Always been known as the budget oriented manufacturer, Pantech has tried desperately it doesn't help in to become a breakout smartphone for AT&T%u2019s camp, while theyPercentu2019ve didn't establish their mark with devices just like the Pantech Crossover and Pocket. Rather than letting your competition absorb the fruitful rewards related to AT&T%u2019s 4G LTE network, the Pantech Burst is exploding on the scene hoping gaining some sort of visibility featuring its oh-so lovable on-contract expense of $49.99. Instead of finding something diluted in the specs department, which might be an important thing to come to mind for most people, this handset isn%u2019t messing around since it carries along many of the elements we%u2019d expect used by a modernized smartphone ready for war.

Judging on the surface, there's practically nothing that could make Burst jump out above the crowd. The truth is, you might argue this handset is the most "normal-looking" Android smartphone Pantech's put out in the US -- one merely has to take a quick look at the Crossover and Pocket to validate this theory. The short version: it's a slab with a 4-inch display, a normal plastic build as well as the typical ports. Fortunately the telephone efforts to break the monotony by adding a few tiny design tweaks and offering black and beautiful red colors options. But as we'll discover soon enough, beauty isn't just skin deep it lies beneath, within every one of the circuitry, boards as well as other gizmos hidden beneath the exterior.

If you're searching for a smartphone with the latest and greatest HD display, look elsewhere -- would you expect different from the budget device? The Burst is equipped with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display that boasts a WVGA resolution of 800 x 480. This will likely sound incredibly underwhelming by today's standards -- assuming you're comparing this to $300 phones -- nevertheless the pixel density of the set up is 233ppi, which can be perfectly reasonable. Let's place it yet another way: this is actually the same panel featured about the Samsung Nexus S, but without the curved glass. Like a warning to prospects offended by the life insurance coverage of PenTile, the Burst 's all 'bout the RGBG layout, with a few obvious pixelation should you stare in the screen tough enough. This shouldn't come because an unexpected, though, when you consider the price. Although we would like to have a better screen, it's adequate for all of us to not have any outspoken concerns from it. The colours are very saturated, the viewing angles are tremendous as well as the screen is bright when used indoors unfortunately, we struggled to create the display in direct sunlight.

Pantech bundles the Burst with two keyboard options: the standard Android keyboard and Swype. We like the former because we learned that we might type faster. Plus, the strong haptic feedback provided nice tactile feedback. We appreciated the dedicated @ key that appeared in address fields, but there's numberorg key. Swype, which allows you to trace a line between letters to type, comes in handy when you need or wish to enter a lot of text with one hand.

The Burst packs a 1 hour.2-GHz dual-core processor that provided snappy overall performance. Most applications opened quickly, and also the multitasking menu made it a cinch to change between open programs. To check the phone's performance further we energized a number of games, which the Burst handled with aplomb. Racing across the water in Riptide GP proved fast and smooth, as did tearing across the track in "Tiki Kart 3D," a Mario Kart knock-with fun explosions and weapons.

Our biggest complaints in regards to the Burst is its sluggish 5-megapixel camera. We noticed severe lag--nearly two seconds--between pressing the shutter button as well as the phone capturing an image. Outdoors our shot of two children playing from the snow delivered good color accuracy, but didn't look very sharp. Indoors, our pictures of the golden retriever exhibited significant graininess, which was with the weak flash engaged. 

Pantech Burst Review

The Pantech Burst is hands-down one of the fastest phones anywhere for $49. The 4G LTE speeds are perfect, and also the tweaks Pantech designed to the Android interface makes all the UI more intuitive. The slow camera is often a letdown, so we wish the car battery lasted a bit longer, but overall, this smartphone is a great value. While some first-time smartphone owners on AT&T might prefer the less costly sometimes more pocket-friendly Samsung Focus Flash running Windows Phone, Android fans will appreciate the Burst's true 4G data rates and larger Super AMOLED display.