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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #342 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Color: Stainless
• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: NN-SD681S
• Format: CD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 15.25" h x 12.19" w x 20.69" l, 30.05 pounds

Features

• Inverter Technology for even cooking and delivering delicious flavor and Inverter Turbo Defrost for quick defrosting
• Elegant 4-Digit Blue Readout LED Display with Programming Icon Dial and buttons for quick programming
• 1200 Watts of High Power; One-Touch Genius Sensor Cook and Reheat for automatic cooking settings
• Measures 15 15/16" (D) x 20 3/8" (W) x 11 7/8" (H), 25.3 lbs., Stainless Steel face
• Please note: upper left-corner door has a small indentation to allow the door to open smoothly.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

191 of 198 people found the following review helpful.
Takin' one for the team - - - quick first review - EDITED
By A. Thompson
I've only had this 2 days, but I thought I'd get a quick review up on it.
This oven is so new, even Panasonic didn't know about it. I called them up, and their customer service knew nothing. A search on the Panasonic website came back blank.
So, what the heck, I bought it. It appeared to be very similar to the SD688 models, with one exception. The digital display got panned on the 688 as being hard to read from a normal standing angle. I guessed that this fancy blue display was their answer to that, and I was right! The bright blue display is very easy to read up close without bending over., and from an angle.
I rarely cook in a microwave, so all of the fancy button options are moot. "Inverter Melt", "Popcorn" "Inverter Turbo Defrost". If I have to keep the manual handy to use my microwave, I'm not likely to use that feature.
I did try the "Sensor Reheat" feature on some boneless chicken. It stopped it at the right time.
I like the dial feature, i t's very intuitive. The one minute button is nice.
One thing a Microwave does, is it sits there on the counter most of the time doing nothing. This does that very well. The SS finish and the square lines look really good. At 20" wide, it just right for my counter. It's taller than my old oven, so I can fit my salad dressing cruet in there.
Another thing a microwave should do is last for years. We'll have to see on that one.
I will update as more details become apparent.
More observations 10/12/11:
I tried the Sensor Reheat a few more times. It seems to work pretty well. It's weird though if your timing your food prep, setting the table, or whatever, because there's no preset time.
The 'Inverter Melt' function works quite well. Here is where the inverter technology makes a difference - it actually heats at low power. Conventional microwaves just cycle full power off and on to achieve 'low' power.
I tried 'Sensor Cook' with some potatoes. I s et it on 3. Silly me - 3 is for omelets. For potatoes, use 7. Fresh vegetables - 8. There's no explanation what the different settings actually mean. Forget it.
So with all this fancy technology, Panasonic could have added one basic non-technological feature:
The light. It only comes on while cooking. But not when you open the door. Really? That's enough to almost give me buyers remorse. It never occurred to me that this feature, that's been around for 30 years, would be missing.

Edit 2/18/12: After 4 months and prompting by a fellow reviewer, I'm bumping this to 4 stars. Mechanically, the engineering is excellent. The inverter technology is extremely useful, making it a more versatile and valuable tool in the cooking process.
Still, the software side is gimmicky and borderline absurd . Take the Melt & Soften button, for 1 example. I can melt butter by setting the power to 1 or 2 and 30 seconds. Or I can use the Melt & soften button, saving me seve ral whole button pushes! I have a choice of 15,16,17,and 18. But,it would be nice to know which power setting that button selects, instead of "Butter, Cream Cheese", etc. Imagine if your conventional oven had settings for Ham, Chicken, and Turkey, but didn't tell you the temperature if you use them. I just don't get it. Panasonic, please just tell us what these programs really mean.

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful.
Happy with it
By Sharon
Another reviewer gave a lot more details, and that was helpful. I'll keep it short and stick to the things I noticed:
1) No light when you open the door, which is odd, but doesn't really bother me.
2) You set the cooking time with a dial, rather than typing it in on a keypad. The dial to set the cooking time is good, I guess. Not much easier or more difficult than a keypad, so I don't have a strong opinion about it.
3) Prior models (according to reviews) had problems with the door lock and the display. Both are great on this model. Door locks solidly and the display is very easy to read.
4) The Sensor Reheat button worked very well the few times I've used it to reheat leftovers. They came out nice and hot, but not overdone. That's the only feature I've used, other than just setting a time and pushing "start".
Overall, we are happy with this product, after about a month of daily use. It's a good compromise between power and size. I wanted a more po werful microwave than our prior, very compact, one. I also wanted to have it be a reasonably small size, so I checked dimensions carefully. This one had the best size/power combination for us.

