vB Easy Archive - Pantech C300

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Pantech C300
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Posted by: Xorith

Okay, I'm not sure if this should be a review, or a rant... so we'll see...

I was drawn to this phone after my first one left me wanting. See, I'm with the Cingular prepay "plan" thing... contracts tend to bore me. Anywho, I was so excited to know that prepay phones could do all those nice things that I've always wanted in a phone. I walked in, and immediately asked for a camera flip phone. I was shown the Pantech C300, but with a $119 price tag, I wanted to go cheaper. Like I said - it left me wanting.

A week later, I returned and picked up my shiny Pantech C300. It was a tough choice between this one, and one of the Nokias. Thinking back, the Nokia would've been the better deal.

World's Smallest Flip Phone is true, but as in other things, size does matter. Small is good, since it doesn't feel uncomfortable at all in my pocket, however small also means harder to work with. I find my hands get cramped easily when using the keypad to punch in text messages and whatnot.

The glorious color of the dual TFT screens are nice, except for the fact that they, too, are the world's smallest color screens. They make viewing anything a chore, but honestly you get used to it. The front screen is absolutely great, however. I just wish it had a little more function!

The phone's quality seems average, I've found a fewq quirks with it, but I think it just might be my coverage in this area. The microphone is very sensitive, which can be both a boon and a bane. The speaker phone feature... well, if that's your deciding factor, go with something else. It's not really worth it.

The speaker, as I was just saying, isn't really that great. It tends to distort calls and ringtones alike.

The camera is average, but with no stock data cable, your only option is to e-mail the pictures to yourself. (Read my post in the Pantech forum about the PG3210 data cable). The camera features are pretty nifty - switch it into 128x128 mode and play with some of the frames and effects. Unfortunately, 640x480 mode doesn't support the same effects. Multishot x9 is pretty cool, but I haven't found a practical use for it yet.

The built-in IM software is a nice touch, but you can't edit the T9 dictionary so that makes customizing it harder. If you're going to be using the IMs a lot, you need to adjust (and get the unlimited data plan...)

All the other features I can think of are about average with what I expected.

One thing IS for sure... the thing is DURABLE!!!! Well, I'm not sure how durable. I've only dropped it twice, but both from good heights and onto cement floors. No lasting damage aside from a miffed corner on the case. (I'd rather the case plastic take a dent, then the screen take a cracking)

Now for my major complaints...

The phone lacks any real way to tweak it, as far as I can tell. A lot of the java apps out there (like MidpSSH) fail to work on this phone due to permission issues, which you can't change. Also, the tiny screen makes application functionality a challenge.

It's very uncomfortable to work with sometimes. If you're like me, then you burn up your free minutes on the phone easily. It's impossible to do the 'shoulder hug' with this phone. Thankfully, I've found if you're laying down, you can just lay it right there on your head and it'll stay...

Pantech supposedly announced a new C300 version, with Bluetooth, being released in the spring I think, maybe earlier. This might be something to consider when going for this phone.

The battery life in stand-by is great, but if you start using the features of the phone, you'll find yourself needing to recharge. The battery is easy to swap, but I haven't seen replacement batteries for sale... Nor is there a way to charge them that I've seen without the phone (no cradle)

The volume is hard to manage sometimes. What I mean is, some ringtones and calls are just too quiet - even on max volume. Some others are higher volume, but I haven't found a pattern. It could just be my luck, but I think they could've done with a better speaker and earpiece.

There's just a lot you think you should be able to do that you can't do with this phone. For instance, good luck viewing an image. You can't even zoom into a decent size and scroll... something I half expected from something like this. I'm still looking for a JAR to do this for me. Also, there's a nice voice recording tool in there, but no way to put those recordings in any other part of the phone. You can send them to yourself in an MMS, but I sort of expected the ability to set them as ringtones (get your friend's picture for the contact listing, and ask them to say their own personal ringtone for you with the voice recorder). Alternately, I don't think you can set a photo you snap with the camera as a wallpaper.

Conclusion:

For the money, I'm still slightly disappointed. It's a novelty phone though, since everyone's heard of "the world's smallest flip phone", but you can tell that even those that just want to "hold it" and "look at it" are left feeling like they were short-changed. I may consider taking up my 30 day return policy on this little thing, and go for that Nokia after all...