Pantech Matrix - blue (AT&T)
Manufacturer: Pantech & Curitel Part number: 3020343
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Pantech Matrix is a pretty good dual-sliding multimedia handset, but we just weren't pleased with the keypad design.
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CNET editors' review
Pantech Matrix - blue (AT&T) price range: $249.99
- Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
- Reviewed on: 10/20/2008
- Released on: 10/14/2008
The good: The Pantech Matrix slides both ways to reveal both a number keypad and a QWERTY keyboard. It has a megapixel camera, HSDPA, A-GPS, and access to AT&T's broadband services.
The bad: The Pantech Matrix suffers from tiny navigation keys and a flat keypad. The handset is also on the bulky side.
The bottom line: The Pantech Matrix is a pretty good dual-sliding multimedia handset, but we just weren't pleased with the keypad design.
Pantech pioneered the dual-slider handset design in North America with the Helio Ocean, which could slide vertically to reveal a number keypad and slide horizontally to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The company also introduced the Pantech Duo, a Windows Mobile smartphone, with the same design. Now Pantech has introduced another version of the dual-slider handset, dubbed the Pantech Matrix. It has plenty of high-end features like HSDPA and GPS support, but we weren't thrilled with the keypad design. It'll cost you $79.99 each with a two-year service agreement.
Design
Measuring 4.02 inches long by 1.97 inches wide by 0.78 inch thick, the Matrix is certainly on the bulky side because of the two sliding layers. Otherwise, the Matrix has an attractive glossy coat and soft curves all around, making it feel comfortable in the hand. It also has a striped silver border around the edge of the phone. The Matrix is available in blue, red, and black with green trim.
Unlike the slider mechanism on the Pantech Duo, we found the Matrix's slider to be sturdy and solid, with a nice satisfying snap when opening and closing. We also really liked the 2.0-inch display--it supports 260,000 TFT colors, and it shows. Images appeared bright and vibrant with rich color. The menu interface was also quite easy to navigate. You can adjust the display's menu layout, the color theme (black or white), the font style (Gothic or Free style), the brightness, and the backlight timer.
Underneath the display is a rather unusual navigation array. There's a circular navigation toggle in the middle, with the surrounding keys arranged an outer ring--three on the left and three on the right. The keys on the left are the left soft key, the dedicated music player key, and the Send key, while the keys on the right are the right soft key, the Clear key, and the End/Power key. We found these keys to be skinny, small, and hard to press. The circular toggle was easy enough to use, however. The middle OK key acts as a shortcut to the browser, while the four directional presses correspond to four shortcuts--a new message, the instant messenger, the contacts list, and mobile e-mail.
Slide the phone up and you'll reveal the number keypad. There are curved delineations separating each line, as well as two tiny nubs around the number 5, but aside from that the keypad is quite flat. It also felt quite small and narrow. Slide the phone to the side, and you'll reveal a full QWERTY keyboard--at this point, the screen orientation will shift to landscape mode and you'll need to turn the phone 90 degrees to the right. Do note that you can't slide the phone vertically and horizontally at the same time. We found the overall keyboard to be small and crowded, though we appreciate the bubblelike texture of the keys that make for easier typing. The number keys on the keyboard are highlighted in blue, and can be used to dial numbers.
On the left spine is the volume rocker, while the dedicated camera key and charger jack are on the right. The microSD card slot is at the top of the device, while the camera lens and external speaker are on the back. There is no self-portrait mirror, however.
Features
The Pantech Matrix has a generous 1,000-entry phonebook with room in each entry for five phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, a Web URL, a street address, and a memo. You can save contacts to groups, and pair them with a photo and one of 16 polyphonic ringtones and alert tones. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a notepad, a voice memo recorder, a world clock, a calculator, a unit converter, and a stopwatch. On the higher end, you get a wireless Web browser, mobile e-mail, instant messenger support (AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo! Messenger), and stereo Bluetooth as well. The Matrix also comes with A-GPS along with AT&T Navigator support for voice-guided turn-by-turn directions.
