San
Diego – Prepaid cellular carrier Cricket launched its first Android smartphone,
the
by
, and bundled it with a $55 unlimited
voice and data plan.
The
Zio is available at
,
Cricket-branded retail stores, and third-party dealers nationwide at $249.99.
The
device, which is the first Sanyo-branded Android phone in the U.S., is a
full-touchscreen phone with virtual QWERTY keyboard. It features the Android
1.6 OS, 600MHz processor, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive
touchscreen, front-panel trackball navigation, 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder
with autofocus, 512MB of embedded memory, MicroSD slot supporting 32GB cards,
stereo Bluetooth version 2.1 + EDR, and 113 0mAh battery offering 6.2 hours of
talktime.
Other
features include video record/playback, media player, full HTML web browser,
Google Navigation, and such widgets and applications as Facebook, Twitter and
Open Table. The device also comes with ambient light sensor and accelerometer.
The
phone will operate in 3G CDMA 1x EV-DO Rev. A mode in Leap’s Advanced Wireless
Services (AWS) 1.7/2.1GHz bands as well as in 3G mode in the 800/1900MHz bands.
The
new all-inclusive $55 Android voice/data plan is one of a number of new,
all-inclusive plans that the company has recently begun to offer to consumers.
The $55 plan offers unlimited talk, text, picture mail, web browsing, email,
and international text without telecom taxes and fees. It’s said to be almost
half the price of smartphone service at other major carriers.
Cricket,
owned by Leap Wireless, serves more than 5.3 million customers in 35 states and
the District of Columbia.
