Sound Quality

The audio quality of the Panasonic GU87 is average. And incoming and outgoing calls are clean most of the time. Audio from the earpiece was sufficiently loud. However, the range of frequencies seems to be quite narrow. As to why Panasonic decided to limit the frequency range in the earpiece is beyond me. The major drawback is the voice may sound a bit thin and hollow. While this may not pose a huge problem when talking in quiet environments, if you use the phone quite a bit in noisy places, voices may be hard to hear. Since lower frequencies are lacking, voices will not carry farther.

RF Performance

The RF performance was not much better. Bit errors were present and noticeable when talking. Even though the GU87 has an external stub antenna, it lacks in signal clarity and stability.

The Panasonic GU87 has some difficulties holding small signals. We found that calls were most likely to be dropped when the phone was idling. Also, bit errors were occasionally received when weak signals were being sent. Therefore, we give the Panasonic GU87 a rating of:

Phone performance can very significantly, especially when considering how well your service provider's coverage area is, landscape, multiplexing technology, or other varying conditions. The phone with the worst reception can still work well if you live under a tower. These results are just a measure of the raw RF capabilities. Factoring everything else would just be impossible to compare phones.

Pros

· Incredible 65,000 color display. Panasonic has outdone itself with a wonderful color screen. At a resolution of 132 x 176 pixels, the display is larger than Samsung's 128 x 160 pixel screens.

· Outstanding external LCD. We've been raving about this feature throughout the whole review. It's just so cool. Orange, green, or blue flashes on the front LCD when someone calls. Assign different colors to different contacts or groups for easy recognition.

· Good sounding 16 instrument polyphonic ring tones.

· Tetris. The game is still as addicting as when you first played it.

· Cool filters for the digital camera. Great set of options you can use to take pictures with. Even add preinstalled borders to your portraits.

Cons

· Lack of profiles on the phone. You have to change all the settings if you're going into a meeting, or want to use handsfree.

· Pictures taken with the camera are only 132 x 176 pixels. At that size don't even think about printing them out.

· Reception is not good for a phone with an external stub antenna. You might be returning the phone after you try it with your service provider in your area.

· Can't answer calls by just opening the phone. You'll need to press a button. Small inconvenience, but may be quite annoying for some.

Conclusion

Panasonic definitely had the screen in mind when designing the GU87. The main 65,000 color 132 x 176 pixel screen is simply amazing. The resolution is large for a non-PDA cellular phone. While top manufacturers were putting all their resources into the internal display, they were putting monochrome LCDs on the exterior. Instead of settling with a top of the line internal screen, Panasonic packed on an equally impressive external LCD with the ability to flash 3 colors!

Now the GU87's screen is all nice an pretty, but this phone isn't without its flaws. The odd thing about the GU87 is that there aren't any major problems, just little annoyances here and there. Such as not being able to answer by simply opening the phone, or the inability to change profiles. These small irritating problems add up.

With all the cameras coming out today with digital camera, the Panasonic GU87 added one of its own. However unlike the competition, the resolution of the pictures are poor. Most phones out there today take pictures at least 640 x 480 pixels. Enough to make a decently printable photo for your wallet. But the GU87's camera has a fixed resolution of 132 x 176 pixels. That means you can pretty much only use the camera to take pictures to add to either your background, or attach to your contacts.

The GU87 is quite difficult to gauge. It's one of those phones you either love or can't stand. If you're the type of person who absolutely loves color in phones and small little problems don't bother you too much, then this phone might be your best bet. However, if you're the type of person who will hate a phone even though it's got the best of everything, except for a small miniscule glitch. Then look elsewhere, because this phone will bother you.

Overall I think that the Panasonic GU87 would be good for first time buyers of phones. Since they probably won't be as aggravated by the small imperfections. In fact, they might not notice what they haven't had. As for veterans, if you've been doing things a certain way and have a hard time changing then you might want to consider other phones. Since there is such a broad range of consumers, the rating we give to the GU87 will be in the middle of the road. As, its supposed to be a general rating for everyone. Thus taking all these things into consideration and weighing all the factors we give the Panasonic GU87 a rating of:

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