The O2 Cocoon joins the bandwagon of cool-in-white theme and there is a trendy having black interior and sides. It is a bit chunky as compared to the Ultra Edition phones from Samsung but will still fit easily in the pocket. Unlike a lot of clamshell cell phones, this device is curved at bottom and top and this creates a profile which looks oval.

One advantage of the rounded ends here is that the phone easily goes in to the pocket and it is like a smooth pebble. The casing is oval shaped and reminds me of 60’s egg chair. It gives a retro feel and look to the phone. The insides are even more retro looking, and for some, this might be clunky and dated. This is shame because the phone is really stylish. It might not look attractive but is certainly functional. The display is a larger than usual (which is good) and the keypad too is easy to use. However, it is worth noting that the display of the O2 Cocoon isn’t clearly visible in bright sunlight.

The hinge of the O2 Cocoon is a bit bulky and there is a cool volume dial located here which you can control form inside and out. This button is a lot more convenient as compared to traditional volume up/down buttons. There are also discrete music buttons on the phone’s sides for playing your tunes when the phone is shut. Beyond the phone’s front, there are a couple of LEDs which show you the time, incoming call details and the previews of text messages in blue cool light. This is an innovative and useful feature; it is certainly not just a marketing gimmick especially when you put phone together with its dock. This turns the gadget in to an alarm clock. One complaint that I had here is that the snooze button is not big enough and hence you might struggle to find it while waking up.

Thumbs Up:

Compact design, great QWERTY keyboard, ‘shake’ trigger is great to use, other goodies include stereo Bluetooth, music player, 2.0 megapixel camera, and 3G

Thumbs Down:

Touch sensitive buttons are not that good for ending and answering the calls, Web browsing is not that good on a small display.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM

Band: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 (2G), HSDPA 850 / 1900 (3G)

Phone design: Slider

Caller ID: Yes

Other features: QWERTY keyboard, GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Pantech Pursuit is 93.2 x 63.8 x 14.7 mm. It weighs 129.8 grams, the phone has a 2.8 inches TFT LCD resistive touch screen with 240×320 pixels resolution. The handset has a slider design with a full QWERTY keyboard. The phone has 50 MB of internal memory and the microSD card can take up to 32 GB cards. Data features includes GPRS, EDGE, 3G, WLAN, Bluetooth, v2.0 USB and infrared.

The handset has a 2 megapixel camera with a resolution of 1600×1200 pixels. Supported formats for the media player are WMA, WAV, MP3, H.263 and MP4. Other feature include T9, voice memo, organizer, shake control, music ID recognition. The 930 mAh lithium ion battery has rated talk time of five hours and standby time is 360 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

When we first took the Pantech Pursuit out of the box, we thought the manufacturer sent us a toy. Yes, this phone looks a lot like Fisher-Price toy. It is 2.5 inches wide, 3.6 inches long, 0.6 inch thick and we liked the compact and chubby design of the phone. The front bezel has a textured casing and the phone’s back has a business feel. The handset also feels sturdy and nice in the hand. You can also use this phone as your handy mirror because the surface is quite reflective.

Inside Dope:

There are a smartphone craze going right now across the country but AT&T is concentrating on just messaging phones right now because they think there is a lot of demand for ‘smartphone lite’ handsets. AT&T calls these gadgets ‘quick messaging phones’ and one of them is the Pantech Pursuit. This is the first touch screen phone from Pantech and it has a slider design for the keyboard. The feature set too is impressive.

On the front, the Pantech Pursuit has a 2.8 inch display which dominates the front face. The screen size is a bit smaller than other handsets and it is not that good especially because you need a bigger real estate for touch screen phones. However, on the bright side, the screen looks crisp and colorful. The resolution is 320×240 pixels with 262k color support. The text is well rendered and clean. We also liked the choice of fonts and graphic icons that it had to offer. You can change the font style, menu theme, backlight time and brightness.

Pantech Pursuit, just like most touch screen mobile phones, has 3 home screens and for viewing them, you have to swipe your finger left or right. You can customize two of these screens, one for your favorite contacts and one for the applications shortcuts. On the bottom row, all the three screens have phone dialer, message in box, main menu and contacts list. The functions and applications on the three home screens are loaded by default on the extensive menu interface.

Pantech Pursuit comes with the resistive touch screen display so don’t expect it to be as easy to use as the iPhone. You will have to press a bit harder on the screen. The display is responsive and hence the screen will react as soon as you select something. There is also a touch calibration wizard to improving the accuracy and you get haptic vibration feedback for the presses too.

Pantech Pursuit’s phone dialer is pretty standard and we liked the big virtual keypad. The number digits are big and hence it is easy to press. For text messaging, you have choice of Graffiti handwriting recognition or the virtual keyboard. But you will type fastest with the physical keyboard. There is also Drawing Commander app which lets you launch a specific applitcations by just drawing the relevant letter. For instance, drawing A will launch the address book and drawing M will get you the music player. We don’t think this feature is that useful but you might have a different opinion.

