Pantech Impact
(Credit: Kent German/CNET)Pantech's kooky Impact is now available at AT&T. The phone was announced last month at the fall CTIA show.
The Impact has a unique design that's quite unlike the Pantech Reveal. On the exterior you'll see a touch keypad with vibrating feedback and a small display that lets you access a limited number of menu options. Inside is a full QWERTY keypad and a landscape display. The keyboard features plenty of shortcut options, though the keys are a tad cramped. We'll have to see whether the design works for long-term use. In our brief tour at CTIA it seemed fine, but the plastic shell felt a tad fragile.
Features on the world phone include a 2-megapixel camera, messaging and e-mail, a personal organizer, a music player, a speakerphone, voice dialing, USB mass storage, and a full HTML browser. The 3G support also brings access to AT&T's Cellular Video service.
The Impact is available in pink or blue for $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. The full price with no contract is $249.99. We'll have a review in the next week.
AT&T has officially launched the Pantech Reveal this Wednesday, and even though we already published the review over the weekend, we wanted to mention it again. The Reveal is Pantech's first "single-slider" messaging phone, since all of its previous slider handsets have been of the dual-slider variety, like the Pantech Matrix and the Helio Ocean. The Reveal is also probably the first-ever phone we've seen with both a number keypad and a vertical sliding QWERTY keyboard. Both keypads remain active at the same time, probably so it's easier to switch between the letters and numbers.
The Reveal is also one of AT&T's first midrange messaging phones to offer a new HTML browser based on Opera. There are three different welcome screens for the browser: one for simple Web surfing, another for more local interests, and a third that focuses on popular news stories. You can choose to view Web pages in the mobile or full desktop versions, and we like that you can zoom in and out of Web pages. However, the screen size is so small to begin with that there's a lot of scrolling around involved. Also, you have to keep going back to the initial Web welcome screen to enter in URL addresses.
Aside from that, the Reveal is a decent midrange phone. We're not crazy about the vertical keyboard, because the keys do feel a little cramped, but we're otherwise pleased with features like GPS, the music player, and the 3G support. The Pantech Reveal is $79.99 with a two-year service agreement with AT&T. Read our full review of the Pantech Reveal for more information.
The Pantech Reveal has a vertical slider QWERTY keyboard.
(Credit: Pantech)AT&T is on a messaging-phone craze lately, and Pantech has joined the effort with two new texting handsets, the Pantech Reveal and the Pantech Impact.
The Pantech Reveal looks like a regular, fat, candy bar phone at first glance, but it actually slides vertically to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard underneath. Interestingly, both keypads stay active when you slide the handset out. You get the typical text and multimedia messaging features, of course, plus GPS with AT&T Navigator, 3G, and a music player. It will be available in both red and blue starting October 18.
The Impact, on the other hand, has an unusual OLED touch screen on the outside with what looks like touch-sensitive number keys. It opens up to a secondary display plus a full QWERTY keyboard. We know that it'll feature a music player and tri-band 3G. It'll be available in both pink and blue.
Both phones will come with a new proprietary AT&T mobile browser that promises a full HTML experience "similar to your PC browser at home." AT&T describes it as having three windows: one where you can assign bookmarks and shortcuts, another where you can get localized results for news, weather, nearby restaurants and so forth, and a third that just feeds in the latest news headlines. If you want, you can customize your mobile.att.net homepage by hitting the "Send to Mobile" feature. This whole browser thing sounds a bit odd, but we'll have to wait and see what it looks like.
The sneaky Pantech Aladdin is hiding a slide-down keyboard.
(Credit: AT&T by way of Engadget Mobile)Pantech seems to have a thing for slider phones, if the Matrix, Matrix Pro, and the Helio Ocean 2 are any indication. The latest Pantech Aladdin continues that trend with a candy-bar form factor and a number keypad that actually hides a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Unlike its other slider handsets, though, this QWERTY keyboard slides downward instead of sideways.
Other features of the Aladdin include threaded SMS conversations, a 1.3-megapixel camera, A-GPS, stereo Bluetooth, and 3G. The Aladdin is slated to come out later this year (by the end of summer, it seems), but there's no real confirmation yet.
