Pantech Breakout review

Will Pantech's first CDMA phone be their breakout device?

Pantech Breakout
Fast, sturdy, and cheap - what could go wrong?

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Maps

Pantech Breakout

The Pantech Breakout has the same Google Maps app we've seen on just about every other Gingerbread device, but it's what we expected to find - and fortunately Pantech hasn't tried to spiffy it up with any tacky additions. Here, Google works it's charm.

We received accurate geolocating, were given good directions, and the Maps app opened quickly and formed routes quickly.

VZ Navigator is the Yang to Google Maps' Yin. The VZ Navigator icon is actually just a link to download it, and upon opening will alert you to its use of data, as well as any critical updates that you'll be required to download.

Pantech Breakout

For those willing to be deterred to Google's superior app, the VZ Navigator (ironically) doesn't navigate you anywhere. The free version of the app presents you with maps, you'll need to allow Verizon to locate you at all times (another alert).

The whole process sends you through a handful of setup options, but does offer some unique options. VZ Navigator will show you the cheapest, closest gas prices and movies screening nearby, and a variety of other options we've become accustomed to being offered by Garmin and other GPS hardware.

VZ Navigator also gives you the option to pay for some pretty spiffy, but ultimately underwhelming, 3D maps.

Apps

Pantech Breakout

The Pantech Breakout comes with more bloatware than any phone we can remember in recent memory. There are no fewer than 20 apps of dubious value on this device, none of which can be properly deleted.

We'd go through each app and explain the value (or lack thereof), but it'd likely take a few thousand words and mostly just tell you what you already know - bloatware can cheapen any device. And the already cheap Breakout is bloated beyond belief.

City ID, Clock Tools, Converter, Doc Viewer, Guided Tours, Lets Golf 2 (demo), Mobile IM, News & Weather, NFL Mobile, NFS Shift, Rhapsody, SetupWizard, Slacker, V Cast Media Manager, Music, Tones, and Video, Nuance Voice Control, and VZ Navigator all sit on the device, and each are hidable, but undeleteable.

Online Editor

Nic is a former Online Editor at TechRadar in San Francisco. He started as a games journalist before becoming an editor at Mac|Life magazine. He holds a degree in English Literature and English Writing from Whitworth University.