The Panatech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S might not be the most easiest phone to come by, but this remarkable device has grabbed enough attention for it to be well worth a review.
Pantech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S Features
Despite the Pantech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S not being the most readily available Android devices on the market, avid phone fans have embraced the handset for its great design and stunning features.
The Pantech Vega A880s LTE-A is one of those smartphones that you fall in love at first sight. The bright 1920 x 1080 FULL HD display impresses from as soon as the phone boots up. The visuals are stunning, clarity is beautiful and they both conspire to fully immerse you into what is happening on-screen.
Hardware is on par with any flagship phone regardless of brand. A quad-core 2.3Ghz Snapdragon 800 processor boasts stunning performance, there is 2GB RAM, an Adreno 330 GPU, and this is one of the few top-of-the-range phones to offer a micro SD card expansion slot.
Pantech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S Design
To match the leading hardware, the design of the Panatech is equally impressive. The design is as unique as smartphone design can with just the few a little Samsung design thrown in for good measure.
The solid construction is another of the A880S’ strengths and Panatech have managed to combine strength and beauty. For example the wrapped edges are not just for looks but actually add considerable strength to the handset. Feeling is believing with the Panatech, if you do manage to get your hands on one you will certainly appreciate the solid body.
Above the impressive display there is a 2.1 mega-pixel camera (on the right), and various sensors (proximity and light) and LED notification light.
On the upper edge, instead, on the right side, this is the 3.5 jack for earphones.
The chin of the phone has your standard backlit touch buttons, and in the very base you will find the micro USB in the dead center.
On the back we have 13 mega-pixel Sony camera, placed at the top center with an LED flash directly beneath it. Also, on the rear we can find the rear speaker, fingerprint scanner and rear touch panel.
Pantech Vega A880S LTE-A Display
Sporting a Samsung Super AMOLED display you can expect exceptional brightness, bright vibrant colours and full HD performance.
There really isn’t much I can say about this screen that you don’t already know. It really is a stunning panel, possibly one of the best on the market.
Performance and Benchmarks
With a 2GB RAM and powerful Snapdragon 800 processor you should be expecting performance and benchmarks within the realms of rival flagship devices. Having testing the Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z, I can confirm that the A880S is easily as powerful as the best of the best and even out performs many rival phones in benchmarks.
Antutu test result is an incredible 29960 points!
Quadrant score is: 21,276 points!
The Pantech A880S’ excellent performance continues with impressive Vellamo results 2758 and 1035!
Nenamark2 test result is 59.9 fps! Compare this to the Mediatek powered iOcean X7 Elite which also has 2GB RAM and 1080 display which scored just 34.1fps and you can really appreciate the difference, especially when gaming!
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I also made some tests with 3D Mark to satisfy the curiosity of those who are more interested about Pantech A880s gaming performance. The results, also in this case, are nothing short of astonishing!
As I’m sure you’ll notice from the screenshots of the 3 tests only 2 have a score: Extreme Ice Storm with 9417 points and Ice Storm Unlimited with 10999 points. The reason being the A880S is just to powerful for the Basic test and instead of a score a message reading “Dude, your device is too powerful!” is offered!
Lastly, we report the result of the Epic Citadel test performed on Pantech Vega A880s, achieved with 59.3 fps score, higher, albeit only slightly, even in this case Samsung Galaxy S4 that here reaches a score of 58.3.
Pantech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S hands-on video
As you can see in these videos the Pantech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S hands-on has some great features including air gestures, a fingerprint scanner and rear touch panel similar to the one found on the Oppo N1.
Pantech Vega A880S LTE-A connectivity
We don’t expect issues with a phone of this calibre and in terms of connectivity we certainly were not let down. GPS is fast to get a lock and stable, WIFI is strong and remained reliable. Bluetooth connected fine to my in car system and call quality is spot on!
Cameras quality
Sony supplies the 13 mega-pixel rear camera so we were hoping for bright, vivid colours, sharp images and accurate light levels. Again, I was not disappointed! Even in lower light conditions the A880S performed extremely well.
Below are some sample photos taken with the phone. You can download the full, untouched images here.
A very interesting Pantech A880s Camera App feature is the “Easy Camera”. With this feature you can take pictures with 5 or 10 seconds or 10 seconds delay, simply by running a “Swype” on the display.
