CLEAR WiMAX goes live in Las Vegas, Samsung Mondi ships to take advantage

Looking for one more excuse to stay inside and avoid that sweltering Las Vegas heat this summer? Good news, gamblers -- Clearwire's CLEAR WiMAX service has officially gone live across 638 square miles in the greater Las Vegas area. By the books, that's serving right around 1.7 million residents, not including the influx of tourists from other WiMAX-equipped cities that will undoubtedly take advantage. To coincide with the launch, Samsung has also announced that its QWERTY-packin', DivX-friendly Mondi -- which we toyed with back at CTIA -- will be available in Vegas-area Best Buy and Clearwire outlets starting August 1st. Said MID arrives with 4G support, WiFi, GPS, 3 megapixel camera, a QWERTY keypad, a 4.3-inch touchscreen, Opera 9.5 and a customizable set of widgets on top of Windows Mobile. The device is supposedly available now through Samsung's website and "select Samsung authorized distributors," but we're having no lucky hunting one down at present time.

Read - CLEAR in Las Vegas
Read - Samsung Mondi shipping

CLEAR WiMAX goes live in Las Vegas, Samsung Mondi ships to take advantage

[Alex Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:12AM]

Kind of looks like an OQO :-(

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:15AM]

Actually, it looks like a WinMo clone of the Nokia 810

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:32AM]

Looks nice, but too much "border" real estate. I want a larger screen than my iPhone, but I don't want all this wasted space.

Also, it's running windows. Now, I have nothing against windows which is fine as a desktop OS, but it's clunky on a mobile phone.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:37AM]

word.

at 4.3" plus the width of the bezel on all sides, I think this thing would be barely pocketable.

But still WANT 4G. God dammit, AT&T's 3G service suuuucks in NYC. :-[

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:38AM]

nokia n900

[air on Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:53AM]

I see CLEAR stands around the city and thought they were nothing special, but I've heard very good things about it.

[xirsteon Posted Jul 21st 2009 10:53AM]

Price? if it is way more than Archos 9, then Samsung can wave goodbye to my benjamins..

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 12:54PM]

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=mobilephones&type=mobilephones&subtype=morecarriers&model_cd=SWD-M100ZKACLW

[artshark Posted Jul 21st 2009 11:10AM]

that+skype in+skype out=veritable phone replacement. just have a profile only for that device so it can receive and make calls fine

[Khav Posted Jul 21st 2009 11:38AM]

It looks like it'd be way too bulky for a phone replacement, although with a headset the size of the device wouldn't matter.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 11:26AM]

Too bad Clear cripples their service by port blocking.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 12:42PM]

Imagine these will be very helpful for the local street businesses.

Most Vegas hotels charge $12.99 + a night for Internet.
This will leave more money for slots and female entertainment :)

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 1:19PM]

Currently have the Samsung Mondi in my hands running on the Clear network here in Vegas, and I must say, I love the damn thing. It's fast, Opera 9.5 is smooth, just installed PockeTwit on it and everything is super fast. Yes, it's WinMo with some nice Samsung touches in there. It's definitely pocketable, a bit heavy though. But I'm used to carrying around an HTC Touch Pro so it's not a deal breaker for me. I spend most my time in Vegas so I think I will eventually pick one up.

[mitch1010 Posted Jul 21st 2009 2:23PM]

I'm following this one because I'm more interested in the PDA aspects of a WinMo devise than the phone; I need to replace an aging HP iPaq 2755 thats now 5 years old. I use it mostly for taking notes and reading books, but the display and software is pretty outdated. Samsung's website was briefly showing availability and pricing at USD $449; the 150 page user manual is also online. JKKmobile.com states the CPU running at 800mhz, but doesn't mention the battery though Samsung claims 4hr on WiMax, 5hr on WiFi. No info on the display type either; TFT vs. OLED. If it's an OLED this would be a great PDA even without the WiMax!

[Evaq8 Posted Jul 21st 2009 3:17PM]

I live in Vegas and if you guys want to send me out one to test out i will let you know how it works:)

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 4:51PM]

Its available on Letstalk.com $455 shipped. In Stock.

http://samsung.letstalk.com/product/product.htm?prId=35487

[bulsworth Posted Jul 21st 2009 6:10PM]

I live in vegas too. I was looking at the clear website. The pricing is better than Cox. They even have mobile internet and voice service. The only problem is they require a 2 year contract which no one wants to get into.

They should give it away for free to a a good number of people to get it out there. I wouldn't mind testing it out.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 1st 2009 10:39AM]

www.GetClearLasVegas.com gave me a free live demo at my house in Henderson and it works great! 4G all the way!