AT&T will be the first U.S. carrier to offer BlackBerry’s first Android smartphone and first carrier to offer cellular-equipped smart watches that share the same phone number with the user’s main phone.
The two smart watches are the $199 Samsung Gear S2 and $199 LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE. Both are the first smart watches supporting AT&T NumberSync, which lets users make and receive calls from the cellular-equipped smart watches using their main cellphone’s phone number. The watch and phone do not have to be in close proximity and connected via Bluetooth. Users can also send and receive texts from the watches using their smartphone number, and they’ll be able to view emails sent to an email address accessible from their smartphone.
The 3G-equipped Gear S2 will be available Nov. 20 at $199 with two-year contract, or at $15/month for 20 months without contract, through AT&T stores and the carrier’s website. Service costs $10/month when added to a new or existing Mobile Share Value plan.
The LTE-equipped LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition will be available at the same price on Nov. 13 with the same service plan.
NumberSync service will be available first on the Gear S2, followed quickly by the LG watch, in 2016, the carrier said.
The watch launches also mark the first time that installment pricing for smartwatches will be available in AT&T stores. Voice calls, messages, and data delivered over cellular will count against a user’s plan.
BlackBerry: Also for the AT&T network, Black- Berry will offer its previously announced Android 5.1.1-based Priv slider. The LTE phone combines BlackBerry security features and a BlackBerry physical keyboard with the ability to access the Google Play store’s extensive Android app library.
Key features include 5.4-inch quad-HD 16:9 OLED display with curved sides on both sides, 64- bit hexacore processor running at 2×1.8GHz plus 4×1.44GHz, 18-megapixel dual-flash main camera with 4K video capture, 32GB embedded storage, 2TB MicroSD slot and a 3,410 mAh battery delivering up to 22.5 hours of mixed use.
The Priv is available in AT&T stores and at ATT.com.
