Review of the Pantech Link 7040

For the last few weeks I've had the chance to use the Pantech Link 7040, from AT&T.  Billed mostly as a "messaging phone", the Pantech Link has also been called an "entry-level smart phone".    It's not as "smart" as "real" smart phones, but it's got some nice features that can make a user sometimes forget it's status as a "messaging" phone.

Touted for its lightweight "thinness", there's no doubt about it.  This is a slim, easy-to-carry, phone that weighs far less than a Blackberry.  There's a slightly textured back on the Pantech Link, so its weight and thinness, combined with the usual sharp, rectangular, shape don't tend to make this a phone that's more likely to be dropped.

Reviews that I've read has mentioned a not-quite-perfect (but still clear) audio quality from the user's perspective.  I haven't detected that.  The phone I've had the chance to sample sounds pretty much like any landline phone.  I can't guarantee that all Links have that level quality of sound for the user, but I can guarantee the one I've been using does.

I haven't used some of the applications offered with the phone (because it's not my phone, and I don't what the owner has signed up for or not signed up for when it comes to some of the applications).  I've used the phone for lots of calls, the Internet (including e.mail accounts), text messaging, and picture-taking.  Having installed an SD card, I've also dabbled in the usual picture-saving, contacts stuff, and music-storing.  The camera and "other usual utilities" are things I've also tried out several times on the phone.

It's probably neither fair nor "properly scientific enough" to compare the Link to the Blackberry (especially since the Blackberry to which I'm comparing this Link is my own and has all my own stuff on it, which may slow down some things on the Blackberry); but I have to say that, as much as I love my Blackberry, there are things about the Pantech Link that I like better.

Besides the barely there weight, the Link has a keypad that's far easier to use than the Blackberry Curve's.  I'm used to the tiny keys on the Blackberry Curve, but I often still have the need to see the keys, rather than just, without looking, typing (or entering a phone number).  The Link's keypad has raised, slightly larger and more easily read, keys that are still small but that are amazingly easy to use without looking (after making a few calls with it).  Number keys are marked in an easy-to-spot blue; so it's not difficult to figure out where, of the three rows of three numeral characters, any one numeral can be found.  The Link gets me to the Internet (and to my e.mail) a whole lot faster than the Blackberry does.    Not all of the slowness I have with my own phone can be attributed to having a lot of stuff loaded into the phone, because I don't have anywhere near what some people have on their phones.  Some of it, I know, is carrier related; but my carrier is supposed to have a really strong signal in my area (and others using that carrier have no problem with their calls or Internet connections).

With its full QWERTY keypad, sending text messages is easy.  In fact, the Pantech Link's text messaging is simpler than the Blackberry Curve's (simply because the Link does do less within the text messaging "mode" than the Curve does).  Like a lot of over-40 people, I wear reading glasses.  There have been times when, in the wrong light, I have trouble with text messages on the Curve.  I don't have the same trouble (or the same need for "perfect light") with the Link.

While I know I can't blame the fact that my Blackberry (through a carrier other than AT&T) cuts out or barely functions at my local mall (inside and outside the building); since AT&T happens to be a particularly strong carrier in my area, the Link is a phone I can not only use inside stores, but make quick and easy e.mail checks with as well.  In the few weeks since I've been trying this phone, I've made a habit of checking several e.mail accounts from my busy grocery store.  No need to find an aisle where not too many people are.  Almost immediate connection to e.mail can be done in a busy aisle like the "cake mixes and baking products" aisle.  In fact, checking e.mail in any aisle (except, maybe, the ever over-crowded yogurt and milk aisle; of course) is a piece of cake. Grocery store aside, checking e.mail with the link is far more that "piece of cake" than, for the most part, checking it with the Curve is for me.

I tend to see the Link as a "fancy regular phone", as compared to "an entry-level smart phone".  It's easy to see why it's generally called a "messaging phone".  The Link is pretty easy to figure out without the user guide (although I have had the user guide with the phone).  There are a few things that a user may find himself needing to refer to manual on, but not too many.

It's an attractive phone.  (It's pretty shiny, for anyone who tends to like shiny phones.)  With a big, clear, display and decent enough sounding alerts, it's a pleasant phone.

I'm apparently not alone in observing that the quality of pictures taken with this phone aren't "the greatest".  They're better than I've gotten with some older, more basic, camera phones (a LOT better); but again, they aren't great a lot of the time (although, of course, as with all cameras, some lighting leads to far better pictures - maybe even a "great"/kind of "great" picture - than other lighting does).  The pictures are, however, good enough that I certainly wouldn't let the "camera factor" stop me from recommending the Link (as long as someone were primarily in the phone and messaging aspects of the Link.  (Actually, I've had second thoughts about making any comments at all about the pictures because I haven't really had all that much experience taking more than just a handful of pictures with the Link.)

I'm no sound technician, so perhaps you shouldn't trust me to judge quality of sound when it comes to music on the Pantech Link.  Personally, I think it's fine.  As far as I can tell, it seems identical to the quality of music on the Blackberry.

There is one thing I've found just the slightest bit irksome, and that's that the phone is so slender it's easy for it to slip from wherever I perch it in my handbag and get itself lost in something like a make-up bag or change purse.  That, of course, is a matter of my needing to change where I carry the phone - not the phone's fault.  It's a great phone for a pocket, but the one I have doesn't have a screen protector on it right now; and no temporary phone is going to get me to stop carrying my scratchy key-chain in my pocket.

While I've had the Pantech Link I've shown it to a number of people, all of whom have been impressed by how "nice a phone" it is.  My experience has been that it's phone that's pleasant and easy to use, that works well, that's attractive, and that offers the additional features it offers in a way that's super simple (even for those of us who seem to insist on doing business from the paper-products aisle at the busiest supermarket in town).