Pantech Pursuit comes with an accelerometer and something called ‘shake’ control which lets you configure it for the different functions. Just press the mulitasking button on the side and hten shake the phone 1,2 or 3 times. While testing, we assigned one and two shakes for launch the music player and browser respectively. It is a bit gimmicky but again, you might have a different opinion.

Beneath the Pantech Pursuit’s display, you have the touch sensitive buttons for End, Clear, and Send buttons. We would have preferred physical buttons since these functions are used quite often and touch sensitive buttons are not that good. These keys might accidentally start or end a call. On the left side, there is a volume rocker and microSD card slot. On the right, there is the camera key, screen lock/power button, multitasking button and charger/headset jack. The camera lens is located on the back.

Slide the display on the right and you will see a full sized QWERTY keyboard. The mechanism is quite smooth and it locks securely at both the ends. The keyboard is made up for rows and typing is quite comfortable because the keys are adequately segregated from each other. The keys have a bubble like shape which adds to the ergonomics.

Nitty Gritty:

This phone is made more for the youth population. The shake controls make this pretty much clear. But people who message a lot too will like this phone.

Thumbs Up:

Slim design, stereo Bluetooth, music player, 3G, 1.3 megapixel camera.

Thumbs Down:

Keypad could have been more comfortable

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM / 3G

Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / 3G 850/1900 (Dual Band)

Phone design: Clamshell

Caller ID: Yes

Other features: Bluetooth, Conference calling, Call forwarding

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Pantech Breeze II is two inches wide, 0.7 inches deep, four inches high, 3.5 oz in weight. Additional features include Conference calling, Voice dialing, EDGE, Speakerphone, microSD card slot, GPRS support, Intelligent typing (T9). The 1.3 megapixel camera has four options for resolution – 320×240, 640×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024 pixels. The video mode has three options for resolution – 320×240, 176×144, 176×144 (MMS-mode)

The phone has built in 80 MB of memory and the external card slot can take up to 32 GB of cards. The external display is 1.38 inches big with 128×128 pixels resolution and 260k colors. The internal display is 2.2 inches big with 260k colors and 240×320 pixels resolution.

Razzle Dazzle:

Pantech Breeze II has a slim profile and we like that since it is much better than carrying bulk in your pocket. The handset is four inches long, two inches wide and about 0.7 inch thick. The gadget is rectangular and is quite slender. It feels good in hands owing to the subtle curves. On the back, there is dimpled surface for good grip. The weight of this phone is 3.4 ounces which is not at all heavy.

Inside Dope:

Not every one out there is crazy about high end smartphones. Some just need a basic handset to make calls and send occasional text messages. Pantech mostly focuses on such handsets but it has spawned occasional high end phones like Matrix Pro and Matrix. Pantech Breeze II is a successor to Pantech Breeze which we saw a few years ago. This is a basic flip phone for people who are looking for low end handset. This phone is yours for $19.99 and you have to enter a two year service agreement with the service provider, AT&T.

Being the clamshell phone, the Pantech Breeze II has two displays. The external screen is 1.38 inches big and has resolution of 128×128 pixels along with 65k color support. It only gives basics like date, time and caller ID. There are three LED light beneath the external display for calls, new messages and low battery alert. All this can be checked without opening the flap.

On the inside, the Pantech Breeze II has a 2.2 inch display with support for 260k colors or 240×320 pixel resolution. Text and images look very much sharp even though the screen is small. There is a new ‘Breeze mode’ but if you don’t want this, you can switch to the traditional grid or what is called the ‘Advanced mode’ here. The ‘Breeze mode’ is pretty much the same as the other one sans the customization options. So this is like some kind of easy mode. The greeting text and clock type is adjustable on the screen and along with that, you can play around with color themes, brightness, font size and style and backlight timer.

Below the display, there are three quick call buttons. Each of these keys can be associated with a number in your phone book. We thank the manufacturer for giving these keys but they are a bit hard to press because the of their flatness. Their location, directly above the hinge, also adds to the ergonomic woes. Underneath the display, there are two soft buttons, round toggle with OK key in the middle, discrete voice command button, camera shutter button, clear key, call key, and Power-End key. The direction button on the toggle gives you shortcut to five features: instant messaging, new text message, AT&T’s online address book, Web browser and mobile e-mail.

Underneath this array, you have the number keypad. All the buttons here are well spaced away from each other but they feel a bit recessed. Typing is still comfortable because of their segregation. On the left side, there is the volume rocker while the right side has the charger and headset jack. The card slot is accessed by removing the battery cover and the battery too.

