Pantech Vybe (AT&T) Review

I'm not sure if AT&T really needed the Pantech Vybe ($29.99 with contract; $199.99 without), its latest messaging phone, but there's nothing wrong with a little variety. The problem is, the Vybe isn't all that different from the Pantech Renue , which came out nearly two years ago and is still available. The Vybe is a perfectly adequate handset, with a decent slide-out keyboard and some multimedia features, but voice quality leaves a lot to be desired and it does absolutely nothing to improve the messaging phone experience.

Design and Call Quality
At least the Vybe is a better size than the squat, squarish Renue. It has a more traditional rectangular shape, measuring 4.49 by 2.32 by 0.51 inches and weighing in at a solid 4.94 ounces. The corners are slightly angular, which creates some visual interest, but the black plastic build feels a bit cheap and uninspiring. The phone has a textured back panel which you can pop off to reveal a 1,230mAh battery and an empty microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 32GB.

The front of the phone is dedicated primarily to a 3.2-inch, 400-by-240-pixel display. That's slightly sharper than the Renue, which has the same size screen, but it still isn't particularly easy on the eyes. Text looks small and jagged, and the screen itself is rather reflective, though viewing angles are decent. When closed, there are three touch-based function keys beneath the display.

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The screen slides open to reveal a nicely sized, four-row QWERTY keyboard. The keys are backlit and slightly raised, but they're rather tightly packed so I sometimes pressed the wrong one during testing. Still, it's easy to get used to, and if you're looking for a phone primarily for messaging, the Vybe should do an acceptable job.

RF reception is surprisingly strong, but that doesn't help call quality. The earpiece audio is appropriately loud and voices have a nice, full quality, but there's a lot of ambient buzz in the background that's distracting. Transmissions through the mic are worse, making voices sound extremely fuzzy and distant, with poor noise cancellation. The speakerphone also sounds harsh, and isn't loud enough to hear outdoors. For a phone that's primarily made for voice calls and messaging, this is a disappointment.

The Vybe works on AT&T's 2G and 3G bands, and 2,100MHz support means the handset will roam worldwide. Battery life was decent, at 6 hours and 16 minutes of 3G talk time, in my tests.

User Interface, Apps, and Processor
The Vybe's interface hasn't changed much from the Renue, and that's mostly a good thing. It's nice and bright, and easy to manipulate by touch. There are three customizable home screens you can swipe between, and adding additional apps or shortcuts is simple. A strip of shortcuts at the bottom of the screen gives you quick access to the Phone, Contacts, Messages, and Menu.

The Menu is home to two pages of large, colorful icons. Tools is where you'll find most of your preloaded apps, which include an alarm clock, calculator, converter, notepad, pill reminder, sketch pad, stop watch, tip calculator, and world time. You can also record voice memos, and the phone uses Nuance-powered voice recognition so you can control it hands-free.

The built-in Web browser does a perfectly decent job of delivering WAP pages, and AT&T Navigator is preinstalled for voice-enabled GPS directions, but it costs $9.99 per month.

As you can probably imagine, the Pantech Vybe is certainly not the fastest phone on the market. It's powered by a 230MHz Qualcomm QSC2670 chipset, which is many years old at this point. That makes it hard to tell whether the touch response is laggy, or the phone itself is just flat-out slow. I'm inclined to think the latter, since it seemed like the Vybe was almost always able to register my touch on the first try; it would just take a second or two for the corresponding action to actually happen. Ultimately, though, if you're expecting speedy performance or a larger selection of apps, you should be looking for a smartphone.

For a messaging phone, the Vybe does a decent job with text messages and email. Texts are threaded, so they show up in a conversation-style view. And the phone has an email app with access to AIM, AOL, AT&T, Gmail, and Hotmail accounts.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
For multimedia files, there's a scant 42MB of free internal memory, though you can also pop in a microSD card. The phone is able to play AAC, MP3, WAV, and WMA music files, and sound quality was great through both wired and Bluetooth headphones. Video support isn't as robust. The Vybe only plays H.264 and MPEG4 videos at resolutions up to 320 by 240.

The 3-megapixel camera has neither flash nor autofocus. It takes more than one full second to snap a photo, and images are average at best. The camera is able to capture some decent detail, but color reproduction is fairly inaccurate. The video camera is worse. It records 320-by-240-pixel videos at such a slow frame rate that they're unusable. 

The Pantech Vybe is a decent messaging phone, but there's just so little new here that I don't understand its place in AT&T's lineup. It's almost the same phone as the Pantech Renue, and I'd probably get the Renue instead for its eco-friendly, more durable build and slightly better call quality (though the Vybe has a somewhat sharper display). If you must have a keyboard, your only other option is the LG Xpression 2, which we haven't tested yet, but looks similar feature-wise to the Pantech devices.

You can also step up to a smartphone, though you won't find many with keyboards, outside of the NEC Terrain  and the BlackBerry Q10 ($169.99 at Amazon) , neither of which we'd recommend. You're better off starting with an inexpensive touch-screen device like the Moto X ($179.99 at Amazon)  and getting used to messaging without a physical keyboard.