Tuesday, September 21, 2010

MetroPCS and Samsung Release the First LTE phone


Today, MetroPCS revealed that they would hold their promise to be the first to offer LTE services by releasing the Samsung Craft, the first LTE enabled phone. An interesting note about this launch is that Samsung actually provided the LTE infrastructure, and it is only avaliable in Las Vegas, NV. Omar Khan, chief strategy officer for Samsung Mobile, stated the following in the press release:
“It is extremely gratifying to introduce the Samsung Craft as the world’s first commercially available LTE-enabled handset operating on infrastructure by Samsung as part of the first LTE commercial network and services to be offered in the U.S. The Craft combines 4G speed and a multimedia device packed with full Web, entertainment and productivity features.”

Don't get to excited about this news though. This is not an Android phone as many would have hoped. In fact, its just a BREW-based feature phone. The phone does have a number of decent specs though, with a 3.3 inch AMOLED touchscreen, sliding QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3.2 megapixel camera, and a microSD card slot (comes with a 2GB card).

The Samsung Craft is avaliable in the Las Vegas area in stores and online for a price of $299 after a $50 instant rebate. However, coverage is restricted to just Las Vegas, and good luck getting any 3G services outside of Dallas and Detroit. However, MetroPCS does say that more LTE covered areas are coming soon, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Dallas, and more.

This exciting news for LTE, as now we finally have a supported device. However, with MetroPCS's coverage, I think I would rather wait until Verizon rolls out their LTE service in the next few months.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Real Time Web Analytics