Pantech Breeze II’s feature set is pretty much similar to Pantech Link. It has a 1000 entry limit phone book and a single entry takes multiple numbers, multiple e-mail addresses, 5 IM handles, display name, Web address, postal address, note, anniversary date and birth day. Callers can be organized in to groups and you can pin one of seven ringtones to your contacts. For messages, there are eight alert tones. Photo caller ID is also supported.

Pantech Breeze II’s features include alarm clock, vibrate mode, speakerphone, notepad, calendar, calculator, world clock, stop watch, tip calculator, unit converter, voice memo recorder, and timer. Some advanced features include multimedia and text messaging, stereo Bluetooth and instant messaging (Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo and AIM are preinstalled). Mobile e-mail feature is also present but you have will have to pay an access for $5 a month for this. Finally, there is AT&T GPS along with turn by turn directions.

The Pantech Breeze II comes with 1.3 megapixel camera which takes photos in four resolutions, the highest being 1,280×1,024 pixels. The camera can also record video but the quality of both stills and clips are pretty poor.

Nitty Gritty:

This is an entry level phone but there are some extras which will definitely surprise you.

Thumbs Up:

Thin and sleek handset, has rubber gripping at the back, good QWERTY keyboard, has 1.3 MP camera, 3G/HSDPA, music player and also supports AT&T’s new cloud services. Inexpensive.

Thumbs Down:

Call quality is bad, browsing in a tiny screen needs a lot of scrolling.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Pantech Link has a 2.4 inch display with resolution of 320×240 pixels or 262k colors. It has internal phone memory of 79 MB. The handset is 2.4 inches wide, 0.39 inch deep, 4.5 inches high and weighs 3.2 oz. It has 600 entry phone book capacity.

Razzle Dazzle:

The low price of the Pantech Link might make you think that it has cheap looks but it is not so. The handset is just 4.5 inches long, 0.39 inch thick and 2.4 inches wide and feels sturdy in the hand despite being thin. This is one of the thinnest cell phones we have ever seen in our labs. On the back there is a rubber texture which helps you to grip the phone better. The phone weighs just 3.2 ounces.

Inside Dope:

It is been a while since Pantech came out with a handset. It previous attempt was Slate and it has been a long wait after that. This handset shares the thin look of Slate but the features are a bit updated here. The display of Pantech Link is 2.4 inches big and gives a resolution 320×240 pixels or support for 262k colors. Slate had 176×200 pixels resolution. The display is colorful and crisp and you get sharp images with legible text. Adjustable features include brightness, backlight time, font style, and appearance of text and clock and menu type.

Below the display, there is the navigation array which has two soft keys, a discrete speakerphone key, round toggle, clear button and the standard Send/End buttons. Toggle key is made of metal and has a confirmation or OK key in the middle. Navigating on the phone is easy since the buttons have a comfortable feel. The toggle is preprogrammed for four shortcuts: email, AT&T Address Book, new text message and instant messaging menu.

The full QWERTY keyboard underneath the Pantech Link’s display is good for typing. It has bubble shaped buttons for better ergonomics. We typed for a long time on this keyboard and our fingers didn’t howl at all. The number buttons are blue colored which makes it easy to locate. We liked the dedicated .com and symbol buttons on the keyboard.

Pantech Link’s left spine has microSD card slot and volume rocker where as the camera key and proprietary jack for headset and charger is located on the right. This is a music phone and we expected a 3.5 mm headphones jack but we were disappointed. On the phones’ back, there is the camera along with self portrait mirror.

The phone book can hold 600 entries and a single entry can take six phone numbers, 3 email addresses, messenger ID, company name, 3 postal address, Web address, anniversary date, birthdate, and note. Contacts can be organized in to groups, photo caller ID is supported and there are eight polyphonic ring tones to choose from. Basic features on the phone are speakerphone, vibrate mode, multimedia and text messaging, calendar, alarm clock, notepad, world clock, voice recorder, tip calculator, standard calculator, timer, stopwatch and unit converter.

Advanced users will love features like voice command, stereo Bluetooth, instant messaging, (Yahoo, Windows Live and AIM), mobile e-mail and GPS with AT&T Navigator support. The mobile e-mail feature gives you access to email services like Windows Live, AOL, Yahoo, etc. and you can also enter your POP or IMAP server information. We were disappointed to see that there is no dedicated e-mail app and you have to use the Web interface. You can also see HTML web pages but the screen size is very small which means you will have to scroll a lot.

Pantech Link has a 1.3 megapixel camera which has options for four resolutions and has three quality settings. Other options include timer sound along with silent option, shutter sounds, color effects, self timer, and white balance.

We tested the Pantech Link for call quality and it was mediocre. I could hear my friends clearly and loudly but there was some static. On the bright side, the voice was natural. On their side, my friends said that they couldn’t hear us well. They heard a lot of hissing and crackling and they there were a few dropped calls. Speaker phone calls too had the same problem. This is definitely a deal breaker. A basic cell phone is expected to have good call quality, which is sometimes the only purpose it is used for.

