AT&T Pantech Duo: A Smart Phone That Goes Both Ways

Nov. 12, 2007 — -- I lust after those cell phones with the full keyboards for texting; my thumbs are way too big to use those teeny keys you have to push three times to get the letter you want. But I also like having keys on my phone to punch in numbers. What's a girl to do?

AT&T has answered my call and introduced the Pantech Duo for its high-speed 3G network ($199 with two-year contract). Calling the office? Slide down the numeric keypad and start dialing. Want to send a text? Turn the device sideways and slide out the full keyboard. The display will change from portrait to landscape as you turn the phone, just like the iPhone. That's what I call having it both ways.

The phone is powered by the Windows Mobile 6 Operating System, which means you can edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents while you call in your take-out order on the way home from work. Not in the United States? The Duo runs off the GSM network for worldwide calling.

You also get Microsoft's Direct Push e-mail, as well as automatic synchronization of Outlook through Microsoft Exchange Server. The instant messaging client supports AIM, MSN and Yahoo Messenger.

Pantech offers more applications for additional fees. The Dynamic AT&T Mobile Music services let you manage a variety of multimedia libraries, download and play music, watch TV shows and view content from sites such as HBO, MTV and ESPN. The handset's 2.2-inch. 240-by-320 pixel screen does a fairly good job, though it gets jumpy at times. Subscriptions to XM radio, MobiTV and TeleNav maps are also available.

The Duo sports a reasonable 1.3-megapixel camera, though the AT&T Tilt's 3-megapixel camera puts this one to shame. There's Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, and Bluetooth for hands-free calling and streaming music, but no Wi-Fi.

My only complaint is with the Qwerty keyboard itself. Yes, I know I love the idea of it but typing on the keys is a teeny bit difficult because there's not much "give" to them. You can't really feel whether or not you've pressed a key, and that's because the keys are not raised up much from the keypad. Of course, that's because the keyboard slides in so neatly under the phone itself that if they were to raise them up, it would add more bulk to the overall size of the phone. So it's a tradeoff.

Hey, I'll take a double-barreled cell phone any day.