MetroPCS follows Cricket’s lead, launches Huawei’s Ascend budget Android phone
Huawei's really starting to make a splash in the American smartphone market, breaking into the Big Four with the launch of the T-Mobile Comet not long ago -- but it's the budget regionals where these guys might have a chance to dominate. MetroPCS has taken a cue from archrival Cricket in launching Huawei's Ascend today, offering a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, and microSD memory expansion to 16GB atop Android 2.1 . The $179 they're asking seems a bit steep for the specs until you remember that MetroPCS offers its hardware contract-free -- and it'll save you a dime or two over the carrier's name-brand Android offering, the Optimus M from LG
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: ascend, budget, comet, huawei, metropcs, mobile, mobile-comet, optimus
LG Optimus U hitting US Cellular on December 13th, free on contract
LG's well-received Optimus line of budget Android sets continues to expand, impress, and go gentle on wallets around the world -- and the latest to launch will come from US Cellular in the form of the Optimus U. First mentioned last month during the Apex's release , the phone hits next Monday, December 13th -- and once you take the mail-in rebate of $80 into account, you won't pay a dime for it on a new two-year contract.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: apex, budget, cellular, engadget, engadget-mobile, froyo, mentioned-last, mobile, phone, sets-continues, storage, uscellular
Nokia C3 Touch and Type hands-on
Nokia continued the precedent set by the X3-02 at Nokia World last week by rolling out the C3 Touch and Type, its second Series 40 -based handset to make use of that pretty unusual touchscreen / numeric keypad combo. Unlike the X3-02, the the new C3 variant features a more traditional keypad layout by dropping the *0# row down below the 789 row, but since T9 only makes use of the first three rows to do its thing, it shouldn't make much of a different in practice for typing usability
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: below-the-789, budget, c3 touch and type, c3touchandtype, entry, keypad, layout, money, nokia world, nokiaworld2010, precedent, resistive-touch, series 40, touch
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: badge, bezel, budget, engadget, entry, mystery, nokia, nokia world 2010, nokiaworld, nokiaworld2010, register-while, screens, sexiest, swipes
Cricket starts offering Android-powered Zio for $230
As we discovered back at its CTIA intro earlier this year, Kyocera's (and Sanyo's) Zio isn't the neatest Android phone you've ever seen -- nor the most technically impressive -- but at $230 without a contract after $20 discount, it's pretty hard to argue that you're not getting what you pay for. Regional carrier Cricket had been promising the Zio for some time, and now it's here, just the latest in the company's newfound push into the smartphone space -- a space it's traditionally avoided in the past -- with the recent launch of the Curve 8530 (for the same price as the Zio, coincidentally). Trackballs are officially pass
Categories: Android, BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: budget, Carrier, cricket, cricket wireless, curve, launch, leap wireless, leapwireless, mobile, starts-offering, trackballs, zio
Rogers announces plans for budget-minded ‘Chatr’ wireless brand
Well, it looks like Canadians will soon have yet another discount wireless brand to consider -- Rogers has just officially announced plans to launch a new budget-minded "Chatr" brand to compete with the likes of Wind , Mobilicity and Public Mobile . Yes, that's the same Rogers that already has the Fido discount brand, but it says that the "launch of a third brand mirrors many other industries like the hospitality and retail sectors and is designed to offer Canadians more choice." The official announcement follows some rumors and leaks that have been circulating as of late, which suggested that Chatr would initially launch in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver on July 5th, although those details still haven't yet been confirmed by Rogers. Rogers announces plans for budget-minded 'Chatr' wireless brand originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:38:00 EST
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: budget, chartrwireless, discount, fri, hospitality, public-mobile, toronto
Vodafone launches its first, underwhelming Android handset (video)
If we know you at all (and we think we know you pretty well) you'll probably be amused and titillated to learn that Vodafone has announced that its first Vodafone-branded Android phone will be available this May. The Vodafone 845 -- which we first saw in an FCC filing a couple weeks ago -- certainly is, in the UK idiom, a "budget blower." Featuring Android 2.1, a 2.8-inch (240 x 320) touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera, 128MB RAM, and 512MB storage, there is nothing too terribly wild here, but you know what? Sometimes a company just needs to hit a comfortable, middle-of-the-road benchmark.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: 845, after-the-break, beloved, budget, eclair, engadget, fridays, maybe-the-title, open-source, video
Plantronics goes chrometastic with Explorer 395 Bluetooth headset
Who says Bluetooth headsets aren't cool any more? Not Plantronics . Today, the California-based company released the Explorer 395 earpiece -- a $49.95 earpiece in both black and bronze flavors, and aimed at first-time Bluetooth users
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: 395-earpiece, bluetooth, budget, explorer 395, judgement, plantronics, plantronics bluetooth, plantronics explorer, plantronicsexplorer395
An All-around Practical Mobile Phone: Nokia 1661
The Nokia 1661, which we truly found to be a wonderful phone , really rivals most of the budget- mobile phones out there and we strongly advice this to anyone looking for a good, affordable phone .
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: anyone-looking, budget, Mobile Phone, nokia, phones-out, really-rivals, strongly-advice, the-budget-mobile, wonderful-phone
Sussex police jobs could go in funding crisis (From The Argus)
I phoned the police last night (well actually early morning 02:30) to inform them of a group of people that were not only intent on waking the whole street but more importantly dealing drugs in plain sight to passers by, after 3 phone ...
Categories: Other, Phone Street Tags: beat, brighton, budget, chop, crime, light, photograph, publics, robert-mugabe, streets, sussex, sussex-police, type, worthing