Samsung has announced the commercial availability of the Mondi, a WiMAX-capable MID, for August 1st. on Sprint’s Clearwire network in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland. As the first U.S. device to make use of WiMAX, the Mondi is sure to grab a lot of attention, despite being limited geographically – even then, we’re hearing that WiMAX will roll out to 10 major American cities by the end of the year. Odds are we’ll see more mobile devices in this vein taking advantage of WiMAX, while LTE will lure in more traditional handsets. Will had a look at the Mondi back at CTIA, and it was a pretty smooth device – a widget-enabled user interface has been painted on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and it comes with plenty of handy preloads, like Fring, Gypsii, Route 66 GPS navigation, and Opera 9.5. The specs aren’t anything to sneeze at, either:
- 4.3″ touchscreen, 800 X 480 resolution
- Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, WiMAX connectivity
- 4 GB on-board storage
- 3 megapixel camera
- HDMI video out
If this is your bag, the Mondi will cost you $349 on a 2-year Clearwire contract, $449 with no strings, and will be available at Best Buy.
[via BusinessWire]