And so it begins. With T-Mobile recently closing the deal to acquire MetroPCS, it was only a matter of time before we’d see more commingling. PhoneArena‘s uncovered yesterday that MetroPCS is about start using T-Mobile’s network and GSM handsets. Two phones which are currently available on T-Mobile — the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Exhibit (a Galaxy S III mini clone) and the LG Optimus L9 — are making their way to MetroPCS, complete with GSM / EDGE and AWS-capable UMTS / HSPA+ radios (no LTE). Pricing for these devices is still unknown, but the company’s expected to begin selling plans on T-Mobile’s network as soon a June 12th. In addition, a service called BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone) will allow customers to bring their own GSM handsets to MetroPCS (excluding BlackBerry models). It’s unclear if eligible devices have to be unlocked and / or T-Mobile branded but we’ll find out soon enough. So there you have it — the start of a perfect honeymoon.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, LG, T-Mobile
Source: Phone Arena
If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, a new addition to the LG L-Series surfaced in Russia, a Lumia 920 was sighted that’d make Oscar the Grouch flip, and TalkTalk added three new devices from Huawei to its roster. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that’s happening in the mobile world for this week of May 27th, 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile
It’s just a new hue for a seven-month-old phone, but there are still a few Nexus 4 enthusiasts who are ecstatic that a white version has finally been released. It officially launched two days ago in Hong Kong, but it’s now hitting the US Google Play Store (with a free white bumper), as well as T-Mobile’s website “for a limited time.” If the $299 / $349 Play Store price is above your budget, the UnCarrier’s financing plan will be your best option: it’s offering the alabaster Android device for $20 down with 24 monthly payments of $17 (bringing the full retail cost to $428). If your country’s Play Store isn’t selling the new color yet, be patient — its rollout over the rest of North America, Asia and Europe will continue over the next few weeks.
Update: hit the break for our unboxing video, in case you missed it earlier this week.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google, LG, T-Mobile
Source: Play Store
Speaking to Walt Mossberg at D11 this morning, Google’s Sundar Pichai offered glorious news for anyone who loves the HTC One but craves an untouched Android experience: he confirmed that there is indeed a stock Android 4.2.2 version of the flagship device One coming, and it will be fully unlocked for T-Mobile and AT&T at the solid price of $599. It’ll go on sale in the Google Play Store on June 26th, the same date as its $649 counterpart, the Samsung Galaxy S 4 stock edition. The new version of the device — which will be sold in the US initially — will come SIM-unlocked, with an unlocked bootloader and 32GB storage. In terms of radios, it will offer quadband LTE (700/850/AWS/1900), triband HSPA+ (850/1900/2100) and the usual quadband GSM / EDGE. Sadly, this means that T-Mobile users will enjoy LTE and EDGE, but won’t be able to take advantage of AWS on the 3G side.
There is some give and take involved with such a device, of course; since it’s pure stock, Sense-specific features (BlinkFeed, Zoe and so on) won’t be included, since they aren’t optimized to work on vanilla Android. Still, we’re quite excited to see companies like HTC and Samsung embrace the “Nexus experience” and offer choice to its users, and we’re hoping this is just the beginning of a new trend.
Update: HTC confirmed to us that the Google Edition will retain the same two-button setup, and they’ll have the same functions as before: short press of Home for Home, long press for Google Now and double tap for Recent Apps. The back button will also remain the same, and the black menu bar that plagues third-party apps that haven’t complied with Google’s design specifications isn’t going anywhere. We were also told that Beats Audio will still be integrated into the device as a hardware optimization, but the visual indicator — currently found in the status bar on the original One — won’t be there.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, Google, AT&T, T-Mobile
Source: HTC