Pantech Jest (Verizon Wireless)

Here's a bad joke that's best left untold. The Pantech Jest, the company's latest messaging device for Verizon subscribers, starts off OK. It features decent styling, a pleasantly compact design, and a surprisingly comfortable keyboard. But several design gaffes, hobbled software, and poor overall performance lead to a phone that's less than the sum of its parts.

Design, Voice Quality, and User Interface
The Jest measures 3.7 by 2.5 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.1 ounces. It's made entirely of high-impact plastic, with a fingerprint-attracting glossy finish on the front, and a textured, matte back panel. Like other recent Pantech devices, the Jest feels well made, like it could survive a few good knocks over the course of its life. The vibrant 2.6-inch screen sports a sharp 320-by-320-pixel resolution, which led to crisp fonts and smooth lines.

The slider mechanism felt smooth and solid. The four-row QWERTY keyboard was cramped. At least the bottom edge of the front panel didn't get the way of hitting the top row of keys, like on many other vertical sliders, thanks to a small plastic ridge between the keyboard and the open panel. They keys are silent and have a nice grip, with just the right amount of resistance. Typing was reasonably comfortable as a result, though I'd prefer a roomier design.
Specifications

Service Provider
Verizon Wireless
Screen Size
2.6 inches
Screen Details
320-by-320-pixel, 262K-color, TFT LCD
Camera
Yes
Network
CDMA
Bands
850, 1900
High-Speed Data
1xRTT

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The Jest is a dual-band 1xRTT (800/1900 MHz) device with no Wi-Fi. Verizon phones usually sound good on voice calls, but the Jest was a rare exception. I heard a loud but harsh sounding tone in the earpiece. Transmissions were clear, though, and external noise rejection was good. Reception was average. Calls sounded fine through an Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, ) Bluetooth headset, and voice dialing worked over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone was a little tinny sounding, but went just loud enough for outdoor use. Battery life was excellent for a compact Verizon phone at 6 hours and 46 minutes of talk time.

The home screen contains animated wallpaper and a hiding taskbar you can pop up with a shortcut button on the right side. The menu system consists of numerous, brightly colored option lists. These were easy to read, but the four-way circular touch pad was a misfire. It made navigation a royal pain, regardless of the sensitivity level I selected. Targeting the right option often took several tries. You know there's a problem when Verizon includes a separate pamphlet with the Jest that explains how the touch pad works.

Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions
The bundled software compliment was pretty decent. Opera Mini served up sharp Web pages, although the 1X radio meant desktop HTML pages were out. VZ Navigator is on board for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions at $9.99 per month, and the Jest also supports Verizon Family Locator. Verizon's IM client works with AIM, Yahoo, and MSN, but dings each message against your texting plan. Verizon also includes a pair of mobile e-mail clients, both of which cost extra per month. The Social Beat app was actually quite nice; it aggregates Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter updates, and even includes an RSS feed reader, Gmail, and Google Talk tie-ins, though it took a long time to load and set up.

The non-standard 2.5mm headphone jack makes finding decent-sounding earbuds virtually impossible. There's a generous 975MB of free internal memory, 910MB of which goes to music, and the top-mounted microSD card slot accepted my 16GB SanDisk card. But the phone spit out strange error messages and couldn't find my media. It turns out the Jest expects music tracks to be in root\synched\music, because that's obvious. It didn't matter anyway, because the phone refused to play tracks through Motorola S9-HD ($129.99, ) Bluetooth headphones, despite several seemingly successful pairing attempts. On the plus side, you can buy music over the air with V CAST Music for Rhapsody.

The 2-megapixel camera lacks a flash and auto-focus. Test photos looked passable outdoors, but downright distorted and blurry indoors, thanks to slow shutter speeds. The only usable shots I got inside were right by a window with plenty of sunlight. Standalone video playback was out, as the phone couldn't even play videos I recorded directly with the useless 176-by-144-pixel camcorder.

Verizon has plenty of decent phones, so there's no need to goof off with the Jest. Two good choices: the LG Cosmos ($29.99-189.99, ) is a horizontal slider instead of vertical and lacks a music player altogether, but it offers similarly high quality construction, better voice quality, and a simpler UI. The LG Accolade VX5600 ($9.99-99.99, ) loses the QWERTY keyboard, but it's an excellent voice phone with long battery life. Both the Accolade and the Cosmos are also free with a two-year contract.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous Talk Time: 6 hours 46 minutes

Compare the Pantech Jest with several other mobile phones side by side.

