samsung strive. I wouldn't go with LG because it is well known they have bad batteries. Now i never heard about pantech.
I own an LG phone and it's nice. The battery lasts me 7 days without needing a charge. So that kind of shoots down your battery theory.
For the advice now. After reading and watching a hand full of review for the phones listed above I can say:
If you want a messaging phone or a phone just for making calls go with the
LG Neon. It's reliable. The slide out QWERTY keyboard is spacious. A lot of room between keys in other words. All around it's decent. It has just about everything a standard phone has these days. The camera is just okay (Idk if you take photos or not you didn't specify.) It also has internet and that's about the key features for that.
Now if you want something to browse the web on I would suggest the
LG Vu. It has Apple TV on it. Which streams live TV to your device which is cool. The micro SD is just behind the battery. Numbers on the virtual dial pad are big and easy to press. The virtual QWERTY keyboard is pretty nice. It could be a problem if you have huge fingers though. Though you would be able yo use the virtual dial pad to send messages if you wanted. It also has a FULL HTML browser. Which is AWESOME. Haha.
Otherwise for me in third would be the
Samsung Strive. I'm not gonna go into detail about this phone because... I didn't find it very appealing. But that's my opinion along with the rest of said advice given to you from me.
That is my advice for you. If you have any questions about anything then let me know. I'll be happy to do more research for you.
Hope you have a good day/night.
Ketsueki