That trick Impact -- the better half of Pantech's two-phone combo for AT&T this fall -- has finally hit AT&T in the past couple days after we had a chance to play with it way back at CTIA at the beginning of October. Though it's not much of a monster on paper, the Impact has one of the more unique looks of anything currently in AT&T's lineup thanks to a touch-sensitive "hidden" external keypad paired with an internal color display and full QWERTY keyboard. That all matches up nicely with 3G capability and a 2 megapixel camera -- and buyers of all genders, tastes, and moods are welcome to this party thanks to availability in blue and pink. Grab it for $99.99 on contract after rebate, if you're so inclined.

Back in our day, the kiddies all ran around with Helios, VK Mobile looked like it could be the next Pantech, and "Kickflip" was a phone, not a skateboarding move. Okay, fine -- we knew like one or two people that used Helio, VK Mobile never even made a dent in the US market, and skateboarding had a lock on kickflips long before the wireless industry did -- and actually, that perfect storm of bad news may have ultimately led the once-promising MVNO to the sad situation we have here today under Virgin Mobile's stewardship. Virgin has now all but erased the memory of Helio from its website, leaving just the Ocean and Mysto to soldier on -- and the phones now go by their ODM's names (Pantech and Samsung, respectively) rather than Helio proper. The strangest part is that the Ocean seems to have outlasted its replacement, the Ocean 2, which is now gone -- unless you hit up Virgin Mobile's Korean language site, a sub-brand in itself that it inherited from Helio and has a track record of giving members of the community better, faster access to hot devices. Any way you slice it, though, it never made sense for Virgin to run two brands -- Helio's fate was sealed the moment the sale was finalized, but considering the company's spot-on mantra of "bring awesome Asian phone tech to North America," we'll always have a soft spot in our hearts for these guys.

[Via MobileCrunch]

What exactly does the equivalent of roughly $830 buy you in Pantech's home market these days? Well, it'll apparently get you signed up for the priciest device South Korea's third-largest handset manufacturer has ever made, the Dupont from subsidiary SKY. As far as we can tell, this thing is more show than go, thanks largely to a weakling 3-inch WQVGA display and 3 megapixel camera -- but then again, it's hard to argue with designer tie-ins and questionably tasteful gold accents, isn't it? Look for this one on local carrier SKT, and for once, we're totally fine with the fact that Pantech is concentrating on low-end messaging devices over on AT&T.

[Via Unwired View]

We've just checked out Pantech's new pair of messaging-friendly phones for AT&T, the Reveal and Impact; one of them left an "impact" on us, and we'll let you guess which one (hint: it's the one that would result in a pun occurring). Yeah, the Reveal was a pretty cheap-looking set -- and we're not sure we understand the value of eating of screen real estate with a dedicated numeric pad just so you don't have to slide the phone open to dial -- but the Impact (pictured above) was a genuinely intriguing phone. Up front you've got a glossy black surface that lights up to reveal a basic monochrome display and a numeric pad; pressing buttons on the pad triggers haptics so you can sorta feel your way around. Opening the phone up produces a full QWERTY keyboard with dedicated buttons for key functions (messaging, for example) and a color display with stereo speakers on either side. It's not a huge widescreen like you might find on something like an enV Touch, but it's still pretty big, plenty vibrant, and serviceable for the full HTML browser that AT&T's touting in these new devices. Pantech tells us that the Impact will go for "under $80" when it ships next month, so we'd argue that makes it a heck of a bargain in light of the unusual, slick design and the dual displays.

AT&T wants you to know that you don't need a smartphone just to get a rich, full web experience from your handset -- theoretically, anyway -- with the introduction of four new models from longtime partners Samsung and Pantech alongside a new featurephone browser. First up from Samsung comes the Flight (pictured left), billed as a "next-generation messaging device" on account of its full QWERTY portrait slide paired with a full touchscreen up top; it'll be available next month for $99.99 on contract after rebate -- that is, if you didn't buy it on Craigslist already. That silvery slate in the middle that's more likely to be catching your eye is the Mythic, rocking TouchWiz on a 3.3-inch display along with AT&T Mobile TV, making it a fitting successor to the Eternity and big brother to the Solstice; like the Flight, it swings onto retail next month, but you'll be paying a stiffer $199.99 on contract after $50 rebate.

