Panasonic UN-W700 Multimedia System (Featuring Skype)

• 7-Inch LCD Touch Panel (pressure sensitive)
• Built-in WebCam
• Compatible with Facebook/Twitter
• Built in WiFi
• SD Image Viewer

This is an odd device. I can't figure out what the intended market is. It seems less useful than a Kindle Fire or an Android tablet, and there is no cost advantage. It does a number of things, but none of them really well. And it has some major flaws. The most obvious is that it has an attached stand that does not fold or adjust and is not removable. This makes it awkward to hold and to carry. It also has a battery life of only 90 minutes, so it works best as a stationary object plugged into an outlet, but then there is no advantage to it being small and light. I found it to be convenient for watching YouTube videos and listening to internet radio, and that is probably the only way I will use it. I tried Skype, but the person with whom I was Skyping said that the picture quality was very poor, so there seems to be a problem with my camera. I also tried using it for photo slideshows, but the resolution was not very good. And finally, it has an insensitive touchscreen which requires pressure for the touch to be effective. It basically feels like old technology at a new technology price. I think there is a lot of room for improvement.

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Update:

I have never edited a review so much. I want to give this at least three stars but problems with it and what I feel is poor support makes this nearly impossible. This product would be great if technical support helped and if it worked well. In the short time I have had it the cord that charged it stopped working and twice the power on button would not work so I have had to hit the reset button for the unit to turn on which should not be happening.

I just called technical support and after waiting the person seemed puzzled by the problem and basically said to watch the issue. After asking to speak to a supervisor I had to wait about 10 to 15 minutes only to be told I should watch the problem or send it in for service.

I called back the main number and said I wanted to speak to someone in the complaint department only to be told that since the people I spoke to did not create a case number I would have to be transferred back to technical support and start the process all over again and then if I had a case number I could be transferred to a complaint area. I think this is very poor support.

I like a number of things about this product but the problems I have had with it along with what I feel is very poor support forces me to give this two stars. When this works this is a decent product but I have had too many problems and too little product support.

First review:

This product has a few major flaws that have caused me to give it a three star review. I have had this product since late September and have called Panasonic support over 15 times trying to get help with problems. Unfortunately, while very polite, I have found Panasonic support to be very unfamiliar with this product and incapable of addressing my concerns even though it has on the market for at least three months.

Problems:

Technical Support:

Getting support for this product has been frustrating. I got this through the Amazon Vine Program so I could review it on Amazon. When I first got it in September I called the number on the instruction manual to get support for the product and no one had heard of it. I literally spent and hour on the phone once getting transferred from one department to the other where well meaning agents who new nothing about this product attempted to give me advice.

It is now December and the plasma TV department seems to be taking calls for this product. The agents, while very polite and professional, seem to have little or no training when it comes to this device. They seem to be looking at the same users manual that I have. When the manual is not clear they really can't help. I was speaking to advanced technical support and the agent could not tell me if a problem I was having accessing the web was due to cache issues and if there was a way of clearing the cache. The person to whom I was speaking said I should read the manual.

Accessing the web:

One specific problem is the time is takes to access the web. At times it will take seconds. Other times it will take six or seven minutes. There seems to be no pattern when this happens.

I have probably spent six hours on the phone with Panasonic trying to understand why this happens. Once agent had me incorrectly reconfigure my wireless router settings which caused me to lose access to the internet completely and I spent over an hour with the router company to get things working again.

It is frustrating wanting to access the web and not being able to do so for six or seven minutes. I have given up at times and used my computer rather than wait and wait and wait.

Battery life/plug issues:

I have gotten conflicting comments from Panasonic support over whether this multimedia system should be plugged into an outlet. I think it should be but the plug is not very big.

The instructions say the AC adaptor can be used as a power source. It takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge this unit and it can be recharged 500 times according to the instructions.

Because you can skype with this or us it to display photos or use it to access the web I have used it for long periods of time and have had the battery run out when I am using this product.

The problem is this comes with a small plug/adaptor that is approximately 2 feet long. I in order to plug it in at my desk I need an extension cord. This becomes a problem if you move about this product because the adaptor tends to disconnect from the extension cord.

Owner's Manual:

This comes with a very basic owner's manual. It really does not answer detailed questions. The more detailed manual is on the unit itself. The problem is I can't easily go from the advanced manual on the unit to the issue I am trying to fix on the unit. This is not like a big computer where you can look at two screens at once or print out pages.

Unit Design:

The unit comes with a permanently attached bottom piece. This allows the unit to sit on a desk like a picture frame. The problem is this is meant to be portable like a tablet but you can't remove the bottom piece so it is hard to carry this around in a safe manner. The bottom piece should have been removable so you could put this in a case.

