Mobile Phones

The Pantech S100 has earned itself the 2007 iF Design Gold Award for its stylish look. The tri-band GSM handset includes a 1.8" 262k color TFT LCD with a 128x160 pixel resolution, and a VGA resolution camera with 4x digital zoom. The S100 also features MP3 playback capabilities, Bluetooth wireless data, and speakerphone functionality. Polyphonic ringtones, photo and video caller ID, a flight mode, and voice memo feature complete the specification sheet.

The Pantech S100 shows that a budget phone can still be stylish. The handset was developed by Pantech's Mexican subsidiary, and as such should fit the market perfectly. Only time will tell if the manufacturer will be able to meet its sales goal.

Like the well-known Ocean that Pantech designed with Helio, the Duo (also known as the C810) is a dual-slider handset that sports both a traditional numeric keypad and a full QWERTY keyboard. In order to accomplish this, a few compromises had to be made. For one, at 102mm x 50mm x 22mm (4.0" x 2.0" x .9"), the Duo is not a particularly thin handset. Its 128g (4.5oz) weight isn't going to set any records either. But all in all, Pantech did a fairly good job of keeping the size and weight of the device under control, which keeps the Duo looking, for the most part, like any other slider smartphone.

The most interesting part of the Duo's physical design, as well as the part that involved the most compromises, is the slide out QWERTY keyboard. In order to keep the Duo's overall thickness in check, Pantech had to make sure that the QWERTY keyboard was very thin.

The overall design of the Pantech Duo is decent. If you look at it primarily as a regular slider form factor smartphone, one that just happens to have a QWERTY keyboard to help ease the occasional messaging need, then the design works. If your phone needs require more frequent and heavy text entry, then the keyboard's feel is probably going to leave you wanting for more.

This particular i620 was built for Vodafone Italy, and sports the company's "mail & call" logo on its side. The i620 is similar to Samsung's other i6xx series messaging devices, such as the i617 BlackJack II, and runs the same Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard edition operating system. It is a tri-band GSM/EDGE cellphone that can get HSDPA 3G data speeds on 2100MHz networks, such as those in Europe.

Samsung's SGH-i620 is designed to be a messaging smartphone that has great style, but often fashion comes with a bit of a price. In the case of the i620, that price is Samsung's use of touch sensitive keys on the front of the cellphone. While they work pretty well, touch sensitive keys never work as well as real hardware buttons, even if they are prettier. They can sometimes be activated by accident, causing an unintended phone call or two, but they certainly make the device look more sexy - especially in our unit's white color scheme.

When the solidly sprung slider mechanism on the i620 is opened up, users get access to the nicely spaced out QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard on the i620 is almost 2mm narrower than the one found on the BlackJack II.

The HTC X7510 Advantage is a laptop like smartphone with a focus on data rather than voice functions. Sure, it's a tri-band UMTS/HSDPA and quad-band GSM/EDGE phone, but it really wasn't designed with voice in mind. Heck, you can't even hold it up to your head to use it in a conversation.

But it is a pretty powerful smartphone none the less. It sports a VGA resolution touchscreen with a full 640x480 pixel resolution, runs the Opera 9 browser for a full desktop web experience, and has a massive 16GB flash drive built-in for storage. It also comes with a QWERTY keyboard that attaches with a magnetic latch and has a 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus as well.

Samsung is no stranger to the electronics industry, from mobile phones to Bluetooth headsets. The WEP410 is one of the latest Bluetooth headsets with a very small form factor and in-ear design. The included charging case is handy, but not all that innovative. The in-box accessories include an AC power adapter and a few spare ear gels. However, the carrying case that pulls double-duty as the charging dock is a welcome addition to the Samsung WEP410. The headset itself is matte black with a silver end towards the microphone, and the carrying/charging case is a semi-transparent smoke grey color, which allows the status light on the headset to shine through.

The exterior face of the headset is where you'll find the fingertip-sized round multifunction button. The notification light outlines the multifunction button when powering on and off, meaning you'll want to use your fingertip so that you can still see the light when the button is pressed. The microphone end of the headset is silver, and the charging contacts are located on the very end, near the microphone hole. Volume up and down buttons are located on either edge of the headset, adjacent to the multifunction button. The volume up key has two raised nubs so that it is easy to identify by touch alone.

Small, medium, and large ear gels are included and are easy to change. The ear gel is made of soft rubber and nestles inside the ear, which some people find to be slightly intrusive.