It was only a couple of weeks ago that Cricket officially announced the Sanyo ZIO by Kyocera, and now the device is finally up for pre-order.  Shipping on August 21st, the ZIO will set you back a cool $249.99, although if you order online you get a $20 discount, bringing the price down to $229.99.  As with most smartphones, the ZIO requires a data plan that costs $55 per month and includes unlimited voice, text, and data.  For a refresher, the ZIO's specs include a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 600 MHz processor, 3.2 megapixel camera, and Android 1.6.  An upgrade to a version of Android beyond 2.0 is planned by Kyocera in the future, but it's not clear if Cricket will be pushing the update to the ZIO.

Sure, $229.99 may sound like a lot for what is basically a mid-range Android device, but remember that Cricket doesn't use any sort of contracts or subsidies, so you're getting a ZIO completely contract free.  Plus the $55 per month unlimited everything plan is a great deal when you consider that an unlimited everything plan on the four national carriers can cost $99.99 per month with a two year contract.  So, would any of you jump to Cricket for some cheap Android goodness?

Via Cricket