Great phone for the right user
Written: Aug 28 '02 (Updated Aug 29 '02)
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Pros: Battery life, reception, durability, solid keys
Cons: Speakerphone, limited accessories
The Bottom Line: A solid performer. If you choose this phone because it's one of the ones that fits your needs and wants, you won't be disappointed.
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| sapinion's Full Review: Panasonic DuraMax EB-TX220 |
When my wife and I signed up for a family share plan with AT&T, we were presented with an array of phones to choose from. We chose to buy two DuraMax phones for because it met a combination of features we were looking for: sturdy and durable, vibracall, good reception, and predictive text function when e-mailing. It's not a long list.
What's Good
There is one thing the AT&T salesman promoted about the Panasonic phones - the reception. He had the entry level Panasonic himself, and said that the DuraMax has better reception than any other phone they sell. He says his customers agree, and now after 4 months of use, so do I. I get great reception in places where my colleagues start hearing static or loose reception altogether (e.g. my building's stairwell, in the middle of a concrete parking garage, elevator).
The battery life... the battery life is amazing. I'm a casual user at about 250 - 300 minutes a month, I keep my phone on 24 hours a day, an the vibrating call alert is always enabled, but I only need to charge my phone about 4 times a month. So, once a week I plug it in for 3 1/2 hours and it's ready to go again at full charge. I think the spec on it says it has 4 hours of talk time from full charge and a 16 day standby time (assuming you don't use it at all). With my casual use, the longest it lasted on one charge was just shy of 9 days.
The durability factor was important because our 11 months old daughter can get to almost anything she sees. So far, she has dropped, chewed, licked, sat on, and thrown our phones. With the rubberized exterior and hard inner shell, you'd swear we just bought them today. Also, my wife can stuff it in the diaper bag where there is already a very tight fit and not have to worry about cracking anything (the DuraMax can withstand 50 lbs. of pressure). The keys are solid, low profile hard plastic keys, which I prefer to the rubber keys on my old Nokia.
The menu gets a little getting use to, but after about a day of fidgeting around with it, I find it intuitive and very easy to use. I prefer the menu style, with its two soft keys, to the menu on my previous Nokia. I won't go into the entire feature list, as most are basic to all cell phones. One design feature I really like is how Panasonic has structured the Phonebook. Say for example you have a close friend named John you can contact at home, work, cell, etc. Normally you would have several entries in you phonebook that list something like this: John’s Home, John’s Work, John’s Cell. Each entry would have its own number. In the Panasonic’s phonebook however, there would only be one entry for John with all the different numbers below and their designation, such as work, home, cell, etc. When you create an entry into the phonebook you have the following options to enter information into: first name, last name, work, home, cell, other, ring tone (you can specify which ring tone to use when that person calls you), e-mail address, and position in the phonebook (numbers 1 through 100). When you choose a position, there is a map that tells you which numbered positions in the phonebook are available. You can have the phonebook ordered either by first name, last name, or position in the phonebook. If you phonebook is large, you can use the search function to find an entry. Another handy feature is the T9 predictive word system. It works very well on this phone. Without it, I doubt I would use the e-mail functionality at all.
Speaking of e-mail, that is the only web related feature this phone has. My wife and I bought this phone solely for voice communication. We don't have any use for any of the fancy web and non-web related features phones have these days. Web use and a snazzy colorful screen is not what this phone was designed for. For what the phone does do, it does well.
Size wise, this phone is smaller than the Nokia 6200 series phones but bigger than the Nokia 8200 phones and the Motorola t60 phone. We looked at both the smaller Nokia and Motorola, but decided that they didn't offer anything for us that was worth the extra money. The Panasonic fits nicely into my pocket and is not heavy by any means. If you want a smaller Panasonic with comparable feature and reception, try the Allure. It's one of the thinnest phones on the market and has a bigger screen. Although it does have a smaller battery which equals less battery time (relative to the DuraMax that is).
The Bad
The list here is not as long as the good above. One gripe most people have about this phone is the speakerphone. I agree, it's almost unusable. However, unless you absolutely have to have a good speakerphone (which relegates you to very few models), it really doesn't matter.
The accessory list is short and bare bones. Only Panasonic accessories will work with it. For a user like myself though, it's a moot point. I have a car charger, travel charger, and a hands-free headset, and that's all I need or want in terms of accessories.
There is a 'plug' for the connection port where the hands-free and charger connect to. When not in use there is a plastic plug that you can insert into the port to protect it. What I find annoying is that it is not hinged. When you use the port, you plug comes off entirely and you must put it down somewhere.
Overall
Overall, I couldn't be more satisfied with this phone. I can see myself keeping it for a few years.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70
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Epinions.com ID:
sapinion
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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