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Pantech Duo Cell Phone Review - Organizer

Mark Brezinski Published on November 15, 2007 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

Synchronization Ease of Use (6.0)
As with all Windows Mobile devices, synchronization is done through ActiveSync on XP machines and Windows Mobile Device Manager on a Vista machine. The software CD is graciously included in the box. Once installed, all you need to do is connect the phone via the also-included USB cable. The software itself is easy to navigate and use. ActiveSync shouldn't stump anyone.

The Duo uses Microsoft’s ActiveSync to synchronize data with the PC (or the Windows Mobile Device Center if you’ve upgraded to Windows Vista. Contacts, including photos, calendar appointments, tasks, notes, files and media can all be synchronized.

The Duo is a Windows Mobile device, which means you'll be synching up with Outlook or the basic Windows PIM managers. This also means that no other programs are supported out of box. If you wish to use a different program, you'll have to either purchase or download additional software.

Alerts (3.0)
Alerts on the Duo are very basic. You can set the time, recurrence, snooze timing, tone, and jot down a note. Recurrence is a bit unintuitive. You can set it to none, every day, every day except Saturday, and every day except Sunday. We're not sure why you can only sleep in one day over the weekend, but the Duo will certainly enforce this rule.

Over the Air PIM Sync (2.0)
Over the air PIM synchronization is done via Exchange. This again means you'll need to have access to an Exchange server. Contacts, Calendar appointments and tasks are all synchronized, but notes are not.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (8.53)
The Duo was able to add a contact in an average of 11.72 seconds. This is a quick time. The Duo gets to use its namesake dual-sliding form to get the optimal time here, as we used the keypad to type in the number initially, then used the QWERTY to type in the contact's name. Once you've typed in the number, the left soft key will allow you to save the number as a contact right off the bat. Adding contacts is very easy with the Duo.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Pantech Duo	11.72	8.53
Helio Ocean	21.24	4.71
BlackBerry Curve 8320	14.1	7.09
Palm Centro	12.22	8.18
HTC Tilt	19.74	5.07
Nokia N95	25.42	3.93

Looking/Sorting/Search (6.0)


There are a few ways to sort through your contacts. You can simply start typing out their name (it uses T9 automatically) or scroll around with the d-pad. We were happy to see the T9 search could pick up on either the first or last name, but we wish the search extended to company or email address. There are also filters for category, and you can opt to list entries by either their name or company.

Fields (8.5)
The Duo has 43 different fields, which is quite a lot. It's capable of storing multiple numbers addresses (email or physical) and also some random fields like Government ID. Overall a good batch of fields, though we miss the custom fields of Series 60 Symbian devices.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (6.0)
The Duo will let you assign a speed dial to any contact or application, which we though was a nice way to expand speed dial functionality. There are 98 available slots for speed dialing values (1 is assigned to voicemail). The phone couldn't assign voice tags, but it did have good voice command software that was capable of picking up all of our test names.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (10.78)
For this timing test we begin with the phone closed and unlocked and end once we've saved our test calendar item.
The Duo was able to create our test calendar item in about 9.28 seconds. Times for adding calendar items tend to fall onto a huge spectrum, but the Duo finds itself solidly on the quicker side. It was helped out greatly by automatically adding a 15 minute reminder and having noon as its default appointment time. In spite of these luck-based factors, the Duo got its calendar application open quickly, and was easy to navigate. Scrolling through fields could use some sort of a jog dial, but for simple appointments users probably won't notice.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Pantech Duo	9.28	10.78
Helio Ocean	24.2	4.13
BlackBerry Curve 8320	6.04	16.56
Palm Centro	4.8	20.83
HTC Tilt	7.46	13.40
Nokia N95	18.64	5.36

Calendar Views (4.67)
The Duo's calendar is similar to other Windows Mobile calendars. There are three different views: agenda, week, and month. Switching between views is assigned to the left soft button, allowing the user to cycle through them with ease.

