Warren, N.J. – Virgin Mobile, one
of Sprint’s prepaid brands, will expand its selection of Android smartphones to
five SKUs with the launch of an LG slider and its first HTC-made smartphone.
Both phones run on Sprint’s 3G
EV-DO Rev. A network and use the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS.
The LG phone is the Optimus Slider, which is targeted to social-network
users and will be available Oct. 17 at
for $199, on Oct. 31 in Best Buy and RadioShack stores, on Nov. 6 at Target,
and on Nov. 13 in Sprint Stores. The slider represents the second generation of
the LG Optimus V, launched in early 2011 without keyboard and currently
available at
for $149.
The
will be available Oct. 23 in silver at Best Buy and in white at RadioShack
for $199. The silver color is exclusive to Virgin.
Virgin’s other Android phones are the Samsung
Restore, LG Rumor Touch and LG Rumor 2. Virgin’s sixth smartphone is the BlackBerry
Curve 8530.
The
LG Optimus Slider features a 3.2-inch touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard,
3.2-megapixel camera, 32GB MicroSD slot and Bluetooth 3.0.
The
HTC Wildfire S features a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 600MHz processor, HTC’s Sense
user interface, Wi-Fi, 5-megapixel camera, 512MB memory, 32GB MicroSD slot and Bluetooth
3.0.
They’re
sold with Beyond Talk plans that start at $35 a month for 300 minutes of voice
and include unlimited messaging and data. A $45 plan offers 1,200 minutes of
voice, and the $55 plan offers unlimited voice minutes. All plans include
unlimited messaging and data.
A
decision to reduce throughput speeds when Beyond Talk customers hit
2.5GB of data usage within a month has been postponed to 2012, the company
noted.
