UPDATE: Pretty good phone, low price. August 14, 2012

Reviewer:  Shawn Soszka "Dr. Shawn Soszka" 

I recently upgraded my phone with Verizon, and decided upon joining the smart phone horde. After reviewing the HTC Lucid, I opted to gamble on the untested Pantech Marauder. Boy, did I win! This phone is pretty awesome - its fast, and has all the bells and whistles that are expected of smart phones today. This is the perfect phone for anyone venturing into the smart phone arena for the first time. My wife is a perfect example - we opted to use the Marauder's "Starter mode" which is a simplified interface relying heavily upon larger widgets and fewer screens. All of the apps are there, and easily accessed via the "apps" button on the bottom right of the touch screen. The learning curve on the Marauder is minimal, and we switched her to the full mode within a few days.

Verizon's 4G network is screaming fast, and we've setup our phones for both work and home wi-fi to minimize our data charges. The camera is fairly good quality, though a flash would be nice. The built photo editor is quite decent. It also features a front camera for video chatting, which is quite excellent.

Call clarity is excellent, and music playback is also clear and crisp - though headphones are the way to go. Also, totally love the slide out keyboard, so much faster and easier to use than the touch keyboard - which is quite good in its own right. Personal preference, ultimately. The phone has only gotten hot once when uploading multiple photos to facebook, but other than that it stays cool. The battery life is decent, with charge lasting at least 24 hours with moderate use. Oh, another feature we like is the micro SD card slot which can take up to a 32 GB card. Nice!

UPDATE: Having have had the phone for a few months, I have discovered two faults with the phone, which I think Pantech really should address in future models.

1. Not having a flash for the camera is really just too "old school" for 2012, it has become increasingly annoying in social settings in the evening and night. During the day its no problem, the camera itself is decent.

2. I'm not so forgiving in the fact that Marauder limits the amount of memory for apps. While you can add up to 32 GB via a SD card - lots of music, pics, and videos, you have very limit amount of space for apps (2 GB), so you will top out around 75 to 100 apps, which may seem like a lot a first, but its really isn't. I'm not sure, but I believe that this is inherent to the hardware design, so I think I'm stuck with this limitation.

As an entry-level smart phone, its really good for many things and every thing stated above is true. If the next marauder model adds the camera flash, and more space for apps then I'd be happy to give it 5 stars.

finally an entry-level Android for those challenged! September 7, 2012

Reviewer:  Jeri Zerr "formerly a Road Warrior of the Nth Degree"  (Missouri) -

My father was an electrical engineer but any cell phone beyond a basic flip-phone and all computers frazzled him to no end. Step in my husband, he's quite technically savvy yet he suffered partial paralysis on one side affecting not just his leg but also his hand (unknown virulent virus is all they'll tell us...). Thank you Pantech! Finally an entry-level Android device worthy of these great men in my life!

We had to go to several stores to physically put our hands on this phone. MY HUSBAND LOVES IT! The slide out keyboard is a perfect size and shape for those with somewhat diminished hand sensation. The touchscreen is perfectly responsive - not overly sensitive while he gets the feel of his new INTERNET DEVICE WITH APPS! Finally he is no longer frustrated with having to rely on older styles such as the LG Octane, the LG Env 3 or it's predecessors and be restricted because of his remaining physical issues.

My husband loves the fact now he has apps for THE WEB including his favorite forums, Gmail, online banking, a calculator, a compass, a flashlight, the WEATHER, Youtube and has access to Google maps - all from his phone. Unfortunately my father has passed on, but were he still here today the Pantech Marauder is THE android device I would have set him up on with basic apps for his banking, maps, weather, CALCULATOR (he was an engineer of course!) and Facebook w/photos so he could see what his descendants were up to and of course with slide out keyboard for his texting needs.

Thank you Pantech, you answered our needs!