77 of 82 people found the following review helpful.
A modest improvement over its predecessor
By Wayne
In most ways, this microwave oven is similar to the earlier Panasonic Prestige NN-SD688S model. Both are virtually identical in size, and most functions overlap. The functional changes, though minor, are not insignificant.

The NN-SD688S model improved upon its predecessor by replacing its cluttered interface with a more simple and usable one. This model retains that look and feel. It uses a dial for setting time, weight, cook settings, or other parameters that formerly used a keypad. On this model, the dial can be retracted when not in use. A big improvement over the previous model is the display. It now uses brighter blue numbers that can be seen from a bigger range of angles and heights, and should satisfy the objections people had to the earlier model. The new display also shows the cook level throughout the cook cycle, rather than only when setting it.

In addition to standard features such as timed cooking, a sensor reheat function, defrosting, p opcorn and keep warm buttons, there are fourteen sensor cook settings for specific foods. The NN-SD688S had nine. When the door is open, a label lists the number to use for each food item, so fourteen settings are not overwhelming as they were on the earlier touch pad models. The beverage button disappeared when the previous model was released, and is still lacking. I found that feature useful on other microwaves.

By dialing a number for the cook setting, it has the appearance of setting a cook level. Since the items for each number seem unrelated, it's not possible to decide that something might be between eggs and soup and choose a level in between. However, many microwave ovens have specific buttons for certain foods, just as this has a popcorn button. I wouldn't question what else I could cook with a frozen pizza button, but consumers might question what level six (really setting six) can cook besides pizza. If you think of it as a replacement for fourteen pr eprogrammed buttons, you can appreciate its added simplicity for the listed foods.

Another addition is the Melt and Soften button. It can be used for melting chocolate, softening butter or cream cheese, and there's even a setting for softening ice cream. I haven't tried those settings yet, but they include ones I'd actually use.

There is a "recipe store" button that can store only a single recipe at a time, so if popcorn is not your thing and you want a custom button for something else specific, you can use it.

The inverter function raises or lowers the power level generatated by the oven, rather than controlling power by cycling on and off. The power was reduced to 1200 watts from the previous model's 1300 watts. I'm not sure how much difference it will make with the inverter settings, but could potentially affect anything heated at full power. Many recipes assume that you have 1000 watts, so cook time may be closer to that in a recipe. But I'd rather set less time and figure that out myself.

The previous model's stylistic flair was replaced with a more spartan but high end appearance. That model's four small feet provided little traction, causing the oven to move for some users when the door button was pressed. This model has pads on the front feet that prevent it from slipping. When I first tried it out, it didn't slip. When I moved it to its final location, it slipped far too much. Strangely enough, the back feet are no longer there, and the microwave sits on bare metal surfaces there. I ended up using an adhesive non-slip putty to keep the microwave in place. Perhaps the surface wasn't perfectly flat, but the feet don't seem to be adjustable. The new feet may or may not be an improvement.

The light does not go on when the door is open, and only lights while cooking. Many users find that very objectionable. I didn't like that omission, probably because I was used to having a light, but in a microwave with a white surface, it's less of a need than in a much larger conventional oven.

This model lets you set up to three consecutive cook settings (as opposed to its predecessor's five) so you could set a one hour delay, a cook time at a certain level, and a keep warm stage, for example. Five seemed excessive but I don't see what Panasonic gained by lowering it. In the example they gave in their previous manual, setting a cook time at one level followed by a cook time at a different level (something that instructions on food boxes sometimes suggest) could not be integrated with my example. Once the start button is pressed, all stages will be executed sequentially. The timer stage can be used independently, but not concurrently. With the microwave I'm replacing, I very often used the timer, even while the microwave was cooking. I find that loss a bigger annoyance than the light issue.