The Matrix comes with HSDPA support, meaning it has access to AT&T#38;'s array of 3G services. These include AT&T's Cellular Video, which lets you stream video from content partners such as CNN and NBC, and AT&T Mobile Music, which lets you stream and download music from Napster and eMusic. As part of the AT&T Mobile Music service, you'll also get access to music services like MusicID, which helps you to identify songs by holding the music source up to the phone, XM radio, and streaming music videos. The Matrix also supports AT&T Video Share, live video-sharing service that lets you stream video to someone on the other line, as long as that someone is also using a Video Share-compatible phone.
Also under the AT&T Music umbrella is the Matrix's built-in music player. It supports MP3, MIDI, iMelody, MMF, WAV, SMAF, and AAC+ file formats, with a pretty generic interface. You can play, pause, and skip tracks like usual, as well as set tracks on repeat or shuffle. There are also six preset equalizer settings. The Matrix comes with 45 MB of internal memory, but you can always add more storage via a microSD card.
The 1.3-megapixel camera on the Matrix can take pictures in four different resolutions (1,280x960, 1,024x768, 640x480, and 320x240), four white-balance settings, four color effects, and three quality settings. Other camera settings include a self-timer and a shutter-sound toggle. Photo quality was very good--bright, vibrant, and sharp. There's also a built-in camcorder, which can record in three resolutions (96x64, 128x96, and 176x144) in either MMS mode or for whichever amount of storage is available.
You can personalize the Pantech Matrix with a variety of graphics and sounds for wallpaper, alert tones, and more. If you want more options, you can download them via AT&T's Media Mall store. The Matrix comes with the games Tetris, Bubble Bash demo version, and Ms. Pac-Man, and you can download more games as well.
Performance
We tested the quad-band GSM and dual-band UMTS/HSDPA Pantech Matrix with AT&T in San Francisco. Call quality was decent. Though there was the occasional static, we could still hear each other loud and clear. Voices did sound rather robotic and not very natural, however. Speakerphone calls did not fare so well--callers could hear us just fine, but we thought they sounded rather tinny. That's pretty normal for speakerphones, though.
HSDPA speeds on the Matrix were quite impressive--we managed to download a game in about 40 seconds, while we had no problems streaming video.
The Pantech Matrix has a rated battery life of 3 hours and 10 days standby time. It has a tested talk time of 3 hours and 18 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Matrix has a digital SAR rating of 1.52 watts per kilogram.
User reviews
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Fragile phone and ATT will easily disqualify warranty
by mbizily on January 28, 2009
Pros: Nice features
Cons: Fragile phone
Summary: Purchased from ATT. Had phone for 1 month and now slide out keypad doesn't work. There is a water sensor by battery. It will turn a color of red ...
Summary: Purchased from ATT. Had phone for 1 month and now slide out keypad doesn't work. There is a water sensor by battery. It will turn a color of red if it senses humidity (like in bathroom while taking shower) or water. If its the slightest color of red, ATT will disqualify warranty. Buyer beware ... phone is fragile and warranty is easily disqualified.
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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do not buy this phone!!
by bigred1611 on March 3, 2009
Pros: the keyboard makes txting and emailing amazingly easily. its the reason i bought this phone. the speakerphone works great very clear.
Cons: the battery life sucks! dies within an hour if you are a heavy txter like i am and the phone has a lot of lag if you text even slightly fast. picture quality if very poor. looses signal where other people have signal...freezes all the time...etc
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very good messaging phone.
by RyukenCNET on November 29, 2008
Pros: One of the best Messaging phones Att offers without a touch screen. Very customizable. 5 different alarms. Good media player.
Cons: Able to lock the keypad but still able to accidentally dial 911 in your pocket, not always a good thing.
Ringtone Maximum file size around 200-300 KB so if you have a favorite ringtone that's larger than 300KB you are out of luck.Summary: I loved the phone at first but as I started to customize it and use some of the applications it became very limited compaired to the Sony Ericsson S710a. Limited ...