BlueAnt Q2

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The BlueAnt Q2 builds on the company's earlier Q1 ($129.95, ) and V1 ($129.95, ) voice-controlled headsets. The Q2 features automated voice search, companion Android and BlackBerry apps, and A2DP music and GPS voice prompt streaming from smartphone apps. At $129, it's firmly at the high end of the Bluetooth headset range. But this is one headset that's worth the cash, even if BlueAnt still hasn't gotten all the bugs out of its Android app.

Design, Fit, and Voice Quality
The Q2 looks like a proper executive-style headset. It is made entirely of matte black plastic, but the textured front panel and raised edges give it a classy look. Plenty of useful hardware controls abound, including a power switch, a multi-function button, and a pair of volume buttons where each one is a different size—perfect for controlling the volume without having to guess. BlueAnt bundles five rubber ear tips and a removable ear hook in the box, though the default ear tip fit me perfectly. The back panel holds the earpiece and rubber tip, a slot for the pivoting ear hook, and a small rubber pad near the front that rests against your cheek while wearing the unit. You don't need to press it against your cheek, the way the last three generations of Aliph Jawbone required for best sound quality.
View Slideshow See all (4) slides
BlueAnt Q2 : Angle
BlueAnt Q2 : Side
BlueAnt Q2 : Angle with No Earhook
BlueAnt Q2 : Front

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The first time you power up the BlueAnt Q2, it automatically enters pairing mode. The Q2 walks you through the pairing process with voice prompts; later on, you can reinitiate pairing with a voice command. For this review, I paired the Q2 with an iPhone 3GS and a Samsung Captivate ($199.99-499.99, ). Each time, the Q2 transferred the appropriate address book to the device (more on that later).

In a series of voice tests, the BlueAnt Q2 sounded clear and punchy in the earpiece, with plenty of gain. It's still hit or miss whether callers can tell if you're talking on a headset. That's true even when you're using a class-leading device like the Q2 or the Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, ), our current Editors' Choice. But in back-to-back tests, one caller had trouble distinguishing the sound of my voice between the Q2, the Jawbone Icon, and an iPhone 3GS ($99, )—a very good sign indeed.

BlueAnt claims that its Wind Armor technology withstands wind noise up to 22 miles per hour. I'm still not impressed; the Q2 simply wasn't as effective as the Jawbone Icon in blocking out a high-speed fan in my office, in a series of voice mail tests at varying differences. With the fan blowing in the background, my own voice also sounded a little more compressed and computery through the Q2 than it did through the Jawbone Icon.

Other Features, Mobile Apps, and Conclusions
To activate the Q2's voice recognition, you simply press the multi-function button once quickly. The Q2 will say, "Say a command." (I much prefer pressing the button than having to say, "BlueAnt speak to me," as the S4 requires). At that point, you can say, "What can I say?" for a list of commands, or speak whichever command you want. I successfully checked the Q2's battery level, activated the iPhone 3GS's internal voice dialing, and tried a host of other tasks all through the Q2.

Range was on the high side of average; I could walk about 15 feet away from the handset before the Q2's audio began to distort noticeably. You can also pair the Q2 with two devices simultaneously. A full charge takes about four hours, and the headset will tell you in the earpiece when the battery is very low. Battery life was average at 4 hours and 41 minutes of talk time.

The Q2 announces incoming caller names for up to 2,000 address book entries. Like BlueAnt's S4 ($99, ) hands-free speakerphone, the Q2 includes Microsoft Bing 411, which offers access to news, weather, sports, and other information. This is fun but somewhat sluggish in practice. Another S4 innovation carries over: A downloadable Vlingo-powered Android application lets Android 2.0 or greater handsets play text messages through the Q2. Sadly, just as I had trouble getting the S4 to work with an LG Ally ($99.99-396.99, ), I couldn't get the Q2 to speak text messages through the Samsung Captivate and the Vlingo app.

So the Q2 is excellent, though there's plenty of competition in the Bluetooth headset market. The Aliph Jawbone Icon offers the best noise cancellation on the market and clear, natural sound quality to other callers. It's also a genuine app platform itself, one that works reliably in testing. But the Icon sounds a little tinny in the earpiece, it has short battery life, and its odd physical design and fit is still uncomfortable for some, even though the Jawbone is on its fourth revision. The Plantronics Voyager Pro ($99.99, ) is larger and heavier, and doesn't sound quite as good as the Q2 or Jawbone Icon. But it offers over eight hours of talk time on a charge and is still the most comfortable headset we've ever tested. Both the Voyager Pro and the Jawbone Icon list for $99, which is $30 less than the Q2.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous Talk Time: 4 hours 41 minutes