Pantech is a funny company. They sell phones mainly in two countries: South Korea and the United Stated of America. The ones that get sold in South Korea are the most ridiculously spec’d superphones to ever grace planet earth. The ones that come to FreedomLand are the most average midrange devices we’ve ever seen. Why is this the case? The world may never know, but enough about that, let’s dive right into today’s beast-phone: the Vega S5. The 5 in “S5” referes to the phone’s 5 inch screen. It uses IPS technology, it has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, and we’re thrilled to report that Pantech is using the LCD to display the Android navigation buttons in much the same way that they appear on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Under the hood there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, 4G LTE support, a massive 2100 mAh battery, and most impressive of all there’s the 13 megapixel camera. We don’t know how good it is, and we know that megapixels don’t mean anything in the grander scheme of things, but to most consumers big number > little number.
How much will it cost? When will it come out? Who cares, this thing is never going to leave South Korea. And if it does, you can bet that Samsung will have their response to the S5 out within half a year. Speaking about Samsung, now that we know what the Galaxy S III brings to the table, now’s a god time to start talking about what’s going to be the best Android smartphone of the second half of 2012. We’re expecting to see the next Nexus in November, the Galaxy Note in October, and as for HTC … let’s not go there.
Will 2H 2012 superphones be defined by 13 megapixel cameras? Probably not. But they will all have 720p screens, run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and have a Qualcomm chip inside.
[Additional Reading: BodNara]
Update: We just looked at the numbers. The Vega S5, despite having a 5 inch screen, is actually less tall and less wide than the Galaxy S III! That’s amazing!
Galaxy S III: 136.6 mm x 70.7 mm x 8.6 mm | Pantech Vega S5: 134.8 mm x 68.8 mm x 9 mm | SIII has a 4.8″ display, while the Vega = 5″ screen
— Stefan Constantine (@WhatTheBit) July 2, 2012