Pantech Duo Cell Phone Review - Software
OS (8.0)
The Duo runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard. Windows Mobile is typically a slow OS, but the Duo handles it admirably. Those familiar with Windows Mobile Professional will find it's a bit lacking on the software end, but will also be those who notice the speed the most. Windows Mobile Standard has an easier learning curve than Windows Mobile Professional does.
Home Screen Score (6.0)
The Duo's home screen will be familiar to Windows Mobile users, but also appear similar to the home screen of Series 60 Symbian devices. The very top bar contains general phone info, such as your current profile, battery life, and signal strength. Below this is a visual history of applications you've opened. Next is the date and time. Below this are a few shortcuts, including a link to get Xpress Mail, a reminder of upcoming appointments, a shortcut to the inbox (with a running tally of its contents), and links to the IM clients. One part of the home screen we missed was the Windows Media Player plugin, which essentially was a tiny working version of the player. This is a more common inclusion in Windows Mobile Professional.
Extensibility (7.0)
As part of the Windows Mobile lineage, the Duo is extensible. It comes with many different third-party applications for extending functionality. This is especially useful on Windows Mobile Standard, as many of the included programs are fairly basic.
Customizability (3.0)
The Duo offers a few options for customizability. You can change the home screen's layout, which can alter display significantly. You can also change the background image or color scheme to further beautify your phone. You can edit profiles and power settings as well. There really aren't any options for changing the font; while there is an option under the home screen menu for large font, it only applies to the home screen, and limits home screen functionality drastically by only displaying the time and "AT&T".
OS Responsiveness (5.0)
The Duo's responsiveness is really best appreciated by those familiar with Windows Mobile devices. Those who are will find the Duo to be significantly faster than what they're used to. Those who are used to basic phones or BlackBerry devices might find it average, or slightly slower on load times. Newer users will also be a bit put off by menus that load in pieces, as it looks a bit glitchy. Overall, however, the Duo is incredibly responsive, especially when switching from normal view to profile. This is especially impressive when you take into account the phone's paltry 64 MB SDRAM compared to the 128 MB found in other recent Windows Mobile Phones.
Browser Features (7.0)
The Duo comes with a mobile version of Internet Explorer. Overall, mobile IE is an adequate browser, but it can't compare to the Series 60 Symbian browser. The Duo can handle both WAP and HTML sites. It has Javascript, but we encountered some problems with our test applet. We also encountered some issues with images loading correctly, but for the most part everything was fine. The Duo supported cookies, as well as encryption. You can actually choose your encryption from a list of different methods.
Browsing Interface (6.0)
The browser interface is basic, but we ran into a few sticking points. First of all, the default home page features a search bar that we can see many newer users confusing for an address bar -- especially those familiar with the PC version of IE. The search bar uses Windows Live to automatically make sites mobile-friendly, which will basically just screw up the page and only show you a portion of it. The actual search bar is located under the soft key menu. Also, as mentioned earlier, it had some trouble rendering some site's images. The Duo does provide a few options for font size, giving you five presets.
There are a few different views available: one column, fit to screen, and desktop. They all basically do what you'd think they do. One column will display information in a column, so the only scrolling you need to do is up and down. Fit to screen is desktop mode, scaled down so chunks of text will only be as wide as the screen. Desktop view is how the page would look on a desktop PC, however it lacks the ability to get a full overview of the page as you can on Series 60 devices or the iPhone.
Web history is unhelpful. It's literally just a list of your URLs. While expansive, it doesn't offer any organizational options or even descriptions. In the memory menu (menu > options > memory), there is an option to delete your history and cookies, but that's the extent to which the Duo will allow you to manage them. There are soft key options to go to that page and to cancel out of the screen. Favorites receive somewhat better treatment, as you can actually create folders, edit, and delete individual entries.
Browser Access (4.44)
We typically use timing tests as a means of judging how much of a hassle it is to perform a certain action. If something takes you a while to do, it either denotes complexity or lag, neither of which are issues a user wants to encounter. In the case of browsing, we've found a timing test simply aren't reliable. Factors such as location and weather can significantly alter the resulting time as they impact network connectivity. We therefore measure the process in steps. A step includes either a single button push or sliding the phone to a new position. Entering the web address is counted as a single step.
The Duo was able to get a specific web page to appear in 9 steps. This is a bit slower than usual. You first have to hit the start button, then navigate down to the IE shortcut, then open up the QWERTY. If you open up the QWERTY before IE, it will take more steps because the start menu displays icons differently in profile mode. When you've got IE up, you have to open up the address bar through the menu, and when you do, it comes with another URL already in it. You can press and hold the back button to erase it, but we really would've preferred the address bar to show up empty.
Gaming (6.0)
The Duo has some solid options for gaming. There are full versions of solitaire, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, and Bubble Breaker, as well as demo versions of Jewel Quest 2, Brain Challenge, Midnight Pool, and Scrabble Blast. We wish the d-pad was a bit bigger, or had more distinct arrow keys, but it did a decent job.
Calculator (6.0)
The calculator is the standard setup of four basic operators assigned to d-pad directions. There are also options for square roots, inverse fractions, and memory storage.
Alarm (2.5)
The alarm application on the Duo is basic. You can only set one at a time, which is obviously limiting. The repeat option is the same strange set of options from the calendar application, which will allow you to set it repeat every day, every day except Saturday, or every day except Sunday. You can set the snooze timer, tone, and even jot a note to remind you why your phone wakes you up every day except Sunday. While this is more robust than the typical Windows Mobile Standard alarm functionality -- whose only fields are set time and alarm on/off -- it still isn't good.
Document Software (4.5)
The Duo has versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, so you can both view and edit these files. What you can't do is create a new file. This is a ridiculous limitation because it isn't so much a limitation of the phone as it is an annoyance. All you need to do to circumvent this "feature" is keep a blank Excel/PowerPoint/Word document saved on the phone or memory card. This isn't so much "removed functionality" as it is " a needless, deliberately included hassle".
Other Software (0.0)
Though the Duo comes with a file browser, which we normally award extra points for, it can't select or easily move files. As this is the entire point of a file browser, we've awarded it no extra points.
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