Pantech Burst review: LTE on a budget

A hassle free phonebook

The Pantech Burst phonebook offers the typical for all Android smartphones functionality. There is practically no limit to the amount of detail you can add to a contact.

The phonebook • editing a contact

Telephony with Yellow Pages on board

The telephony of the Pantech Burst does without smart dialing. To make up for the loss though, you get Yellow Pages integration built in.

Telephony does Yellow Pages

The call quality of the Pantech Burst was superb. The device actually held its signal better than some of its upscale siblings in the AT&T lineup, when used in the same room.

Messaging has all bases covered

The Pantech Burst's messaging department, unsurprisingly, boasts a rich functionality. Messages can be arranged by a date or contact name. Adding multimedia to a message automatically turns it into MMS.

Messaging has your back

Moving on to email, the Gmail app supports batch operations, which allows multiple emails to be archived, labeled or deleted. Multiple Gmail accounts are also supported.

The Gmail app

There is also a generic email app for all your other email accounts and it can support multiple POP or IMAP inboxes. You have access to the original folders that are created online, side by side with the standard local ones such as inbox, drafts and sent items.

The generic email app

In terms of text entry, you have two options out of the box in the Pantech Burst - the standard Gingerbread keyboard, as well as Swype. More options are readily available at the Google Play Store.

The text input options

Standard Android gallery

The Burst uses the standard Android gallery. The gallery automatically locates the images and videos no matter where they are stored. It even imports the online photos from your Google Picasa web albums.

The gallery

Little about the Gallery should surprise you - aside from displaying full-res images and the addition of the two-finger tilt zoom, there's nothing new really. And don't you worry, the double tap and pinch zoom are still there.

Two-finger tilt zoom works much like the name suggests. You touch the screen with two fingers and as soon as you start tilting it, it will zoom in or out according to the tilting motion.

Music player

The standard music player of the Pantech Burst has all the functionality you will ever need. You have equalizer presets at your disposal, as well as the option to create your own. 3D sound effects are also on tap.

The music player

When playing, you can access the player straight from your homescreen without unlocking it. Naturally, it is also available in the notification area once you do.

The music player can be accessed through the lockscreen and the notification area

A simple, but capable video player

The video player offers a simple list-based interface. It displays all video files stored on the phone and you can sort them by name, date, type or size. The video player also remembers the last viewed position of the video, so you can resume exactly where you left off.

The video player interface

The Pantech Burst handled all major video formats without breaking a sweat. Large files were also a go, due to the beefy CPU and chipset, while the Super AMOLED screen did bode well for the battery performance.