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Pantech Magnus pictured en route to AT&T
Pantech has been steadily building its relationship with AT&T over the past few years by supplying the carrier with a healthy dose of budget-friendly handsets. Could it be that the OEM has finally earned the opportunity to add a higher-end device to the GSM giant's lineup? It may very well be the case with the P9090, aka the Magnus. Our source has hooked us up with the first images of the smartphone, which confirms an 8MP camera with LED flash, front-facing cam and at least Ice Cream Sandwich (if not Jelly Bean). While the image doesn't reveal any other specs, we're expecting to see a 720p display, LTE connectivity and a Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. We're still not sure what to think about the bumpy design on its back, though it does remind us a little bit of what Verizon has done on the HTC Incredible series. The specs may be quite similar to the Vega Racer 2, though the phone itself doesn't look anywhere close to the manufacturer's Korean flagship. AT&T still hasn't announced the Magnus, but we'll let you know pricing and availability as soon as we have it. [Thanks, Anonymous!]
Pantech P9090 Magnus swings by FCC with AT&T LTE
Despite cranking out plenty of high-end devices in Asia, Pantech has built itself a reputation in the US as a budget OEM -- but continues to improve its products regardless. Having already proven its ability to crank out LTE phones on the cheap with the Burst, it appears ready to follow up with another phone on AT&T's next-gen network, as evidenced by documents released by the FCC this afternoon. This particular handset, dubbed the Magnus on its WiFi certification paperwork, sports quad-band LTE (700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900), a radio combo that's starting to be quite the trend for AT&T-bound phones recently -- likely done to ensure the GSM carrier's refarming efforts go as smoothly as possible. The federal docs also reveal the presence of NFC (suggesting this will come with Android 4.x included), and Bluetooth certification tells us we can also expect it to offer the 4.0 standard. The paperwork is fuzzy on more details, but we hope its arrival is just around the corner.
