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The Motorola Charm (aka T-Mobile Project Basil0 cropped up less than a week ago, but that ain’t stopping it from escaping into the hands of an internet tipster. Over at TmoNews they have gotten their hands on in-the-wild shot of the phone, though not much info followed with it. The screen was revealed to be in the area of three inches, though the most interesting takeaway from the hands-on is the presence of a Backflip-like touchpad on the back of the device.
Along with the phone getting into the wild, promotional packages have been getting into the hands of employees, no doubt to prepare them for the Charm getting lumped into a back to school sale featuring free phones on two-year contracts. The Phone off-contract should go for $269.99. Pretty good pricing on an Android phone if you’re in the market but can’t spring for one of the high-end bad boys.
[via TmoNews, Android and Me]
I’m so excited. I mean, does anybody really care about all these teenager/20 something crappy social networking phones TMO keeps releasing ? I know its news so you guys feel obligated to report it, but good grief man ! No news is good news sometimes, as this isnt good or news to me.
The bar keeps getting lowered at TMO instead of raised.
:(
Not everyone that visits phandroid is not a teenager, plus this site i believe caters to android phone, the charm is an adroid phone..so …
By ‘teen’ we mean the kind of person who spends all day either on the phone or posting every detail of their life on twitter/facebook.
Well,I feel that it’s obvious that TMO targets the young crowd, but they have better start paying attention to the ones that pay their bills.
At T-Mo’s prices tho, many of their customers are young adults who need a natoinwide carrier and cannot afford the big 3.
I believe there is a market for kin type phones. Kin failed because of two reasons
1) cost
2) no apps
if they cover both of these in t-mobile charm, I dont see why they will fail. You know not every one can afford those 100 dollars per month bills. Free with 40-50 dollars per month would be great and with access to all those apps would be fine.
The keyboard doesn’t look too bad.
Another Android phone is a win-win for TMO. Has anyone been in a TMO store lately? Half their phone selection is data phones, from BB, WinMo, now Symbian & the largest selection of Android phones anywhere in the US. Don’t complain that another Blur phone is launching, albeit, it is 2.1, but rather, celebrate that android is rising. Besides, we already know of the rumored, yet soon to be true, mighty Android they’ll be launching in the fall. Besides, many nimrods that acquire an android phone don’t truly utilize the apps nor the driving intention behind Android. This is why these slightly lesser models are sufficient for say, them.
This could really hurt Blackberry’s inroads into the casual market since they don’t have the thousands of apps and games that Android has. Many BB users are casual texters and they will switch to something like this.
http://www.tmonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/moto-charm-leak-rm-eng-3.jpg
i think this is a plus tho : )
I like it, looks like a BB
I actually like the form factor – its usefull and does the job. Small screen should mean longer battery life and if u need ur phone for basic tasks, thats it!
I honestly think there will be people who will bash T-Mobile for anything they do. If they are targetting a certain crowd for a specific type of phone, who cares? The end result is better for T-Mobile, and better for Android.
would it require data connection? If not would love to get it for my son/ friend on our contract.
@Servo Well, yes all android devices have a REQUIRED internet.. It’s a contracted feature if you buy an Android device. However the three new “Gravity” devices are awesome and the internet feature for them is cheaper and it’s not “REQUIRED” as it is for the Androids.
True. But a gravity is nothing compared to Android. All non-data phones have the $10 net.
Since it’s a T-Mo phone, I wonder if you’ll be able to use it for wi-fi calling….!?