Battery life
The 3100mAh battery is a generous size and even with the powerful processor and bright display we managed to easily last well into the evening.
To give you an idea of a ‘typical’ day of use I kept 3G on at all times with emails on push and notifications for Facebook, Whatsapps, Twitter etc active. Wifi turned on for around 3 hours, 40 minutes of GPS navigation, Bluetooth constantly on, heavy camera use and a lot of WordPress app use for updating GizChina.it.
With such use I managed to keep the phone going from the morning till around 22:00 with 10% to spare. Gamers might need a midday charge to keep you going, but Panatech make this easy as the phone comes with a second battery and even a charging dock.
Pantech Vega A880S LTE-A: Final Thoughts
For a relatively small phone maker Panatech have managed to prove that they are well up to the level of Samsung, Oppo, Sony and others! This phone really is a high-end device and easily holds its own even in this highly competitive market place.
If you are looking for something a little different than the usual Samsung, HTC and others and you are lucky enough to find one I highly recommend you take a very close look at the Pantech Vega LTE-A IM-A880S!
Thanks to Topresellerstore.it for supplying us with our review phone, and for also offering a 30 Euro discount to GizChina readers with the following discount code: GIZPANTECH
[ GizChina.it ]
Where it is available? Interested to buy one.
Hi Arsalan! You can purchase it on topresellerstore.it with “gizpantech” voucher, but I do not know if it is still available! Only 5 coupon!
hi, i have the white one, buy from my korean friends… just slightly used in for 1 weeks… overall 99% condiition, if u interested to buy u can email me. thanks
Where is it available? I am interested to buy one.
found it here: http://www.topresellerstore.it/97-pantech
It’s quite expensive though
Pantech Vega Iron looks a bit better !!!
Good job (purposely?) failing to mention that this is a 5.6″ phone.
Still waiting those elusive S800 5″ phone with removable battery, SD card and nice looking not-too-wide design (Z1 unfortunately failed in this). Why is it so hard I wonder?
Yes , it is huge and it is not a chinese phone, its fron south korea and the LTE works only on south korean system and it is very expensive
korean version lg g2 should be just right, despite the fact that it has a 5.2″ screen its basically the size of an s4
Gotta like PA Tech’s less mainstream wizziness;-)
Where it is available? Interested to buy one.
Hi Arsalan! You can purchase it on topresellerstore.it with “gizpantech” voucher, but I do not know if it is still available! Only 5 coupon!
hi, i have the white one, buy from my korean friends… just slightly used in for 1 weeks… overall 99% condiition, if u interested to buy u can email me. thanks
Where is it available? I am interested to buy one.
found it here: http://www.topresellerstore.it/97-pantech
It’s quite expensive though
Pantech Vega Iron looks a bit better !!!
Good job (purposely?) failing to mention that this is a 5.6″ phone.
Still waiting those elusive S800 5″ phone with removable battery, SD card and nice looking not-too-wide design (Z1 unfortunately failed in this). Why is it so hard I wonder?
Yes , it is huge and it is not a chinese phone, its fron south korea and the LTE works only on south korean system and it is very expensive
korean version lg g2 should be just right, despite the fact that it has a 5.2″ screen its basically the size of an s4
Gotta like PA Tech’s less mainstream wizziness;-)
On Taobao website this phone is cheap around 3200rmb
we in europe can i buy on taobao????
On Taobao website this phone is cheap around 3200rmb
we in europe can i buy on taobao????
But does it have LTE?
The answer to that is in the name of the article
But does it have LTE?
The answer to that is in the name of the article
Hi Andi. Someone mentioned that the LTE won’t work outside Korea. Have u confirmed this pls?
Hi, I didn’t test this phone. Mario over at GizChina.it did. I’m not sure he was able to test the LTE though.
LTE working in Pakistan perfectly fine
Hi Andi. Someone mentioned that the LTE won’t work outside Korea. Have u confirmed this pls?
Hi, I didn’t test this phone. Mario over at GizChina.it did. I’m not sure he was able to test the LTE though.
LTE working in Pakistan perfectly fine
I need its battery. Itss almost dead… can’t find its original battery anywhere.. please help
I need its battery. Itss almost dead… can’t find its original battery anywhere.. please help