Cricket, one of the smaller operators in America with just a bit over 5.4 million customers (the population of Finland), has just announced that they’ll be offering the Android 2.2 running Samsung Indulge. Packing a 3.5 inch screen with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, it isn’t exactly the best way for you to experience Google’s mobile OS, but the 1 GHz processor under the hood, plus a full QWERTY keyboard should you be mildly addicted to texting, Twitter, or Facebook, make this a solid budget phone. You also get a 3 megapixel camera, gigantic 1500 mAh battery, and of course your typical WiFi/GPS/Bluetooth that are now pretty much standard. There’s a catch to all this: Cricket doesn’t do contracts, which in turn means they don’t do subsidies, so if you want the Indulge it’s going to cost you $330. That being said, they have an unlimited everything plan that’s just $55 per month, so over the long run you’ll be paying a lot less than what you usually would if you signed up with the big 4: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
If no contract handsets are right up your ally, then you should also check out Boost Mobile, who recently launched the Samsung Galaxy Prevail. It packs a smaller 3.2 inch screen, and doesn’t come with a QWERTY keyboard, but Boost offers unlimited everything for just $50 per month and if you pay your bill on time over a certain consecutive number of months they’ll drop your bill to as low as $35. That’s a bargain. The Prevail is also cheaper, coming in at $180, but it’s also slower and initial reports say that it’s a bit laggy. You get what you pay for though.
Our advice? Save up your pennies and import something from Europe. It’ll have no preloaded operator software onboard, you’ll be able to pop in your own SIM, and when you’re bored with your device you can sell it as “unlocked”, which a lot of people care about.
[Via: Official Press Release]