Gadgetory

hey guys it's Brandon minimun from pocketnow.com and this is the hardware tour of the new AT&T pantech matrix Pro this is basically the successor to the original pantech duo and we're gonna take a look at that and compare it with the new version soon now the reason that they called it the matrix probe was because the matrix is kind of a non smartphone version of this so this is the smartphone version of the matrix they call it the pro so that's that's where the name comes from so let's take a look at the device it is very rounded edges a total fingerprint magnet on the front in fact I haven't even touched the screen yet within the last few minutes because if I did look what would happen it would get lots of fingerprints on it in hand it is very very very thick in fact it's as thick as a stack of 13 quarters to give you an idea of exactly how thick it is it's thicker than the 18 t tilt which is also the Titan to just trust me when I say it is quite thick so let's take a look at the rest of the device we have a 2.4 inch diagonal screen with QVGA resolution so that's 240 across and 320 down we have the speaker here and going down here we have a much larger d-pad than we found on the original pantech duo and you'll see that in a minute we also have a soft key menu here and here we have a home button here which is kind of flat and it's really easy to miss this button and accidentally hit the button above it because they're kind of on the same level there and then we have a call start call end button and then the back button here that you find on all Windows Mobile non touchscreen devices if we slide out the first slider we get a really nice-looking keypad but unfortunately it is totally flat meaning if I rub my finger against this the only thing I can feel is are these lines here that differentiate the rows so I can't dial without actually looking at the keypad which is a shame this whole keypad is backlit so when you type on it and it's dark out or actually doesn't have a light sensor so when you type on it anytime the light will go on something that's kind of weird and this is a note on usability because the device is so thick and there's such a large distance from this area to this area it's quite awkward to use both both this area in this area to control the phone because you're going down such a far distance it's kind of uncomfortable for the thumb and I imagine that people with large thumbs may find this to be a bigger problem than people with average sized hands so we have a microphone down here and also notice that the buttons are covered with a metallic finish which will also pick up fingerprints on the left side we have a volume up and down rocker and then we have the record button which will bring up the the quick list that will allow you to switch profiles let's take a look at the keyboard actually and this is actually one of the bright points of this device is the keyboard the tactile feedback on these buttons are fantastic I was able to type quite fast the worst part about this keyboard is that the spacebar is in line with the letters between you know the V key and the B key so it takes a lot of getting used to but once you do get used to it it's a really good keyboard surprisingly and the soft keys are here and here so they're kind of within reach of your thumbs when you're typing along so you can operate the controls on the screen something that I really like about this device is that the screen is perfectly centered on the keyboard so it looks really nice when you're typing with it it looks like the screen is where it should be okay let's go to the bottom here here we have the micro SD slot so good thing it's external meaning that you can take out your your micro SD card while the phone is on or over on the other side we have the camera button for the 2 megapixel camera and then we have a flat for the proprietary Jack and pentek's jacks are really difficult to use so here is the USB cable it's thick and cumbersome and you have to line it up just right and you got to jiggle it and sometimes it just doesn't want to get in there unlike micro USB which just goes right in so perhaps I have this upside down although the arrows on the top see what I mean it's not it's not very easy to use unfortunately and on the top there is nothing on the back we can see this kind of greenish blue color to it which is kind of interesting it's got a metallic finish to it so it shines in the Sun a 2 megapixel camera with a speaker here and taking on the off the back we reveal the the battery which is 1,003 20 million powers we'll talk more about battery life up in the review now the matrix Pro sort of comes with a case it comes with this which is made to look like suede but it's actually just fabric it fits well but it adds even more thickness to a device that's already extremely thick though if you're worried about getting scratches on the the matrix Pro it may be a good idea to use this alright and so let's compare the original pantech duo with its successor or sort of it's the matrix Pro the first thing that you'll probably have noticed by now is that the the new version looks much more high quality much more aesthetically pleasing than the previous version which had this kind of dimpled pattern around the screen and you can tell but after a little bit of use dust generated under the screen another sign of bad build quality which is one of our biggest complaints with the old pantech duo the d-pad is much much larger which is great the buttons have flattened out a little bit which makes it difficult to feel for unlike here where they're kind of raised a little bit let's take a look at the keypads again we have the flat keypad here and on the Pentek duo we have a kind of raised looking keypad but it looks cheaper and and not as good quality as the new version so let's take a look at the side keyboards similar key keyboard layout although these buttons are raised while these buttons are flat and I think that's why the the new matrix Pro has better typing response than does the previous version in terms of thickness they're pretty much the same thickness I'd say that the matrix Pro maybe a hair maybe a millimeter thicker than the previous generation and flipping over to the back we don't have that battery bulge that we did on the the old version on the new version which is good lending to cleaner lines and the old version had a 1.3 megapixel camera the new version has a 2 megapixel camera though oddly they left out the self portrait mirror which is kind of interesting a way that the old pantech duo has a leg up on the matrix Pro is that there's a quick way to access the lock a keyboard lock unfortunately on the new version you have to press the quicklist go down to lock so it's basically three steps to lock the device whereas on the previous version it was just one so I think that from at least a design perspective pantech did some really good things with the matrix Pro to improve upon the last generation device which looked you know not modern it looked cheap and it felt cheap in hand we have a lot more to go on the pantech matrix Pro we're going to do the software tour next and then we're gonna have the review posted soon on Pocket nail comm which will talk about battery life and performance and all that good stuff so that's it for now