My Sweet New Phone

I really loved my old phone, may it rest in peace. It was a Samsung, in my opinion the best brand of phone. I've tried many: LG, Motorolla, Nokia, Sony Ericson...but my favorites have always been my Samsungs (I've had 3). They just seem so intuitive and have little things no one else thinks of. But my Samsung ZX10 flip phone that I've had for probably 2 years has recently started making me want to throw it into a deep deep hole or a vat of boiling liquid. The reception just stopped working. I could no longer get a signal in my bedroom, my bathroom, my closet, my basement, or half the locations in Utah that I went. Nothing drives me more batty than having my conversations st a rt to o ike s. Also, several of my friends and acquantainces who text me dont' realize that I have an old-school flip phone and they send me these long paragraphs full of math problems and questions and stuff. Not really math problems. But stuff that requires numbers and punctuation and far more of a response than is feasible to write with a flip phone. I have to hit the keys 8000 times just to say "I'm on my way" when I have to hit each key 3 to 4 times to make one letter. So I realized it was about time for me to upgrade to a phone with a keyboard.

Here is what I got....


It's called the Pantech Duo, in dark red. Pantech is a relatively new brand. And this is their first attempt at a smart phone, which made me a little wary. But it is so freaking amazing that I choose cool over focasted reliability. Besides, I did read a lot of reviews on it before I bought it and they were just as good as the other 4 phones I was considering (and $100 cheaper). Sweet.

My favorite features?

1) The slide out full keyboard with puncuation. My last phone didn't even have an apostraphe. For an English teacher, that was almost a deal breaker.

2) Song ID. If a song is playing that you don't know, you put the phone up to it and it will listen to the song and tell you what song it is. I tried it out on 1999 by Prince, Sister Christian by whoever sings that song, and Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran and it got all of them right. How cool is that?

3) IM. Yes, I can actually instant message from my phone. Sitting in doctors office lobbies will no longer be quite as horrible.

4) Full internet. Well, not FULL internet. This is not the iPhone. But it's not media net, that watered down version of the internet that most smart phones have.

5) Oh, and let me not forget RECEPTION. Now I can talk on the toilet again!

I also considered the AT&T Tilt--too much phone for me. Also Windows based. I don't need to have computer problems with my phone too. The iPhone--very cool but very expensive. Also, the touch screen is heat sensitive so I can't use my fingernails to hit the keys. And the keyboard is VERY small. So if you try to use your whole finger, you hit the wrong letter a LOT. I find actual buttons more comforting. The LG Vu--a knock off version of the iPhone. Touchscreen that is not heat sensitive so easier to type on, but lacking most of the intuitive and fun features of the iPhone like the full internet the ease of opening and closing applications by sliding your finger along. Plus I tried out another LG phone last time and returned it. It was very poorly designed and not user friendly. In the end, the Duo seemed the best buy for the money and with a lot of really cool features.

Now I can get pictures, take pictures, send pictures, listen to music, text, IM, surf the internet, identify music, play games, calculate math problems, get my email, set my appointments, watch TV and videos, stream satilite music and talk to people. So long story short: Call me.