Pantech Burst for AT&T Announced | WhistleOut Blog

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Alex Angove

Traditionally on AT&T’s network Pantech has gone for the more budget-minded approach, offering a handset experience to customers looking for something at the lower end of the market. However, at the currently-running CES show in Vegas, Pantech has shown off its newest toy, the Pantech Burst, and it’s definitely not humble in appearance.

The Burst rocks a 4 inch Super AMOLED display that, as one might expect, has shown off some vibrant colours. The curved back should prove to be comfortable when held and the rear plate itself sports a vertically brushed metallic finish that really does look classy.

As far as specs go the Pantech isn’t really a head turner, but it’s nothing to put your nose up at either. The dual-core 1.2GHz CPU is powerful and the 2MP front-facing camera is also a nice touch. Unfortunately the rear camera comes in at just 5MP with 720p HD video recording and the operating system (OS) is Android 2.3 Gingerbread and not 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). The Burst will apparently be upgradeable to ICS at some point in the future, but no real word on just when that will be yet.

However, these hardware sacrifices are worth it when you check out the price. The Burst is going to start off at just $50 on a 24 month contract, putting it pretty firmly around the top of the mid-range of the market.

So it seems Pantech isn’t trying to compete with the big-dogs at the top of AT&T’s lineup just yet, which is probably a wise move in the long-term. So far initial looks at the Pantech Burst do make it look like a solid mid-ranger and, if it’s a success, we might see Pantech trying to kick it up another notch at next year’s CES.