Pros:

I like things about this unit. I like that:

1. The screen is sharp;

2. The sound in nice;

3. Skype works great;

4. The camera works great;

5. This has voice recognition software when you are doing a search;

6. When I access the web it can load fine at times;

7.It looks great on my desk; and

8 It has a lot of other nice features.

I really do like the idea of this product. I wish support was more knowledgeable to help me address the web access issues as well as a few other issues. The fact that it can't and is not familiar with this product after three months is frustrating. The design issues could be fixed with a longer cord, removable bottom and a better owner's manual. Until that time I can only give this 3 stars. If support ever helps me with my issues I will update this.

Review update:

I changed this review from three stars to two for the following reason. I have had this unit about four months. The mini usb cable used for charging the unit stopped working. I called Pansonic and was told I would have to buy another one since the unit was more than three months old. I complained and was then told no replacement cable existed. Replacement cables should exist and if one stops working in slightly over three months one should made available. I am using the mini usb cable from my cell phone right now.

Further, no one seems to know which technical support department handles questions about this unit (though the plasma TV department seems to have some information). I am having an issue with a video card. I just spent 20 minutes getting transferred to three different departments.

Once I manage to get to an advanced technical person things are not so bad but it is so hard to get to one. I have had to ask for the complaint department a number of times to get transferred to an advanced technical department.

There are things I like about this unit and it has potential as the review below mentions but it has flaws and the lack of support for this product is frustrating and unacceptable.

Review update again:

I have had this for some months now and figured I would give it one final update. As mentioned support on this product has been difficult and the mini usb cable stopped working after a couple of months. After complaining a replacement cable was sent to me but I did have to speak to the complaint department.

I do find myself using this. I keep it on a stand next to my chair and use it a couple of times a day. It has some nice features as noted above. I do hope product support gets better over time and replacement mini usb cables are available if the cable that comes with this stop working.

I put my most recent update on top. I have had more problems.

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I love the built in stand and the front facing speakers its a really pretty product and even comfortable to hold while in bed or sitting in a chair. I also love that when you put your sd card in there itgives you this scrolling horizontal user interface that has each video on the card and you can scroll through them and pick what your looking to watch. There is also a 5 or 10 second quick foward or reverse button on the video player so if you miss something you don't have to scroll to the spot with your finger which is hard to pinpoint on a touchscreen you just press either of the buttons. Your not going to be using this tablet to type much on, the keyboard is a bit wide for me and thin horizontally for me, your going to be missing your keys, also the browser seems to be a different version than the new updated android browser and it wouldn't let me install chrome browser from the google play store. I also noticed that the browser would not let me click some videos on a website I visit but since the website has an app I was able to use that instead. The battery runs out QUICKLY, as for the charger this comes with you'd think they'd give you a longer cord on the adapter for something that's going to live plugged in all the time well its very short but I used my phone charger cord to charge this which is longer, now the bottom of the device says to only use the supplied charger but I had it plugged in overnight and everything seems to be fine. Of course they are both the same volts, amps and watts otherwise you might have some big issues so proceed at your own risk. So there's good and bad in this, your not going to get a crystal clear screen like an iPad but its cute for a kitchen or to Skype on which is built in and easy to use. The 7 inch screen is a bit small forget or reading but light reading and watching videos is ok, I think this is best for watching videos you have saved on an sd card. I hear some people say the battery only lasts one hour but so far I believe mine has lasted 2 or more but I didn't time it. You can just keep it plugged in . So good and bad things on this tablet if you get it for a good price it looks nice on your desk. One more thing the touchscreen is pressure sensitive not capacitive like an iPad so you have to press on the screen to get it to recognize your touch, which most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference except on this tablet its surprisingly very sensitive for a pressure sensitive screen as I tried to scroll videos on youtube it just picked up my scrolling as a touch and starts loading videos you didn't click on so that stinks, I noticed that I used a stylus from my phone and it worked great on this tablet and took care of that problem but I don't like using the stylus to much. The Internet on is pretty fast too.

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Dead On Arrival.

Panasonic tech support is incompetent and just advises to have the product serviced even though it is brand new. It didn't work for me so I can't review it's operation. I tried to return the product but was told by Panasonic sales that i would need a confirmation number from their tech support. I find it unusual that no one knows or is familiar with this unit. Panasonic should have someone from their executive branch call their tech support.

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It took me a long time to decide how to review this, because in the end, it just seems like an under-featured tablet that has a built-in stand.

You can use just about any tablet to Skype, or to load photos, plus a whole lot more. And because of the non-adjustable stand on this, it's not any more convenient than just using a tablet and positioning it however you want.

It works just fine, but it doesn't make any sense to me-there are cheap tablets out there at the same price point or even lower, and they have far more features than this does. I like it for Skype, and it looks nice on a desk, but it just doesn't make economic sense to me. At half the price, it would be great for people who only want to do the things this product can do.