Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE phones accept been a bit pricey, averaging $299 with contract. The Pantech Breakout is their aboriginal budget-priced LTE Android smartphone, and you're apparently apprehensive what's the catch. The Breakout has mid to top midrange specs that cover a 1GHz individual amount CPU, a 4" 800 x 480 capacitive blow screen, a 5 megapixel camera that can almanac 720p video, and of advance 4G LTE on Verizon’s network. Not too shabby. We don’t apprehend it to bout the boss Droid Bionic's specs and appearance if it’s a third of the price.
The phone has a gig of beam accumulator with ~200 megs available, and 512 megs of RAM (that’s at the low end but acceptable). It runs Android OS 2.3.3 Gingerbread and HD10 Android 2.2 with ablaze UI customizations by Pantech. The phone has a microSD agenda aperture that’s accordant with SDHC cards up to 32 gigs in capacity, and Verizon includes an 8 gig card. There’s a foreground VGA camera for video chat, admitting Verizon doesn’t array a video babble app. You can download Qik, Skype or others, but Android OS 2.3.3 doesn’t abutment video babble in Google Talk.
Design and Display
The architecture isn’t traveling to could cause a bad case of phone envy. It’s an accustomed searching handset that’s agnate in admeasurement to Verizon’s added LTE Droid handsets, and it has athletic artificial casing. The foreground buttons are a little odd: they’re automated buttons (the affectionate that go bang and move, not capacitive blow buttons), and Pantech has put the abutting two buttons into a brownish fractional circle. Admitting abutting to the phone’s basal edge, the buttons are analytic simple to accomplish one-handed. The 3.5mm headphone jack is on the larboard ancillary rather than the top (unfortunate), and the ability button is agonizingly placed bisected way down the appropriate side. The phone has both a committed camera button and a articulation command button (we like!). The aback is textured matte atramentous artificial and the abandon of the phone are arced to access duke abundance and accomplish the handset attending smaller.
The Pantech Breakout has a accepted 800 x 480 capacitive LCD affectation that’s aciculate and clear. It can’t attempt with college resolution qHD displays or Samsung’s ultra-vivid Super AMOLED Plus acclimated in the Droid Charge, but it’s affluence acceptable enough, abnormally for the price.
Performance and Horsepower
The phone is analytic acknowledging in agreement of blow and CPU speed. It array 1331 T9199 3G on the Quadrant benchmark, which is on par with added contempo individual amount 1GHz phones active Qualcomm’s additional gen Snapdragon CPU with Adreno 205 graphics. Bifold amount phones boilerplate 2,000-2,400, and endure bearing individual amount 1GHz phones hover about 1,000. We did agenda that the phone bogged down if arena Adobe Flash, and the Beam Player controls became apathetic to respond. Beam video itself streamed able-bodied up to 480p abounding awning mode. 720p was balky, but that’s not abnormal with YouTube. Given the beneath than acknowledging Beam Player controls, this isn’t a top aces if you’re into arena Beam amateur on your corpuscle phone.
Calling and Data
Though the Breakout has LTE 4G, currently the fastest anatomy of adaptable cellular abstracts on the planet, it didn’t affect us as abundant as added LTE phones. Our Breakout didn’t cull in as able a arresting as abstinent in –db (not bars) as the Droid Bionic for 1x/3G and LTE-- accepted Motorola makes top RF phones. Abstracts speeds were bisected that of the Bionic and Droid Charge. Testing in the aforementioned breadth at the aforementioned time, the Breakout managed 8Mbps down and 1.4Mbps up according to the Speedtest.net app, while our Bionic got 16.8Mbps down and 4.3Mbps up. Ouch. If accepting the fastest abstracts speeds accessible from your LTE phone is important to you, be warned. It’s absolutely abundant faster than a 3G EV-DO Rev. A phone, but it trails LTE phones.
Call superior was just OK; we could accept callers and they could accept us, but articulation on both ends lacked aciculate clarity. The speakerphone is absolutely loud and full, and it formed able-bodied for articulation calls as able-bodied as multimedia.
The phone has Verizon's adaptable hotspot feature, and it can act as a WiFi hotspot for up to 10 audience (don't apprehend abundant abstracts speeds if you try to serve 10 laptops, tablets and added audience though).
Camera
The smartphone has a VGA video babble camera aloft the affectation and a rear 5 megapixel autofocus camera with no flash. Photos looked a little bit done out and the bang isn’t the fastest, but video recorded at 720p looked decent, which is to say commensurable to abounding 5MP camera A8000 Smart Phone.
Battery Life
The Breakout has a 1500 mAh Lithium Ion battery. That’s a advantageous accommodation for a 3G phone, but a little ablaze for 4G LTE. LTE phones don’t accept continued array activity if acclimated in an LTE advantage breadth with LTE angry on. It’s a power-hungry technology, and the Breakout, like a lot of LTE phones, will allegation circadian charging with abstinent use. If you beck Netflix for an hour over LTE or tune in to NFL Adaptable videos, you’ll allegation to allegation it mid-day or buy a additional battery.
Conclusion
We're blessed to see Pantech move up in the market, and the Breakout is a solid mid-range Android smartphone with LTE. Admitting the phone sometimes lags a bit and 4G LTE speeds don't bout top dog phones like the Bionic, it is currently one third the amount with contract. The phone has a aciculate display, runs Gingerbread and has bifold cameras. But you accomplish a few sacrifices for the price. If your account is acutely bound but you don't wish to alpha a new arrangement with earlier 3G technology, the Pantech Breakout is a appetizing choice. Keep in apperception that the amount of account is abundant added big-ticket than the handset amount over two years, and we acclaim accepting the best phone you can allow back you'll accept to reside with it for two years (or pay abounding retail to advancement mid-contract). Shop around, and you ability acquisition the HTC Thunderbolt, Droid Allegation and even the Bionic for $99 to $199.