Summary: I loved the phone at first but as I started to customize it and use some of the applications it became very limited compaired to the Sony Ericsson S710a. Limited bluetooth functions, Really miss being able to set any mp3 as a ringtone. It seems to be a great phone otherwise.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Overall this is a great phone for kids/teens.
by brunettebabe34 on January 18, 2009
Pros: - the best part about this phone is the keyboard - easy texting
- clear picture
- many different display optionsCons: - doesn't take AMAZING pictures, but overall ok
- navigation is hard to navigate
- battery life isn't that good - charge every nightSummary: I got this phone at the end of October and I pretty sastified with it. The only complaints I have with it are the navigation buttons, very small and I ...
Summary: I got this phone at the end of October and I pretty sastified with it. The only complaints I have with it are the navigation buttons, very small and I sometimes press the wrong button. The texting is very easy with the keyboard and regular number one. I would reccommend this phone to people with small fingers because the keys are not that big.
I think this phone is better for kids/teens.
Overall great phone!
Worth the money!1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very disappointed...
by smileymom46 on January 12, 2009
Pros: Battery life
Cons: Bought this phone on a bogo offer with a phone-upgrade. Very hard to figure out features, blue on silver hard to see for texting, ring tones, sliding feature broke after 1 month of use.
Summary: I was very excited when I first purchased the phones for me and my daughter. As the month went by my excitement was gone. We were lucky enough to return ...
Summary: I was very excited when I first purchased the phones for me and my daughter. As the month went by my excitement was gone. We were lucky enough to return without obligation.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Better than most but outdone by many
by Jakobi94 on January 8, 2009
Pros: Dual slider is a neat feature that make texting much faster, east to use MP3 player
Cons: Tiny keypad, no features, VERY bad camera
Summary: The Pantech Matrix is ok for texting and music but all together it really isn't designed well. It's almost an inch thick but seems to do nothing more ...
Summary: The Pantech Matrix is ok for texting and music but all together it really isn't designed well. It's almost an inch thick but seems to do nothing more than your average phone. I immediately upgraded.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good for some not for others
by vallendoll on December 26, 2008
Pros: Very cute style. love the duo key pads. very good phone for a teen or young person.Vibrate is very good, and noticeable if phone is on silent.
Cons: keys too small, ring tones not very loud. cannot easily assign a ring tone to people.complicated process. camera should have been 2 MP. most photos even on high quality are very grainy.
Summary: Just not a very fun phone, about the time you think you like it, you notice something else about it you dont like. i really love setting individual ring tones ...
Summary: Just not a very fun phone, about the time you think you like it, you notice something else about it you dont like. i really love setting individual ring tones for people, and this cannot be done. i have a sony Ericssonw580i and i LOVE this phone, and if it had the qwerty i would never have thought of upgrading. but the qwerty is not worth the aggravation. you cannot easily set ring tones for people. this phone involves that group thing. and the ring tones are not LOUD at all. you really have to be careful which tones you get because you will never hear the phone ring. anything below 160 bitrate does not ring loud. The basi review is you will either love this phone or hate it, there is no in between. i hate it. i have given it 3 weeks and still do not like it. i love all the options on my SE w580i and plan on selling this matrix and upgrading in march to the new Sony Erickson. Or finding a nokia with a qwerty to try.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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A good phone for texting
by ras110901 on December 17, 2008
Pros: The dual sliding is pretty good. I love the QWERTY keyboard. It's very easy to use. I love the features. You can access most features w/ the phone closed and even answer calls. The micro sd slot is handy for more storage.
Cons: The camera could be better especially w/ phones that have 3 mega pixels cameras. It will take decent pics in bright daylight.
Summary: Overall I like the phone. This phone is my upgrade. The actual colors ( blue, green, and red) are all nice. I have the red one. You can cutomize certain features ...
Summary: Overall I like the phone. This phone is my upgrade. The actual colors ( blue, green, and red) are all nice. I have the red one. You can cutomize certain features which is nice. LOve the QWERTY keyboard and the dual slide feature. Sound is good and speaker is always nice. This phone also has a micro sd slot for more storage.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great messaging phone with great audio quality
by Bane004 on December 5, 2008
Pros: The phone design is nice.
Qwerty keyboard
phone slides both ways
Camera
great audio quality
videoCons: Battery life is a bid bad. I am worried about the brand and how it will hold up over time
Summary: like all phones, it takes some time getting used to. The Qwerty keyboard it a plus. the Qwerty keyboard on the matrix is way better than the propel. The audio ...
