Panasonic GD87 Review

Overall Rating

Feels nice in the hand

Terrible, terrible, non-intuitive operational design (menus, key press requirements etc), cannot download photos direct to a PC, long connection times and unreliable.

Like many, I bought this Panasonic GD87 mobile phone on the strength of reviews I'd read on the web, and now wonder how many of those are put up there by interested parties. But to be fair, I probably would have given this phone a high rating in my first week of ownership; it looks and feels good, and no-one wants to admit they've just wasted a bunch of money.
Having owned the phone for several months I wanted to warn others of the outstandingly poor functional design of this phone. It's like the designers not only weren't very good, but they can never have seen another good mobile phone either. Many of the key and/or basic functions (eg putting in numbers and addresses, and sending pictures) are so non-intuitive, I've kept having to go back to the manual time after time to remind myself how it's done. Texting is just ridiculous - Panasonic have invented a square wheel here, when Nokia had the round one years ago. And why on earth can't you download pictures direct to a PC?
I don't think operating this phone is difficult because I'm dense - I used to operate and test avionics on fighter aircraft - neither am I a geek, I just wanted an efficient phone that does the basics well and has a couple of sexy and useful features that are user-friendly.
If you are the same, my advice: don't buy this phone.
Cheers
Kevin

Members' Comments onKevinW's Review

• AmandaBurrows on 22nd Sep 2004

  I couldn't agree more with this review, I have had this phone for a year on 24th September and literally cannot wait to get rid of it. The fact that I had to go to my service provider and have a chip put into the phone because of the problems with it is bad enough (this of course isn't mentioned at time of purchase)Texting is such a hassle, the predictive text is useless, you can't store messages like on the Nokia, adding new contacts is a nightmare, the volume is rubbish, even on the highest level the ringer is quite quiet, and it is difficult to hear other people on it. My worst gripe is that its a flip phone, but I cannot get the phone to answer a call just by flipping the top up, you still have to press call answer button, even when I have the setting on automatic answer its rubbish. It's a nice looking phone and has a lovely coloured light flashing when you talk on it, that's about the only plus point about it. I only wish that I had done my research on this web site before purchasing it, I wouldn't have had to put up with it for a year as I would not have purchased it. Needless to say I am going back to the good old Nokia.