@(Unverified)

Wow, you hail 200kbps as good 3G. Dear god, you are so naive. Most AT&T areas are supposedly HSDPA-- meaning they should be getting at least 1-2+ *megabits per second*, not 200-300 *kilobits per second* (as what you're getting apparently). That's barely 3G speeds.

I get T-mobile EDGE at nearly 200kbps consistently, so that means I'm doing about as well as you are on AT&T 3G. Isn't that at least a little sad?

@(Unverified)

VoIP also requires low latency to work effectively. Neither AT&T or T-Mobile's 3G has the latency to be a great VoIP backbone, at least not right now and especially not AT&T (with it's inundation with iPhones). Once the networks are built out and beefed up with T3s then will we see decent 3G. Plus, don't you dare leave incredibly strong 3G areas (or hope your provider doesn't temporarily lose data, as AT&T has a couple times in the couple years), because your VoIP service will die quick, fast and in a hurry.

Also, your claim that 10x for 3G speeds is not entirely true. Have you even read the BGR, Engadget, or other articles that show that 3G on AT&T has been deplorable since the iPhone came out?
In my location, 3G is laughable because of the large influx of iPhones and other 3G smartphones. I literally lost it when I could pull speeds better on EDGE than on 3G (I used to get 2+ mbps before the iPhone 3G came out, now I get maybe 200kbps or high-end EDGE speeds...). Really, 3G is good if it doesn't die down to a crawl, and it tends to die down quite often in many areas of the US.

For the record, I use an unlocked Blackjack on T-Mobile EDGE, and I've had better service in the last couple months than I did in the last 2 years on AT&T.

@xchrislee

So the dozens of older phones (with no 3G bands whatsoever) are also of no use to most people. Give me a break.

It has a quadband GSM chipset, that does mean it will work on every GSM carrier in the world. Add the fact that it isn't carrier locked means that someone could use it anywhere with any SIM card.

3G isn't a requirement right now, maybe in about 10 years when 4-5G tech is everywhere and 2GSM is truely obsolete, but then again, 3GSM would also become obsolete around the same time.

@(Unverified)

The only way a device is truly unlocked, according to what you claim, needs to have T-Mobile AND AT&T 3G? That's absurd. By the same token if a certain device doesn't have T-Mobile 3G, it can't be a truly unlocked phone either. Take that N97! Pfft.

Yo forget to understand the concept of an 'unlocked cell phone:' it's *not locked* to SIMs of a certain carrier. You can use this on AT&T (or Cell One, or Cincinatti Bell, or...) just as well as you can on T-Mobile. It's just an incentive to use T_Mobile, since you can get better speeds. This is no different to using a European unlocked device in the US, it may only have the 2100 3G band, but that doesn't mean it's locked down to a carrier.

There's been a ton of people who use the unlocked ADP 1 & 2 (Ion) on AT&T, and there was a number of AT&T-branded devices being used on T-Mobile (I know, I use one everyday).

@Saauron

That's very possible. Apple may not have a case specifically on the multitouch patents, but they could have a case against Google (and those formerly on Apple's board) on using Apple's trade secrets if Google decided to use certain multitouch aspects on their OS.

Not if you want a phone that's has the same specs as the current iPhone. There's only five right now close to the hardware specs and multimedia capabilites of the iPhone: Palm Pre/Pixi, Droid, TouchPro2 (kinda...), and the N900.

None of these are less than $400 after AT&T ETF+last month of AT&T service (at least $70)+first month of new service (almost all of them will cost you just as much to use per month as an iPhone).
So, truely, unless you activively want to go to another carrier it doesn't make much sense.

@Patlex

Isn't the 'Acer interface' actually SPB Mobile Shell? That's no where near Acer-own.

HD Goodness

@Ineed911
I can get better speeds on T-Mobile's EDGE now than on AT&T's 3G in my area... that's sad. AT&T's even pushed AMR-HR on 3G now... because of overcrowding vis-a-vis iPhone popularity. Wasn't 3G supposed to help with call quality??? I agree that AT&T's service has gone to the toilet, but I'd rather have decent price/month+decent 3G data service (even middle-of-nowhere Amarillo, TX has T-Mobile 3G).

Also, there's Stelera Broadband ISP which uses AWS for its 3GSM service, and a handful of other 3G-AWS committed regional carriers in the US that would like to have a piece of 3G-capable N-Series pie... Don't forget, many US regional carriers sell unlocked Nokia E- and N-Series phones (even with contract), so take that into account.

It's not just the national carriers that get to see this device.

I’m thinking this is going to target Latin America, Canada, and Europe not AT&T...

If you look at the specs posted on Android and Me (which posted the story last night), there could also be T-Mobile and Euro-only variants in the works.

I'm thinking this is a HTC-sort of move (TouchPro[2], for example) with a spec sheet spanning multiple models, depending on market.