Pantech C3b

Like its predecessors, the C3b maintains the same boxy shape and is garbed in a matte silver finish throughout. Pantech provides its users the ability to dress up their devices by quickly snapping off the phone's textured front cover and replacing it with one of a different color. The device ships with sedate looking blue and silver covers, but we opted for the snazzy bright orange one that came with our review unit. Additional color plates can be purchased directly from Cingular's website.

The overall build of the Pantech C3b is quite sturdy. The hinge seemed durable and should weather well. Because of its diminutive size, the C3b's top flip can not extend open as fully as on other clamshells, which may be an issue for some users. The front of the C3b is where you'll find the 1" 262k color TFT (96x96 pixel) resolution display. Pantech makes good use of it by providing time and date, caller ID, battery status, and signal strength information. Just below it sits the phone's VGA camera lens and flash. Up top is where the handset's external antenna is located, and on the bottom can be found the device's charging port. The phone's volume rocker sits on the left edge of the device, just below the covered headset port. From the phone's closed position, the volume rocker's up key also doubles as a camera shutter button while the down key will activate the phone's camera flash to act as a flashlight.

Opening the C3b, you will find a bright 1.5" color, 128x128 pixel resolution display, a surprisingly spacious flush keypad, d-pad, two softkeys, green and red send and end keys, and a clear/back key. Due to the elfish size of the C3b, you would think that the alphanumeric keys would feel cramped, but that is not the case. A few time saving shortcuts are available on the keypad. Long pressing the * key puts the device in vibrate mode, long pressing the back/clear key brings up the calendar, and hitting the left menu softkey followed by the * key will lock/unlock the phone.

The device's fixed focus VGA camera proved good enough to take the random snapshot when on the go, though color and contrast were always a bit off and definitely made photos look washed out. You can see signs of over-zealous JPG compression in the form of the little squiggly lines on some of the sample photos provided at the end of this review. Pantech provides plenty of settings when capturing those special moments, including a multi-shot mode (4, 6, or 9 frames) and a timer for self portraits. While the C3b does not support memory expansion, the phone's camera application will help keep track of how many additional photos can be taken in before the internal memory is full. Sorely missed in the multimedia department is video capture and playback, and a music player.

When it comes to messaging, the Pantech's C3b provided great support. Text, multimedia, and instant messaging were a snap. Using Cingular's Mobile Email, users can also access their Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, Comcast (to name a few) email accounts easily enough, but at a cost. The messaging application supports both old school triple tap as well as T9 predictive text input.

When it comes to the core functions of the Pantech C3b, the device is more than capable. The phone's main menu uses both the grid and list systems. Simplistic in design, the phone's submenus are easy to traverse. The manufacturer provides hard-wired shortcuts with its navigational d-pad for the most used applications, including messaging and the address book. The address book is neatly organized and allows for up to 800 contacts. The phone can also be configured for up to 8 speed dials.

The device's PIM (Personal Information Manager) gives users some nice features such as a stop watch, notepad, voice memo, calculator, converter, alarm, world time, and calendar with reminders.