Review: Pantech's Tiny C3b for AT&T

Pantech C3b

Pantech C3b

Pantech C3b

Pantech C3b

When the word tiny was added to the dictionary, they must have had Pantech's C3b in mind, as there really is no other descriptive word that sums this phone up better. Aimed at the casual and cost conscious user, the C3b provides a solid base of features in a small but rugged package. This incredibly small flip phone, now being offered by Cingular Wireless, is the follow-up to Pantech's prior successes, the C300 and the C3.

Like its predecessors, the C3b maintains the same boxy shape and is garbed in a matte silver finish throughout. Pantech provides its users the ability to dress up their devices by quickly snapping off the phone's textured front cover and replacing it with one of a different color. The device ships with sedate looking blue and silver covers, but we opted for the snazzy bright orange one that came with our review unit. Additional color plates can be purchased directly from Cingular's website.

The overall build of the Pantech C3b is quite sturdy. The hinge seemed durable and should weather well. Because of its diminutive size, the C3b's top flip can not extend open as fully as on other clamshells, which may be an issue for some users. The front of the C3b is where you'll find the 1" 262k color TFT (96x96 pixel) resolution display. Pantech makes good use of it by providing time and date, caller ID, battery status, and signal strength information. Just below it sits the phone's VGA camera lens and flash. Up top is where the handset's external antenna is located, and on the bottom can be found the device's charging port. The phone's volume rocker sits on the left edge of the device, just below the covered headset port. From the phone's closed position, the volume rocker's up key also doubles as a camera shutter button while the down key will activate the phone's camera flash to act as a flashlight.

Opening the C3b, you will find a bright 1.5" color, 128x128 pixel resolution display, a surprisingly spacious flush keypad, d-pad, two softkeys, green and red send and end keys, and a clear/back key. Due to the elfish size of the C3b, you would think that the alphanumeric keys would feel cramped, but that is not the case. My only complaint is that the keypad keys are flush mounted and somewhat difficult to find without looking at them. A few time saving shortcuts are available on the keypad. Long pressing the * key puts the device in vibrate mode, long pressing the back/clear key brings up the calendar, and hitting the left menu softkey followed by the * key will lock/unlock the phone.

Pantech C3b

Pantech C3b

Pantech C3b

The Pantech C3b runs on Cingular/AT&T's GSM voice network and uses GPRS for data. The handset's external antenna proved capable of providing adequate reception during our tests. Voice clarity was also decent. The device's built-in speakerphone was pretty awful and should only probably only be used in extreme need situations. We definitely love the addition of Bluetooth 2.0 support to the C3b, something the original C3 lacked. The C3b is capable of Internet browsing, although it is not exactly ideal. Unless you are in dire straits or want to download the latest MP3 ringtone, I would not bother much with surfing from the C3b since the process can be quite tedious due to screen size and download speed.