Boost Mobile, better known as Sprint’s brand for prepaid customers, has introduced a new Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone from ZTE called the Warp. For $250, and you have to remember this is off contract, you’ll get a handset with a 4.3 inch screen, likely with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, a 1 GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera, and all the GPS/WiFi/Bluetooth radios you’ve come to expect from modern mobile phones. If we had to take a guess as to what this device is known as on the international market, we’d say it’s the ZTE Skate. That was announced back in February of this year and it’s only recently started shipping, as in last month, in the UK as the Orange Monte Carlo. The folks at Trusted Reviews didn’t particularly like the Monte Carlo, but they do admit that for some strange reason their unit had an 800 MHz processor, not the 1 GHz that was promised by ZTE in February. We’ll have to wait to see how the Warp compares to its British cousin.
Performance niggles aside, what makes the Warp attractive are the plans Boost Mobile provides. For $55 perm onth you get unlimited everything; texts, talk time, and data. People who are on AT&T or Verizon pay twice that, though to be fair they do have access to better networks. If you’re considering going the prepaid route, then we think you should take a serious look at either H2O Wireless or Simple Mobile. Both are SIM only operators, both have unlimited everything for $60 per month. You can buy a used Samsung Nexus S, one the best Android smartphones currently on the market, for less than $300 used, shove a SIM card inside it from either of those two operators, and boom, you’ve got a fantastic handset and an incredibly affordable plan.
Either way, you’re saving money by not signing your life away for 2 years!
Update: We forget to mention it’ll be available starting November 2, 2011. That’s less than 2 weeks from today!