While Verizon has yet to launch their first LTE capable smartphone, MetroPCS has seemingly come out of nowhere and not only announced their first LTE packing handset, but say it’ll be on store shelves by the end of this week. It’s be called the “Samsung Galaxy Indulge” and it’s a side slider QWERTY device with Android 2.2 and a 3.5 inch screen that has a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, 3.2 megapixel camera, and we’re assuming there’s WiFi and GPS in there as well. It’ll come with a 4 GB memory card with Iron Man 2 already on it, but users will be able to shove a 32 GB microSD card in there if they need more capacity. It’ll cost you $399 plus tax, something you can’t get around since MetroPCS doesn’t do contracts, but at least your phone bill will be a meager $60/month and that includes unlimited everything. Yes, even data. Those who think they can live with just 1 GB of data can pay only $50/month.
Now before you jump for joy, realize that MetroPCS has a pretty terrible LTE coverage map. They only blanket a handful of cities and when you’re not being covered by LTE you jump all the way back down to CDMA 1xRTT which is painfully slow. Some say MetroPCS does EV-DO, but we’ve heard nothing but horror stories from users that make us think otherwise. So now you’ve got to ask yourself, is this a good deal? Personally, I’d rather get something like Simple Mobile, an MVNO that leverages T-Mobile’s network. They don’t even off phones, just SIM cards, so subscribe to them, pick up a Samsung Galaxy S, and now you’re not only rocking the latest version of Android, but you’re also enjoying a low $60/month phone bill.
What say you, does this QWERTY 4G smartphone check all your boxes and will you pick one up?
[Via: Phone Scoop]