Pantech Element (AT&T)

Hence the name, the key feature of the Pantech Element is the tablet's waterproof design. It's IP57 certified, which means you can submerge the tablet in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. It's not billed as ruggedized, but it is solidly built, so this tablet should stand up to the elements better than most others.

While many Android tablets measure 7 or 10 inches, the Element splits the difference with its 8-inch screen, gaining some of the benefits of each, but also presenting some problems of its own. Besides the in-between screen size and the rugged design, the Element is a fairly standard Android Honeycomb tablet with a 4G LTE radio. If you need a tablet with a fast cell data connection that you can take on your outdoor adventures, the Element is a solid, affordable choice.

Pricing and Design
The Pantech Element comes in a single 16GB model available from AT&T for $299.99 with a two-year contract or $449.99 without. If you're also looking for a new LTE Android smartphone, AT&T is offering the Pantech Element and Pantech Burst together for $249.99 with appropriate two-year contracts. The price is far more palatable than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9's (3.5 stars) $479.99 price with two-year contract or $629.99 without.?

While the Element is waterproof, it looks like a plain old tablet with smooth, clean lines and a decided lack of rubber, save for a few port covers. The all-plastic construction feels substantial and solidly built, without being too heavy to use with one hand. It?s a good-looking slate, though it is a bit more squat and dense than most, measuring 8.4 by 6.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighing in at just over a pound. By way of comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, with it's 8.9-inch screen, measures 9.1 by 6.2 by 0.3 inches and weighs 15.7 ounces. The Element feels a bit thicker and heavier, though it is still more comfortable to use than most 10-inch tablets. The back panel has a subtle, black carbon fiber, woven patterned look and yields very little flex under pressure.

Though it's not billed as a rugged tablet, the Element feels like it can stand up to some abuse. Behind the aforementioned flaps on the bottom edge are the SIM card slot, microSD card slot, micro USB port, and micro HDMI port. The left panel houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, also behind a plastic flap, while the Power button and volume rocker are on the tablet's top edge. When held in portrait mode, the 2-megapixel front-facing camera sits centered up top, while the 5-megapixel rear-facing camera is off to the left.

Pantech went with an 8-inch, 1,024-by-768-pixel display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is not quite as sharp as the Galaxy Tab 8.9's 16:9 1,280-by-800-pixel screen, but the difference between the two displays is negligible.?The Element's Gorilla-glass-coated screen is bright, with a wide viewing angle and vibrant colors, but text is not particularly sharp. The unusual screen resolution (most tablets use 1,024-by-600 or 1,280-by-800 displays) caused trouble with some apps in my tests though (more on that in a minute).

OS, Apps, and Performance
The Element runs a close-to-stock version of Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Pantech says an update to Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" is in the works, but could not elaborate on a release date.

AT&T throws in a bit of bloatware, but it's not unbearable and is easily removable. On the app front, you'll find some useful tools, such as an AT&T branded bar code scanner and navigation apps, but you could find third-party equivalents for each, and with more features. You get some decent pre-installed widgets including a mobile data usage monitor, which is a nice addition in an LTE device capable of quickly burning through data caps. And there are throwaways like AT&T Featured Apps, which includes 12 apps, only one of which is a tablet-specific title.

Like other Honeycomb tablets, the Element suffers from a lack of easy-to-find, useful, tablet-optimized apps. And in this case, the Element's unorthodox screen size/aspect ratio knocks out some existing Android tablet apps. The HD tablet titles from Gameloft, for example, simply won't run on the Element. And phone-optimized apps don't look particularly good, either stretching awkwardly to fill the display or simply sitting in the middle surrounded by blank screen space. For the most part, though, popular apps, like Pulse and Angry Birds, worked well and looked fine on the Element.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/UW2e7JMviCU/0,2817,2399828,00.asp

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