Pantech Link – absolute steal with midrange features

For:

AT&T Cloud and Broadband services; music player; 1.3-megapixel camera; nice QWERTY keyboard

Against:

Call quality needs improvement; small screen does not give much benefit of Web browser

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Pantech Link is based on WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM technology that supports 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. Its micro-SD expansion slot accepts up to 16GB cards. The supported wireless interface is Bluetooth 2.0.

The 2.4-inch LCD display has 320×240 pixels resolution that supports 262,144 colors. The 1.3-megapixel camera features self timer, effects, white-balance, and exposure control.

The additional features are GPS, speakerphone, voice recording, QWERTY keyboard, and Bluetooth. The 930mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 180 minutes talk time and 250 hours of idle standby time. Accessories supplied inside the box are battery, wired headset, user manual, and power charger.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Pantech Link is 4.5 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide and 0.39 inch deep and weighs 3.2 ounces. It has solid built with plastic housing. The back has rubberized texture for better grip.

Inside Dope:

The Pantech Link is an overdue update over its predecessor – the Pantech Slate. The Link is one of the first devices for supporting the AT&T Cloud services such as Online Locker and the Social Net. It features GPS, 3G/HSDPA support, music player and 1.3-megapixel camera. The Link is available for $9.99 with two-year AT&T contract. It is one of the thinnest messaging phones available in the market, but still suffers from some issues such as its call quality needs improvement. In addition, the HTML browser is not useful due to small screen. Speaking about the design, you will find the micro-SD card slot and the volume rocker on the left side. The camera button and charger/headset jack are on the right side. We will prefer the manufacturer to include the 3.5mm standard headset jack instead of combined port for headset/charger. The camera lens with self portrait mirror sits on the back. If you need a cheap messaging phone with good QWERTY keyboard, then the Pantech Link remains a good choice.

Display

The 2.4 inches LCD display has 320×240 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. It exhibits colorful and crispy images with legible text. You can change the home screen text, the clock format, the menu type, the font style, the brightness and the backlight time.

Navigation Array

The navigation array is located underneath the display and includes two soft keys, round toggle with middle select button, Talk key, a speakerphone key, a Clear key, and End/Power button. The navigation toggle has spun metal surface at the outer circle and works as shortcut for e-mail, the AT&T Address Book, instant messaging menu, and new text message. The other array keys has nice curved surface.

QWERTY Keyboard

The QWERTY Keyboard is located below the navigation array. We like that the keys has bubble-like texture and are raised above the surface. You will find the symbol, function and dedicated .com key. The numeric keys are clearly marked in blue color. We could type continuously without any error while testing.

Phonebook and PIM features

The Pantech Link can store 600 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can save six phone numbers, a note, an anniversary date, a birthday, three street addresses, a Web URL, a messenger ID, a company name, and three email addresses. These contacts can be categorized into caller groups and you can pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.

The basic feature set includes text and multimedia messages, eight polyphonic ring-tones, a unit converter, a timer, a stopwatch, a tip calculator, a calculator, a world clock, a voice recorder, a notepad, a calendar, an alarm clock, a speakerphone, and a vibrate mode.

Advanced Highlights

The advanced highlights of the Pantech Link are Web-based mobile email, GPS support with AT&T Navigator, instant messengers (Yahoo!, Windows Live, and AIM), ATT.NET browser (based on Opera), voice command, and stereo Bluetooth. The mobile email provides access to POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts and others such Windows Live Mail, AOL Mail, and Yahoo Mail.

AT&T Services

The AT&T has also included its cloud services in the Pantech Link. It includes AT&T Address Book online for backing up contacts and ability to retrieve them back. The AT&T Online Locker offers storing videos and pictures on the AT&T servers. You will get 250MB online storage free, but the file transfer is paid. Each transfer of 10MB costs 35 cents and you can also pay $10 for 50 transfers.

The AT&T Mobile Share provides sharing of media files at Photobucket, MySpace and Facebook. You can also send non-media message to update your profile on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. The Link also has AT&T Mobile Video for streaming video content through various providers.

Music Player

The Pantech Reveal has inbuilt AT&T Mobile Music that provides option for buying and downloading on-the-air music through eMusic or Napster, access to fan sites, streaming music videos, a ring-tone creator, a song ID application, and XM Radio Mobile. The inbuilt music player features play-lists, shuffle and repeat modes.

Camera

The 1.3-megapixel camera features self timer, self portrait mirror, and video recording. We are disappointed that there is no flash to improve the picture quality. The still capture options are four resolutions, three quality settings, shutter sounds and a timer sound with their respective silent choices, color effects, and white balance. The captured picture quality is only good for a low-resolution camera.

Games and Personalization

The Pantech Link comes preloaded with these games and applications: TextTwist2, World Series of Poker, Ms. Pac Man, Block Breaker Deluxe 2, Tetris, PicDial, FunScreenz, Mobile Banking, and Mobi TV. The cell phone can be personalized with ring-tones, graphics, and wallpapers. You can download more options through AT&T AppCenter.

Call Quality

We made few calls through the Pantech Link via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was mediocre. We received clear and loud sound with a bit static. The callers received crackled and bit hiss sound at their end. The speakerphone calls were also suffered with more echo and crackled sound. We received tinny and hollow sound while playing the tracks in the music player. The streaming video playback had average quality.

Battery Life

The battery life of the Pantech Link is 3 hours of talk time and 10 hours of idle standby time. Its digital SAR is 0.75 watts per kilogram in accordance with FCC radiation tests.

Verdict:

We will definitely recommend buying the Pantech Reveal as it has slim design, excellent mid-range features, and wallet-friendly price. However, its call quality needs improvement.