Several months after being rescued from the verge of bankruptcy, South Korea’s third ranking smartphone maker – Pantech, has returned to its stomping ground with a new mid-range smartphone. The new device is dubbed the Pantech SKY IM-100 and comes along with a cube-shaped Bluetooth speaker called Pantech STONE SL-100.
Available in Classic white and Platinum Black colours, the Pantech SKY IM-100 sports a full metal body build, a 5.2-inch (5.15-inch) display with (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD screen resolution, measures 7.8mm thick, weighs 130 grams and is backed by a built-in 3000mAh battery.
On the inside, it is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 (MSM8937) octa-core processor along with 2GB of RAM, 32GB built-in storage space and Qualcomm’s latest audio chip – the WCD9326 which supports the APT-X codec and allows for quality sound output on Bluetooth earphones and speakers.
For photography, there is a front facing 5MP selfie camera and a rear facing 13MP camera with LED flash. Connectivity option on the Pantech SKY IM-100 includes – Bluetooth 4.2, NFC Type A/B, Dual Band Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 4G LTE (Cat. 4). There is a jog dial on the right hand side for altering the volume.
The accompanying accessory – the Pantech STONE SL-100 is a speaker and also doubles as a wireless charger, conforming to the Qi Wireless charging standard. It connects to the device via Bluetooth and is NFC compatible. Once the phone is placed atop the Stone; it begins to charge wirelessly and syncs with the device to play music as well.
The Pantech SKI 1M-100 will be available later this month for a price tag of 440,000 Korean Won (roughly US$ 383). It is expected to be sold by all the three major carriers in South Korea with SK Telecom and KT mentioned.