Turning our attention to the Pantech side of the table, we've got the Reveal (pictured right) that lets you have it both ways with a numeric keypad up top twined with a QWERTY slider underneath. It's 3G-capable, AT&T Navigator-equipped, and available for your enjoyment on October 18 in red and blue. Finally, the Impact (not pictured) has an OLED touchscreen up front, but when the texting gets hot and heavy, the phone opens up to reveal a second display along with a QWERTY keyboard. It'll be available in pink and blue, though neither pricing nor availability are being announced just yet.

Gluing everything together is AT&T's new mobile browser, described as "a rich hybrid experience that gives you a HTML experience similar to your PC browser at home" that "works really well on a feature phone." Additionally, users visiting att.net from their PCs will be able to send bookmarks to their phones' mobile portals -- kind of a neat trick, especially when you're trying to minimize the number of URLs you have to mash out on an on-screen keyboard. Of course, featurephone browsers have a reputation for generally sucking, so considering that AT&T bills its new line of devices as "full web browsing phones," it'll be interesting to see how close they actually come to delivering on the claim; it's said the phones use "advanced data compression from Opera Software," which we're thinking is very likely some variation of Opera Turbo -- not a bad start.

Pantech's Korea-only SKY brand has launched a new flip that it's very overtly targeting at a female audience, the IM-S500K Crystal -- and as the name implies, it's a visual feast. The major differentiating "feature" here is a diamond patterned shiny plate up front with concealed lights and icons that seemingly illuminate at random (though are probably configurable enough to make sense to the user, just not those of us looking at a couple pictures from halfway around the globe). It's available in no fewer than four colors and features a 2.4-inch QVGA display, FM radio reception, a 2 megapixel camera, and a document viewer -- not the most Earth-shattering spec sheet we'd ever seen, but then again, can you really put a price on a shiny diamond pattern with LEDs underneath?

If you're looking for the most basic of basic candybars and you happen to be using AT&T service, today is a glorious day, friends, because Pantech's submitted a doozy for the FCC's perusal. The C180 lacks virtually every modern mobile convenience, eschewing even EDGE data -- though they have managed to keep a memory slot and FM radio aboard. Mentions of MEdia Net in the manual and the "C" model name -- historically reserved for Cingular, which is now AT&T -- tell us where this one's going, but we can't imagine that it'll see duty beyond GoPhone.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Typically, dual-mode global handsets on carriers like Sprint and Verizon have a distinctly high-end (or at least a midrange) flair to them, but the Escapade is rolling up on this scene to ask "why is that?" Verizon's new Pantech-sourced clamshell -- which will be sold under the Verizon name alone -- lacks EV-DO, UMTS, and even EDGE data, concentrating instead on offering voice and text services in "220 destinations worldwide." It's got a 2 megapixel camera, support for voice commands, Bluetooth, and VZ Navigator, but the most compelling feature might be the price: $29.99 on contract after rebate. Look for it to launch online and in stores tomorrow.

Korea's Pantech has always played second fiddle (well, third fiddle, we suppose) to global giants Samsung and LG, but somehow, the little guy has managed to be cash flow positive for the past eight quarters of financial results since undertaking a corporate restructuring. To further strengthen its position, it's in the process of swapping some outstanding debt for equity -- and one of those creditors just happens to be Qualcomm, which has a booming Korean business and enjoys tight relationships with many of the local players. This sounds like it won't really have any material effect on Pantech's day-to-day operations, since Qualcomm says it wants to stay passive and won't move to install any management or board members; that being said, it could end up with as much as 15 percent of Pantech's common stock, which is a nice little chunk. We're guessing this means we won't be seeing many Pantechs with Broadcom basebands, eh?

