Samsung officially announced their first Android phone, the I7500, today, andamongst its impressive array of specs is this interesting tidbit:
Yes, that's support for the 1700 MHz band, otherwise known as whatT-Mobile USA uses for its 3G network. Could that mean the I7500 isheaded to T-Mo as the carrier's second - or third, if HTC gets theirnext US Android device out the door soon - Android phone? Could be.
Samsung covered their bases in listing three UMTS bands along with all four EDGE/GPRS frequencies in the specs for the I7500, so the device could just as easily wind up with AT&T branding should it make it to the States in an official sort of way. And, of course, no carrier information has been released. Heck, nothing about a US launch was mentioned, either; instead, the press release reads simply, "The Samsung I7500 will be available in major European countries from June, 2009." O2 Germany has already announced that they will be launching the device this June, as well.
At least we won't have to wait six or nine months between "launch" and "available" ... hear that, Palm and Sony Ericsson?
The Samsung I7500 will also feature a 3.2" AMOLED, capacitive touch display, 5MP Camera with autofocus and flash, WiFi, a 3.5mm audio jack, and 8GB of internal memory backed by a microSD memory card slot. All of this goodness will be powered by a 528 MHz Qualcomm CPU running Android OS 1.5, and packed into a candybar-style device just 11.9mm thick. Sounds good to me. No word yet on whether the device will run Sammy's TouchWiz user interface on top of Android, though I'm guessing not.
Check out the official Samsung press release for more information.
