AT&T's New Pantech Impact

As of now, AT&T’s phone with the very best features could quite possibly be the Pantech Impact. It has an impressive array of specs including: a horizontal flip that features haptic-feedback-enhanced, invisible number keys, a hidden QWERTY keyboard, and an extra LCD display inside. This could be the phone that you have been looking for.

The Impact has a very strong, sturdy feel about it. It measures 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.7 inches and weighs 4.5 ounces. It is available in two different colors: metallic blue with a black faceplate and internal keyboard or a faded pink with a black faceplate and white keyboard. Overall, the Impact is very nicely put together with its high-quality plastic. The hidden LED keypad is a cool feature. It will appear when you hit the hold button on the side of the phone. It may be a little difficult to get used to, but you can easily catch on and the effect is awesome.

Once you open up the Impact, there is a bright 2.6-inch screen with 240 x 400 pixel resolution. On both sides of the screen, there are stereo speakers that produce fantastic sound quality. The QWERTY keyboard has large, flat, square keys that make texting a breeze. The voice quality of the phone is quite clear, but the low volume of the earpiece can make talking to people in windy conditions a little difficult. The speakerphone is moderately loud but sounds slightly tinny. With Bluetooth, everything is crystal clear and with the perfect amount of volume. Another quick fact to note is the fact that the Impact is a quad-band EDGE and dual-band HSDPA phone. This means that it can work overseas, although the 3G speed is restricted strictly to the U.S. and Canada.

Web browsers look incredibly sharp on the Impact and load quite quickly. Navigation is made easy by the five-way control pad. The browsing experience is very impressive for a midrange feature phone. You can connect to Yahoo, AOL, AIM, Gmail, and Windows Live through AT&T’s Mobile Email offer, but it will cost you an extra $5. Also featured on the Impact is the TeleNav-powered AT&T GPS Navigator that includes the ability to utilize voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions. There are 80MB of internal storage on the Impact, but in case you need even more room, there is a bottom-mounted microSD card slot that will work with up to a 32GB card.

Other features on the Impact include a 2-megapixel auto-focus camera. Although it lacks an LED flash, it does have video recording capabilities. The photos that the phone took were sharp, but they lacked bright colors. The videos were a bit grainy, but otherwise quite smooth at 320 x 240 pixel resolution and 13 frames per second.

The Pantech Impact is a welcome arrival to AT&T’s line up of phones. With the multitude of features including: the invisible number keys, extra LCD display, quick and easy Web browsing, and plenty of internal storage, you can’t beat the $99 price tag of this feature phone.

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Verizon's Waterproof Flip Phone

How many more incredible features can be engineered for a cell phone? I’m not sure, but Verizon Wireless’ newest development has most certainly caught my eye. They have just recently released what has to be their best new camera phone, and it just happens to be waterproof. How absolutely awesome is that? For a person that texts even when they’re in the shower or at the pool, the release of the Verizon’s Casio Exilim C721 was fantastic news!

The Exilim is pretty good-looking for a flip phone. It’s a little big, measuring 4 x 2 x .08 inches and weighing 4.5 ounces, but the features make up for the slight bulk. When flipped open, you can examine the 2.3-inch screen that features 320 x 240-pixel display and swivels a full 180 degrees.

The Exilim is truly water resistant and meets all required military standards for shock and vibration. The phone can be dropped three feet deep into water and can be dropped safely from a height of about four feet above the water. Although with the swivel screen it is not a super tough phone, the Exilim really is completely water proof.

Verizon’s Exilim is the only U.S. carrier-model phone to feature a camera with optical zoom. The optical zoom works flawlessly and can even be utilized in video mode. The phone also has a LED flash that is considerably brighter than most other camera phones. So the fact that this phone can also take pictures underwater is just the icing on the cake.

The Exilim also features the ability to sync music with Rhapsody and connect to Verizon’s V Cast Video provider. It supports Verizon’s VZ Navigator GPS program and can be used as a modem on Verizon’s EV-DO Rev A network.

This phone starts a $279.99 with a Verizon contract. Although this fact makes the Exilim Verizon’s most expensive non-smartphone, with all the cool features it definitely makes it worth it. The amazing camera and the incredible fact that the phone is impervious to water makes the higher price tag seem justified to me.