Pantech SKY unveils high-speed Vega Racer

Pantech SKY unveiled the world’s first Android-powered smartphone equipped with Qualcomm’s speedy 1.5 gigahertz dual core processor called Vega Racer on Thursday.

The company said that its new smartphone with a 4.3-inch display screen would be available in four different colors and serviced by the country’s three telecom suppliers ― SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus.

“We attempted to upgrade the dual core processor from 1.2 gigahertz to 1.5 gigahertz because we wanted to be the No. 1 player in terms of performance,” said Lee Eung-joon, vice president of the domestic product planning team at Pantech, in a press conference at its research and development center in northern Seoul.

The company’s rivals, such as Samsung Electronics, recently introduced Galaxy S 2, which runs on the 1.2 gigahertz dual core application processor.

Claiming that Qualcomm’s newest processor enables at least two-times fast web browsing for customers, it will roll out the product in the local market as early as this month, its officials said. SKT and KT will launch the product later this month and LG Uplus will feature it in June.

As an exemplary case, the smartphone features a dual mode smart liquid-crystal display. Users can change the mode to secret view to stop other people peeking at their mobile screens. Viewed directly, the screen appears normal, but from the side the screen only shows shapes of rabbits and other distractions.

Users could also choose two covers for the mobiles from a range of 24 different designs including basic, formal looks and fashionable and active motifs.

Pantech SKY plans to sell at least 1 million units of Vega Racer in Korea and has set a target of 3 million to 5 million units overseas, particularly in the U.S. and Japan.

“The basic theme for the product will be maintained, however, small differentiated points will be coded according to the characteristics of the market,” said the company’s chief marketing officer Yim Sung-jae.

Lee Joon-woo, senior executive vice president at the firm’s Technology Strategy Center, also said Pantech will be releasing a smartphone which could operate on the Long Term Evolution network with Verizon in July in the overseas market.

“Although it depends on when the LTE networks will be made ready by local telecoms, there is a plan to roll the mobile phone out in the Korean market in October,” he said.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)