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The Boy Genius Report: Motorola W490 on T-Mobile October 1
Field tidbits from Engadget's mobile insider, The Boy Genius.If you close your eyes and trace your fingers along the midrange W490, you could almost fool yourself into thinking it's a KRZR -- open your eyes, though, and you'll discover that it's a whole lot more colorful for a fraction of the price. The handset launches on October 1 in "licorice" (you may know it better as black) for $49.99 on a two-year contract, but bright green and purple are on the docket in the not-too-distant future, fitting for a phone that T-Mobile is positioning to take over for the discontinued RAZR V3t. Features include a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD slot, the obligatory myFaves support, and Bluetooth, and the carrier is saying that it's using the handset to take aim at Verizon's u540, Sprint's M500, and Samsung's SYNC. The first two we can see, but isn't the SYNC just a tick higher on the totem pole? At any rate, look for it as an "exclusive" to T-Mobile's retail stores, Target, and Costco on launch day with full availability following on the 8th.
September's bumper crop for T-Mobile to include first 3G handset?
Though we still don't have a great sense of exactly when or where T-Mobile plans to kick off its long-overdue 3G launch, the hardware is thankfully starting to materialize -- so they'll at least be ready when the time comes to flip the switch. Boy Genius Report has apparently scored some additional intel detailing the Samsung SGH-T639, a phone we saw grace the FCC not long ago (which is how we happen to know it rocks T-Mobile's particular flavor of WCDMA, 1700MHz). If this slide pans out, it looks like the T639 is a pretty unremarkable offering considering its rather remarkable place in T-Mobile history, sporting a meager one megapixel camera in an ultra-conservative flip package. It looks like it'll hit on the 10th of September, though there's no indication whether any 3G markets will light up on the same day. In other T-Mobile news, it looks like the carrier will be rereleasing the first-gen BlackBerry Pearl in three new colors on September 4 while the more interesting 8320 variant of the Curve -- WiFi and all -- hits on September 24. Finally, Motorola pulls two out of its sleeve for the month: the low end W490 clamshell and the "RAZR V3 06," which as far as we can tell, is yet another rehash of the tired RAZR V3. At any rate, kudos, T-Mobile!Read - Samsung SGH-T639Read - RIM BlackBerry Curve 8320Read - RIM BlackBerry PearlRead - Motorola RAZR V3 06, W490
