Smartphone Thoughts: The Pantech Matrix Pro: A Worthy Dual Slider

This is my video review of the Pantech Matrix Pro, a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard smartphone offered by AT&T for $179 USD on a two-year contract. The unboxing and first impressions video can be viewed here.

This phone has the distinctive feature of having two keyboards (12 key and QWERTY), both hidden away via a slider. It weighs 4.3 ounces, has a 2.4 inch display at 240 x 320, comes with 256 MB of ROM, and 128 MB of RAM. It also features a microSDHC card slot for expandability up to 32 GB. It's a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA phone, functioning on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands for GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 850/1900/2100 MHz for 3G data. The battery is 1320 mAh, giving 3 hours of talk time and 10.4 days of stand-by time. More details about the Pantech Matrix Pro can be found on this AT&T site.

All in all, I enjoyed using this phone for two months - the dual slider was handy to have, especially when I just wanted to dial someone and not do email or texting. I found the keyboard to be less optimal for typing than my Blackjack II, but it was functional enough. Some of the glitches I ran into that were frustrating were only because I was using this phone outside the AT&T network - something the average person isn't going to do. However, let's say you travelled someplace and wanted to buy a SIM card - those heavy-handed hard-coded software issues would give you a headache. The phone was fast and stable, offering up good call quality and excellent stability - I didn't have one lock-up or crash while I was using it. I could certainly do without the proprietary connector though - I'd have liked this phone more if it used miniUSB.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He sure dislikes it when phones use proprietary power/connection plugs.

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