When we played some music on the Pantech Link, the speakers sounded hollow and tinny. We would recommend a headset for better results. 3G speeds were pretty good. Websites loaded in just 20 seconds and the streaming video had a bit of buffering issues. Rated talk time is three hours and standby time is ten days.

Nitty Gritty:

Priced at $9.99 this is a very cheap mobile phone. We only wished it had better call quality.

Lightweight handset with advanced highlights – multimedia features, GPS, and 3G support

Thumbs Down:

Dull design and lacks self-portrait viewfinder for camera

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM

Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Phone Design: Candy Bar

Caller ID: Yes

Other Features: TTY Compatible, Bluetooth, 1.3-megapixel camera

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Pantech C630 has 64MB internal memory and micro-SD card slot for external storage. The additional features are A-GPS, stereo Bluetooth, GPRS EDGE, and Web browser.

1.76 inches LCD display has 176×220 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. The 1.3-megapixel camera features 4x digital zoom, self-timer and video recording. It can take still pictures in four resolutions: 320×240, 640×480, 1024×768, and 1280×960. The video recording resolutions are 176×144 and 128×96.

The 930mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 300 minutes talk time and 384 hours of idle standby time. Accessories supplied inside the box are AT&T navigator insert, desktop charger, battery, user manual, and wired headset.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Pantech C630 is 4.1 inches long, 1.7 inches wide and 0.46 inch deep and weighs 2.8 ounces. It has dull look with rounded corners. The soft-touch back cover provides comfortable feeling while holding in the hands.

Inside Dope:

The Pantech has built the high-end cell phones like the Pantech Duo and the Matrix as well as simple handsets like the Breeze and the C150. On the other hand, the Pantech C630 looks basic from its look but has advanced highlights like some multimedia features, GPS, and 3G support. It costs $39 with two-year AT&T contract. You will find the charger jack and the volume rocker on the left spine, whereas the camera lens is on the back. The camera key and the micro-SD card slot sits on the right spine. The C630 overall has a dull design and lacks self-portrait mirror for camera. The call quality was average while testing, but suffered with a bit echo even on normal calls. If you need a basic phone with 3G support for AT&T, then the C630 remains an inexpensive option.

The 1.76 inches LCD display has 176×220 pixels resolution that supports 262,000 colors. It exhibits vibrant images with vivid color despite of its small size. You can change the backlight time, the brightness, the color theme, the font style, and the menu type. Its menu interface is quite similar to that of other AT&T phones.

The navigation array is underneath the display and includes two soft keys, Talk key, four-way joystick with middle confirmation key, Clear key, and the Power/End key. The north, south, east and west directions of the joystick works as shortcuts for new text message, the contacts list, the instant messenger, and My Stuff menu respectively in the standby mode. In standby mode, you can press down the joystick to open the Web browser and use the Clear key as shortcut for calendar app. The alphanumeric keypad is flat and looks gridlike. The keys are spacious and separated with a bit groove between them.

The Pantech C630 can store 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each entry can save five phone numbers, a memo, two email addresses, a mailing address, and a URL. These contacts can be categorized into caller groups. You can also pair them with one alert tone, a ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.

The basic feature set includes 16 ring-tones, a stopwatch, a unit converter, a calculator, a world clock, a voice memo recorder, a notepad, a calendar, text and multimedia messages, an alarm clock, a speakerphone, and a vibrate mode. The advanced highlights are Web browser, A-GPS with AT&T Navigator for voice guided turn-by-turn directions, 3G support, stereo Bluetooth, mobile web email and instant messengers.

The mobile Web email supports NetZero, MindSpring, Juno, Earthlink, Comcast, BellSouth, AT&T Yahoo, Windows Live Hotmail, AIM, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail. We like that the Pantech C630 comes with preinstalled Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and AIM.

AT&T has also included its services in the Pantech C630 being a 3G phone. It includes AT&T Cellular Video for streaming video content via partners such as NBC and ESPN, and AT&T Mobile Music for streaming audio and downloading music through eMusic and Napster. The other included music services are streaming music video, XM Radio, song ID service, and MusicID. kYouw ill also get AT&T Video Share – video calling service that allows streaming one-way live video to another compatible cell phone.

The inbuilt music player supports AAC+, SMAF, WAV, MMF, iMelody, MIDI, and MP3 audio formats. It features play-lists, equalizer with six presets, playback controls, shuffle and repeat modes.

The 1.3-megapixel camera features self-timer, and video recording. The still capture options are a timer sound toggle, shutter sound toggle, brightness, three quality settings, four color effects, four white balance settings, and four resolutions. You can record the short video clips for MMS and longer for storing on memory card. The overall picture quality was average with overcast colors and some blur. The recorded video clips looked jerky and pixelated.

