Verizon Wireless will sell an LTE smartphone, the Pantech Breakout, starting Thursday for the breakout price of less than $100 after a rebate.
The Breakout's $99.99 price is noteworthy, since Verizon also put the powerful Motorola Droid Bionic on sale Sept. 8 for its LTE network for $299.99.
Both devices require that users sign a two-year agreement, and both will work on the Verizon LTE network that the company says operates at speeds of 5 Mbps to 12 Mbps for downloads and 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps for upload.
The Bionic has a dual core 1 GHz processor, double the speed of Breakout's 1 GHz processor.
Bionic runs Android 2.3.4, while Breakout is listed by Verizon as running Android 2.3.
Bionic has a 4.3-in. touchscreen with 540 x 960 resolution, while Breakout has a 4-in touchscreen with 480 x 800 resolution.
Each phone has two cameras for video chats. Bionic's best rear-facing camera is 8 megapixels, with Breakout's is 5 megapixels. Bionic supports 1080p HP video and Breakout's supports 720p HD video.
Bionic has 32 GB of available storage, including a pre-installed 16GB microSD card, while Breakout has a pre-installed 8 GB microSD.
The differences between Verizon's high-end LTE phone and it's newest low-cost entry are substantial, but show how Verizon is working to atract buyers to various price ranges for its 4G LTE network.
Pantech, from Personal Communications Devices, is not as well known as Motorola in the Android phone world in the U.S.. The company has been known utside the U.S. for its low-cost phones.
Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen , or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .
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