Pantech Breakout aims to bring 4G to more users than ever before, by cutting down on prices more than the competition thought it was possible. Until now, the big players focused on reducing the price with only a couple of dollars, just to outshine the closest rival, but this was hardly enough for the regular client. If you want to enjoy the power of 4G, without spending several hundred dollars in the process, you should consider this device, which will set you back just $100 on a two-years contract.
When the prices get very low, and the manufacturer tries to compete in the same segment as the more expensive smartphones, we should expect certain compromises to be made. First of all, the processor is a mediocre 1GHz single-core, and it is backed up by an equally unimpressive 512 RAM, which is less than what the top smartphones have to offer. Still, they get the job done you won’t have to cope with sluggish applications, or forget about smooth running videos. Without being a speed demon, Pantech Breakout is more than capable of delivering that kind of performance that we’ve come to take for granted.
It is the details that are relevant, and they explain the lower costs, Pantech Breakout featuring an average 5 megapixel camera and an equally ordinary battery. The images look a bit washed out, and the videos are far from perfect, but for the difference in price you could easily buy a camera that is better than what most smartphones incorporate. A 4-inch display makes it a worthy alternative for those who want to experience the benefits of 4G, without carrying around a large device. Only time will tell if customers flock to buy the Pantech Breakout right away, due to the excellent price/quality ratio, or if they’ll break the piggy bank for a top smartphone.
Speaking of which, the ThinkPad Tablet is considerably larger than its direct competition, and it is enough to put it next to a Galaxy Tab 10.1 or an iPad 2 to notice the difference. Naturally, it is also heavier and the addition of physical buttons at the bottom of the screen do it no justice, since they are both difficult to press and not very attractive. The 10.1 inch touchscreen is not very responsive either and although videos and images look decent on the 1280 x 800 resolution, they don’t come even close to what Galaxy Tab 10.1 has to offer.
As far as operating systems go, GridOS is not a disaster and has some funky features, but the user needs time to get adjusted to it and master all these functions. On the visual side, it is unique and will appeal to those who are not impressed with the Android, but still want to enjoy the applications running on this operating system. Even the gestures are different, and you should arm yourself with patience if you want to extract the most from GridOS, although the tablet gives you very few incentives.
Xiaomi Phone is powered by a blazing fast dual-core Qualcomm CPU and 1GB of RAM, and the test proved that it is almost as fast as Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S 2. In terms of the operating system, it relies on Android with a special flavor of MIUI, Xiaomi Phone’s highly customizable Android ROM. Unlike HTC devices which were criticized for the way the Sense interfered with the user experience, MIUI is much more flexible and gives you a lot of freedom. Something that is meant to give Xiaomi Phone the upper hand in the battle with some of the best smartphones in the world, is the massive 1930mAh battery.