The Pantech C630 comes with three games: Diner Dash 2, Bubble Bash, and Tetris. It also comes with some applications: Mobile Banking, WikiMobile, The Weather Channel, and MobiTV. You can personalize the C630 with available tones and graphics. More options, applications and games can be downloaded via AT&T Media Mall.

We made few calls through quad-band based the Pantech C630 via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was average. We received muddled sound at our end with some echo occasionally. The callers received clear and loud sound at their end, but they could tell we were calling via a cell phone. The speakerphone calls were of average quality with a bit hollow volume.

The audio quality was also suffered with hollow and tiny volume at speakers. We received better listening experience through the stereo headsets.

The Pantech C630 has battery life of 5 hours of talk time and 16 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR rating is 1.36watt per kilogram in accordance with the FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need an affordable and entry-level 3G handset, then the Pantech C630 remains a good choice to buy.

QWERTY keyboard, alphanumeric keypad, 3G support, threaded text messages, 2-megapixel camera

Thumbs Down:

Lacks Wi-Fi, sluggish performance, flat numeric keypad, bulky design

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM

Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Phone Design: Dual Slider

Caller ID: Yes

Other Features: GPS/A-GPS, Instant Messengers, threaded text messages, full Microsoft Office Mobile Suite

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Pantech Matrix Pro runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Its micro-SD expansion slot accepts up to 32GB.

2.4 inches LCD display has 240×320 pixels resolution. The 2-megapixel camera features CMOS optical sensor, 4x digital zoom, self-timer, multi-shot mode, and video recording. It captures still photographs in six resolutions: 176×144, 320×240, 640×480, 800×600, 1280×1024, and 1600×1200. The video recording resolution is 176×144.

The supported audio formats are Real Audio, AAC+, SMAF, MIDI, WMA, WAV, MP3, and AAC. The 1320mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 180 minutes talk time and 250 hours of idle standby time.

The Pantech Matrix Pro ships with USB cable, charger cable, a case, and one Getting Started CD of Microsoft ActiveSync and trial Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Pantech Matrix Pro The Pro is 4.2 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and 0.9 inch deep; and weighs 5.34 ounces. The dual-slider design makes the Pro bulkier; still lighter than the Helio Ocean 2. The phone opens and closes with snap due to sturdy sliding mechanism. The gray-blue color scheme provides a professional look.

Inside Dope:

The Pantech Duo was first Windows Mobile smartphone for AT&T. It was named “Duo” due to its dual-slider design. However, the Duo had cheap plastic housing and flimsy sliding mechanism. It could not be a success like its predecessor Helio Ocean. Now, the company is back with another Windows Mobile smartphone – Pantech Matrix Pro. It continues to have dual-slider design like its predecessor – the Duo and the Matrix. The Pro costs $180 with two-year contract after mail-in-rebate of $50. It features better call quality, and 2-megapixel camera; but lacks Wi-Fi.

2.4-inch LCD display of the Pantech Matrix Pro has 240×320 pixels resolution that supports 260,000 colors. It exhibits colorful images and sharp text. On opening the keyboard, the display rotates automatically to the landscape mode. The Windows Mobile 6.1 has provided similar menu interface like HTC TouchFlo 3D. The home screen displays call and appointment history and provides instant access to applications and information. You can customize the home screen with background images and different themes. We are disappointed that the display is not a touch-screen.

The navigation array sits underneath the display and includes two soft keys, round toggle with center confirmation button, Home button, Talk key, Back button, and the Power/End key. The array has small keys except the circular toggle. The Back and Home buttons are raised; while others are flush inside the surface. You can slide down the phone vertically to access the alphanumeric keypad. It has flat and slippery keys that are separated with delineations. The bottom row consisting of asterisk, zero and pound is narrower than top three rows.

Now, turn the Pantech Matrix Pro to 90 degree clockwise and slide it up to reveal full QWERTY keyboard. It has bigger and more spacious keys than the Duo’s keyboard. All the keys are raised above the surface to provide better typing experience. As already mentioned, the display will rotate into landscape mode on revealing the QWERTY keyboard. We typed the emails and messages on this keyboard without any problem.

The Record key and the volume rocker are located on the left side of the Pantech Matrix Pro. On pressing the Record key will work as Quick List key to show menu of sound profiles, power and task manager; while you can hold it for voice command menu/voice recorder. You will find the charger jack and camera button on the right side. The micro-SD slot is located on the bottom, while camera lens sits on the back.

The Pantech Matrix Pro can store contacts limited to available memory and SIM card can hold additional 250 contacts. Each entry can save 12 phone number, instant messaging handle, home address, and email address. You can organize the contacts into caller groups and pair them on polyphonic ring-tones, and a photo for caller ID. The basic feature set includes a vibrate mode, voice commands, voice dialing, a speakerphone, world time clock, a voice recorder, task list, a notepad, a calculator, an alarm clock, and quad-band GSM with world roaming.

