So, we covered the
Pantech PN-810 in passing a couple weeks back as part of our regular
FCC Fridays series, and at the time, we had absolutely no idea what significance the device had. Those familiar with the FCC's online document repository know that the "External Photos" and "User's Manual" PDFs are usually the most exciting bits. The test reports, on the other hand, typically cause one's eyes to glaze over by page two or three, and attempting to digest the entire thing is akin to torture. Anyhoo, eagle-eyed (and brave) HowardForums members have picked out a couple telling pictures buried deep within one of those test reports; besides revealing the form factor and design of the handset, they also leak a carrier -- Helio. Since
VK Mobile's implosion earlier this year, it only makes sense that Helio would be looking to replace the VK-sourced
Kickflip with another swivel phone (although this could be a slider, too) from a manufacturer more likely to stick around for a while, and that's where Pantech comes into the equation. All this being said, we don't know much of anything about the phone besides what we see here, and we don't
think this is the
rumored QWERTY phone Helio's been said to have up its sleeve. With an FCC approval under its belt, though, we hope this'll all sort itself out sooner rather than later.
[Via
HowardForums, thanks Simon]
Update: Our original tipster, Simon, has pointed out something
very important: there appears to be another "layer" hiding on the bottom of the phone that would presumably slide out to reveal a full keyboard. Combined with the centering of the screen and the soft buttons up top, it lends credibility to the theory that this really is the mythical Danger-designed QWERTY superphone after all. Shouldn't be long now, folks. (We hope.)
posted December 9th 2006 12:35PM
You're welcome guys, thanks for the shoutout! I am inclined, however, to believe that this IS in fact the Helio qwerty. You guys said "dual slider" and this thing has three distinct layers; while the only one revealed in the picture is the numeric pad, I hypothesize that a full qwerty keypad lays hidden underneath that one to boot. Not to mention the buttons above the Helio insignia, wouldn't those only be used in a landscape mode (a la' Sidekick), which would indicate that this device does in fact have qwerty? Not to mention you guys said yourself, "sleek, black, rectangular, rounded."
The evidence is piling up, and as a rabid fan of Danger (albeit, a drastically underwhelmed by the sk3 fan)I am all but thrilled to see happens! :)
Thanks again for the shoutout guys
---Simon
Or could the soft buttons be for gameing(sony ericsson W600a)
I believe it is the qwerty phone we've all been hearing about. If you look at the fcc pics of the back of the phone, you can see the placement of the camera looks very similar to the placement of the camera on the Sidekick. If it was meant to be a simple slider why not put the camera at the top or the bottom of the phone?
To Bad it don't say I was the Frist to Post it on that site.
Professor-x
familiar design???
This is a concept phone photo. So, it is quite possible that changes to make the phone more sleek could have been made....