Panasonic NN-SN643S Stainless 1.2 Cu. Ft. Countertop/Built-In Microwave Oven with Inverter Technology Review

I’ve only had this for a week, but here’s my initial impression compared to the half-dozen microwaves of varying quality I once had:

* It looks nice on the counter. The door operates smoothly. The interior size is perfect for general use.
* The control panel is coherent. Not overloaded with auto-features you won’t use, not walled into a workflow that requires entering a power level for every use.
* It heats food evenly, far more so than any other microwave I’ve owned. Pot pies heat to a uniform shade of brown, among other examples. Pizza reheats as well as pizza can reheat. (The secret is to tear off the crust partway in.)
* The auto-reheat and auto-cook functions work exceptionally well. I don’t bother reading the box for anything anymore. Put it in, tap a few times for the right preset, and let it go. It beeps partway in to tell you when to stir, if you care to. It’s probably worth printing out a little placard for what each preset number stands for until you memorize the two or three relevant to you.
* It doesn’t draw attention to itself when heating ends. My last microwave would beep every three minutes indefinitely until you opened the door. That said, I couldn’t figure out how to turn beeps off entirely. The manual doesn’t seem quite accurate on this one.
* It’s loud in operation, but all broadband fan noise. There’s no rattling or anything untoward.
* The interior is square, and therefore not quite as easy to clean as the curved LG I once had.

The inverter feature is the reason to splurge for this microwave. It’s one of the only units on the market that’ll produce variable power, rather than merely cycling 100% on and off. Between that and the effective sensors, I can’t see myself going back to anything else.

We just received this yesterday, so I really hate leaving a review, but thought everyone should be aware that this model (NN-SN643S) does NOT have the “keep warm” function that is listed in the features section. Apparently that feature comes with the NN-SN653S that is nowhere to be found anymore. I like that this model has a 30 second button as opposed to most of the Panasonic 1 minute button. And the reheat feature works great ~ no more guessing the time or the power level and having hot/cold spots. So, for what it actually does, it seems to work well, but I am really frustrated/disappointed that the keep warm feature that I thought we would be getting is not a feature of this unit.