Hands-on with AT&T's Pantech Duo Slider

The just-announced two-way slider boasts 3G data access, the latest version of Windows Mobile, streaming video, and full-track music downloads, but it's a bit pricey compared to the competition.

I've been checking out a review unit of the Pantech Duo (available now for $200 with a two-year contract) for about a day now, and overall, I like what I see. At 4 by 2 by 0.8 inches and weighing in at about four ounces, the Duo is pretty light and compact—it fits comfortably in my palm and jeans pocket, as opposed to the relatively bulky Helio Ocean slider (just try fitting that into your pocket). The 2.2-inch LCD is sharp and vivid, and the phone has a nice, springy sliding action. You get two keypads on the Duo: slide one way to reveal the standard 12-key numeric pad, or slide to the side for the full, roomy QWERTY keypad (complete with wide, flat keys that were easy on my fingertips).

The Duo runs the standard, pared-down edition of Windows Mobile 6, so while there's no stylus or touch-screen functionality, you can still edit Office documents, sync with corporate Exchange servers, and browse the Web on the mobile Internet Explorer. I cruised around the menus a bit with the four-way navigation pad, and the phone felt pretty snappy; screens took a moment or so to redraw, and the display takes a second or so to switch from portrait to landscape views when you slide open the QWERTY keypad, but overall, not bad.

The Duo comes with a healthy share of multimedia options: you get access to AT&T's new music service (including full-track downloads from Napster), streaming video clips via AT&T Cellular Video, and one-way video conferencing over the carrier's new Video Share service. Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, microSD memory expansion, a built-in IM client (with support for AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger), and stereo Bluetooth. No Wi-Fi, though, and no mention GPS.

Still, I'm pretty impressed by the device itself—but $200 with service? Consider this: the upcoming BlackJack II, a candy bar-style Windows Mobile phone with essentially the same features, is set to retail for $150, while the Palm Centro on Sprint (with Exchange access, 3G, and streaming video) goes for just $100. If the Duo were selling for $150 or less (which is a distinct possibility before the year is out), we'd really have something.

Related:
Press release [AT&T]