Panasonic - 1.6-Cu. Ft. Built-In/Countertop Cyclonic Wave Microwave Oven with Inverter Technology - Stainless Steel

This is a great microwave. Everything heats evenly. My last microwave was a cheap door buster special for $40. Defrosting meats left me with cooked sides and iced middles. This microwave can thaw the thickest steaks or the thinnest fish fillet evenly. It’s fantastic. With no number panel, it has a slight learning curve of a few days to really become proficient at using it, but it’s reasonably intuitive. Roomy enough for a whole frozen pizza or casserole dish.

I like this product a lot. lots of useful features, a trusted brand that's been around forever. no issues so far since we've owned it. had to spend a bit more to get the features I wanted since the last time we bought a microwave over 20 years ago, but it was worth it. over 1200 watts is nice.

First off, I really like this microwave. It’s very spacious and very aesthetically pleasing with its stainless steel design. I found through daily use that most of the microwave including the controls were fingerprint resistant, which is a big plus in my book as it helps to keep that clean look. The touchscreen controls took a little bit to get used to, but I actually appreciate it now and prefer it to the traditional set up. When it comes to heating up different types of foods , this microwave is superb. Not only does it heat up a variety of foods quickly it also does this evenly, which is great. I have to say this is one of the best microwaves I have ever used and I would suggest it to anyone especially those who wants a sturdy looking spacious microwave with many features.

This Microwave is great. The first thing I noticed about it upon taking it out of the box was how sleek it looked and how light it was. The front LED lights are very sharp looking, and the black and chrome contrast make it look very elegant. As far as the operation, so far the swipe timer for food is a very handy feature and makes "popping something into the microwave" extra simple. The LED button display is also great as you can one touch cook many common drinks/foods. I also appreciate how spacious the interior is and the rotating place seemed to be easy to take out and clean. I am very happy with this microwave and I am excited to try some of the features. It also heats food consistently throughout without cold areas and much faster than my previous microwave had. I plan to mount it above my oven eventually. All in all, worth the price tag due to sturdy build with all the desired features

Would definitely recommend this unit – it heats fantastically well – and is light and powerful. It is leaps and bounds beyond our 10-year-old microwave. Pros; Sleek black design with silver stainless steel highlights and feels solidly built (seems all stainless steel). 80% of weight of our old 1.6 cu ft microwave 15-inch turntable vs 12-3/4 inch of our old microwave - even though this unit is slightly smaller in size. How did they manage to do that? Nice sensitivity of touchpad control panel. It only lights when in use (for 6 minutes after door closed or reaching end of cooking time). You decide how complicated or easy it is to operate. You can use the built-in heating/defrosting options or simply press the 30 second addition symbol to get to time you want and press start. Fantastic fast even heating. If you are setting cooking time be prepared to lessen the heating times by maybe 15%. Literature mentions “cyclonic wave and inverter technology”, all I can say is it certainly seems to work and work well. My reheating test was lasagna which usually came out rock hard on top to get middle heated. No such problem/issue with this unit. Lasagna came out heated through and while the top was a tad hard around the edges it was great overall. Interior design and finish make cleaning a breeze, which you will have a chance to test if you don’t reduce your heating times. Fairly quiet when using 1-year warranty Cons; If off touchpad does not light if touched, must open the door. Most times not an issue but if you put something in to heat but decide to wait or heating is done - and the touchpad light has gone off - you will need to open the door to get the touchpad buttons to light and be active. Touchpad only has symbols – no verbiage to tell you what the buttons do (descriptions are given on bottom panel you can see when door is open). While this seems to be the trend on a lot of items these days it can make things confusing (definite learning curve). Anyone adverse to smartphones or electronics in general may find this daunting. Turntable is raised about an inch. I assume it is to help this units heating technology. Not a big issue but does cut down on the height of items you can put in the microwave. Overall, I highly recommend!

I like the slick and easy to clean microwave. The controls were just a little bit to get used too, but once I did, I really like it, very happy with my purchase!!

