Pantech Element unboxing

It’s not every day we spot something submerged in a tank full of water and still functioning normally, but that’s exactly what we witnessed back at AT&T’s Developer Conference held during CES. In fact, we managed to spend a tiny bit of hands-on time with the Pantech Element Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet that’s available right now for $299.99 with a 2-year contract. Rather than concocting something very typical, Pantech’s offering is able to differentiate itself thanks to its waterproof nature, which should no doubt prove to be one alluring feature that’s rarely seen amongst tablets.

Donning the usual AT&T colors with its packaging, it doesn’t particularly look any different from other AT&T devices we’ve checked out in the past, but there are two images splashed on the front and back to give would-be owners a good look at its design. Inside however, we’re treated to the normal set of items, which include its documentation, microUSB cable, and wall charger. Interestingly enough, one of the documents specifically mentions the following:




Being an IP57 rated device, the Pantech Element is protected against water immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. So yeah, it’ll survive if you happen to drop it in the shallowest portion of your backyard pool, but anything deeper, you’ll have nothing more than an over-sized paper weight. Nevertheless, the protection that it offers is substantially superior to what other tablets provide, and it’s easily protected against the elements.





We won’t go into the specifics surrounding the tablet since we’ve already scoped it out at CES, but as a refresher, it features an 8” 1024 x 768 display, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 4G LTE connectivity, 1GB RAM, 6,400 mAh battery, 5-megapixel rear camera with flash, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 720p video recording, microHDMI port, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. Expect our in-depth review soon!