Practical phone

I bought this phone right before leaving for Romania at the end of July (4 months ago). I did not want an advanced phone, or a blackberry, or an iPhone, I wanted a simple phone that was easy to use, primarily for making phone calls. I also wanted a phone that could take some abuse like me sitting on it, it being dropped on the floor etc. The vendor showed me this phone and I instantly liked it for the following reasons. The sound was good, the sound was easy to adjust, and the sound could be made fairly loud. The keypad had large buttons and the text on the screen was large. I am not saying this because I am hard of hearing nor have I very bad eyesight. However, when I am in noisy environments I want to be able to easily raise the sound level to a high level and when I don't have time or opportunity to hold the phone right in front of me I still want to be able to see. If I only have one hand available or cannot look straight at the phone while typing in the phone number or browsing the menus I still want to be able to do it. The menus were also organized in a simple and intuitive fashion. This phone had overall a very smart and practical design unlike anything I had seen previously. It also had a white hard and sturdy protective cover that protected the phone very well as long as it was closed. So I decided to buy this phone and I have not been disappointed.

About the Pantech Breeze C520 Cellular Phone

If you want to change your settings, add an address to the address book, use the camera, notepad, set the alarm, or check the calendar you press the upper left hand button right under menu. A menu is displayed with six items in large yellow bold letters on a black background. The highlighted item is shown in even larger black text on a yellow background. For your information this combination of yellow and black maximizes readability. You could actually see the menu across a room.

I love the way the menus are organized. There is no scrolling through endless options you'll never use and the confusion is minimal. You have two modes the breeze mode and the advanced mode. In breeze mode the menu items are replaced by icons that walk through in advanced mode you have just a few menu items at a time that you go down and up in. Advanced mode is fine for me so that is what I use. Navigation is a breeze in both modes. As an example let say you want to change the phone alarm to silent. The menu items are "Address Book", "Messaging", "My Stuff", "Tools", "Settings" and "Phone Status". Then you pick "Settings" and then you are shown seven menu items "Phone Status", "Sounds & Alerts", "Ring Volume", "Wallpaper", "Clocks", "Backlight Timer", and "Answer Type". You select the "Sounds & Alerts" and then you can select "Normal", "Vibrate and Ring", "Vibrate Only", and "Silent".

It does not matter what you do, everything follows the same simple menu item--sub menu pattern which makes the phone very easy to use. The phone also has three easy one touch quick call keys, you can browse the internet, it has a camera (640X480), photo album, and video album, Email & IM, Messaging, Media Net, AT&T Mall, Games & Apps, My Stuff, Address Book, and Settings. "My Stuff" are things like photo album, Video Album, Audio, Graphics, Games & Apps (by default: Tetris, Pac-Man, Sudoku, Solitaire, Weather, a few more). If you want to take photo you press the camera button and you will get the following selections "Take a photo", "Take a video", "Photo Album", "Video Album". In summary the menu and the buttons are organized in a very practical and intuitive manner. Another thing I like about this phone is that the battery lasts long. I misplaced my phone a few times and it lied around for several days. However, I could still use the phone after I found it. It is also lightweight and is able to take abuse.

Selected specifications

EZ One-Touch Quick Call Keys
Text Messaging, email, IM, MEdia Net, Bluetooth Capable, Voicemail
Standby Time: Up to 10 Days
Talk Time: Up to 3 Hours
Dimensions: 4" (H) x 2" (W) x .7" (D)
Displays: 260k colors TFT LCD with 2.2" internal display, 65k colors STN LCD with 1.04" external display
Weight: 3.4 oz
Melodies: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, MIDI, and SP-MIDI
Camera: Integrated VGA (300k) CMOS Camera
Resolution up to 640x480 (330,000 pixels)
Photo album and video album
Frequency: G PRS/EDG E Quad-Band



Final Recommendation

This phone is perfect for anyone who wants a phone that is easy to use and easy to navigate. The large and bright screen, the large text, and the large buttons, and the hard protective cover make this a very practical phone. I recommend it to anyone who just wants a simple and practical phone.