Hasta La Gadget!

MetroPCS today launched the Samsung Code SCH-i220, the carrier’s first Windows Mobile smartphone and the first smartphone available to the many MetroPCS customers in major markets like New York City, Philadelphia and Boston.

The Code is the world’s first smartphone with CDMA on 1700 Mhz, the frequency band that Metro and Cricket use in many of their newer cities. It’s a 3G phone, too, running at EVDO Rev 0 speeds. Because 1700 Mhz is a relatively rare band, smartphone manufacturers haven’t been flocking to build phones for that technology. 

T-Mobile also uses 1700 Mhz for their 3G network, and they’ve had more luck getting smartphones on their network for various reasons – they’re bigger, they use the globally-standard UMTS technology, they’re part of a much larger multinational carrier, and their business isn’t as price-oriented as MetroPCS’s is.

The Code is a pretty basic Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard phone with a QWERTY keyboard, 2-megapixel camera, and a 2.4″ 320×240, non-touch screen. Samsung’s “WizPro” interface enhances Windows Mobile by running an icon bar of popular functions across the bottom of the screen, giving you easy access to contacts, settings and multimedia. 

The phone costs $299. Its major selling point, of course, is Metro’s inexpensive $50 unlimited talk, text and data plan, which is much cheaper than competing smartphone plans.

Since there’s no official Microsoft app store for Windows Mobile 6.1 yet, Metro is preloading the Code with their own app store, which is a rebranding of part of Handmark’s Windows Mobile app store. It contains a few hundred apps, with a mix of well-known titles like Zuma and Sim City Metropolis, and Metro-exclusive apps like their MetroNavigator GPS solution. The phone can, of course, download third party apps from other locations as well.