Motorola and Sprint aren't the only ones who are giving QWERTY keyboard loving smartphone users attention these days. Pantech and Verizon are also getting in on the action with their new Pantech Marauder, a 4G LTE-powered budget smartphone with a slide-out keyboard. Beyond the lure of a physical keys, the Marauder boasts two user modes, Starter and Standard.
Starter mode is designed for first-time smartphone users and includes four home screens, a simple lock screen layout and quick dialer icon. Standard mode provides a normal Android experience complete with seven home screens and customizable lock screen, presumably similar to the lock screen found on Pantech's Burst smartphone.
On the inside, the Marauder is powered by a 1.2-GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Verizon hasn't given total storage capacity, but Big Red did say that the Marauder would offer a MicroSD card slot expandable up to 32GB. It's unclear exactly what version of Android the Marauder will be running, but based on the look of the phone's soft-touch buttons, it looks like it'll carry Ice Cream Sandwich.
The Marauder is set to go on sale at verizonwireless.com on Aug. 2 for $49.99 on contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.
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