The smartphone comes with Internet Explorer 6 Mobile with Flash Lite, HSDPA/3G support, full Microsoft Office Mobile Suite (for Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Microsoft OneNote, and Jetcet PDF reader. The messaging features include text and multimedia messages, instant messengers (Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and AIM), Xpress Mal for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts, and Microsoft Direct Push Technology to sync Outlook tasks, calendar, contacts, and emails.

In addition, the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS also provides the threaded text messages. The onboard Bluetooth supports profile of file transfer, stereo audio streaming, and modem. What’s more – the Matrix Pro has GPS support with AT&T Navigator app for turn-by-turn directions.

AT&T has also included its broadband services including AT&T Cellular Video for streaming video content via partners like CNN and ESPN, and AT&T Mobile Music to buy and download on-the-air music via eMusic and Napster. Moreover, there is MobiTV for watching live TV, and AT&T Video Share for streaming one-way video call with compatible phone.

The Mobile Music contains Windows Media Player Mobile; Pandora for personalizing Internet radio stream; MobiVJ for streaming video music; Music ID; and XM subscribe. The Windows Media Players supported AAC, WMA, and MP3 audio formats.

The 2-megapixel camera of the Pantech Matrix Pro features 4x digital zoom, multi-shot mode, and video recording. However, there are no self portrait mirror and flash to improve picture quality. The still capture options are brightness, self-timer, three quality settings, five white balance options, four color effects, and six resolutions. You can record small videos for MMS and longer in standard mode.

We made few calls through quad-band based the Pantech Matrix Pro via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was good and impressive. We received clear and loud sound at our end without any static. The callers received natural sound at their end. The speakerphone call quality was average. Both of us received echo sound in background with hollow and tiny volume. The music playback on the speakers also provided low volume. We will recommend you to use headsets for listening music and hands-free calling.

The Pantech Matrix Pro performed slowly and sluggish while testing. It took few seconds to launch the applications including Windows Media Player and rotating display. On the bright side, the smartphone provided good 3G speeds. The video clips buffered instantly and played back fine without any further loading.

The battery life of the Pantech Matrix Pro is 6 hours of talk time and 12 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR is 1.07 watts per kg in accordance with the FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

The Pantech Matrix Pro provides both QWERTY keyboard and alphanumeric keypad. It lacks Wi-Fi, flash, self-portrait mirror, and touch-screen.

If you need two keyboards at your smartphone and can work with above drawbacks, then buy – the Pantech Matrix Pro.

Thumbs Up:

Two displays, lots of features for messaging, full QWERTY keyboard.

Thumbs Down:

Keyboard feels cramped, the phone needs to be opened to use the camera.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Folder
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Camera, music player, Bluetooth.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Pantech Impact has a 2.6 inch internal display, which gives a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels and has color depth of 262000 colors (18-bit). The recognized audio formats are eAAC+, MMF, AMR, AAC, WAV, SMAF, WAV, MP3. The phone can read only MP4 formats for videos.

The Pantech Impact has a 2 megapixel camera in the back that can take resolutions of 320×240, 640×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and 1600×1200. Other features on the phone include four presets for white balance, self timer, four effects for color and there are options for timer sound and shutter sound. The camera has 3x digital zoom. The video resolution is 320×240, 176×144 (MMS) and 176×144.

The Pantech Impact has buit in memory of 80 MB and is further expandable to 32 GB through microSD cards. The 930 mAh lithium ion battery can give talk time of 300 minutes and stand by time of 336 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

Pantech Impact is a downright sexy looking phone for us but it also depends on your perception. Do you like folder type phones? Or do you think they are made for oldies? The best part of the looks in the phone is the stunning external display and the touch sensitive keys on the lid. We say that the phone get thick if it is slider build. This is a folder type phone with both the halves thicker than a typical slider phone. What you get in the end is a slightly thicker phone and also a heavier one. But you get so many messaging features in one box.

Inside Dope:

Pantech is out with a messaging device and this time they have done it with style. The phone has two displays; the one on the lid is 1.5 inch big and shows you signal strength, date, time, battery life. The display doesn’t have a photo caller ID but it is very sharp and you can see it clearly in the dark.

Beneath the screen is the touch sensitive keypad which is very responsive. It has all the buttons which a numeric keypad normally has like call and call end buttons, two soft keys, and navigational button which has only the up and down direction functions and the number buttons. All this hard ware gives us more features than we expect from an external display – you can make calls and receive them, you can access the address book, music player, messaging menu and you can access the recent calls list. Some might find these functions too basic but we thought it was great considering that this is a secondary display.

