Pantech Slate Review

Introduction:

Texting has surpassed phone calling as one of the most popular forms of communication in the modern age. Most manufacturers have perfected the craft of creating functional devices that are inexpensive to build. With each iteration, messaging devices are becoming more inexpensive to develop and build for consumers. We’ve recently reviewed a couple of beautiful Pantech phones that incorporate unique designs that stand out among the current crop of texting devices. But the Pantech Slate looks to be an entry level device aimed to provide users with an equal experience that is accustomed to more full featured phones. Will it prove to be an inexpensive and functional solution for the messaging happy users out there?

The package contains:

• Pantech Slate

• Charger

• User Guide

Design:

The name says it all in terms of design and form factor. It really does look like a slate with its dark slim low profile figure. A lot of plastic was used for the construction of the phone with glossy material for the front while a more subtle one for the back, which almost has a slight soft leather look and feel; making it easy to grip. Who says that using a lot of plastic is a bad thing? It definitely shaves off some of the weight (3.2 oz) and thickness (0.39”). Corners are rounded off to give that uniform look with a solid metallic blue outer border all around the phone. Glancing at the phone before even picking it up gave us an initial impression of cheap. After inspecting it closely, we realize that the material is appropriate for trying to emulate expensive material while saving build cost. We wouldn’t call this the best looking device out there, but it feels relatively well when you hold it in your hand.



You can compare the Pantech Slate with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

We didn’t find any faults with the 2.2” screen that has 220x176 resolution and 262k colors. It was bright enough in pretty much any lighting conditions we put it through. Even in the dreaded direct sunlight scenario, it performed well with everything still visible on the display. With pixel density on the low side, you’ll notice some graininess on screen.

Rectangular looking shapes seem to be the theme throughout the phone. Even the navigation and soft keys utilize that look with a springy feel to them. You literally have to press where the icons are located on the keys because moving slightly away from it will result in no action. This adds to a lot of wasted space we believe could have been maximized to make more dedicated keys.

The four row QWERTY keyboard definitely reminds us the BlackJack II layout with the same button feel. Although they are slightly larger with less spacing, typing away came with relative ease. Numbers are colored in black while everything else can be found in blue. The only gripe we had when using the QWERTY was the repeated press of the function key to type consecutive numbers. For example when typing “12345”, you would typically hold down the function key and proceed to press the numbers. With the Slate, you need to press the function key once before each number instead of holding it down the entire time. It definitely gets to be annoying after time. Other than that one issue, we were typing away at a good pace.

The volume rocker on the left side of the phone is also used for scrolling. It makes for great one handed operation, but the scrolling on web pages was off. Instead of scrolling slowly through all clickable items, it would jump in equal increments and we sometimes find ourselves using the navigational pad to go back up. Launching the camera application can be completed by pressing the dedicated button on the right side. The only thing you’ll find on the top side is the charging/USB connection port. It’s shocking to find relatively few buttons on a device, but the Pantech Slate does take it back a little.

Finally, the 1.3 megapixel camera can be found on the back with the speaker phone surrounding it.

Software/Features:

Just as we suspected, the interface is the same as we’ve seen on other similar devices currently available on AT&T. You will find it relatively easy to navigate through the grid style main menu and scroll through the list view. The phone runs pretty swiftly in almost everything you do. There are some minor personalization options you can modify through the settings options if you have the itch to keep it fresh.

It’s obvious that the device was created in mind for the heavy text messaging users out there. As we stated before, the device is a breeze when it comes to typing up messages. If you’re big on instant messaging, you’ll be happy to know that you can choose from three different IM clients (AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger). Luckily you’ll still be able to receive messages even after you’ve gone back to the main menu as it will run in the background. The Slate does offer to an extent some e-mail options but only specific providers on the phone can be used. Some of the big names that are supported are Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, and Juno. It may be a little surprising to find Gmail not offered. You’re out of luck and won’t find the software useful if you don’t find yours on the list.



Fortunately, the Pantech Slate is able to save up to 600 contacts. The amount of information you can add to a contact has been limited to three phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, adding to a group, associating a photo or ringtone, and a small note.

Bear in mind that the phone has only 20MB of internal memory to store files. Some might scratch their heads or dissemble the phone trying to look for a microSD card slot. Unfortunately, memory is very tight and with no possible way to expand it.

We were a little skeptical about fathoming the photo quality from a text message oriented phone would turn out. Running the camera application, we were greeted to an interface that wasn’t too cluttered with icons. There are a total of six different image sizes you can use for photos, ranging from 220x176 to the maximum 1280x960. Photos were of mediocre quality with images taken in good lighting coming out the best. There was a lot of blurriness produced in images taken in low lit areas.  


Videos can be taken as well, but memory limitations will make you think twice of taking longer scenes. You can take videos in either 176x144 or 128x96 resolutions; both best situated for MMS use. Captured videos had steady frame rates with choppy audio making it almost indistinguishable.

Playing songs on the device is pretty simple thanks to the barebones interface. It’ll display the artist, song name, and the playback functions in the interface while running an animated lights show on screen as the music plays. You’ll hear an occasional crackling when you place the sound on the highest setting, but no other problems than that. We were unable to test the device for video play due to the fact that we could not load any files into memory that would fit. It should support MPEG4 video playback.

Using the device abroad for voice calls will pose no issues with its quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) capability. Similar to other phones, you’ll be able to pair up a variety of Bluetooth devices from headsets to laptops with no issues.

The web browser is a simple one that optimizes pages to a column view only so there is no horizontal scrolling. The only issue with this is that some photos and text will get cut off in different sections. On top of that, pages took an extreme long time to load due to the lack of 3G support.

Performance:

The Slate performed well when using it for voice phone calls. We were able to listen to a caller fine without having to set the volume on the highest setting while voices had a neutral tone. Callers said that our voice was clear without any static and able to fully comprehend what was spoken. There was some background interference accompanied with muffled sound when listening to a caller using the speaker phone. People on the other line said that our voices had an almost static sound to it.

For such a thin device, we were impressed by the amount of juice we managed to get out of the battery. The device is rated for 3 hours of talk time with 240 hours of stand-by time. We easily got over 3 hours of talk on a single charge. After recharging the device, we found it at 50% capacity after 5 days of normal use.

Conclusion:

So the Pantech Slate may not win the award for best looking device but we have to say that it is functional and gets the job done in terms of messaging. Although there are a lot of features that may seem lacking, or even missing, it’s quite a functional device at its core without all the fancy bells and whistles. Sure it’s missing some “standard” stuff such as 3G and microSD support that you’ll see on other similar devices. But if you’re looking for something lightweight with a QWERTY keyboard, then the Slate is for you. Just remember that its strengths lies in those areas only with a lack luster experience to almost everything else.