Pantech introduces Galaxy S4 challenger

Actor Lee Byung-hun displays Pantech’s new Vega Iron smartphones at the company’s headquarters in Sangam, northern Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Pantech

By Cho Mu-hyun

Pantech, the nation’s smallest phone-maker, unveiled a new flagship smartphone to challenge counterparts from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, Thursday.

The new smartphone, named the Vega Iron, has metallic rims that are seamlessly interconnected and sports a 5-inch display. It supports long-term evolution (LTE) connectivity, like most of its counterparts in the market.

“We couldn’t have made the Vega Iron without Pantech’s accumulated technology and challenging sprit,” said CEO Lee Jun-woo at the company headquarters in Sangam, northern Seoul. “If we look at recent smartphones, every manufacturer is trying to make the best product but it isn’t easy to have a differentiated value.”

“The Vega Iron started from that avid desire to make a smartphone that only Pantech could make. We tried everything, from one-cell LCD development to having zero bezels along the way. The Vega Iron is a result of that, and we believe it is our best phone ever that can face up to any smartphone,” he added.

The company said the decision to put a metal “Endless Rim” was to create a unique design and increase the sturdiness of the handset. The bezel is only 2.4 millimeters thick.

The launch date will be set to coincide with that of Samsung’s Galaxy S4, expected to go on sale later this month or early May. “Our product is very different from our competitors and we expect great sales,” said Kim Joo-sung, senior executive vice president at Pantech, also at the conference. He said the company expects to sell more than 1.8 million of the phones.

Kim also said the company is targeting a 20 percent share for LTE smartphones, and 18 percent for total handsets. There were 21 million LTE subscribers in Korea as of March. “The Vega Iron will contribute heavily to our rise in market share,” said Kim.

The move to adopt metal was also a highlighted differentiation point from Samsung, which only uses plastic for handsets that have received mix response from consumers.

Specification wise, the Vega Iron packs all the recent high-end parts: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 with a processing power of 1.7 gigabytes, an in-cell display, 2G RAM, 32 gigabyte of internal memory and a 2,150 mAH battery.

Pantech said thanks to optimization, the phone’s battery life, one of the key things consumers want upgraded for smartphones, is effectively the same as a 3,000 mAH battery and recharges fully within 87 minutes.

The phone also has eye recognition that allows page scrolling, stopping videos and retaining brightness, similar to what is available on the Galaxy S4.