The forgotten phone: Panasonic X500

A telephone that many will not even know, but which had a few things to offer. That is the Panasonic X500, and we discuss the device in this edition of ‘The forgotten phone’.

Panasonic X500

With a penchant for telephones and smartphones, we have a nice collection. However, not all are equally interesting devices. That’s how I came across the Panasonic X500. Panasonic used to release several phones, although it has been quiet for a while now. As far as is known, an Android 9 Pie device was released in 2019. Fourteen years earlier, in 2005, there was the Panasonic X500.

This phone was available in silver, red and white. The device was a so-called slider, a sliding telephone. Compare it to a smartphone today and it is at least half the size. Characteristic of the Panasonic X500 was the screen (128 x 128 pixels) with the 5-way navigation key and four keys underneath. Sliding open you had the numeric keys. A physical camera key was placed on the side for taking a photo.

A small camera lens was on the back of the phone, it was a 0.3 megapixel VGA camera. On the battery cover we see a rubber thickening and of course the battery was still exchangeable at the time. This battery had a capacity of 730 mAh.