The keys give haptic feedback when pressed and you can adjust the vibration sensitivity of the phone. The numeric keypad is good the touch sensitive keys will get on your nerves after a while because there will be a lot of mishits as they aren’t physical buttons.

When you open the Pantech Impact you get a big 2.6 inch internal display which gives a resolution of 240×400 pixels and has 262,000 colors. The inside display too is good and you can read the text clearly on the phone. Adjustable features on the display are menu style, style and size of the font, backlight timer and brightness.

Below the display of the Pantech Impact there is camera button, talk button, two soft buttons, middle select key and the power button is also the End button. The biggest key on the keyboard has to be a circular toggle key with OK key in the middle. The four way directional key has pre-attached shortcuts for applications like mobile e-mail, instant messaging, new text message and address book.

The keys are a bit cramped which you will notice if you type a lot on the keyboard. But we liked the big space bar key, key dedicated for instant messaging and also the .com key. The keys could have been better placed like the four way direction pad could have been somewhere close when dialing.

There are a couple of buttons on the sides of the Pantech Impact like charger/headset jack, volume rocker and a hold key for the keypad. You can only take the photos with the camera open because there is no viewfinder when you close the camera. Taking pictures is not comfortable due to the shape of the phone.

You can store 1000 contacts on your phone book and the SIM card can take up to 250 more contacts. A single entry can take two e-mail addresses, five phone number entries, URL, street address and a memo. You can make groups and put your contacts in a group depending on how you know them, you can also pair up a contact with his photo graph but the external display won’t show it. You can give a unique ring tone to a contact, there are eight polyphonic and tones for alert.

Essential features on the Pantech Impact include alarm clock, notepad, calendar, vibrate mode, voice memo recorder, calculator, world clock, unit converter, timer, tip calculator and stop watch. The phone will automatically switch to speaker phone mode when you open the handset, while on a call.

One of the best features of the Pantech Impact has to the browser which is based on Opera. You can zoom in and out of the pages with the help of the volume rocker, and you get an option for full web version or mobile version for the sites.

The music player of the Pantech Impact is capable of reading AAC, MP3, eAAC+, MIDI and AMR files. The player is intuitive and the songs get arranged by genres, albums and artists. You can create and you can also edit play lists on the fly, there are standard options of shuffle and repeat. For storing music, the phone has 80 MB of built in memory but the phone takes expandable cards up to 32GB.

There is a two mega pixel camera in the back of the Pantech Impact which is pretty standard. This is a mid range phone and we expected at least a 3.2 mega pixel camera if not 5 MP. With this camera photographs are not that great, you will be shooting mostly to hook up the contacts with a photo in your phone book. The camera is capable of shooting in resolutions of 320×240, 640×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024 and 1600×1200. There settings like four presets for white balance, self timer, four effects for color and there are options for timer sound and shutter sound. Photo quality is below average, just like a typical 2 MP camera.

The camera is also capable of shooting videos of resolutions 320×240, 176×144 (MMS) and 176×144. Video quality too is not that great.

For game enthusiasts, Pantech Impact is not an ideal handset for mobile gaming but it does have a few games like Tetris, Diner Dash 2 and Ms. Pac-Man. You can buy more if you want from the store.

The Pantech Impact was tested for call quality and it was quite good. We had no problems and could clearly hear what our friends were saying. There is no call distortion and the signal is quite clear.

Our friends told us that they heard a bit of background noise but they could heard our voice clearly. There was no distortion from there end too.

Speaker phone calls were loud and clear but there was a bit of echo during the calls. The speaker phone is not good with music so you are better of with the wired headset bundled with the Pantech Impact.

The battery of the phone has talk time for five hours and stand by time of 14 days.

Nitty Gritty:

We liked the Pantech Impact as it didn’t have any thing that made us uncomfortable to use the device. The phone serves well on the features that it promises. The only thing that may hold you back is the compass box geeky design that makes it look like a phone for business men.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Web browser, music player.

Thumbs Down:

Small screen, cramped QWERTY keyboard.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/900
Phone design: Slider
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: 3G, music player, camera, GPS.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Display 2.2 inch QVGA, 320×240 pixels resolution, 262,000 colors, 1.3 mega pixel camera resolutions -  1,280×1,024, 1024×768, 640×480, 320×240, video resolutions 176×144, and 320×240 supported music formats – are AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AAC+V2, MP3 and Real Audio format. Supported video formats – MP4, H.264. AT&T Navigator, IM, email, HTML browser, GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA 1.8 Mbit/s/HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s, FM Radio, 256 MB internal memory expandable to 8 GB, 2.0 Stereo Bluetooth, Email IMAP/POP3/SMTP.

Razzle Dazzle:

Remember the Nokia 6600? Yes, the old phone. The Pantech Reveal looks just like that and has an additional slider QWERTY keyboard. But with keyboard closed this phone and Nokia 6600 have lots of similarities when it comes to looks. The screen of the phone is quite tiny as compared to other phones and the phone is OK in the looks department. On the sides of the phone there is volume rocker, microSD card and camera key.

