Pantech Link (AT&T) – great QWERTY keyboard
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Thin and sleek handset, has rubber gripping at the back, good QWERTY keyboard, has 1.3 MP camera, 3G/HSDPA, music player and also supports AT&T’s new cloud services. Inexpensive.
Thumbs Down:
Call quality is bad, browsing in a tiny screen needs a lot of scrolling.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Pantech Link has a 2.4 inch display with resolution of 320×240 pixels or 262k colors. It has internal phone memory of 79 MB. The handset is 2.4 inches wide, 0.39 inch deep, 4.5 inches high and weighs 3.2 oz. It has 600 entry phone book capacity.
Razzle Dazzle:
The low price of the Pantech Link might make you think that it has cheap looks but it is not so. The handset is just 4.5 inches long, 0.39 inch thick and 2.4 inches wide and feels sturdy in the hand despite being thin. This is one of the thinnest cell phones we have ever seen in our labs. On the back there is a rubber texture which helps you to grip the phone better. The phone weighs just 3.2 ounces.
Inside Dope:
It is been a while since Pantech came out with a handset. It previous attempt was Slate and it has been a long wait after that. This handset shares the thin look of Slate but the features are a bit updated here. The display of Pantech Link is 2.4 inches big and gives a resolution 320×240 pixels or support for 262k colors. Slate had 176×200 pixels resolution. The display is colorful and crisp and you get sharp images with legible text. Adjustable features include brightness, backlight time, font style, and appearance of text and clock and menu type.
Below the display, there is the navigation array which has two soft keys, a discrete speakerphone key, round toggle, clear button and the standard Send/End buttons. Toggle key is made of metal and has a confirmation or OK key in the middle. Navigating on the phone is easy since the buttons have a comfortable feel. The toggle is preprogrammed for four shortcuts: email, AT&T Address Book, new text message and instant messaging menu.
The full QWERTY keyboard underneath the Pantech Link’s display is good for typing. It has bubble shaped buttons for better ergonomics. We typed for a long time on this keyboard and our fingers didn’t howl at all. The number buttons are blue colored which makes it easy to locate. We liked the dedicated .com and symbol buttons on the keyboard.
Pantech Link’s left spine has microSD card slot and volume rocker where as the camera key and proprietary jack for headset and charger is located on the right. This is a music phone and we expected a 3.5 mm headphones jack but we were disappointed. On the phones’ back, there is the camera along with self portrait mirror.
The phone book can hold 600 entries and a single entry can take six phone numbers, 3 email addresses, messenger ID, company name, 3 postal address, Web address, anniversary date, birthdate, and note. Contacts can be organized in to groups, photo caller ID is supported and there are eight polyphonic ring tones to choose from. Basic features on the phone are speakerphone, vibrate mode, multimedia and text messaging, calendar, alarm clock, notepad, world clock, voice recorder, tip calculator, standard calculator, timer, stopwatch and unit converter.
Advanced users will love features like voice command, stereo Bluetooth, instant messaging, (Yahoo, Windows Live and AIM), mobile e-mail and GPS with AT&T Navigator support. The mobile e-mail feature gives you access to email services like Windows Live, AOL, Yahoo, etc. and you can also enter your POP or IMAP server information. We were disappointed to see that there is no dedicated e-mail app and you have to use the Web interface. You can also see HTML web pages but the screen size is very small which means you will have to scroll a lot.
Pantech Link has a 1.3 megapixel camera which has options for four resolutions and has three quality settings. Other options include timer sound along with silent option, shutter sounds, color effects, self timer, and white balance.
We tested the Pantech Link for call quality and it was mediocre. I could hear my friends clearly and loudly but there was some static. On the bright side, the voice was natural. On their side, my friends said that they couldn’t hear us well. They heard a lot of hissing and crackling and they there were a few dropped calls. Speaker phone calls too had the same problem. This is definitely a deal breaker. A basic cell phone is expected to have good call quality, which is sometimes the only purpose it is used for.
When we played some music on the Pantech Link, the speakers sounded hollow and tinny. We would recommend a headset for better results. 3G speeds were pretty good. Websites loaded in just 20 seconds and the streaming video had a bit of buffering issues. Rated talk time is three hours and standby time is ten days.
Nitty Gritty:
Priced at $9.99 this is a very cheap mobile phone. We only wished it had better call quality.
