Hands-on: Pantech Vega Iron 2 – the Galaxy S5 that Samsung couldn’t make

Black or white? And what color trim would you like with that?

By now it’s no small secret that Samsung’s Galaxy S5 didn’t light up the sales charts like the Korean OEM may have believed it would. While sales in the USA were quite pleasant, elsewhere things were a bit less desirable. There is no single reason that can be held accountable for the relative relegation, there are a lot of complaints to be had from the consumer-side of things: namely that the phone was lacking any semblance of new design (or premium materials), and failed to include either a 2K screen or OIS-equipped camera. On the other hand, Samsung threw in some features that had questionable value to some: a fingerprint sensor, waterproofing, a heart rate monitor, and such.

Little does anyone realize however, that the “real” Galaxy S5 exists, but it’s not made by Samsung. For that matter, it’s not a knock-off counterfeit either. The product in question is 100% legitimate and, unfortunately, was passed by in seemingly 99% of the world. The product? Pantech’s Vega Iron 2, or as I’d like to suggest, the Galaxy S5 that never-was-but-should-have-been.

A sky full of stars, or shapes of anything you might like.

Background

A curious creation lied in (a) store some weeks ago and it caught my attention. As a “purist” of sorts, I prefer to have a product from the country its manufacturer originates in, so as to enjoy the device as it was “meant to be.” To this end, I will seek out Korean versions of Korean devices (i.e. Samsung and LG products). While I had some knowledge of the Pantech Vega series, as a one of the models released in Japan, I had no idea the Vega Iron 2 existed. A shame really, because this phone is literally everything the Galaxy S5 isn’t, which is to say it’s everything the S5 needed to be and should have been. In fact, it’s arguably what the S6 will have to be in order for Samsung to make a difference this year.

Before digressing into a Samsung stipulation, allow me to offer some impressions of the Vega Iron 2.

Solid specs

The Vega Iron 2 features specs that equal, if not surpass, those of the Galaxy S5. The phone runs Android 4.4.2, has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AB) CPU, Adreno 330 graphics, 3 GB of RAM, an OIS-equipped 13-megapixel rear camera, a 2.1-megapixel front camera, a 5.3-inch 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE-A connectivity, NFC, a 3220 mAh battery, and 32GB of storage.

Chances are someone is having a flashback here, as most were assuming Samsung was going to include some of these specs in its Galaxy S5, namely the OIS-supported rear camera and the three GB of RAM. But wait. It gets even better.

The build and body

Considering how this phone looks, one might be excused for thinking it was “inspired” by the Samsung Galaxy A series/Note 4. If anything, Samsung was inspired by Pantech given that the Iron 2 released in July 2014.

Pantech Vega Iron 2

Striped metal frame… chamfered edges? Check. Ah, but this is the Galaxy Note 4, which used a similar design, yet released several months later.

The Vega Iron 2 features a plastic back, and a chamfered, striped metal frame. Sounds familiar? Yes, it does, for Samsung used a similar design in its Galaxy Note 4 series, save for slightly flared-out corners along with metal side buttons (whereas the Iron 2 feels like plastic). Indeed, this product has more to it than meets the eye.

Stylish design with substance to spare

The Side Speaker is simply smart and stunning

For ages now, there has been an eternal complaint about how OEMs continuously relegate the speaker to the back of the device, totally destroying sound quality when said product is placed flat on a table, or when your finger obscures the grill. Sometimes the “sound holes” are moved to the bottom of the frame yet the finger-placement issue still becomes a problem. Save for an approach like HTC or Motorola have taken with front-facing speakers, it seemed like no one else got the issue. Another brilliant element of the Iron 2’s design is the speaker.

Despite the metal frame, Pantech has drilled speaker holes into the sides of the bottom-left corner. Yes, that’s right. Sides. The entire corner has ventilation thus allowing for sound to circulate even when you might cover part or all of one edge. It’s absolutely brilliant, and something not even Apple has bothered to try. While the product would arguably better if two of the opposing corners had speakers (for stereo), this design flourish is without rival (that I know of, at least),

Front and back balance

I’ll be honest: the first thing that actually caught my eye was the top right corner of the device, which functions as a notification LED. The Korean-only DMB digital TV antenna is also stored within the device here as well. I don’t know why, but the asymmetrical approach to the front glass just oozes cool for me. Years back, Sharp released a feature phone here in Japan that had a similar corner and I loved it, too. The light itself is a bit too small given that the indicator is just larger than a pin-hole, but at least it extends to the front and back side, something that is also essentially unheard of in mobile design.