(Via Engadget Mobile)
(Credit:
Pantech)
The super basic Pantech Breeze from AT&T is available in basic black starting Wednesday.
Slated as a phone for seniors, the Breeze is great for anyone who wants a simple phone for making calls and not much else. Both black and white versions have a VGA camera and three one-touch quick call keys for your convenience, and both are available for $29.99 each with a two-year service agreement.
(Credit:
Verizon Wireless)
Most push-to-talk phones are of the rugged variety, but there are also those that are slimmer and more compact. Verizon Wireless and PCD have released the CDM8975, which is exactly that.
This push-to-talk device also features a 1.3-megapixel camera, a speakerphone, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, and more. It's only $99 after a two-year contract and a $50 rebate. Strangely, apparently the rebate will only come in the form of a debit card. Not sure why Verizon decided to do that, but there it is. The CDM8975 will be available March 9.
(Via Engadget Mobile)
Pantech Matrix Pro
(Credit: Pantech)Pantech has just announced the Pantech Matrix Pro, a dual-slider smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1. If you think Pantech Matrix sounds familiar, it's because Pantech released its non-smartphone cousin, the Pantech Matrix, a few months ago as a dual-slider messaging phone. The Matrix Pro is also Pantech's second attempt at a smartphone, after the rather sad Pantech Duo of two years ago. Also note that Pantech is the manufacturer behind the Helio Ocean and the Helio Ocean 2, which have a similar design.
Like all of its dual-slider handsets, the Matrix Pro slides up vertically to reveal a number keypad, and horizontally to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The Matrix Pro is a tad flashier than its regular cousin, with a mirror-finish exterior and sleeker design.
Of course like most smartphones, it has support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for syncing with calendars, e-mail, and contacts, plus you get support for Microsoft Office documents. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera, A-GPS with AT&T Navigator, threaded SMS messaging, a music and video player, video share calling, AT&T Mobile Music, stereo Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB cards. The phone is GPRS/EDGE quad-band and UMTS/HSDPA tri-band.
We're still hunting down specifics on pricing and availability, but it'll likely be soon.
Update: We just heard that the Pantech Matrix Pro will be available February 24 for $179.99 with rebates and a two-year service agreement.
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)
Remember that Helio Ocean 2 we mentioned last week? Well, we got our hands on it and reviewed it.
It has the same dual-slider form factor as the original and, of course, the same bulky shape, but it has a couple of improvements over the first Ocean. First, it now has a unique optical-sensor touch pad, which makes scrolling through menus and long Web pages a lot easier. Second, the keypad and keyboard buttons are improved: they're a lot more tactile and easier to press now.
But perhaps more interesting are its features: it has all of the EV-DO and GPS functionality we've come to love from Helio products, plus we can't say enough about the new tabbed HTML browser and the updated messaging dashboard. That said, is that sufficient enough for people to get over its hefty size? We let you be the judge. It's available today February 12 from Virgin Mobile for $149. Oh, and don't forget to read our full review of the Helio Ocean 2.
We told you about the Pantech C630 last week, and this week, we managed to put it through its paces.
Though it might not look like much at first glance, the humble Pantech C630 actually houses a host of high-end features. Features include 3G, access to AT&T's broadband services like AT&T Cellular Video and AT&T Mobile Music, GPS, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and stereo Bluetooth.
We're not big fans of the joystick toggle, and the screen is a little small, but these are just minor details. It's not a flashy phone by any means, but at around $39 with a two-year service agreement, the Pantech C630 is one of the most affordable 3G phones around. Check out our slide show and review for a closer look.
Pantech C630
(Credit: Pantech)Even though it's only two weeks from the holidays, Pantech saw fit to debut its latest multimedia phone, dubbed the Pantech C630. A candy-bar handset, the C630 has plenty of advanced features like a 1.3-megapixel camera, 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, a microSD-card slot, and access to AT&T's broadband services like AT&T Video Share and AT&T Mobile Music. But perhaps the most attractive part of the C630 is its price: it's only $39 after a two-year service agreement and a mail-in rebate. The Pantech C630 will be available Friday, December 12 from AT&T stores.
