Mobile phones with QWERTY keyboards are not going away anytime soon, regardless of how fast you think you can type on the piece of glass in your pocket, many want to push buttons and Cricket Wireless, one of America’s lesser known operators, is appeasing both sides of the keyboard versus touch debate by launching the Samsung Messager Touch. With a 2.6 inch touch screen that has a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels it’s a bit dated, but the full QWERTY keyboard that reveals itself when you slide it sideways makes it worth the $160 price tag. With Cricket you can get unlimited talk, text, and internet surfing for $45 per month, or just talk and text for $35 per month. Coverage is limited, so make sure you go to Cricket’s website to find out if you’re in one of their coverage zones.
Similar devices such as this include the recently launched Nokia C3, which doesn’t have a touch screen, but it’s also supposed to come in at $20 to $30 cheaper and have built in WiFi. It’s a small trade off. With the C3 your device is unlocked so you can switch between AT&T and T-Mobile, depending on whoever offers a better deal. T-Mobile has a prepaid plan that is a little more expensive than the rest of America’s operators, but is unique in that the credit you top-up doesn’t expire after a set period of time. That’s the European way of doing pre-paid where if you add 50 EUR of credit to your account it’ll be available to you whether it takes you 1 month or 12 months to use it all.
At the end of the day, I just can’t recommend dumb phones. After seeing my mother switch to an iPhone and use advanced features that I’ve been using for several years now, without even asking for my help, I’m convinced that everyone deserves a smartphone and while the iPhone is expensive, it’s the best training wheels equipped device for people easing their way into the connected world.
[Via: Engadget]