The top right corner has a small notification LED. The back side also has one!

Similar to Samsung, Pantech has included a rectangular “home” button, though its much more compact than the elongated shapes the Galaxy-series now features. Along either side is a menu and back capacitive touch-sensitive area, just like Samsung includes.

It looks like Samsung’s, yet is much more compact.

Also similar to Samsung, the back panel is removable and plastic, though admittedly the material used here feels like it could be snapped in half if you tried. On the good side however, it’s rubberized, at least on the Black Gold model I have. I absolutely love it to be honest: it basically ensures the device won’t slip as much, and it feels very nice to hold.

Perhaps most amazing however, is the fact that Pantech actually designed its device with a fingerprint sensor in mind, yet decided not to force it upon those who weren’t interested. Take a look at the back of the Iron 2, sans cover:

The removable back cover holds the battery, Micro SD, and Micro SIM and… what’s that empty circle below the camera?

Notice the curiously large, circular space that is located just below the camera? This is for an optional accessory, a back cover that adds a fingerprint sensor! By the look of it, the panel has a leather surface, or at least a textured plastic. Sadly I was not able to test out the fingerprint sensor (the phone was purchased used in Japan remember) so I can’t offer any commentary as to how well it worked (or didn’t), though it looks like a swipe-based sensor a la Samsung (not Apple). Still, kudos for Pantech for thinking to include it as an optional element.

It’s a space for the optional fingerprint sensor back panel! Pantech literally thought of everything!

It’s also worth mentioning that the 5.3 inch AMOLED panel used in this device is not only larger than that of the Galaxy S5, but actually looks every bit as good (to me at least). The colors Pop so loud that Snap and Crackle are being kept up at night, and the auto-brightness works wonderfully. I would liked to have seen a screen mode option a la Samsung however.

Solid software

As this is not a formal review of the Iron 2, and as I’d wager 99% of readers have not and will never use it, I am going to avoid a long digression into the heavily-skinned software. Pantech, just like Samsung and LG, has completely remade Android in its own image. Some of the English used to describe the features is quite bad, but ironically the features themselves are killer cool:

#gallery-1
margin: auto;

#gallery-1 .gallery-item
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 33%;

#gallery-1 img
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;

#gallery-1 .gallery-caption
margin-left: 0;

/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

1. The Iron 2 features a dizzying array of features seemingly lifted from its most lofty of rivals. In particular, I liked “Live up” which is essentially Motorola’s “Ambient Display”: when you pick up the device, it will display notifications and such on the lock screen. Also present is the ability to double-tap to turn on the display when sleeping.

2. The customization options are just astounding. Until now, I thought that LG had the most creative skin, as it allows users to change the pictures of all the icons and edit the on-screen navigation buttons. The Vega Iron 2 features endless amounts of options. The icon “themes” can be changed to one of 4 pre-installed options, and more can be downloaded via the OEMs dedicated store. The icons themselves can be further edited however, like Nova or similar launchers, wherein you can add a background to them, and even alter the physical shape and opacity. Likewise, the pre-installed lock and home screen backgrounds can be customized with different colors, and even the size of the design itself. Heck, even the OEM keyboard can be altered!

3. The Setting Menu is radically different from any vanilla AOSP build, but it works a lot smoother than TouchWiz. The nice color use and the customization window at the top add to the experience.

Plus point: battery

Battery life is absolutely fantastic. I have used this device all day to browse the web, watch videos on YouTube, send e-mails, text, and various other activities, and yet at the end of the day it was only about half empty. It’s actually a mystery to me how Pantech did this considering how heavy its skin is. When I had the Galaxy S5, the thing drained quite quickly and required charging every day without question, and, mind you, I disabled almost all the extra features such as motion control.

Wrap up

Just imagine how much more of a competition this would have been had the Galaxy S5 actually been the Vega Iron 2.

The Pantech Vega Iron 2 is a fantastic phone that fans of Samsung or LG will absolutely love. Android purists need not feel as if they missed anything obviously. It has (what I feel is) a great design, killer components, a fantastic and crisp display, and customization options up the wazoo.

