A mobile phone that is "recommended" by
Consumer Guide magazine, the
Panasonic Allure is a
lightweight, no-frills
TDMA/
AMPS mobile phone, usually offered as an option under certain
AT&T Wireless mobile phone plans.
Available in
silver or black colour tones, and weighing in at 2.7
ounces, it is one of the lightest mobile phones available. Although it does
skimp on some features (games, etc.) and has somewhat
primitive sofware, there are some convenient functional features:
- Speakerphone: for hands-free use or for when surrounding noise is loud. Although the Allure's speakerphone does not work as well as the one on my prior phone (the Nextel i85s), it is still generally suitable for most scenarios... YMMV
- User selectable ringtones, colours and pictures: Allure users can select and apply each of these qualities on a local or global basis, applying them as a system-wide feature, or can assign one or more of each to individual phone number. Thus, when a given caller dials the Allure, the qualities appear for each user.
- Voice Command and Voice Memo: Ability to trigger certain command via voice, and the ability to record an approximately 15-second voice memo that can be retrieved at a later time.
As stated before, the software does feels a bit primitive; Every phone I have ever owned allowed me to hit a particular number on the keypad twice or more to scan through the
alphabet letters on the key - hit "2" once for "A", twice for "B", etc. -- but the
Allure does not allow this, it only goes as far as the first letter on the key, meaning that if you have a lot of "A"s in your
phonebook, and want to get to "Bob", you have a lot of
scrolling to do.
Furthermore, this phone is not
internet-ready, although it can be used to send text messages. This is surely a disadvantage for some, though I was happy to give up internet functionality. Finally, while the phone itself feels fairly
durable, the paint on the outside chips very easily, and the phone
scratches up fairly quickly.
In the end, the Panasonic Allure is a decent phone, if you're looking for quality without a lot of excessive features, the Allure is a wholly
suitable option. As mentioned in the begin, it seems to be offered only by
AT&T Wireless, though... and even they seem to be phasing it out, as they attempt to move from a TDMA network to
GSM.