Panasonic G50

Panasonic G50The Panasonic G50's forbearer, the GD55, was a phone that stood out for its size. In a time when the T68i was considered a pretty small and light phone, the GD55 took things a full step further. Sure it didn't have a color screen or polyphonic ringtones, but it sure was small and light. 65g is a weight that still is impressive today.

But in a market that was going full speed ahead towards color and polyphonics, it just couldn't compete. With that in mind the G50 was devised. It grew in size only slightly, but went up almost 14% in weight to 74g. The question is, does the G50 maintain the draw of the GD55 while keeping up with modern handsets?

It should be noted that the G50 I tested was a Chinese market version. I suspect that there are some differences between it and the model that will be released in the rest of the world, which I will discuss later.

Sights and sounds

As mentioned, the major lackings of the GD55 were its display and sound system. To fix that, the G50 was given a 4096 color display with a 128x96 resolution. Nothing earth shattering, to be sure, but, in theory, on par with most of the color handsets put out by Nokia and Sony Ericsson. The display turns out to be only adequate, though, not unlike the display of the Siemens SL55. It doesn't quite have the color saturation you would like to see, but it is good enough.

While there are settings available for changing the startup animations and wallpapers and themes that color the display, there are few other settings. For instance, there is no setting for the amount of time the backlight stays lit. There are no contrast settings, either, and this display needs a contrast boost.

The polyphonics system rates a bit better than the display. The audio volume is sufficiently loud, and there are a number of interesting ringtones supplied - including the typical goofy ones with voices and animal noises just as you would expect to see in any Samsung handset. There is even a decent melody editor included in the package.

The profile system in the G50 allows you to configure the ringtone volume and use of the vibration alert for four different situations. Interestingly, though, you can not select a different ringtone for each of the four profiles. You can merely set the volume level. Overall, the profile system is a bit lacking.

Phone functions

One of the problems with having to source our own demo handsets from time to time is that we don't always get a choice as to what market the phone comes from. This is the case with the G50. Since we have been unable to establish a workable relationship with Panasonic, we have to look elsewhere for the phones. So with this in mind I will tell you that the G50 I tested had no GPRS system, even though all published specs seem to indicate otherwise.

In terms of the actually radio unit of the phone, the G50 is a mixed bag. While it is triband, offering a few different modes such as 900/1800 and 900/1900, it isn't auto-switching between them. This isn't a problem if you can remember to switch the settings a when you step off of the plane after landing from your transatlantic flight. What is a problem, however, is the quality of the reception - at least on the 1900Mhz band I was using.

In my home, the G50 was unable to hold onto a call for more than a few minutes. In fact, it dropped 15 seconds into my first test call with my mother. I had just said "I'm testing a new phone out" when everything went dead. As my mother commented a minute later after I redialed her, "That's not a great start to a test." This was repeated a couple of more times in our brief 15 minute conversation. On top of that, both Mom and I thought the audio quality was very thin sounding, totally lacking in any bass tones (not surprising for a small handset). Overall we were unimpressed. The battery is also pretty anemic, lasting for only a day or two at max with light usage even though it is a 760mAh unit - the G50 just seems to be lacking in decent power management.

 

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