The real dilemma here is not for the consumer, but for Samsung. It seems almost inconceivable that a tiny domestic rival like Pantech could not only produce a phone this good, but actually put out a product that is in every way, arguably, superior to the Galaxy S5. Seemingly every single hardware complaint has been addressed, from the presence of metal to the OIS camera, to the inclusion of a 3rd GB of RAM, to a design that looks radically different from the Galaxy S4 or S5, or even the original Iron Vega for that matter.

With the endless amount of hype building up to the March unveiling of the Galaxy S6, Samsung needs to truly deliver a product that will not only impress, but set itself apart from the numerous rival devices that will enter the market this year. In considering the Vega Iron 2 however, Samsung also needs to match wits with a product from 2014 as well.

Don’t take those Spigen Galaxy S6 cases too seriously

Here we go again. Spigen, the well-known case manufacturer, is trying to squeeze out some early SEO juice by putting up cases for a highly anticipated device that is still weeks away. It happened with the One (M8), Nexus 5, and a few other devices, and it’s now happening with the Galaxy S6.

The images below are from Spigen’s Amazon listing and allegedly show Samsung’s eagerly awaited new entry in the Galaxy S series.

This clear case in particular appears to be giving us a good look at the Galaxy S6, which, if the render is correct, looks a lot like the Galaxy S5, save for the different placement of the flash and sensor module.

Is this it? After Samsung promised us new materials and innovative designs, will it deliver a Galaxy S5 look alike? Probably not.

Last year, Spigen put up its Galaxy S5 cases before the device was announced, and while their render of the device was close to the real thing, it wasn’t accurate. In Spigen’s Galaxy S5 rendition, the device had a two-tone flash, but no heart rate scanner, and – rather amusingly – no home button.

Spigen and other case makers may know in advance the size of upcoming devices and the placement of design elements like the camera, buttons, and ports. It’s widely assumed that Samsung itself gives out these dimensions, so accessory makers can launch their products in time for the phone release.

But that’s it – Samsung has no reason to share more details than it needs to, especially to a partner like Spigen that is prone to leaking them out.

At this point, it looks safe to assume that Samsung has relocated the flash/HRM module to the side of the camera. That’s the same layout that can be seen in another set of cases that hit the web, this time coming from a Chinese wholesale case seller on Alibaba.

But everything else is up in the air – the dimpled texture on the back, the materials, the colors, other design elements, those are elements that Spigen’s designers likely just made up based on the Galaxy S5.

For the real deal, whatever it ends up looking like, we’ll have to wait, probably until MWC. There’s still no official confirmation that the Galaxy S6 is coming at the Barcelona show, but all signs point to it. For more on the Galaxy S6, check out our rumor roundup.

Qualcomm reveals “large customer’s flagship” won’t use Snapdragon 810, all signs point to Samsung

A week ago, to the date, we first caught wind of a report from Bloomberg claiming that Samsung would be relying on its own Exynos processors for the Galaxy S6, with the biggest reason being that Samsung had reportedly ran into overheating issues while testing out the Snapdragon 810. Now Qualcomm has seemingly confirmed that this is more than just a rumor.

While Qualcomm didn’t directly say Samsung isn’t using the Snapdragon 810 in its next-gen flagship, they did reveal that they are adjusting revenue expectations for the second half of the year due to the fact that a “large customer” has elected not to use Qualcomm’s latest chip in their flagship device. Putting two and two together, it seems more than likely that Samsung is the large company that Qualcomm references, as few other OEMs are big enough to make Qualcomm completely readjust their revenue expectations.

Samsung is one of the Qualcomm’s biggest customers and so losing them for the GS6 is a massive blow.

So does this mean that all Samsung Galaxy S6 devices will use Exynos processors? Not necessarily, it is still possible a small number could utilize Qualcomm chips — 810 or even older chips like 805. That said, it seems like a safe bet that, at the very least, that the majority of Galaxy S6 variants will ship with Exynos processors this time around. This is a pretty big change for Samsung, who has used Exynos chips in select variants of its flagships for years but has never rolled them out in markets like the United States.

