The $49.99 Pantech Burst is the first smartphone?on AT&T's 4G LTE network to debut with a sub-$100 price tag. What it lacks in wow factor compared to our current Editors' Choice, the gargantuan Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket?(4.5 stars, $199.99), it makes up for with a great balance between price and performance. And if you're looking for a tablet, AT&T is currently offering the Pantech Burst and the Pantech Element?($299.99, 3.5 stars) together for $249.99 with appropriate two-year contracts. But even on its own, the Pantech Burst is a solid smartphone for users looking to tap into AT&T's 4G LTE network on a budget.
Design, Call Quality, and LTE
The Burst measures 5.0 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.3 ounces. It's made entirely of smooth, shiny plastic, embellished with a wood grain-like appearance. We tested the red version, but it's also available in a dark gray. The 4-inch 800-by-480-pixel resolution Super AMOLED display looks bright and rich. I noticed some stippling because of the PenTile subpixel layout, but it was minor and didn't bother me. The phone is more comfortable to hold and use than the huge Skyrocket, especially if you have smaller hands. The onscreen QWERTY keyboard felt fine and the four haptic feedback-enabled touch keys beneath the display are responsive.
The Burst is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), tri-band HSPA+ 21 (850/1900/2100 MHz), and dual-band LTE (700/1700 MHz) device. It also has 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and works as a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect up to 8 devices with the appropriate plan. Voice quality is solid. Voices sound rich and full in the phone's earpiece. Calls made with the phone sound clear, with good noise cancellation, though there's just a touch of echo. Calls sounded good through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth. The speakerphone sounds fine, but doesn't go loud enough to use outdoors. Battery life was disappointing, at just 4 hours and 44 minutes of continuous talk time.
LTE is the biggest draw here. AT&T is still in the early stages of LTE deployment; it's currently available in 26 U.S. cities and covers 74 million users. When not in an LTE area, the Burst will connect to AT&T's HSPA+ 21 network.
I tested the Burst in New York City against the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. Compared with the Skyrocket in a number of head-to-head speeds tests, the Burst often fell behind. The Skyrocket reported speeds at least 1Mbps faster than the Burst, both up and down. Speeds were still good across the board, at an average of 5Mbps down and 3Mbps up on the Burst, so you shouldn't feel this difference too much for general Web browsing. But if you're looking to make the most of LTE, the Burst comes up short.
User Interface, Multimedia, and Conclusions
The Burst is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor, running Android Gingerbread 2.3.5. Pantech has said that the Burst will receive an upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) eventually, but hasn't revealed a timeline. Benchmark scores were excellent, so the Burst shouldn't have trouble handling any of the apps or high-end games you can throw at it, including most of the apps available in the Android Market.
There are seven home screens you can customize and swipe between. AT&T has preloaded a fair share of bloatware, but no more than we're accustomed to seeing. Pantech's UI layer looks nice, though it won't please fans of stock Android. I really like multi-option lock screen, which allows you quick access to the phone's browser, call log, email, music player, or text messages.
The Burst comes with a spacious 12.3GB of free internal memory. There's also a microSD card underneath the battery cover, and you have to remove the phone's battery in order to access it. My 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine.
Music tracks sounded good over wired headphones as well as?Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). I was able to listen to AAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA files, but not FLAC.? Video support is good too. I was able to watch AVI, H.264, MPEG4, and Xvid files at resolutions up to 1080p, but DivX files wouldn't play at all.
The 5-megapixel camera has auto-focus and an LED flash. There's a pronounced, 1.4-second shutter delay, and test photos look mediocre. They have average detail but look a bit soft and washed out. The camera also records decent 720p video at 20 frames per second both indoors and out. There's a front-facing VGA camera for video chat that works fine.
AT&T may not have a ton of LTE smartphones yet, but they're coming. For now, though, the Pantech Burst is a good choice for users looking to tap into the carrier's emerging network on a budget. But better options emerge when you increase your budget. For $50 more, the bulky HTC Vivid?($99.99, 4 stars) gets you a bigger, higher-res display and a nicer camera. The Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket remains our favorite LTE phone on AT&T. It features a larger display, better camera, longer battery life, and faster LTE data speeds than the Burst.
Benchmarks
Continuous talk time:?4 hours 44 minutes
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