokias, but, hey, you want to stand out don't you?