14 DAY TRIAL // The guys from engadget.com have discovered a photo of a soon to be launched handheld or, according to what they say in their article, they got it from Roc a Fella and HTC Kid, two mysterious guys that are known to publish photos of yet not launched handsets before their official release ruining, partially, the manufacturers plans :). This picture presents the UTStarcom SMT5800 on its way to Verizon Wireless, a phone that has gone through the traditional Verizon make-up, a thing that actually doesn't do it any justice at all.
From what you are able to see in the picture, beside the color change, the American carrier has also meddled with the phones keypad and they have changed the beautiful Hermes-like smooth keyboard from the previous photos of the device and replaced it with a pretty awkward looking MDA-style keyboard with oval keys.
This fact and the green color that will probably be a success only in the frog loving community of Verizon customers will most probably doom the device despite its nice specifications sheet.
From what I know until now, the handheld will feature a Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 3 Pocket PC edition operating system (as we can see from the photo), 128 MB Flash and 96 MB of RAM memory, a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a microSD memory expansion card slot, wireless Bluetooth with A2DP stereo technology support, 1xEVDO upgradeable to Revision A and a 2 megapixel camera.
Overall, this is a pretty good mobile device but it has unfortunately landed on the wrong carrier. What other mobile operator will get a good looking handset and turn it in a Windows Mobile 5.0 powered frog? What other if not Verizon?
Let's hope they will give some attention to the feedback coming from the public after this photo has been published on the web and will take the measures to prevent a total disaster and a state of facts this phone doesn't deserve at all.