Pantech Swift Review

Introduction:

If there’s one company to count on when it comes to producing feature phones in this day and age, you don’t need to look any further than Pantech, as they’ve been consistent with their offerings. Coming to the plate with the Pantech Swift, it’s a QWERTY sliding messaging phone that aims to appease those who can live without the complexities of a smartphone. However, it’ll surely need to kick it up a notch in order to stay afloat – especially at $69.99 with a 2-year contract.

Design:

Hardly flaunting anything spectacular, the design of the Pantech Swift is all too predictable amongst the trove of QWERTY messaging phones on the market. Compact and light enough to comfortably hold in the hand, its build quality is decent enough to warrant peace of mind when it comes to normal wear and tear. Still, as much as we like the subtle soft touch feel of its rear cover, there's nothing particularly exciting about this conventional looking phone.



You can compare the Pantech Swift with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Below the display, there’s a physical home button that’s raised and easily pressed – whereas, its dedicated power button and volume keys are more flat feeling. In addition, we find a microUSB port for charging/data connectivity and a 3.5mm headphone jack around the sides of the phone.

Flipping it around to the rear, it features a 2-megapixel camera sans flash – while the handset’s speaker grill is found close by. Prying off the rear plastic cover, we gain access to its SIM slot, 1,000 mAh battery, and microSD card slot.

Exposing the physical landscape keyboard is accomplished by pushing the display up when held in landscape, which snaps firmly into place without much force. With its 4-row keyboard layout, buttons are nearly flush to the surface – thus, making it difficult to feel them out. Although we’re accepting of its reasonable response, we would’ve preferred seeing numbers incorporated into the top row of buttons. Far from being the best QWERTY we’ve seen on a messaging phone, it’s effective enough for most case uses, but don’t expect to jot down paragraphs of text with it.



Display:

We know there isn’t going to be much love found with the Swift’s keyboard, and rightfully so, our suspicions are confirmed after checking out its 2.8” QVGA (240 x 320) capacitive display. Obviously, it’s lacking detail, but even worse, it washes out very easily under the gaze of the sun. It’s difficult to say if it’s the touchscreen, software, processor, or a combination of the three, but it feels very lax and unresponsive when it comes to tracking our finger.

Interface:

Certainly, we like the simple and hassle-free experience offered by the handset’s software, but the sluggish performance makes it a taxing experience. When it comes to personalization, the elements there are enough to give the handset some distinction, like its scrollable homescreens, but it seems far more antiquated versus other things – like Samsung’s TouchWiz UI for feature phones. In the long run, the experience is lacking the vigor and appeal to keep us engaged, but then again, that might be something that other people are looking for.


Regardless of what’s powering the Pantech Swift underneath the hood, we really don’t need to know based on its platform performance. As we mentioned already, there’s a recognizable amount of sluggishness with most operations. From scrolling to opening apps, there is simply a lot of waiting or unresponsiveness attached to its operation.


Multimedia:

Boasting a very generic looking music player, it has the fundamentals we’d expect, but lacks any visual flare to stand out. Cranking its volume to its maximum setting, its output is extremely sharp and irritating to the ear, but thankfully it doesn’t sound muffled. Setting the appropriate equalizer option has a marginal effect, but still, we’d recommend placing its volume in the middle for the best results.

Already, we know that its below average sized display isn’t ample to handle most of our video watching needs, but we’re made more aware about its limitations using our test videos. In fact, it’s only able to load an MPEG-4 320 x 240 video file. Sure it managed to play it smoothly, but its bleak colors and insufficient details make it hard to accept.

At 2-megapixels, it’s evident that the Pantech Swift isn’t one known for taking photos. Rightfully so, we’re made more aware after checking out the scary results it manages to cough up. First and foremost, you’ll need a steady hand when taking photos, since its shutter speed it slow – thus, resulting in some blurriness. As a whole, the low quality with its still image capture and video recording make it very hard to use for those candid moments.



Pantech Swift Sample Video:

Performance:

Listening to our callers through the earpiece, its maximum volume output is remarkably low – making it even harder to comprehend the choppy voices heard through it. Switching over to the speakerphone, the results don’t deviate whatsoever, but this time around, the volume strength is considerably ample enough.

Shocking to say the least, we are surprised to only get 1 ½ days of normal usage out of a full battery charge – though, we have to remember that it’s packing only a measly 1,000 mAh battery. Nevertheless, it’s undoubtedly below average when compared to our experience with other comparable quick messaging devices.

Conclusion:

On one hand, parents will surely love that the Pantech Swift doesn’t require a data plan, which will obviously help in cutting down costs. However, it’s extremely difficult to like the Pantech Swift at its $69.99 on-contract price point just because it seems to be a bit too bloated for its available set of features and performance. To tell you the truth, you’re probably better off checking out some older quick messaging devices that are still offered by AT&T, which at the same time, should be at a lower price point. Essentially, you’re not gaining any advantages choosing the Pantech Swift, as it clearly doesn’t break the threshold for quick messaging devices.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Software Version: JXUSD4D22012

Pantech Swift Review: