This holiday shopping season is dominated by Android. Smartphones running Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s mobile operating system are flooding the market, and we really couldn’t be happier. The latest Android smartphone to find its way into our eager hands is the Samsung Behold II. Just in time for the holidays, T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) is offering the Samsung Behold II for $229.99 when purchased with new 2-year contract. It’s slightly pricier than the iPhone and the Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid, but with a sleek design and a quirky new 3D Cube UI, you might not mind shelling out the extra bucks for the Behold 2.
Unlike the original Samsung Behold, the Behold II sports Android 1.5 OS. It sports an impressive 5-megapixel camera (with LED-flash), 3G data, WiFi, GPS and microSD card slot. But, the one feature that outshines them all is the Behold 2’s 3.2-inch capacitive AMOLED touchscreen. The display doesn’t need a backlight, so it draws less power than traditional LCD displays, but manages to deliver a brighter, crisper, more color-rich picture.
The camera is a bit laggy, but serves up some impressively crisp and well-balanced pictures. The 3D Cube UI is quirky, to say the least. We’re sure some people will find it useful, but we just don’t see ourselves using it for more than just showing off to our friends. But, with a speedy browser and an incredible OLED display, the Behold II will more than make up for its confusing UI.
It’s been a little while since I’ve covered any T-Mobile 3G network expansion news, hasn’t it!? This morning I happened to come across a list of cities recently upgraded to 3G on T-Mo… In fact, below is the list of cities upgraded to 3G in November:
Albany, GA
Amarillo, TX
Abilene, TX
Salinas, CA
Norwalk,CT
Bellingham, WA
Oklahoma City, OK
Gainesville, FL
Fresno, CA
Albuquerque, NM
If you’re in one of the upgraded areas, congrats! If not, or heck, if you’re just not sure, hit up T-Mobile’s Personal Coverage Check Map. Very handy.
For more information on the 3G expansion as it happens, hit up the T-Mobile Forums. Everything is there, trust me!
If you’re looking for a new BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) smartphone with no strings attached, you might want to look in T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA’s direction. The carrier has announced their T-Mobile Complete program, which gives customers a choice of four no-contract BlackBerry smartphones to be used with T-Mobile’s pre-paid plans. The kicker? T-Mobile is including the first month of service for free with purchase of a T-Mobile Complete BlackBerry handset!
Of the four options, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will run $299.99, while the BlackBerry Pearl goes for $149.99. T-Mobile is offering several unlimited pre-paid plans that start at $50 per month. At those prices, T-Mobile Complete BlackBerry handsets would work really well as holiday gifts. Think about it, just buy the pre-paid BlackBerry kit (which, again, includes first month of service for free), wrap it up, and you’re good to go.
You’ll find T-Mobile Complete at Walmart and Best Buy locations.
November 18 was set as the Samsung Behold 2’s launch, and here we are with another addition to the Android family. T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) is offering a 3.2″ AMOLED touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, Wi-Fi, GPS, and the usual Google (NSDQ: GOOG) fare like Maps, Mail, Search, YouTube and the Android Market for $299.99 on two years of the Even More plan (or $57/month if you’d like to try financing the device). That cube-spinning interface gimmick looks like it would wear off awfully quick, but if you’re interested in giving TouchWiz-tinged Android a shot, you can pick up the Behold 2 from T-Mobile here. I believe Will is giving the Behold 2 a test drive presently, so sit tight for a review in the near future.
Oh, it’s all going off in the UK at the moment, with the news that thousands of UK subs on the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) network have unknowingly had their data sold on to third parties, for what is apparently substantial sums of money!
For those that don’t live in the UK, we tend to take our data privacy quite seriously indeed – there are plenty of laws that are designed to protect – but what do you do when people on the inside are harvesting your details and selling them on to middlemen? The goal of selling on the data was to allow other companies to call these people before their contracts finished, and move them on to other deals.
Unfortunately the punishment for these offences are purely financial – which is why some are calling for a prison sentence to be introduced. Certainly a fine isn’t going to stop organised criminals from going about their ‘business’.
I do feel sorry for those people that have had their records misappropriated, because they are now the source of multiple calls today from various third parties (since the data has been shared around) apparently – quite apart from the fact that sensitive personal data that could be used to fraud them, is out there on the InterWeb.
Hopefully T-Mobile can get things back on track really quickly, and minimise the problems for people who are currently suffering. I’d think that perhaps decent gestures of goodwill would go a long way to helping, but that’s just me with my consumer hat on
If you were affected in any way by this mess, I sincerely hope you managed to recover all of your missing data. If you weren’t tarnished, T-Mobile is back up on its feet (apparently) and is now ready to start selling the Sidekick yet again. The folks at BGR recently received a statement noting:
“T-Mobile is pleased to announce that Sidekick sales have resumed. New pricing for the Sidekick LX 2009 will be $149.99 with a two-year contract and the Sidekick 2008 will be $49.99 with a two-year contract.”
Krikey. Pick up a Sidekick… NOW? Really, T-Mo… You’ve got to be kidding me! For more, hit up T-Mobile.
Not only was the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pixi launched over the weekend… We’ve also got some T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9700 love to share too! The 9700 is live and good-to-go on T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), a device that has been long awaited and long overdue for some. Funny thing is though, when the 9700 went live on the T-Mobile site, for some reason an image of the Curve 8900 was used instead of the actual 9700. In fact, as I punch this out an image of the 8900 is still there… I’ve included a snap above for reference. Someone goofed here.
Pricing starts at $199.99 on an ‘Even More’ plan, or $449.99 on the ‘Even More Plus’ plan. The ‘Even More’ plan requires a 2-year contract… and the ‘Even More Plus’ plan requires no annual contract. Because of the high up-front purchase cost, you get T-Mo’s best monthly rate pricing, to help offset the cost of the device over time. That’s the main difference between the two.
So, you want one? Head over to T-Mobile to check out the new 8900, um… I mean 9700 for yourself
UPDATE:CNET has noted pricing will be $229.99 on a 2-year contract.
Yesterday I noted some pricing details on the T-Mobile Samsung Behold II (and the Bold 9700), and today, official word from T-Mo themselves that the Behold II is arriving November 18th. If the pricing leaks are correct, the Behold will be $449.99 or $22.50/mth outright, or $199.99 on a 2-year contract. Anyone out there getting in line for the Behold II and all of it’s TouchWiz ‘cube’ UI craziness?
Two Hungarian operators, Pannon and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), are joining the “Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Messaging wave.” Starting from November 1st, all Pannon customers and postpaid T-Mobile customers will be able to access the Nokia’s push e-mail service from select Nokia phones. All leading consumer e-mail solutions are supported by the service — including Nokia’s own Ovi Mail, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail; as well as the major local e-mail services such as Citromail, Indamail and Freemail.
Both operators will allow free 30-day trial period for Nokia Messaging, after which users will be able to continue using the service for a monthly charge that will be added on top of their monthly bill. Supported devices include such Nokia models as the Nokia E52, E66, E72, E71 and N97.
Looks like my bud David over at TMoNews has managed to get his hands on some pricing sheets for the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) 9700 and Samsung Behold II. The 9700 will run you $449.99 or $22.50/mth on no contract, or $199.99 on a 2-year deal. The Behold II will run you, well, exactly the same amounts.
There has been some waffling back and forth as to release dates on the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) Bold 9700, but the latest I’ve heard is November 16th. Not far away. As for the Behold II, November 18th is looking realistic.
Which would I choose? No question, the Bold 9700 FTW. That is, unless, you really dig the uber confusing TouchWiz ‘cube’ UI packed into the Behold II. If that’s the case for you, purchase, and enjoy
November 18 was 
