14 DAY TRIAL // For all the Canadian mobile users who have been waiting for an iPhone 3G alternative, we have good news, as Bell has just released the much-talked-about Samsung Instinct and the HTC Touch Dual. The two new high-end touchscreen devices can surely attract lots of customers, given that they're both good-looking and feature-packed.
Available in the US for a few months now, via Sprint, Samsung Instinct was seen from the beginning as a handset that could steal some of the iPhone 3G's success. Its highlights, besides the simple and elegant look, are: a 3.1-inch TFT touchscreen display with 262K colors and 240 x 400 pixels, built-in GPS with turn-by-turn navigation, full HTML browser, quick access to YouTube, Facebook and other popular websites, email, advanced Media Player, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, expandable memory and a 2 Megapixel camera with video recording.
A cool thing about Bell's Instinct is that the carrier is offering it with a 2GB memory card, on which users will find more than 200 songs from Sony BMG, ranging from rock to pop, country and R&B.
The prices that Bell is selling the new Samsung for are as follows:
- $129.95 with a contract agreement for three years;
- $279.95 with a contract for two years;
- $429.95 with a 1-year contract;
- and $479.95 if you want to buy only the device, free of any engagement.
"The Samsung Instinct is truly an amazing product, rich with multimedia capabilities and featuring an easy touch-screen interface. It's a unique and welcome addition to the Bell Mobility lineup of mobile smartphones and other data devices," says Wade Oosterman, Bell Mobility's President.
HTC Touch Dual, the other new touchscreen handset from Bell, is a bit cheaper than the Instinct, coming at only $99.95 with a 3-year contract agreement. Of course, you can also buy it without a Bell agreement, for $399.95, as well as with a contract for two years ($249.95) or just one year ($349.95).
Running on Windows Mobile 6.1, Touch Dual is the bigger brother of HTC Touch, coming with an alphanumeric keypad that slides out vertically. Its features include a 2.6-inch TFT touchscreen with 240 x 320 pixels, internal GPS, Pocket Internet Explorer, document viewer and editor, Music and Video player, a 2 Megapixel camera, and more.
The release of Instinct and Touch Dual in Canada comes a few days after Telus (the other major CDMA Canadian carrier) announced the August 14 availability of HTC Touch Diamond, another device that can easily stand beside Apple's new iPhone - sold in Canada exclusively via Rogers and Fido.
The bottom line is that mobile customers from Canada will soon have four new and cool touchscreen handsets to choose from - either on a GSM/HSDPA carrier (Rogers/Fido) or on a CDMA one (Bell and Telus).
