Known mostly for budget-friendly phones with not very hot tech specs in the U.S., Pantech might be looking to upgrade its playing league. We haven’t yet heard anything clear about the recently teased Flex, but the Vega S5, Star Q 4G LTE and Marauder looked like much more than the modest gadgets we've been used to see from Pantech.

Now a new Pantech-made phone has been leaked, and, although it’s not exactly a contender for the Galaxy S3 or HTC One X, it might come with high-end-ish specs. The Magnus (which is Latin for “great”) seems to be on its way to AT&T and might enjoy a release by the end of September.

First spotted getting FCC approval at the beginning of August under the P9090 codename, the Magnus now stars in a leaked pic that can only mean one thing. Someone is trying to build hype around the handheld, so a launch is imminent.

The photo doesn’t reveal much about the “Great”, aside from the featuring of an 8MP rear-facing camera with flash and the inclusion of a front-facing webcam (most likely a 1.3MP one). Still, we can easily tell that the phone will be running ICS out of the box or maybe even Jelly Bean, having some juicy on-screen navigation buttons.

A few other tech specs have been rumored before, including the featuring of a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 processor, an Adreno 225 GPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of on-board memory and a 720p HD display. The screen will probably measure around 4.3 inches in diagonal, although it could go up to 4.5.

As for the design, this is actually quite intriguing. The front is not very original or unusual, looking kind of bland even, but the back is a whole different story. There are not only sexy curves there, but also quirky bumps, which makes this look a bit like HTC’s Incredibles. This is clearly one love or hate design point, and, while some will find it innovative, cool and special, others will most likely call it ugly or tacky. I for one kind of like it, because, even if it’s not the absolute most elegant phone ever, it’s not ordinary either.

We of course know nothing about the Magnus' price or exact release date, but as soon as we'll find out something we'll let you know. For now, tell us if you're at least intrigued about the phone's design and rumored spec sheet.