You know, we haven’t really thought much about Pantech since the ol’ days of Helio (and the Pantech-made Helio Ocean.) We’d figured the company had decided that the U.S. mobile market and its current iPhone/Android-mindset was a bit too tough to crack, and had gone back to mainly focusing on slingin’ their feature-phone wares in their home country of South Korea.
Well, Pantech’s back — and this time, they’re rockin’ Android.
This morning, AT&T and Pantech announced the Crossover. Right off the bat, AT&T says it’s “perfect for first-time smartphone users”, which should sum things up pretty nicely: it’s cheap ($70 on contract), but it’s also not exactly cutting edge.
Inside that QWERTY-sliding shell you see up above, the Crossover is packin’ a 3.1″ touchscreen, a 3-megapixel camera, Android 2.2, and a rather paltry 600Mhz CPU.
Remember, dear reader: when you’re buying a new handset, you’ve got to think of the long-term cost. When you’re locked into a 2-year contract at $70-$90 per month, a $70 handset doesn’t cost $70 — it costs $1750+ ($70 x 24 for the 2 years of monthly bills, plus $70 for the handset). Buy the best handset you can afford up front — that upfront cost is but a small chunk of the device’s overall cost, and you’ll be happier with the beefier handset a few months down the road.
Look for the Crossover to hit AT&T’s shelves come June 5th.