Pantech Breakout Review

Introduction:

For those of you keeping count, the Pantech Breakout is now the fifth Android smartphone to be released by Verizon Wireless that runs on the carrier’s 4G LTE data network. But unlike the higher-end HTC ThunderBolt, Samsung Droid Charge, LG Revolution, and Motorola DROID BIONIC, the new Pantech Breakout is not bucking for 1st place when it comes to speed and features, but rather to be a more moderate-priced option for those not looking to break the bank as it carries a price of $99.99 after rebate with a 2-year contract.

Included in the retail package is the Pantech Breakout ADR8995 phone, 1500mAh battery, 8GB microSDHC memory card, wall charger with microUSB cable, and user guides.

Design:

Even though the Pantech Breakout is currently the least expensive 4G smartphone for Verizon, its construction feels well made, though its all-black color is a bit boring. We like that it is thin, at only 0.47” thick, and not too heavy, which makes it easier to carry around or slip into your pocket. In fact, we like the overall feel of the Pantech Breakout more in our hand than the Samsung Droid Charge, as the Breakout has a texture on the back that gives it a secure feeling in your hand, while the Droid Charge is very slippery. Still, the Motorola DROID BIONIC has the best fit and finish out of the group.



You can compare the Pantech Breakout with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

On the front of the Breakout you’ll find the 4” WVGA (480x800) display, which is 3/10th of an inch smaller than Verizon’s other 4G smartphones. When placed next to the DROID BIONIC, you can clearly see the difference in size, as well as the resolution, but since the Breakout is $200 less, we’re not complaining. Actually, the display on the Breakout is quite good considering its price, showing crisp text and accurate colors, though it does become a challenge to view outside in the sunlight.


Located above it is a standard VGA camera for self portraits or for use with video chat, and at the bottom are four physical buttons for the menu, home, back, and search. Unfortunately, these bottom function buttons are odd-shaped and dimly lit, which makes them feel uncomfortable to use. Along the sides of the device are the power/lock button, volume rocker, and camera key, all of which are easy to find as they stick out from the surrounding plastic.

Interface:

Even though the Pantech Breakout isn’t the highest price 4G smartphone, it is nice to see that it still comes with Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread out of the box. Swiping between the 7 home screens is quick and easy with no delay. When you press on the small circles at the top of the screen, it shows you a carrousel preview of all the homescreens that you can move around in a circular fashion. At the bottom of the homescreens are four static icons for accessing the phone, contacts, messaging, and apps. When going into the app drawer, you swipe though it side-to-side, instead of scrolling up-and-down, but all the apps are listed alphabetically and you can even change the background between 18 pre-loaded images.

One thing that we were surprised by is that the Breakout has four different desktop modes, similar to the “scenes” on HTC Sense UI phones, though not as advanced. It allows you to save your current mode, or select from default, communication, media, and empty. We were also pleased by the good selection of desktop widgets, including a task manager, memo pad, event notification, weather, music, social net, clock, contacts, calendar, bookmarks, email, and web. When you press on one of them (such as the weather), it will show the different sizes that it can be when placed on the home screen.



Phonebook, Messaging and Organizer:

Accessing your contacts is pretty straight forward, but by default it only displays contacts that are stored in the phone or ones from your Google account. You will have to manually install the Facebook app and have it sync all contacts, so that they will show up in your main contacts list. One nice addition that Pantech includes is the Social Net app, which comes with its own desktop widget. You can have it sync to your Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace accounts, where it will automatically show your friend’s current posts in the widget, or you can enter in a message to be posted to your wall.


For messaging, there is the standard app for sending and receiving text and picture messages, an email app for your POP and IMAP accounts, and a Mobile IM app for connecting to your AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo! buddy lists. There is also the GMail app for accessing that account separately.

The organizer is also pretty standard, as it only links to your Google Calendar, not Facebook or any other social network calendars.



Internet and Connectivity:

Naturally, one of the main features of the Pantech Breakout is that it can use Verizon’s 4G LTE data network. First off, for standard web browsing we were able to fully load the PhoneArena.com web site (including all Flash content) in about 40 seconds, compared to only 25 seconds on the Motorola DROID BIONIC and HTC ThunderBolt, 27 seconds with the LG Revolution, and 30 seconds with the Samsung Droid Charge.


Next, we used the SpeedTest.net app and were able to get downloads of 7Mbps and uploads of almost 6Mbps on the Breakout. This is about average to what the HTC ThunderBolt and Samsung Droid Charge would also get, though the Motorola DROID BIONIC got downloads of 9Mbps and uploads of 6Mbps.


