Pantech Duo C810 (AT&T)

Pros: Small size, QWERTY keyboard

Cons: Tone length, quirks

Summary: My husband and I did a lot of shopping around before settling on the Duo. We both wanted QWERTY keyboards and a small phone size, and compared to what's out there, this phone seems to fit the bill. However, the phone takes a lot of getting used to, and some functions just don't seem to work right with no obvious solution.

For instance, when I call my office, or he calls his, we cannot ring through to extensions or to voice mail, because the automated phone systems don't recognize the touch tones -- I think they are too short. I stopped by an AT&T store to ask if this could be adjusted, and they didn't know and suggested I contact Pantech. (No response yet.)

Setting up our Outlook e-mail was easy, except when I did it per the instructions of the AT&T tech I spoke to by phone, it didn't work. A call to our IT department confirmed that the steps I had been given by the AT&T rep were all wrong, and it took 2 hours to undo it all and reinstall the functionality properly. Works great now.

The voice dial feature is superb. But it took us awhile to realize that, unlike our old phones, you don't just press a button and say "Mom," but rather "CALL Mom." Sounds stupid, but we didn't know and we spent several days misdialing people until we figured it out. Also, the button you press for the voice dialing is quirky and sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. If the whole point of having voice dialing is so you can keep your attention elsewhere (like when driving), then having to peer at the tiny screen to see if the voice dial button "took" each time you press the button is a little defeating.

The sound quality of calls on my phone is awful: buzzy and muffled. But his phone doesn't have this problem. I have seen this problem noted in other reviews. A trip back (again) to the AT&T store was fruitless; they said the SIM card needed replacing, but that didn't help. I think I just have a bad earpiece, which I gather means I will need a whole new phone.

Today I sent a text message to my babysitter and for some (unexplained) reason I got an error message that it did not go through. Again, there was no (obvious) way to simply resend it. I got frustrated after 10 minutes and just retyped it.

We both love the dual slider feature of the keypads and the convenient size, but I think I am ultimately going to trade this in for either a Tilt or maybe one of the Verizon Samsung smart phones. It seems that even after 2 weeks, I am still peering at the screen trying to figure out what to press just to answer a call or reply to a text message, and more than half the time I really can't figure out how to accomplish whatever task I'm trying to do. Doesn't mean it can't be done, but if you are not a 15 year old boy who is an expert at electronics (I am a mere 42 year old company CEO), this may not be the phone for you. My 4 year old free LG phone was so much more intuitive to use!