Pantech Duo C810 Review
As of now, Pantech hasn’t risen to the top of the cell phone works in either reputation or sales. Nonetheless, for those in the know, Pantech has made some strides when it comes to adding and innovating features for the smartphone set. They have also made a bit of a name for themselves in the tech community by being the brains and brawn behind the ultra popular Helio Ocean, which made quite a splash last year, perhaps only overshadowed by the over-hyped release of the Apple iPhone. The new Pantech Duo shows signs of having been influenced by the Ocean, including a slider design that will come familiar to fans of the Ocean. There are a huge amount of features included as well, these being a camera, Bluetooth technology and quad band support for the phone. Plenty of connectivity is available, and it has gone above and beyond by providing access to AT&T’s music and cell video service.
Having said all that, we were not impressed in the least by the Duo’s design quality. It looks good enough, we suppose, but the feel of it screams cheap and rushed. The keyboard, although of the QWERTY design, is so terribly designed that it renders it difficult to use and fraught with frustration. Along with that, even with a contract and service agreement, and after a rebate, the phone goes for $200. We can’t help but feel this is a little steep for a phone that feels like a toy.
The Duo has a dual slider design, from which it obtains it’s name. Of course, this is similar to the Helio Ocean, which the Pantech people had a big hand in manufacturing. Unfortunately, while the Ocean feels sturdy and secure, like an expensive piece of technology, the Duo feels as though it were something you would give to your toddler to play with. Of course, heaven forbid this actually happen, because we suspect it wouldn’t take much to break it. The Duo is smaller and lighter than the Ocean, but its three separate layers still lend the phone a large quality, and you will have to have roomy pockets to make room for its presence.
Where the phone does come out ahead is in the design quality of the display screen. It’s a 2.2 inch QVGA, and it makes for a tremendous viewing experience. Pantech spared no expense in providing one of the nicest display screens we’ve seen on a device of this price range. Everything we could think of to put on the screen looked vibrant and beautiful. It is not a touch screen, however, so if that’s what you’re looking for, the Duo may not be for you.
Even though the phone has only a 1.3 megapixel camera, we were pretty impressed with the photo quality, particularly when matched up with the vibrant display screen. There were several settings for resolution, and plenty of options besides that. The video quality could’ve been better, but it wasn’t bad for what it is.
Call quality was above par, and every call we made was crystal clear. Putting the phone on speaker did not yield quite the same results, but this is fairly typical of a cell phone in any price range. Downloads were super quick and easy, and this may in fact be the Duo’s main specialty.
Pros
-One of a kind dual slider mechanism, providing for a different and cool way to access the keyboard and dialing pad
-Packaged with Windows Mobile 6, making it a quality smartphone
-Plenty of connectivity options
Cons
-Constructed on the cheap, it seems
-Not much thought seemed to be put into the keyboard itself, which was not user friendly
Overall
The Pantech Duo came with a range of nice features and connectivity options, but we were unhappy with the design, which felt rushed and missing a few steps in the quality assurance conveyor blt.
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