tj_extreme
Daemon Poster
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- Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
I recently replaced my dead HTC Vivid with a Pantech Burst. I was leery of going with a Pantech, and a $50 (with 2 year contract) Android device. I have to say, after the weekend with it, my opinion on Pantech is forever changed. For those of you who don't know, the Pantech Burst is a 4G LTE Android offered by AT&T for $50. Inside it packs a dual-core 1.5ghz Qualcomm Scorpion CPU, Adreno 220 GPU, 1gb RAM, a 16gb ROM (12gb available to user for media, 1gb for app installation), and a 4" 400x800 SuperAMOLED touchscreen. All of this is being run on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. Pantech promises an update to 4.0 ICS in the near future. After putting the device through its paces, here are my thoughts.
Hardware
Coming in at 126.5 x 62.5 x 11.4 mm, and weighing 122.5 g, it's certainly not the smallest device on the market. Though, it does fit nicely in my average sized hands, and despite the back not being textured, it doesn't slip too much. Speaking of the back, it's not metal, just a smooth plastic. But, at least on the black version, it looks like brushed metal. The only gripe I have about the design, is the lack of a physical camera button, and the placement of the volume rocker. It's ever so slightly off of where it seems to be on most devices, and I often find myself hitting the wrong side of it. The power/lock button is also hard to push sometimes. The capacitive buttons are responsive, and never give me trouble. The 5.0mp camera on the back takes good quality pics. Not outstanding, but good when you consider the price of the phone. The front VGA camera is what it is. Works fine for Skype, not complaints from the other end. The screen is not the highest resolution out there, nor is it SuperAMOLED plus, but size wise I think it's the perfect size. You don't have to squint to read text, nor do you have to give you thumps a workout reaching the other side of the screen. I've watched some movies on it, and played games, and the color is outstanding.
Software
It runs Gingerbread. No, it runs Gingerbread like a beast, and soon it will run Ice Cream Sandwich. I don't think I have to elaborate too much on how Android works, if you've used it before you know the basics. Pantechs overlay isn't bad at all, especially for people who don't like Sense or Touchwiz taking up 300mb of their RAM. The overlay seems to be very lightweight, and offers some welcome UI enhancements to stock 2.3. It also adds some of it's own apps, all of which are just tools, but they're good utilities, and you shouldn't need to replace them. My only complaint is the dock menu on the homescreen(s). You can't change it, at all. If this bothers you, you can always do what I do and just use ADW Launcher or GoLauncherEX. I like the lock screen, it's sort of like Sense. You can't change this either, but there's always GoLocker, WidgetLocker, and the other stock Android lock screens like pattern and pin unlock. The phone is smooth, I've yet to experience any lag, even with multiple programs open at once. Multitasking is also easy thanks to Pantech, all you have to do it hold down the home key and it will bring up all open apps, and give the option to close any or all of them. I used Moboplayer to watch Blu Ray quality versions of The Hangover 2 and Tron. Both ran flawlessly, a compliment to the Scorpions rendering capability. Angry Birds is smooth, as is Defender, and Ceramic Destroyer. All other games I tried worked great as well. Network wise, I wasn't able to test the LTE network, as it isn't in my area yet. HSPA+ gave me good speeds though, and the Wi-Fi is fast and reliable as well, only dropping my connection once, which could have been a router issue.
Final Thoughts
Overall, if you can get over the few design flaws (which aren't actually flaws, once you get used to the device), the Pantech Burst is a solid budget Android that can play with the big boys, and in a lot of cases beat them. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone on AT&T looking for an upgrade or new customers just coming to AT&T. Here are some benchmark scores for comparison:
^That's a chart I got off of Engadget, but I got essentially the same scores.
Hardware
Coming in at 126.5 x 62.5 x 11.4 mm, and weighing 122.5 g, it's certainly not the smallest device on the market. Though, it does fit nicely in my average sized hands, and despite the back not being textured, it doesn't slip too much. Speaking of the back, it's not metal, just a smooth plastic. But, at least on the black version, it looks like brushed metal. The only gripe I have about the design, is the lack of a physical camera button, and the placement of the volume rocker. It's ever so slightly off of where it seems to be on most devices, and I often find myself hitting the wrong side of it. The power/lock button is also hard to push sometimes. The capacitive buttons are responsive, and never give me trouble. The 5.0mp camera on the back takes good quality pics. Not outstanding, but good when you consider the price of the phone. The front VGA camera is what it is. Works fine for Skype, not complaints from the other end. The screen is not the highest resolution out there, nor is it SuperAMOLED plus, but size wise I think it's the perfect size. You don't have to squint to read text, nor do you have to give you thumps a workout reaching the other side of the screen. I've watched some movies on it, and played games, and the color is outstanding.
Software
It runs Gingerbread. No, it runs Gingerbread like a beast, and soon it will run Ice Cream Sandwich. I don't think I have to elaborate too much on how Android works, if you've used it before you know the basics. Pantechs overlay isn't bad at all, especially for people who don't like Sense or Touchwiz taking up 300mb of their RAM. The overlay seems to be very lightweight, and offers some welcome UI enhancements to stock 2.3. It also adds some of it's own apps, all of which are just tools, but they're good utilities, and you shouldn't need to replace them. My only complaint is the dock menu on the homescreen(s). You can't change it, at all. If this bothers you, you can always do what I do and just use ADW Launcher or GoLauncherEX. I like the lock screen, it's sort of like Sense. You can't change this either, but there's always GoLocker, WidgetLocker, and the other stock Android lock screens like pattern and pin unlock. The phone is smooth, I've yet to experience any lag, even with multiple programs open at once. Multitasking is also easy thanks to Pantech, all you have to do it hold down the home key and it will bring up all open apps, and give the option to close any or all of them. I used Moboplayer to watch Blu Ray quality versions of The Hangover 2 and Tron. Both ran flawlessly, a compliment to the Scorpions rendering capability. Angry Birds is smooth, as is Defender, and Ceramic Destroyer. All other games I tried worked great as well. Network wise, I wasn't able to test the LTE network, as it isn't in my area yet. HSPA+ gave me good speeds though, and the Wi-Fi is fast and reliable as well, only dropping my connection once, which could have been a router issue.
Final Thoughts
Overall, if you can get over the few design flaws (which aren't actually flaws, once you get used to the device), the Pantech Burst is a solid budget Android that can play with the big boys, and in a lot of cases beat them. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone on AT&T looking for an upgrade or new customers just coming to AT&T. Here are some benchmark scores for comparison:
| Pantech Burst | Samsung Skyrocket | LG Nitro HD | |
| Quadrant (v1) | 3,415 | 3,334 | 2,616 |
| Linpack (single-thread) | 50.1 | 50.6 | 51.1 |
| Linpack (multi-thread) | 80.55 | 77.4 | 81.8 |
| Nenamark1 | 56.1 | 59.8 | 56.1 |
| Nenamark2 | 53.0 | 54.1 | 37.2 |
| Neocore | 56.2 | 57.7 | 59.8 |
| SunSpider 9.1 | 2,658 | 3,115 | 2,687 |
| Vellamo | 1,151 | 815 | 1,156 |
| Battery life (LTE) | 7.5 hours | N/A | 4.5 hours |
^That's a chart I got off of Engadget, but I got essentially the same scores.
