Pantech Breakout is Verizon's budget 4G/LTE phone, $100

Verizon is adding a budget 4G/LTE smartphone to its lineup with the Pantech Breakout on September 22, for just $100 after a $50 rebate for signing a two-year contract.

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This Gingerbread (Android 2.3) running phone is powered by a 1 GHz processor, with a 4-inch touchscreen (480 X 800 resolution), a VGA front camera and a 5-megapixel rear camera and camcorder capable of shooting 720p videos, Bluetooth and of course Wi-Fi. You can tether up to 10 Wi-Fi enabled devices to the Breakout, and can share media files with other Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) gadgets by using the preloaded Net Media app. It doesn't hurt that it includes a 8 GB microSD card. Unfortunately the press release did not provide any details on its battery life so we'll have to give it the benefit of the doubt until we can get our hands on one of these for testing.

Verizon's voice plan starts at $39.99 for 450 minutes and $50 for 4G of data with tethering (or $30 for 2 GB of just data) so it's a good thing the handset is relatively affordable. Hopefully the Breakout's great price will give other manufacturers a push to release better 4G/LTE phones at the $100 range.

[Source: Verizon press release]