Inside Dope:

Pantech Reveal has two keyboards, a normal numeric keypad below the screen and beneath the phone there is a slider QWERTY keyboard. Now, we don’t know why there are two keyboards. The numeric keyboard could have been sacrificed to give way for larger screen size. But a smaller screen means that if you want to read text on this gadget there will be lots of scrolling.

The phone is 3.9 inch long, 2.36 inch wide and 0.59 inch thick, it weighs 4.66 ounces. The phone is curved on the ends, looks cute. The phone’s display is 2.2 inch which is really small. Smart phones are known to have 3 inch display screen size. The display is good and you can see it clearly even in sunlight, something that we don’t see much in mobile phone screen.

The screen has a display resolution of 320X240 and has 262,000 colors. In the display you can adjust the brightness, the font style, the backlight timer, the menu type, the color theme and you can customize the home screen with different clock types and a greeting text when you start the phone.

Below the tiny screen there is the numeric keypad which has two soft keys and a circular toggle with OK button in the middle. The call accept and the call end button is not at the top half of the keypad but lower than that which we were quite surprised with. The middle OK buttons doubles as short cut buttons when the phone is in stand by mode. Typing on the keypad was comfortable and we didn’t have any issues. You can use this keyboard to type when the QWERTY keyboard is closed.

The QWERTY keyboard slides from beneath the phone (smart phones these days have keypads sliding from the sides) and it is quite cramped. Typing on this keyboard will be a pain in the neck, the keys are too tiny. There is not much room when you make a QWERTY keyboard since all the keys are to be accommodated in the small place. You can type with both QWERTY and numeric keypad at the same time.

Pantech Reveal has 3G which means you can access AT&T’s broadband services. You can stream video to watch it from a website and you can also do video calling with people who have compatible handsets. You can purchase songs online, if you download from Napster or eMusic directly to your phone, it lets you download the song to the PC for free!

For gamers, the phone has Sims 3, Ms. Pac-Man, Uno and Diner Dash 2 but playing on this small screen is something that is not worth mentioning.

There is a 1.3 mega pixel camera behind the phone which is quite awful. Firstly we don’t know why such low end technology is used when 3.2 and 5 mega pixel cameras are available. We shred even two mega pixel cameras to pieces in our reviews. The camera can take four resolutions 1,280×1,024, 1024×768, 640×480, 320×240. A two mega pixel camera can take maximum resolution of 1600X1200 and that too looks blurred.

Four white balance settings, three quality settings and four color effects are available for you to use on the camera. Other features include a self-timer, brightness, a timer sound toggle and a shutter sound toggle. Photo quality is below average, stay away from this device if you are a shutter bug freak. The video too is quite poor, the video camera gives you resolutions of 176×144 (MMS), 176×144, and 320×240. You can record with or without audio. Video quality is very bad.

One of the pros of the phone has to be the HTML browser which is based on Opera. When you open up there are three screens, one for URL, one for Yahoo search and one for browsing the web and then there is a list of book marks which contains address of websites that you might need frequently like movie times, shops, restaurants, weather, news headlines. Other than this there is a Popular screen which gives you stories from News & Finance, Sports, Entertainment, Travel, etc.

You can zoom in and out of these web pages but there are only two settings. When you zoom, it zooms really close and when you zoom out the pages look too small. The small screen adds to the miseries when you are using the web, you will have to scroll a lot. Also, you have to go to the web home screen to enter the URL. But this is one of the best mobile browsers that we have seen in a mid range phone.

The woes of this phone continue with bad call quality. The voice on the phone distorted a bit and the people on the other side of the phone said that there was crackle and a lot of background voice was heard while on the phone. Voice was not clear and audible on the phone even with full signal.

The call quality of the speaker phone was better, we heard a little background voice but that is to be expected since speakerphone attracts a lot of back ground voice. Other than that the voice on the phone was loud enough.

The MP3 player of the phone was quite good. The supported formats are AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AAC+V2, MP3 and Real Audio formats. You can create and edit play lists on the fly and you can set songs for repeat or shuffle. Sound quality was good and we were impressed by the simple interface. Listening to music on speakerphone is not as good and we recommend you to use the head set. The video player can play MP4 and H.264 videos but with this small screen, the experience was passable. The phone has a microSD slot and can accommodate up to 8 GB of memory card.

The phone has rated talk time of 4.5 hours and 11 days of stand by time.

Nitty Gritty:

The phone is good for music and web browser, but the screen is too small and we think the presence of two keyboards was not necessary. Still we will recommend the phones owing to the two pros mentioned above. The phone is made more for business men who need to access internet on the go rather than a student. Go get it if you don’t mind the small screen.