Thursday, June 9, 2011

Sprint And Motorola Announce The Dual-Core, Kickstand-Packin’ Photon 4G

While there’s by no means a shortage of Android devices on Sprint, just about every Android-flavored they have to offer up is made by either Samsung or HTC. Dig Sprint, but want something made by Motorola? Bummer, Duderoni. Unless you want the XPRT, which is just a whacky rebadge of the already whacky Verizon Droid Pro.

Fortunately, that’s about to change. Sometime in Q3 of this year, Motorola and Sprint will be launching a phone worthy of its weight in PVC and carbon emissions: the Photon 4G.

Here’s what you should know about it:

1 Ghz, Dual-core Tegra 2 CPU

4.3″ qHD (960×540) display

Comes with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) out of the box

3G and 4G (WiMax) friendly

Sprint’s first “Global” WiMax phone — it runs on Sprint’s (CDMA) 3G and WiMax here in the states, but works on GSM internationally

Compatible with Motorola’s accessory docking system, a la the AT&T Atrix. It’s not clear yet if it plays friendly with the Laptop Dock system, though, as Sprint/Motorola only mention the TV Multimedia Dock and the Car Dock. That’s okay, though, because the Laptop Dock is hella stupid.

Dual cameras: 8 megapixels on the front, with a VGA resolution (sneaky way of saying 0.3 megapixel) front facing camera

16GB of on board memory, with support for microSD cards up to 32 gigs

Bluetooth 2.1

802.11b/g/n WiFi

Plus, it has that super sweet kickstand, which usually isn’t Motorola’s thing

All in all, that’s one fine piece of kit. No word yet on pricing and nothing beyond “Sometime in Q3″ for a launch date, but I’ll let you know if we hear more.

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