Gadgetell Peep Show: Pantech Duo; the dual slider work machine

Pantech sent over their Duo, the AT&T dual slider for me to play with review. Here is the first look. Out of the box, she is nicely narrow. A bit thick (hey, it’s got two levels of sliding built in) and a bit heavier than the Blackjack 2 I am also playing with. The Duo brings to mind the style of the Helio Ocean.

The sliding action feels great on the number pad, less so for the qwerty pad. Truth be told, I’ve got big hands and fat fingers. The sliders (both) don’t seem to come out enough to keep my fingers from hitting the main unit when typing on the upper rows. I am sure it is just something to get used to, but worth noting. Sliding the QWERTY keyboard out triggers the screen to go landscape, it works well, no accelerometer needed.

The call/end call buttons are just below the screen and are very close together, I see trouble conspiring against my fat thumb.

The Duo sports Windows Mobile 6, and like all the AT&T phones I’ve seen as of late, starts up with that too loud/too lame swoosh of the 3G fireball. I’d like to have a quick chat with the bloke that came up with that.

The Duo seems to have more games than the normal two that have been std on my last two phones and a few new ringtones (Calypso anyone?).

I’ll be putting the Duo through its paces. It will be interesting for me to see if sliders can keep up with my candy bar phones.

Product page [Pantech]