Pantech Matrix Pro (AT&T)

Reviewed by

Nicole Lee

on 02/27/2009

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Page 2

On the left side are the volume rocker and Record key, which you can use to record your voice, or to bring up the voice command menu. It also doubles as the Quick List key, which brings up a menu of different power and sound profiles plus the task manager. Press it for the Quick List function and hold it down for the voice feature. The microSD card slot is on the bottom, while the dedicated camera button and charger jack are on the right side. The camera lens is on the back, but there's no flash or self-portrait mirror.

The Pantech Matrix Pro comes with a case, a charger cable, a USB cable, and a Getting Started CD that includes Microsoft ActiveSync and a trial copy of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

Features
Like all other Windows Mobile phones, the Pantech Matrix Pro has a wealth of features geared toward the mobile professional. Windows Mobile 6.1 has some marginal improvements over the 6.0 version, like an improved home screen that's easier to navigate, threaded text messaging, and the ability to select multiple e-mails at once. Internet Explorer Mobile 6 also now supports Flash Lite. You can read more about Windows Mobile 6.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1 for a more detailed rundown. We're happy that the Pantech Matrix Pro has 3G/HSDPA support, but the lack of Wi-Fi is disappointing, especially with a Windows Mobile smartphone.

Since it's a Windows Mobile device, the Matrix Pro has plenty of productivity applications. They include the full Microsoft Mobile Office Suite for creating and editing Word, Excel, and even PowerPoint documents. There's also OneNote, which is Microsoft's note-taking application. You can even access Remote Desktop if you want to check out your work computer on your phone. Instead of Adobe Reader, you get Jetcet PDF, which lets you view PDFs as well. Other PIMs include an alarm clock, a calculator, a notepad, task list, a voice recorder, and the world time clock.

For e-mail and messaging, you get support for Microsoft Direct Push, which syncs your work e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks, Xpress Mail for POP3 and IMAP e-mail access, instant-messaging support for AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live Messenger, and of course, the regular text and multimedia messaging. As we said above, a nice bonus with Windows Mobile 6.1 are threaded text messages so you can keep track of back-and-forth conversations. The Matrix Pro offers full Bluetooth capabilities; you can use it as a modem, use the stereo Bluetooth to stream music wirelessly, or use it to transfer files from your device to another. You can also use the built-in GPS for use with AT&T Navigator, AT&T's turn-by-turn location-based application.

Since the Matrix Pro is a 3G phone, it offers access to AT&T's full stable of broadband services. They include AT&T's Cellular Video, which offers streaming video content from partners like ESPN and CNN; MobiTV, which lets you watch live TV on your phone; and AT&T Video Share, which lets you make one-way video calls to someone with a Video Share compatible phone. Of course, you also get the AT&T Mobile Music portal, which not only offers the Windows Media Player for music playback, but the ability to buy music over-the-air from Napster and eMusic. Other music-related services include XM Radio Mobile if you're already an XM subscriber; Music ID, which is a song identification service; streaming music videos from MobiVJ; and Pandora, which lets you personalize your own Internet radio stream based on your music preferences. The Windows Media Player supports music formats like MP3, WMA, and unprotected AAC. The microSD card slot allows for additional storage. It supports up to 32GB microSD cards, which are not even out yet.

The Pantech Matrix Pro takes good, but not great, photos.

The Matrix Pro comes with a 2.0-megapixel camera, which is an improvement over the Duo's 1.3-megapixel camera. Still, it's rather low when compared to most smartphones these days that have 3.0-megapixels and higher. Indeed, the photo quality was good, but not great. Colors look muted, and image isn't as sharp as we wanted. You can take photos in six resolutions (1,600x1,200, 1,280x1,024, 800x600, 640x480, 320x240, and 176x144), four color effects, five white balance presets, three quality settings, and a self-timer. Other settings include brightness, 4x digital zoom, and a multishot mode. There's also a built-in camcorder for short videos. You can only record in 176x144 resolution, but the rest of the settings are the same as the still camera. The lack of flash and a self-portrait mirror is disappointing.

Of course, let us not forget the Matrix Pro is a phone as well. It's equipped with quad-band GSM support with world-roaming capabilities, a speakerphone, voice commands and dialing, and a vibrate mode. The phone book is limited by the available memory, but the SIM card holds around 250 additional contacts. You can store up to 12 numbers per entry plus e-mail, home addresses, instant-messaging and handles. You can pair up an entry with a caller group, a photo for caller ID, and one of 10 polyphonic ringtones.

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE; UMTS/HSDPA) Pantech Matrix Pro in San Francisco using AT&T's service. We were very impressed with the call quality overall. Callers said we sounded loud and clear with hardly any static, plus our voices sounded natural and not like we were talking out of a tin can. On our end, we could hear them crystal clear as well. The speakerphone did diminish call quality somewhat; callers reported echo in the background, and the speaker quality was rather tinny and hollow. The same goes for the audio quality for music playback. We would recommend using a headset instead if you want to listen to the music, or if you want to have hands-free calling.

We experienced the occasional sluggishness when using the menu interface. The display didn't always transition from portrait to landscape mode smoothly; sometimes it took a couple of seconds before it would change. The same goes for starting up applications; it lagged just a tiny bit when launching the media player, for example.

The 3G speeds on the Matrix Pro are impressive. Downloads took just under a minute, and streaming video required very little buffering time. Still, the Matrix Pro's screen size doesn't always make for the best video viewing experience. Also, the videos from AT&T Cellular Video are fairly pixelated, especially video clips with a lot of action.

The Pantech Matrix Pro has a rated battery life of 6 hours of talk time and up to 12 days of standby time. Our tests reveal a talk time of 6 hours and 2 minutes. According to the FCC, it has a SAR rating of 1.07 watts per kilogram.