The Panasonic GD87 is a chic mobile that will make even your "coolest" friends green with envy. The slick chrome and silver clamshell design will appeal to its target market: well-heeled individuals and business people who will be the early adopters of MMS.
In contrast to Nokia's "clunky" camera phone, the Panasonic GD87 fits neatly into a coat pocket. It is just 10cm long by 5 cm wide and 2cm deep - about the size of a packet of 10 cigarettes - and weighs just 103 grams.
It boasts a superb high-resolution colour screen, which is a great platform for viewing pictures taken by the in-built camera, playing games and for creating picture messages or e-mails.
Photographs (see example photograph above) can be taken in full-colour, black and white and even sepia style (the reddish brown in old movies). The mobile provides 10 different frames - ranging from colourful hearts to celluloid outlines - that can be used to personalise photos and picture messages.
The camera features a limited zoom function and brightness adjuster.
But don't throw away your expensive cameras yet as the quality of the pictures taken by the GD87 - at 132 x 176 pixels - while reasonable, won't win prizes against digital cameras.
The handset's memory enables up to 100 pictures to be stored on the handset at one time. Panasonic says it may introduce added memory next year and specialised editing software to enable users to manipulate photographs.
One drawback of the GD87 is the heavy power usage of the handset, which reduces talk-time to between 1.6 hours and seven hours and standby time to 75-220 hours. It takes about 90 minutes to recharge the battery fully.
The GD87 incorporates general packet radio service (GPRS) technology to enable users to transfer data at high speeds. Users will need to upgrade to GPRS to make use of the MMS functions.
The introduction of the GD87 in Europe last week represents Panasonic's attempt to boost its market share in this continent from 2 per cent to 5-7 per cent by next year. It will cost €379 on contract and €579 pre-pay.
The Nokia 7650 was one of Europe's first camera phones and has already chalked up pretty good sales. But, while the handset packs some great features, it won't impress traditional Nokia users who expect style as well as functionality from the Finnish firm.
Compared to the Panasonic GD87, it looks bulky and probably won't appeal to younger users. The handset weighs 154 grams and doesn't fit in the palm of your hand as easily as a typical mobile device. In fact, it has the feel of a personal digital assistant.
One of the best features of the 7650 is the screen, which measures 4 cm by 3.5 cm and is amazingly bright and clear. It provides a perfect platform to view photographs or play games, which can be downloaded from the internet.
The handset is also easier to navigate as it incorporates a small joystick similar to that which is found on many laptop computers.
An easy-to-find menu button on the device also makes the 7650 particularly user friendly although the keyboard, which slides out of the device, does not allow quick texting like other Nokia handsets.
The camera lens is placed at the back of the mobile and, like the Panasonic camera phone, subscribers use the screen as a viewfinder to take pictures.
Photographs can be rotated using editing software and can then be sent to other devices via MMS, e-mail, infra-red or bluetooth.
The 7650 has four megabytes of free memory for images, contact information, calendar and messages. Depending on the quality of the image stored, between 100 and 200 photographs can be kept on the handset, according to the user manual.
Image quality is better than the Panasonic at 640 x 480 pixels but it is still pretty ordinary when compared with digital cameras (see example of photograph above).
The 7650 costs €379 on contract and €579 as a pre-pay option.