Considering its lower price, the Breakout does OK for use with Verizon’s 4G LTE network, though its web page rendering times are a bit lagging. Naturally, you can also connect the Breakout to 3G EVDO and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n as well.

Camera:

The 5MP autofocus camera is easy to operate, as you can use the side camera key to capture the image, or press the on-screen camera button. There is also a nice selection of adjustments, such as the autofocus (on, manual, spot), white balance (auto, outdoor, cloudy, fluorescent, glow), and color modes (normal, mono, negative, sepia), as well as selecting the image resolution and 11 different scene modes. Unfortunately, we were not impressed by the quality of the images, as outside pictures were not sharp (looked blurry) and color accuracy was lacking. Furthermore, inside pictures continued these traits, and became even grainier as light levels decreased. There also isn’t a flash, so night images are out of the question.

Videos can be recorded up to 1280x720p resolution, but we were not surprised that their quality was lacking here too, as the videos doesn’t look sharp, and there is a substantial amount of image-shake, even though we would hold the phone still with both hands.

Pantech Breakout Sample Video:



Multimedia:

The standard Android Gallery will show all of your pictures and videos categorized into folders for easy viewing. We were able to playback all of our MP4 H.264/263videos from 320x240 to 1280x720 resolution without any problems, but DivX and Xvid videos could not be played.

Pantech includes their own music player instead of the standard Android one. It has a blue color scheme to it, but still functions in the same way, as you can display your music by album, artists, genre, playlists, folder, rating, and mood. But lacking are any equalizer effect or album Cover Flow-like visualization when placing the phone into landscape mode. Music playback was average, as it was mostly only high-tones and lacked any bass, but it was able to get plenty loud with the rear speaker. Of course, you can plug-in your own set of earbuds into the 3.5mm headset jack or use a Stereo Bluetooth headset for better music quality.



Software:

There is also a selection of included apps on the Pantech Breakout, though we wish they were not included, but instead was left for the user to download if they want it. This includes Amazon Kindle, Blockbuster, City ID, Lets Golf 2, Google Maps with Navigation, NFL Mobile, NFS Shift, Rhapsody, Slacker, VCast Music, VCast Tones, VZ Navigator, and Verizon Video.

But one app that is nice to have included is the Doc Viewer, as you can open Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF files with it, though it will not allow you to create (or edit) any files.

Performance:

The Pantech Breakout comes with a 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 346MB of application storage space – though only 150MB of that is free for installing new apps. To help measure the device’s performance, we first ran the Quadrant Benchmark app, which gave a score of 1191. This is slightly ahead of the Samsung Droid Charge’s score of 939, but is still much lower than the Motorola DROID BIONIC (2465), LG Revolution (2122), and HTC ThunderBolt (1703). Next we used the AnTuTu benchmark app, and got a mark of 2765 on the Breakout, which is about equal to the HTC ThunderBolt and LG Revolution. Despite its average scores, we never felt that the Breakout was sluggish or that it was slow when using it day-to-day.

Call quality through the earpiece speaker was good, as it produced pleasing tones and lacked any background noise or static. But turning the volume all the way to high would cause some distortion in the speaker. People that we called also said that we sounded good on their end as well. Signal reception was also adequate, as we would average 2-3 bars in our area and didn’t drop any calls. We also didn’t experience any 4G data drops, which can happen often with the Samsung Droid Charge.

The included 1500mAh battery is rated to provide up to 5.7 hours of talk time or 12.6 days of standby time. In our testing, we were able to get up to 5 hours of continuous talk time on a full charge, or about 8-10 hours of mixed usage. These times are about equal to what we got while using the LG Revolution, but are less than the other Verizon 4G phones.

Conclusion:

When it comes right down to it, the Pantech Breakout is clearly for someone who wants a Verizon 4G smartphone, but without spending a few hundred bucks on one. We like that it’s thin and lightweight, and feels comfortable in the hand, through the 4 function buttons on the front are a bit awkward to use. The 4” display is a bit smaller than its competition, but this also allows for the phone to be smaller too, which some people prefer. We were pleased by the interface that Pantech uses and that it comes with a nice selection of widgets, as well as the good call quality and signal reception. Though we were a bit disappointed by the lacking camera quality, limited room for storing apps, and less than average battery times. Since the Pantech Breakout is currently $99.99 after rebate with a 2-year contract, it is the most affordable 4G phone from Verizon, but occasionally you can snag one of other 4G devices (such as the ThunderBolt) from different on-line resellers for less than what Verizon sells it directly for. In doing so, you would get a better-spec'd phone overall.

Software version on the reviewed unit:
Android 2.3.3
Build number: GRI40
Kernel version: 2.6.35.7-perf

Pantech Breakout Video Review: