Pantech Duo

It was that time again, the end of two years indentured servitude to my mobile master AT&T, and time to debate and hum and haw whether to stick it out month to month, look for a new and better wireless master, or just come to grips with the slave that I am and put another two years into AT&T.

My gripes are really just on the principle of contract obligations. It's fun to bemoan your powerlessness and shake your fist at the telecom gods, but really I have no complaints about AT&T. I've had it for years, through the Cingular buyout, and now right back to AT&T again. Whatever issues I've had are mirrored by others with different carriers, so there's no greener grass anywhere. The price is fine and the service and coverage consistent and convenient, and the enticements to stick with them once the contract expires were pretty sweet.

This time I decided I wanted to graduate to a big-boy mobile. My last phone was my first "fun" one, a black Razr, and I loved it. It was the first phone that I used for email, web browsing, news reading, and multimedia. It was very exciting to me at first, but that novelty quickly wore off as I slogged along on slow-as-molasses GPRS. I've had a new job for six months now that requires a lot more information coordination and I really wanted to put to use many of the great mobile applications and services springing up, so I wanted to graduate from my first generation Razr, skip the whole multimedia phone fad, and get right into a smartphone.

Unfortunately, I really don't like any of them. I don't want to carry a big device because that will just erode my willingness to tote it with me everywhere I go, which defeats the purpose of a data assistant. But I do want a full QWERTY keypad because I am a horrible texter and there's no way I'm going to be able to put any useful info into the machine on a standard phone dial pad. There are a few novel approaches to this desire for a small device and a convenient data entry interface, but alas only a couple are AT&T devices. The Blackberry Pearl seemed tailored for my wants, until I found it doesn't have a full key pad, but something halfway between a regular texting pad and a QWERTY; it has a few extra keys, enough so that each key doubles up with two letters, instead of tripling up with three like a normal texting pad. Maybe an improvement for some, but I say half as slow as 10 times too slow is still five times too slow, and that's just not enough for me. There is of course the iPhone, but even with every incentive I could find I was still looking at $300. Sexy it may be (and it is), that's more than I'm wiling to put into it.

I ended up choosing the Pantech Duo. It's a pretty slick dual sliding phone, sliding vertically for the standard dial pad, or sliding horizontally to reveal a small but functional QWERTY and rotating the display to a widescreen landscape view. It's a full Windows Mobile 6 machine with mobile Office apps like Word and Outlook and the excellent expandability of a Windows platform. All this would be pointless if I were still crawling along at GPRS speeds, and with the Duo I skipped right over EDGE and other intermediate higher speed networks and went right to "3G" HSDPA. My phone has faster internet than most people's homes. My phone has faster internet than my entire office! That's pretty cool, even if it's just bragging rights. In practice browsing speed is still pretty mediocre because the processors in those little handheld computers are just wimpy. It might get data at 3 Mbps, but it doesn't know what to do with it.

So far I'm pretty darn happy and impressed with it. In true Windows fashion, of course, I have to unlearn the interfaces from previous phones and relearn everything the Microsoft way. But once I capitulate I find it does a lot well. Basic things like setting an alarm are byzantine and obscure, but I'm managing. It nicely syncs with my desktop, including my outlook contacts, calendar and notes, and I can drag and drop files to it like an external drive, all things my Razr needed buggy sold-separately software to do even poorly. And as with all modern mobiles it's a stereo Bluetooth capable mp3 player (just got my 2Gb microSD card a couple weeks ago) and takes decent pictures with the 1.3 MP camera and video recorder.

Next I just have to see if I ought to upgrade my service to include unlimited data transfer. I'm currently pay-per-use at 1¢/Kb, which will cost me about $20 this month, but I am playing with my new toy and that might end up being higher than average usage for me, so pay as I go might be more efficient. Until I start to explore the mobile Youtube and live tv capabilities...

• Dual-slide form factor

• Microsoft Windows Mobile® 6 Standard Edition

• 3G functionality (UMTS/HSDPA)

• Coverage in more than 190 countries for phone calls; over 130 countries for data

• Stereo BluetoothTM (1.1, 1.2)

• Microsoft Office Mobile and Outlook Mobile

• Push Personal and enterprise email services

• AT&T Mobile MusicTM service, including XM Radio®

• AT&T CV video service

• Windows Media Player 10 Mobile

• Multimedia messaging

• Mobile instant messaging
• QWERTY keyboard
• Standard phone keypad

• Dual-slide Design: Pantech duoTM features an innovative dual slide design offering an oversize display, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a numeric keypad; all contained in a device only 4.2 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 7/8's of an inch thick; with a weight of just 3.9 ounces. It is an ultimate all-in-one device that gives you multiple functionality in a state of the art, user-friendly design. You will never settle for less once you have experienced the Pantech duoTM.

• It's really a Smart Device: With Microsoft Office Mobile you can leave your laptop behind. Synch up with your computer and Mobile Outlook provides up to the minute management of your calendar, contacts and e-mail. View and edit Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents. Use Windows Media Player to store and access pictures, videos and music.

• Stay Connected: Pantech duoTM features business tools including Microsoft Windows MobileTM 6.0 Standard, Microsoft Office Mobile and a choice of personal and enterprise email messaging capabilities including support for Outlook Mobile, Hotmail, Yahoo!®, and more. It supports a variety of messaging options. Connect with others through text and multimedia messaging or send and receive messages from your personal or corporate e-mail accounts. And the full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to communicate on the fly.

• Relax and Unwind: Download and listen to your favorite music from your PC using the embedded Windows Media Player. Purchase tracks from digital music stores. Subscribe to XM Radio® and stream dozens of commercial free XM stations. Watch video clips from Mobil TV and Cellular Video. The Pantech Duo is loaded with consumer features including Stereo Bluetooth, Cellular Video and AT&T Mobile MusicTM services - all of which can be accessed at lighting fast broadband like speeds through the 3G network in the U.S.

• Easy Navigation: Simple, intuitive controls allow for easy access to any of features of the Pantech duoTM. Use the 5-way navigation key to locate and select options appearing on the display. Instantly answer and end calls or initiate a call from your contact list, all without using the concealed numeric keypad or QWERTY keyboard.