14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like two of the future smartphones to be offered by Verizon Wireless are Samsung i770 and Palm Treo 800w, both coming equipped with Windows Mobile and several other nice features.
Unveiled by Engadget Mobile, the new Verizon handsets are planed to be released in the third quarter of 2008, for prices that are unknown for the moment.
Samsung i770 will have the following features: Windows Mobile 6.1, GPS to go with Verizon Navigator, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a 2.0 Megapixel camera, expandable memory, 128MB RAM, 256MB Flash memory, a full QWERTY keypad and so on. Seeing these specs, we think the i770 might be the North American version of Samsung i780, which is already available in Europe (since February). Besides the slightly changed look of i770, everything corresponds with what the i780 has to offer, so if the i770 is not the Americanized edition of i780, then it's a very similar smartphone.
The Treo 800w is one of the new and yet unreleased smarpthones that Palm has been working on lately. If we're to believe the image showing the 800w for Verizon, the smartphone will come with Windows Mobile 6.0 (not 6.1, as rumored until now), Verizon Navigator (hence GPS too), Wi-Fi, a square 320 x 320 pixel display, QWERTY keypad, Bluetooth 2.0, a 1.3 Megapixel camera and microSD card support. Well, these features are nice for a Palm smartphone, that's hard to contest - especially the GPS and the Wi-Fi.
Besides coming with new devices, Verizon will also make upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.1 for (at least) two of its existing handsets: Samsung i760 and UTStarcom XV6800, which are currently offered for $349 and $399 respectively (with a two-year contract agreement).
All in all, Verizon's subscribers seem to have a good year ahead, and they should wait for even more new handsets to be released by the V carrier.