Disappointing October 8, 2012

Reviewer:  The Qua "Space Octopus"  (Santa Cruz, CA) -

There are really only a couple good things about this phone, but the bad things extremely outweigh them in every way.
One of the most important things is that this phone barely has any internal space and even if you put in a micro-sd card, there is no way to move apps to it from your phone. That is a HUGE problem. You can barely fit any apps on the phone because of this and the bloatware you get forced on your phone as usual. Apps are ALWAYS running, pretty much most of them!
The camera has NO flash...which is weird and very disappointing. The 5mp camera is okay I suppose, but without the flash, you can't really expect to take any good pictures without great lighting.
There are NO cases out there to get for the phone, which sucks for people who want the extra protection.
It has ICS on it, but with the limitations it has, there's really no point.
The phone is okay for anyone who doesn't mind limited amount of space and doesn't need to download more than maybe somewhere between 20-30 apps. Luckily you can still get your music and pictures onto your sd card.
For some reason we can't seem to get pictures or send pictures through text.
It IS cool however that you can "disable" bloatware on your phone, but still utter BULL that you can't uninstall that crap when it's wasting valuable space on the phone.
Why such a new and otherwise pretty good phone doesn't have APPS 2 SD capability is beyond me, considering it is so important to most people. One should not be forced to root their phone and void the warranty just to have the ability to do something most smart phones are able to do and such a basic necessary task.

It is also pretty fast though. I guess it's alright, but the 3 bummer things just take what could be an absolutely AWESOME phone and turn it into a mediocre one. Oh and the QWERTY keyboard is nice and smooth!(unlike my horrible droid 3 one which makes me insane with rage at the touch, because they put some retardedly stupid rough texture on the frigging buttons!)

It's also aesthetically pleasing and has a great user interface! The colors are way better than most of the droids I've played with. Still, at this point, even though my Droid 3 runs so much slower and is bogged down a bit, I prefer it to the Pantech Marauder. Luckily my boyfriend still likes the phone, as it's his first smart phone, so it's not as big of a deal, but still is really annoying and crappy not to be able to put apps on the SD card. I was jealous at first, but I personally can't wait until I get my next upgrade & see what is available then! I'd recommend probably trying to look at some other phones for anyone else interested.

ok if you don't use a lot of apps November 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Terri Sanders 

This phone is ok if you don't need a lot of internal storage space on the phone. You cannot uninstall the apps that come preloaded on the phone, so there is not a lot of room to add other ones that you want to use. I bought one big app for an astronomy program, and now I do not have any space left on the phone to add any others, or to do updates on the ones that came on the phone. The program that I found to transfer apps to the SD card is not able to be used on this phone, due to root permission issues, so I don't know of any way to use the SD card for anything except music and photo storage...which I don't need. The online manual is a joke. It will tell you how to turn on the phone...and very basic things, but it doesn't really tell you what you need to know to fully utilize the phone. And since the phone isn't sold in the local Verizon stores, the sales people there do not know anything about how to work these phones either....at least in my experience. We bought this phone because we thought that we would use the keyboard, but we have ended up using the touch screen and not the keyboard at all, because it is just easier. For texts and emails and phone calls, this phone is fine, except you do have to charge the battery every day.

You can send and receive picture messages. October 19, 2012

Reviewer:  Pamela Maggio  (Canon City, CO United States) -

To send and receive picture messages on this phone, go to "Messaging". Pull down the top of the screen (or slide it...whatever you call it). On the "Quick on/off" just tap the "Data" and it should turn orange, which means that it is on. Then you can send and receive pictures.

My first Android Phone! May 2, 2013

Reviewer:  Mystery Lover 

I bought my phone about 2 months ago and it works great. I love the easy to use interface and the QWERTY keyboard. The camera is okay, although it doesn't have a flash. The only problem is to hang up a call you have to go back to the dialer screen. Otherwise, a good introduction to smartphones.

Lasted 1 month December 28, 2012

Reviewer:  researchbug5 

I renewed my Verizon contract and got this phone for free. Now I'm wishing I would have gotten the free iphone 4 instead. I was just getting used to the phone after 1 month and I inadvertently dropped it about 3 feet on soft carpet. Immediately the screen became difficult to see because it develped "double vision". All the icons doubled an inch away from each other and jiggled and made it almost impossible to read text messages or use the phone. The phone works, but it is hard to use because the screen is so messed up. Of course I didn't buy Verizon's hefty insurance plan and I am stuck with this phone which is barely usable. It certainly isn't very sturdy or forgiving a soft drop.
I also had difficulty getting pictures to send with a text message. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. I'm very disappointed that my new smartphone is a wreck after one small drop.