As for Qualcomm, Samsung is one of the chip maker’s biggest customers and so losing them is a massive blow for the generally most popular mobile chipset maker in the world. Of course, Qualcomm still has plenty of partners that are lining up to use the Snapdragon 810, including LG who has already utilized the chip in their LG G Flex 2. What do you think, are you okay with the idea of a Galaxy S6 without a Snapdragon inside? For those that were considering buying the GS6, will Samsung’s decision to (more than likely) go all-Exynos at all cause you to consider another device instead?

Snapdragon 810 issues may put the heat on Qualcomm

By now, you’ve likely heard that Qualcomm is having issues producing its latest high-end processor, the Snapdragon 810. That’s not uncommon in an industry where products are literally measured in microns. Only problem is, a lot of smartphone makers depend on Qualcomm for their application processors, meaning that the heat is on, literally and figuratively, for the chipmaker to figure out a solution.

Last week we heard that Samsung is going to drop Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip from the Galaxy S6, and replace it with an Exynos chip of its own production. That would be a huge blow for Qualcomm, given that Samsung is one of its biggest clients, and the Galaxy S series is Samsung’s bestselling device.

WSJ later reported that, in a bid to get Samsung to use Snapdragon 810 at least for some of its Galaxy S6 production, Qualcomm is scrambling to modify the chip, with a “fixed” version to be presented to Samsung in March.

Last minute changes are relatively common in chip manufacturing, as an analyst cited by Korea Times points out:

“In this sense, there is a chance Qualcomm will provide a modified version for Samsung to use in the Galaxy S6 model, but this is usual before massive production. For Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics is one of the most important partners, so the company is likely to show some reaction to the issue.”

However, if Qualcomm admits that it modified a design for Samsung, it could get in hot water with other clients. LG and Xiaomi are the two companies that have announced Snapdragon 810-powered devices, the G Flex 2 and Mi Note Pro, respectively.

Citing a source close to the matter, Korea Times reports that LG may even be tempted to call out Qualcomm over the issue:

“If Qualcomm officially confirms it will modify the Snapdragon 810, it means that the company admits the chipset has a flaw. Then it could trigger legal disputes.”

To be clear, that doesn’t mean that LG will necessarily sue Qualcomm over the Snapdragon 810. It’s just that, depending on the agreements between the two companies, LG could claim that Qualcomm has not kept its end of the bargain.

LG has already denied that the G Flex 2 (not the Snapdragon inside) suffers from overheating, though this wording leaves room to interpretation.

While irritating LG is just a possibility for now, another side effect of this debacle could give Qualcomm some real headaches – the resurgence of Exynos chips. For the last few years, Qualcomm has copiously dominated the mobile SoC industry. While Samsung, Nvidia, and Intel managed to get their chips into some devices, Qualcomm owned most of the market, especially at the mid and high-end. MediaTek, focusing on entry-level devices, has been the only real competition.

This faux pas could give Samsung the chance to sell the upcoming Exynos 7420 as a real alternative to Snapdragon 810, at a time when the company is looking for ways to keep profits in-house. Not only would Qualcomm lose major orders from Samsung, other clients may be tempted to use Exynos chips in their devices.

‘Galaxy S Edge’ name spotted in Vodafone site source code

For a while now we’ve heard rumors suggesting at least one variant of the Samsung Galaxy S6 will offer up an edge display somewhat similar to the Note Edge. More recently we learned Samsung will allegedly offer dual edges this time around, alongside other improvements that should alleviate some of the issues consumers had with the original Note Edge.

Looking for more proof of the Samsung Galaxy S6’s Edge model? As first reported by Netherlands-based Galaxy Club, it seems that a new placeholder page for the Galaxy S6 has now appeared on Vodafone Netherlands’ website. At first glance, there’s really nothing to learn from this page, but digging into the source code reveals an interesting tidbit: a developer note makes mention of the need to add a “pre-order form for Samsung Galaxy S Edge” in the future.

While obviously this is a placeholder page and the note could simply be based on anticipation of an Edge model and not because Vodafone has definitive proof from Samsung, we have to admit that the idea of the name “Galaxy S Edge” makes a lot of sense. After all, Samsung didn’t call the Note Edge the Note 4 Edge. Of course there is still the possibility that the dual-edged model won’t use the “Edge” moniker at all, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if this possible leak proves true.

Unfortunately nothing else can be sleuthed from reading the source or looking at the placeholder page. What do you think, could Galaxy S Edge be the final name of the dual-edged GS6?