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Hands On With MetroPCS's New Phones

While we played with the carrier's new LTE smartphones, execs dished about tablets, mobile TV, and Android 4.0 upgrades.

January 10, 2012

LAS VEGAS – MetroPCS is all phones for now, and the phones are getting better and better. In a hands-on with Metro's three new 4G Android smartphones, I got to pick MetroPCS director of handset product management Tony Lau's brain about tablets, voice over LTE, and other directions in which the nation's fifth-largest carrier is heading.

While other major carriers have been trying to sell tablets, with varying degrees of success, MetroPCS has so far held back. Lau said MetroPCS just hasn't been able to find a tablet that fits its requirements: affordable, with both CDMA and LTE connectivity, and high enough quality that people will pick it over a Wi-Fi-only tablet they get at Best Buy. Given the high prices we've seen on CDMA/LTE tablets so far, that isn't likely to change soon.

"Let's get that retail price down and see where that goes," Lau said. "We still see a lot of home use of tablets, and people there tend to go towards Wi-Fi."

So over to the phones. Metro's three new smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Attain, the LG Connect 4G and an unnamed Samsung Galaxy S phone with the new Dyle mobile TV service, all support the carrier's LTE network. LTE is critical to MetroPCS's plans, but not in the same way it is for other carriers. While Verizon and AT&T are striving to outdo each other on download speeds, for MetroPCS LTE has always been more about increasing the number of subscribers it can handle in its limited spectrum. That's one reason the carrier will move aggressively towards voice-over-LTE later this year, Lau said.

"We hope to see select [VoLTE] handsets later this year. We're intentionally vague because [quality is] so critical, when it comes to voice," he said.

Hands-On With Metro's New Phones

I really like the LG Connect 4G. It's a small, dense, well-built phone with a very bright LG NOVA LCD screen. Since the screen is 4 inches diagonally but the same 800-by-480 resolution you see on larger phones, it has a higher pixel density and looks sharper than, say, .

The Connect 4G has a zippy Qualcomm 1.2Ghz processor. I couldn't get any MetroPCS signal deep in the bowels of the Venetian Hotel and Casino, but I flicked through the UI with great speed. I also noticed the phone has MetroPCS's Easy WiFi client on it, which automatically picks up on free Wi-Fi networks to supplement the 4G system.

The Connect 4G will cost less than the LG Esteem's $249.99, Lau said; the Esteem is our current favorite MetroPCS phone, but with its tight design, sharp screen and dual-core processor, the Connect 4G could take its place.

I'm less enthused about the Galaxy Attain 4G, which Lau pointed out has similar specs to MetroPCS's first 4G smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Indulge 4G, although it's thinner because it lacks the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This is a thoroughly midrange, 1Ghz Android smartphone with a 320-by-480 screen and a textured back. It's nondescript, but it isn't awful.

The Attain will cost $199, and it isn't as good as the Connect, but the Connect may cost less than $249. Could that put the Connect at $229? The math works.

MetroPCS Android Mysteries

The Dyle phone is a mystery. MetroPCS didn't let me handle it—I had to let their rep demo it in front of me. Yes, it has that comical stick-out antenna, because it's receiving broadcast TV. Otherwise, it looks like a decent Samsung Galaxy S phone, with four physical buttons below what appeared to be an 800-by-480 screen.

MetroPCS's new phones are running Android 2.3, and "currently we don't have any plans to support [Android 4.0] Ice Cream Sandwich" on existing phones, Lau said. "With ICS comes additional…memory requirements that we didn't put into current products. And with the no-contract model we have, many of our customers are willing to upgrade for a new OS."

The new LG Connect 4G and Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G might be exceptions to that rule, but Lau didn't make any promises. The Galaxy Attain is coming this month; the Connect is coming next month. The Dyle phone is coming "later this year."