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Pantech isn’t usually the first brand name that comes to mind when many people think of buying a smartphone, but Pantech themselves are looking to change that. Last week we saw a leak for an interesting new device from the South Korean company that not only featured top of the line specs, but also a rather large 5.6-inch screen and LTE-Advanced on board. At this point only Samsung has announced an LTE-Advanced phone in the form of the Galaxy S4 LTE-A, so the market is pretty small for those who want such a phone. Not familiar with LTE-Advanced? At this point only South Korea and a few places in Russia have such a network, but LTE-Advanced boasts 3 times the theoretical speed of a regular LTE network, bringing the max theoretical download speed from 100mbps all the way up to 300mbps. That’s some pretty insane network speeds to any device, much less a phone!
The Pantech Vega sounds pretty similar to many phones coming out this fall when you look at the spec sheet, but, as Engadget is reporting, it does feature two unique aspects: LTE-A and a fingerprint reader. While a few thought that the LG G2 would have a fingerprint reader on the back, the Pantech Vega actually does! Since this is just a teaser image, Pantech hasn’t elaborated on where the fingerprint reader is other than “on the back.” We know though that it’s powered by Android 4.2.2 and a 2.3GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 800 processor. The 5.6-inch 1080p screen puts this one safely into the phablet category, and in direct competition with the upcoming Galaxy Note III and HTC One Max.
With the LTE airwaves heating up and bandwidth getting more and more precious, new technologies like LTE-Advanced are needed in order to help free up the congestion. At the moment it seems like T-Mobile is the only carrier in the US to have any kind of LTE-Advanced rollout plan, but that will change eventually, especially if a smaller carrier like T-Mobile has a significant leg up on the bigger guys (AT&T and Verizon). Until that happens don’t expect phones like the Pantech Vega to make their way across the sea into other markets. The Pantech Vega should be available mid-August on South Korea’s SK Telecom network, and more details on the phone will likely be announced soon.