Panasonic
X700

The X700 is the first of two Symbian OS phones manufactured by Panasonic, the other being the Panasonic X800. It used Nokia’s Series 60 user interface. The X700’s design was similar to its non-Symbian predecessor, the Panasonic X70. It was the second Symbian-powered flip phone using Series 60, the first being the Nokia 6260. When launched, the X700 was Panasonic’s flagship device and was targeted at both consumers and business users. The Symbian team claimed Panasonic’s expertise in the miniaturisation of consumer electronics had allowed it to drive down the size and weight of the phone making it one of the smallest and lightest Symbian OS smartphones available at the time. A key feature was the support of a miniSD card (rather than the MMC format) as well as the phone’s VGA digital camera, video, email and multimedia messaging capabilities which Panasonic claimed made it “one of the most technically advanced mobile phones on the market.” The phone had a vibrant 65k colour TFT display and a blue backlit keypad. The camera flash could also be used as a torch which was a novel feature at the time and the first time it appeared on a Symbian-powered phone. It came with several pre-loaded applications including QuickOffice that allowed users to view and edit native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the handset. The phone also supported Java so users could download further applications, polyphonic ring tones and games. The miniSD card provided additional memory to store files and it was possible to use a miniSD adapter to link the phone to other Panasonic AV equipment.