[Via Unwired View]

O2 has been known to source its Xda line of smartphones from a number of different sources over the years including HTC and ASUS -- but Pantech? We're pretty sure that's a new one. Then again, WinMo 6.1 dual sliders aren't exactly easy to come by, so we suppose O2 simply did what it had to do to get one in the lineup when the time came. If this so-called Xda Venn looks familiar, that's because it's just a Matrix Pro tweaked with O2's corporate branding, featuring the same 2 megapixel cam, GPS, and HSDPA as its North American cousin on AT&T. It's not on sale yet through O2's online shop, but the plumbing appears to be in place, so we're guessing it'll be available soon.

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile for Wednesday, July 15th, 2009:

• Pantech's SKY division has announced the IM-S480S "Tilt" flip for the South Korean market to be offered through carrier SK Telecom. It's a fairly ordinary phone -- 2 megapixel camera, microSD expansion -- but it apparently gets its name from its curved halves (how that evokes a name like "Tilt," we're not exactly sure) and features a trick LED bar above the keypad that can be used to indicate download progress and the like.
• Samsung has rolled out a so-called Elegant Edition of its S7350 slider in Hong Kong. It's pink and comes with a quilted pink leather pouch, so... you know, you'd better really be into pink. It also features customized "smart seasonal wallpaper" that'll change based on seasons and calendar events. [Via Unwired View]
• It looks like BlackBerry OS 5.0 will get tabbed browsing, a feature that's become virtually standard across smartphone platforms (and has even started to invade the upper dumbphone echelon recently).
• The just-announced Sony Ericsson C905a for AT&T has already started to filter into some retail locations ahead of its July 19 release, so don't give up if you've got an unquenchable, urgent yearning for this thing.

We're not sure we understand the market for a global phone on Verizon that's so low-end that it doesn't even support 3G, but Pantech seems to understand it -- or at least it thinks it does -- with the latest info leaking out about its upcoming Escapade flip. The phone will apparently support CDMA with 1x data alongside GSM with GPRS data, which makes it next to useless to getting serious work done from your handset no matter where you happen to be in the world. Otherwise, it's expected to feature a 2 megapixel camera and a measly 2.5mm headphone jack, but it's said to be lacking a microSD slot -- something found on even the most basic phones for the last year or two. Global or not, this thing better be within a few bucks of free when it launches; as of right now, we don't know when that'll be.

This phone vaguely reminds us of the Samsung Memoir for some reason, but rest assured, it's Pantech through and through and it's being sold thousands of miles away. The SKY IM-U460K "Love Actually" will see action on South Korean carrier KTF, rife with global roaming capability, HSDPA, an integrated DMB tuner (par for the course with domestic Korean handsets), a 3 megapixel primary cam, and microSD expansion. The big feature here, though, has to be the 3-inch QVGA display that shocks and delights onlookers with a biggie-sized dot matrix display that's just low-res enough to be more retro chic than annoying. As with all of Pantech's SKY-branded goodies, we'd expect to see this one outside Korea... oh, right around the same day that Apple licenses iPhone OS to third party manufacturers.

Celebrity tie-ins are always a surefire way to put a little more oomph behind the launch of an otherwise bland handset, and in Mexico, carrier Telcel is doing exactly that to celebrate the launch of its latest Pantech piece. The C570 is a pretty basic GSM phone with some stylish color accents, FM radio with RDS, and dedicated music controls, but what immediately turns up the interest knob by a notch or two is that they've hooked up with local star Paty Cantu to preload the phone with artist content. Further helping the handset's street cred as a music phone is the fact that it's also got a 3.5mm jack, a remote with yet another set of music controls, and microSD expansion up to 8GB -- but with the brooding expression on Paty's face here, we can't rightfully say we're sure whether she's delighted, horrified, ambivalent, or utterly unaware of the offering.

Somewhere in the past year, Samsung and LG spontaneously decided that mobile UIs should rotate in three-space as though each screen is a face on a cube. Other than sheer visual bedazzlement, there's not a lot of practical value to that -- but that's not stopping Pantech from getting into the game. It's coining its 3D interface "TruEmotion," and the first handset to take advantage of it will be the IM-R470S launched by Pantech's SKY division in Korea. The phone features a 3.2-inch VGA touchscreen and -- if we had to guess, anyway -- it probably supports T-DMB reception, but you'll need to be local to pick it up when it launches in July.