O2 picks up HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris) as O2 Xda Orbit 2

We love O2 (NYSE: TEF)’s penchant for completely renaming their smartphone handsets to fit their “Xda” naming scheme. Especially when they rename the already long-named HTC smartphones. O2 has announced that they’ll be launching the HTC Polaris P3650, which HTC recently renamed the HTC Touch Cruise, as the O2 Xda Orbit 2.

The O2 Xda Orbit 2 / HTC Polaris P3650 Touch Cruise will be picking up where the O2 Xda Orbit left off – which is to say that the O2 Xda Orbit 2 will be rocking some beefed up specs. With a 400Mhz Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) processor, 128 MB / 256 MB of RAM and ROM, integrated GPS, quad-band GSM, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 3 megapixel camera, and the must-have TouchFLO interface, the O2 Xda Orbit 2 is sure to please. We’re not sure if the O2 Xda Orbit 2 will be rocking a US-friendly tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100Mhz) radio or just a single-band (2100Mhz) deal – back when it was called the HTC Polaris, we saw a single-band 2100Mhz UMTS spec, but the HTC Touch Cruise sports a tri-band UMTS radio. We’ll just have to wait and see what this thing rocks (although, being an O2 device, we’re betting on single-band 2100Mhz).

The O2 Xda Orbit 2 is slated to drop in December at a €99 (about $140) price point.  You’ll get pre-installed TomTom GPS navigation software and a 1Gb microSd card. Talk about a good deal. Lucky Brits will be able to get their hands on this TouchFLO-hottie, packed to the gills with features, for less than an iPod Nano.

[Via: Unwired View]