At first glance, this microwave oven looks like many others, an attractive steel cabinet, smoked glass and a touchpad on the right side of the door. But when you look closer, there are no numbers on the pad, instead they look like alien symbols from outer space. The whole idea behind this oven is that most of the time, you don’t really need to program your cooking by entering a time. When you think about it, it’s true. In the past, when I went to reheat leftovers, I usually entered a time, started the oven, then it would finish heating. I would open the door and usually find the food is not hot enough and I kept doing this until the finally my food is sufficiently hot and even then, there are almost always unevenly heated areas. With THIS Panasonic oven, you select the “Sensor Cook/Reheat” button, next select “Reheat” on the slider bar. That’s it. This oven features something called “Genius Sensor Technology” which then takes over and adjusts the power level and monitors the moisture in the food and sets the perfect time to get your meal hot. Also, the “Cyclonic Inverter” feature does actually seem to work. In the several times I’ve heated leftovers for this review, there were no cold spots anywhere. The food was heated evenly, all this automatically. There also are programs to automatically cook 19 different kinds of food, anything from oatmeal to fish filets. There’s a separate button on the touchpad to “Turbo” defrost meat, poultry and seafood automatically by just entering the weight. There are buttons on the touchpad to reheat coffee or milk, a “keep warm” button, and of course, a popcorn button and more. Also, the touchpad lights up brilliantly when you open the door, so you can use it in a darkened kitchen. After a few minutes the buttons turn off. This is good and bad. It’s bad because if you want to use the oven as just a timer, you must open and close the door even though you’re not cooking anything. It’s good because if you want to clean the outside of the oven, you can wipe the entire glass panel without the oven starting suddenly, which my old oven always did when I tried to clean it. If you really want to do things the old-fashioned way, you CAN enter your exact cooking time by using the slider bar and also adjust the oven’s power level manually. There’s also a “30 second” button which will allow you to set or add cooking time in 30 second intervals up to 5 minutes. You’ll probably be using this method when you first start using the oven before you’ll realize you get better results by letting the oven handle the timing and power tasks on its own. About the only negative I could see is that the heating compartment is lit by only one small LED. Looking through the glass while cooking your food it’s not lit as well as other microwave ovens. It’s not a big deal, just an observation. I was going to give this oven just 4 stars because you really DO need to sit down with the manual and read it slowly and carefully to understand the oven’s operation before you start using it, and even then you’ll probably want to keep the manual handy in the kitchen to refer to it. After I thought about it, since the oven really does SUCH a great job in heating much more evenly than any other I’ve used and does it automatically, I gave it it’s fifth star. It really is the best microwave oven I’ve ever owned. And also, if you have guests over, you’ll never have to worry about them using this microwave oven without your knowledge. They’ll never figure it out. :)

We've been happy w/this microwave. It does what we need it to do, but we do miss the old "minute plus" button which would instantly set it to run for one minute (minor, I know). It does have a rather cheap, tinny sound when closing the door. Despite what some reviews indicated, it does have an interior light that is on both when it runs and when you open the door. It does simply go back to showing the time when it's done rather than reminding you something is in there.

The Panasonic Genius Prestige 1.6 Cu. Ft. Microwave is truly the next "wave" in microwaves. Panasonic has loaded this unit up with all sorts of great technology like Cyclonic Wave and Inverter Technology...which really works. Upon opening the box and unwrapping the unit, the first thing you'll notice is the very sleek and modern design for a microwave. The exterior footprint seems small compared to the internal 1.6 Cu. Ft. size...and this is a great space saver on the countertop. The stainless exterior is very well constructed and the touch screen and controls feel very solid to the touch. The next thing you may notice on setting it up is there are no numbers on the control pad...for a minute I was confused as every microwave I've owned in 30 years has a numeric keypad. Well, Panasonic removed the numeric keypad and replaced it with Touch Screen Controls which make cooking or reheating food as simple as one button in many cases. It did take a few minutes of studying what the different controls mean, but after a few uses, I forget there was ever a numeric keypad on a microwave! The LED display is bright and clear and the touch controls are very responsive...so much better than my previous microwave's controls. As for cooking, I couldn't be happier. There is a pretty much a touch control for any item from a bag of popcorn up to reheating a steak. So far the sensor cooking/reheating options have been spot on. With the use of Cyclonic Wave and Inverter Technology, food is cooked evenly with no cold or super overheated spots. Overall this is a very good looking, space-saving and great cooking/reheating microwave. Once you are familiar with the new control pad layout, this will most likely become your favorite appliance in the kitchen. I would definitely recommend this unit to others.