Summary: like all phones, it takes some time getting used to. The Qwerty keyboard it a plus. the Qwerty keyboard on the matrix is way better than the propel. The audio quality id good. The speakerphone is great. The Qwerty keyboard keys are keys to use and are not flat. Just play around with the phone are read the Manuel and youn will find out how to use the phone
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Nice phone!
by chocoholic4ever on November 23, 2008
Pros: -phone slides both ways
-camera/camcorder, voice recorder
-some extra features that let u customize stuff (ex: type of font)
-good batteryCons: -qwerty keyboard is a little small
-hard to find features
-camera isn't so great
- few GOOD ring tonesSummary: This is a great phone. At first, it's hard to use, but you eventually get the hang of it.
It's a little hard to find features. For example ...Summary: This is a great phone. At first, it's hard to use, but you eventually get the hang of it.
It's a little hard to find features. For example I couldn't find where my missed calls were listed until I pressed a button (I had no idea what it did) and I found it.
The phone doesn't have a very good collection of ring tones either. Only about three of them are decent. Of course keep in mind that this review was by someone that was expecting to get an iPhone. I'm picky when it comes to electronics.
To sum it all up, great phone for kids and teens.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Pantech & Curitel
- Part number: 3020343
- Bottom Line: The Pantech Matrix is a pretty good dual-sliding multimedia handset, but we just weren't pleased with the keypad design.
General
- Product Type Cellular phone With digital camera / digital player
- Service Provider AT&T
- Width 2 in
- Depth 0.8 in
- Height 3.9 in
- Weight 4.7 oz
- Body Color Navy blue
Cellular
- Technology WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
- Band WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
- Phone Design Dual slider
- Antenna Internal
- Vibrating Alert Yes
- Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Voice Dialing Yes
- Call Timer Yes
- Conference Call Capability Yes
- Caller ID Yes
- Wireless Interface Bluetooth
- Additional Features QWERTY keyboard layout
Messaging & Data Services
- Short Messaging Service (SMS) Yes
- Messaging Services Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger Service (AIM), Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger)
- GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Yes
- Internet Browser Yes
- HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) Yes
- Messaging / Data Features Text messages, Instant messages, E-Mail
Digital Camera
- Sensor Resolution 1.3 megapixels
Organizer
- Alarm Clock Yes
- Calendar Yes
- Reminder Yes
Display
- Type LCD display
- Color Support Color
- Color Depth 16-bit (65000 colors)
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Supported Digital Audio Standards AAC, MP3, WAV
Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Battery, desktop charger, AT&T navigator insert
Power
- Type Power adapter
Battery
- Technology - Lithium ion
- Capacity 920 mAh
- Talk Time Up to 180 min
- Standby Time Up to 240 h
Product series
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Manufacturer: Pantech & Curitel
Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 180 min, With digital camera / digital player, 4.7 oz
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Manufacturer: Pantech & Curitel
Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 180 min, With digital camera / digital player, 4.7 oz
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Manufacturer: Pantech & Curitel
Specs: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / 3G 850/1900 (Dual Band), Up to 300 min, With digital camera / digital player, 0.3 lbs
Accessories
- Jabra BT8010 Stereo/Mono Bluetooth Headset (32327768)49.89
- Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones (red) (32363768)38.99 - 149.99
- Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset (Silver) (31629880)79.99
- LG Bluetooth Stereo Headset HBS-200 (32559289)20.00 - 24.99
- Sony Ericsson HBH-DS980 Bluetooth Stereo Headset (32695530)93.49 - 120.00
- A-Data Speedy Series flash memory card - 2 GB - microSD (33795596)
- ATP SD Trio Professional PLUS card adapter - flash: microSD - Hi-Speed USB (32128464)17.00
- Centon 2GBRSD3-1 - flash memory card - 2 GB - microSD (33503634)8.99 - 11.84
- Centon flash memory card - 4 GB - microSD (33362243)11.48 - 16.64
Manufacturer info
- Pantech & Curitel
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Pantech & Curitel products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.pantech.com/
- Address:
11240 Warland Dr., Cypress, CA 90630
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