Bellevue, Wash. – HTC announced
that its long-awaited Merge Android smartphone will be its first Android CDMA
worldphone.
The Android 2.2-based Merge phone
will operate in U.S. 850/1900MHz 3G CDMA Rev. A networks, in overseas 2.1GHz 3G
HSPA networks, and in U.S. and overseas GSM/EDGE networks. It will be available
through multiple North America carriers in the spring, presumably including
Verizon, which offers multiple 3G worldphones.
The device features
slide-from-the-side QWERTY keyboard, 3.8-inch capacitive touchscreen with haptic
feedback and pinch-to-zoom capability, 720p video capture, GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n,
5-megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, Exchange ActiveSync, HTC’s Sense
user interface, and HTC’s FriendStream social-media aggregation service, which
delivers Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates in a consolidated view.
The phone also features 800MHz
Qualcom processor, 2GB embedded memory, included 8GB MicroSD card, stereo
Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm audio jack, seven-panel home screen with widgets, digital
compass, gravity sensor, proximity sensor and light sensor.
