Pantech Pocket

Pantech has been known to make some really affordable devices, but seeing that the competition are known to do the same, they’re going to need to work harder to justify why their selections are superior. With its 4:3 aspect ratio, the Pantech Pocket is undoubtedly different from everything else available on AT&T’s lineup, but physicalities aside, will it be enough to stand out above the crop? The most obvious physical feature of the Pantech Pocket is the 4-inch, 800 x 600 pixel display. The screen sports that unique 4:3 aspect ratio, the same as an Apple iPad or HP TouchPad, giving a user the feeling that the phone is a mini tablet. Pantech says that this aspect ratio allows the Pocket to display 20 percent more information horizontally when compared with other 4-inch class smartphones. The actual display itself is quite sharp and bright, but its colors are not as punchy as those found in Samsung's Super AMOLED displays and it can't quite compete with high-end smartphones when it comes to viewing angles.

Since Pantech is not targeting the high-end smartphone bracket, the Pocket is powered by a single-core, 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. For most basic tasks, the phone is fast enough, but nobody is going to confuse it for a Samsung or HTC device that is equipped with a dual-core processor. Pantech's custom interface on top of Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread is fairly snappy when paging though homescreens or the app tray, and the phone doesn't have any trouble scrolling through lists. The Pantech Pocket supports HSPA+ connections for "4G" speeds on AT&T's network. In my speed tests, the Pocket performed admirably, consistently reaching 3Mbps downloads and 1.1Mbps uploads. While these speeds don't compare to a real 4G service, such as LTE or WiMAX, they are impressive when compared with speeds seen on 3G CDMA networks. Boasting a 4” WVGA (480 x 800) display with an aspect ratio of 4:3, it’s seemingly something that warrants recognition since it blatantly stands out. Unlike its widescreen counterparts, our thumb is able to easily hit and encompass all four corners of the display. And of course, it’s detailed enough to make out fine text, but its weak brightness output, bluish tinge, and poor viewing angles make it difficult to view.