The month view isn't very informative. The standard six weeks are displayed, and days with appointments receive a colored triangle in their corner. Highlighting the day won't divulge any additional information, but clicking on a day will switch to the agenda view.

Checking out weeks will also be a familiar experience. Hours line the the left side and the days run across the top. Chunks of alloted time are highlighted purple. Moving the cursor over an appointment will display its start and end times as well as its title.

Agenda view is the best view, but we were a bit disappointed because it was actually a day view. Agenda usually means a list of all scheduled events, past and present, while the Duo's agenda view simply displays the appointments for that day. Regardless, it's a great view. We especially like the bar at the top that displays free/busy time, this was a new addition that came with Windows Mobile 6.

Fields (10.0)
The Duo has 13 fields. These encompass basic items like a title, location, and start/end time. Some more advanced options include an all day event toggle, recurrence, and attendees. There are also fields for status and sensitivity, but as you can't sort by them they don't add much functionality. Just about the only important field we thought was missing was a group or category field for filtering appointments. This is especially disappointing as categories are implemented elsewhere, such as in tasks and contacts.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (5.16)
Adding tasks was a bit awkward.Tasks are located in the Organizer folder in the start menu, and you must open the task application's menu in order to create a new task. Just getting the new task dialogue to pop up requires 7 button presses, assuming you use the keypad shortcut to open the task application itself. In all, it took 19.37 seconds to enter in our simple task. This is a bit slow. As alluded to, the task application isn't the easiest to browse to, but tasks themselves could stand to be laid out a bit better. For example, the priority field is located above the start/due date entry. Though it has its problems we were helped out by the phone's responsiveness, both when navigating and when switching between the QWERTY and keypad.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Pantech Duo	19.37	5.16
Helio Ocean	N/A: can't create tasks.	0.00
BlackBerry Curve 8320	14.80	6.76
Palm Centro	11.52	8.68
HTC Tilt	17.77	5.63
Nokia N95	12.38	8.08

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
There are a few options for prioritizing and sorting tasks. You can assign one of three priorities to your tasks: low, normal, or high. Categories can also be assigned, which a user can filter by. Options for sorting include status, priority, subject, start date, and due date.

Fields (10.0)
The Duo has a good set of fields, which most users should be satisfied with. In addition to the basics, you can assign a category, set up simple recurrence, and jot down notes.

Notes

Adding Notes (5.09)
Adding notes is a similar process to adding tasks. The note application is also located in the organizer folder. Once in the notes application, however, a new note was assigned to the left soft key. Also, since this is a notes application, we didn't need to deal with fields. The Duo was able to get our test note completed and saved in about 9.82 seconds. This is on the faster side of things, but it is always slightly annoying when you have to use a mix of keypad shortcuts and d-pad scrolling to reach a destination.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Pantech Duo	9.82	5.09
Helio Ocean	16.06	3.11
BlackBerry Curve 8320	12.2	4.10
Palm Centro	8.46	5.91
HTC Tilt	13.79	3.63
Nokia N95	17.7	2.82

Note Interface (2.0)
Note interface is very simple. There is only one option under the menu initially, which is "My Word". If you click on this you can make shortcuts to phrases you commonly use. This means no clutter, but also no options. You can't change the font at all, or add any kind of style change.

Once you've saved a note, it will appear under the main notepad screen. Notes are sorted by the order they were created, and there are no additional options for sorting.

Note Formatting (0.0)
You can't format notes in any way.

Voice Memo (8.0)
Voice notes receive quite a bit more attention on the Duo than we typically see. Voice notes can be found in the Organizer folder under the start menu, and also have a dedicated shortcut key on the right side of the phone. The interface is simple: left soft key starts the recorder, and the right soft key opens up a menu. You can rename voice notes or set them as ringtones via the menu in addition to the basic play/record/delete options. While recording a voice note, your current time is displayed on the screen in gigantic bold letters. Notes can well exceed the normal one minute mark, and are really only limited by the space available on the phone. We were very impressed with the voice note support on the Duo.

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