Kansas City, Mo. — Sprint prepaid brands Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile unveiled their first 4G LTE handsets, having launched their first 4G Mobile WiMAX handsets last May.
Sprint is phasing in LTE service throughout its footprint and has stopped marketing WiMAX handsets. The carrier announced last year that it would continue offering WiMAX service, purchased from Clearwire, to subscribers through at least 2015. At that time, dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX phones from Sprint, Virgin and Boost will switch to 3G CDMA service, a Sprint spokesperson said.
Sprint’s LTE network is running in more than 50 markets and will be available in almost 170 more cities in the coming months, Sprint said.
Virgin began today to offer the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE in gray for $299 at VirginMobileUSA.com. The smartphone will be rolled out to national retailers and other dealers in mid-March.
The Victory features Android 4.1 OS, 4-inch touchscreen,1.2GHz dual-core processor, and S Beam, which lets users share large video files, photos, documents and the like by tapping the back of two S Beam-enabled devices together .
The Victory also features 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with HD video capture, 1.3-megapixerl front-facing camera, Bluetooth 4.0, nearfield communications (NFC), Wi-Fi and 32GB MicroSD card slot.
For its part, Boost Mobile announced March 7 availability of the HTC One SV and Boost Force in wireless stores that exclusively sell Boost Mobile, select independent wireless dealers nationwide, and at Boost’s online store. Both devices will be available later in March in select national retail locations.
The $299 HTC One SV features 4.3-inch touchscreen, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel main camera with 1080p video capture, 1.6-megeapixel front camera with 720p HD video capture, Beats by Dr. Dre Audio technology, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and HTC VideoPic, which lets users take photos and video at the same time.
The $199 Boost Force features a 4-inch touchscreen, dual cameras and 1.5GHz dual-core processor, the brand’s fastest to date. It also features Android 4.0, 5-megapixel main camera and 1-megapixel front-facing camera.
