Pantech Impact review – off-balance QWERTY keyboard
For:
OLED touch-sensitive alphanumeric keypad; dual displays; full QWERTY keyboard; 2-megapixel camera, 3G support.
Against:
The keypad should be spacious; the QWERTY keyboard feels off-balance while usage.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Pantech Impact is based on WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM technology and quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900. It has 80MB internal memory and micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 32GB cards. Supported wireless interface is Bluetooth.
1.5 inches small external display is monochrome and sits on the exterior. 2.6 inches internal LCD display has 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 (18-bit) colors.
The advanced features are HSDPA, Java applications, Opera HTML Web browser, EDGE, GPRS, and mobile-email. Messaging features include text messages, picture messages, multimedia messages, and instant messengers.
2-megapixel camera features 3x digital zoom, video-recording and self-timer delay of 5 and 10 seconds. It captures still photographs in five resolutions: 320×240, 640×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, and 1600×1200. The video capture resolutions are: 320×240, 176×144 (standard), and 176×144 (MMS).
930mAH lithium ion battery has life of 300 minutes talk time and 336 hours standby time.
Razzle Dazzle:
Pantech Impact is 4.19 inches tall, 2.04 inches wide, and 0.7 inch deep and weighs 4.9 ounces. Its flip shape may be like that of LG enV3, but the Impact has its own style. It is much rounder and thicker than the enV3. The silver chrome edge and patterned border gives a jewel-like look to the Impact, especially when touch-sensitive exterior is in action. The front black shiny surface works as magnet to attract fingerprint and smudges.
Inside Dope:
Pantech is one of the famous manufacturers for sliding QWERTY phones. From Helio Ocean to Pantech Reveal, the company had launched great messaging phones. Now, the company has come up with flip-design messaging phone – Pantech Impact. It looks like LG enV3 and has external keypad, full QWERTY keyboard and dual displays. The Impact costs $99.99 with two year AT&T Wireless contract after mail-in-rebate. It features touch-sensitive OLED exterior, 2-megapixel camera, Opera Web browser, GPS, and 3G. However, the Impact also has some drawbacks. Its camera is a bit difficult to use, the keyboard is off-balanced, and external keypad is not spacious. The Impact has something in common with Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito. Both Incognito and Impact has small external display on exterior, but the Incognito has a better QWERTY keyboard. If you need a low cost messaging phone with QWERTY keyboard and 2-megapixel camera, then go for – Pantech Impact.
Design
Like Incognito, the touch-sensitive keypad and small external display sits on the front of Pantech Impact. You have to flip open the phone horizontally to access the QWERTY keyboard and internal color display. The stereo speakers are located on both sides of internal display hidden behind mirrored surface.
Charger/headset jack sits on the top; while micro-SD card slot is on bottom. Volume rocker and keypad hold button are located on the right-spine. You will find the camera lens on the back.
Display
1.5 inches tiny external display of Pantech Impact is small and monochrome. It displays date/time, battery life, and signal strength. You can also access some options on this small screen including phone dialer, music player, recent calls list, address book, and messaging menu. The display shows bright gray and white text on black background. We do not like that you cannot use the external display as camera viewfinder and it does not show caller ID due to monochrome.
2.6 inches internal display has 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. You can customize the backlight time, brightness, font size and style, color theme, and menu style. Moreover, you can change the transition effect between menu and home screen.
Navigation Array
Touch-sensitive keypad glows with blue or pink color. Pantech Impact phone allows adjusting the vibration strength and touch sensitivity of the keys. The navigation array consists of up-and-down toggle, two soft keys, Talk button, and End keys with alphanumeric keypad. In standby mode of phone, up arrow shows new text message and down will open address book. All the keys are quick responsive and you can type messages with them accurately.
QWERTY Keyboard
After flip-opening the Pantech Impact, you will find the dedicated camera key, two soft keys, Talk button, center Select key and Power/End button located underneath the display. You can also use the Select key as Web browser shortcut in standby mode. There is also a round toggle with middle select button on the right side of keyboard under “Pantech” logo. This toggle works as shortcut to mobile email, address book, instant messaging, and new text message.
QWERTY keyboard is raised above the surface and has well-spaced keys. However, the keyboard feels off-balance as right-side circular toggle aligns it to left. We like the big space bar in middle plus dedicated .com and instant messaging keys.
Phonebook and PIM features
Pantech Impact can store 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each entry can save five phone numbers, one Web URL, street address, memo, and two email addresses. You can organize the contacts in caller groups and pair them with one alert tone, one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.
The essential feature set includes timer, stopwatch, unit converter, tip calculator, calculator, world clock, voice memo recorder, notepad, calendar, eight ring-tones, eight alert tones, alarm clock, speakerphone, text and multimedia messages, and vibrate mode.
The additional highlights are 3G support, Bluetooth, GPS support, Opera Web browser, mobile email to access POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts, and instant messengers – Windows Live, Google Talk, Yahoo, and AOL.
AT&T Services
AT&T has also included its services in the Pantech Impact like AT&T Navigator for turn-by-turn directions, AT&T Mobile Music, AT&T Video Share, and AT&T Cellular Video. You can use the AT&T Video Share for sharing the recorded videos and send one-way live video with other similar compatible phone.
Web browser
There is Opera HTML Web browser in Pantech Impact. It features three welcome screens, zoom in/out using volume rocker, full screen view, and ability to show mobile & desktop version of Web pages. You can also log on at AT&T account to send bookmarks via “Send to Mobile” feature.
Camera
2-megapixel camera of Pantech Impact features self-timer, and video recording. Other image editing options include shutter sound, timer sound, four color effects, four white balance options, three quality settings, and five resolutions. You can record videos in three different resolutions.
Music Player
Pantech Impact has one Mobile Music application that works as music fan form, XM Radio Mobile, and song ID service. You can buy and download songs for $1.99 per song with desktop version from eMusic and Napster directly on the Impact phone.
The inbuilt music player has simple interface and you can arrange the songs by genres, albums, and artists. It features album art, creation/editing play-lists, shuffle and repeat modes. Pantech Impact supports MIDI, AMR, eAAC+, AAC, and MP3 files.
Games and Personalization
Preinstalled applications are AT&T Social net, Mobile Banking, WikiMobile, My-Cast Weather, and MobiTV. Pantech Impact comes with four games including Dinner Dash 2, Ms. Pac-Man, Tetris, and Loopt. The Impact can be personalized with alert-tones, graphics, and wallpaper. You can download more options from AT&T MediaMall store.
Call Quality
We made few calls through quad-band based Pantech Impact via AT&T Wireless for testing. The overall call quality was good. We heard loud and clear sound at our end with little background noise. The callers received natural, loud and clear sound at their end with some background hiss. The speakerphone call quality was average, but callers received some echo while conversation.
Battery Life
Pantech Impact has battery life of 14 days of idle standby time and 5 hours of talk time. Its digital SAR is 0.72 watts per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
If you need touch-sensitive keypad and small display on exterior and do not mind off-balance QWERTY keyboard, then go for – Pantech Impact.
However, we will recommend you to check Sanyo SCP-6760 Incognito.
