Pantech cell phones may not be as popular in North America and Europe as they are in the company's native Korea, but they are certainly making headway into these international markets, aggressively approaching them with unique cell phones, interesting designs, and cutting edge technology. If you want to be a little different than the rest of the Motorola, Nokia, or Sony Ericsson sporting crowd, then maybe you should seriously consider some Pantech cell phones.
Brief Pantech & Curitel Company Background
Pantech & Curitel is a cell phone maker based out of South Korea. In the company's early history, they served predominantly as an ODM, or Original Design Manufacturer. What this meant is that they developed and created a number of different cell phones, but when these actually hit the marketplace, they'd be branded under a different company, typically the service provider selling the phone. Pantech & Curitel was established in 2000, but they have quickly expanded their business outside of their domestic market (where most of their effort and sales are still found), reaching out to such international locales as Japan, Hong Kong, India, Europe, Australia, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Pantech is Korea's third largest maker of mobile phones.
Pantech Cell Phones in USA and Canada
Since it is a smaller company and most of its efforts are focused in its home country of Korea, Pantech cell phones are not nearly as widespread in North America as companies like Motorola and Samsung. However, there are a few notable highlights from the Pantech lineup that are sold through Canadian and American wireless providers.
- Pantech Impact: Featuring a form factor similar to the LG enV series, the Impact has a numeric keypad in its closed "candybar" form, but it can be flipped open like a book to reveal a secondary display and a full QWERTY keyboard. The Impact is sold through AT&T.
- Pantech Reveal: Also available through AT&T, the Reveal is definitely an unusual cell phone. It has a somewhat squat appearance with a wider, landscape-style display and a numeric keypad, but a full QWERTY keyboard actually slides out of the bottom like the Palm Pre. This means that both keypads are accessible by the user at the same time.
Mobile Phones Only in Korea
Just as many of the most innovative and fashionable cell phones created by LG Electronics and Samsung seem to stay put in their home Korea, such is also the case when it comes to unique and unusual cell phones designed and sold by Pantech & Curitel. Here are some of the coolest offerings that are probably only available in Korea.
- The PT-S280 has a similar delectable look as the popular LG Chocolate Phone, particularly the CDMA variant offered through Verizon and Telus Mobility. The circular navigation wheel features prominently in the front of this slider phone. The display is a large 2.0 inches of QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) goodness, and you'll also enjoy an integrated media player, 1.3 megapixel camera, and "mobile banking capabilities."
- If you think that the IM-U140 looks a lot like the Danger-designed T-Mobile Sidekick, you're not alone. Instead of a text messaging-centric QWERTY keyboard, however, this cell phone comes with S-DMB Mobile TV. The color touchscreen display is a gigantic 2.6-inch QVGA widescreen, the largest on any S-DMB handheld. Other notable features include an incredible 3 megapixel camera, electronic dictionary, four channel stereo speakers, and PictBridge support.
- It may be somewhat reminiscent of the Motorola SLVR, but the PG-1400 is Pantech's most popular cell phone thus far. In fact, they have sold over one million units as of June 2006, being the first Pantech-branded cell phone to achieve that feat.
