T-Mobile Holiday Lineup Includes 3 Android Smartphones

T-Mobile has unveiled its holiday lineup—never mind those two pesky major holidays still to come—and it includes the Google Android–equipped myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition, Samsung Behold II and Motorola Cliq, as well as the T-Mobile Tap and Nokia 3711.
 
As fans of "The Ellen Show" will discover, on Oct. 7 T-Mobile will additionally debut a BlackBerry Curve 8520 in white. (Cue winter wonderland references.)
 
The newbies on the list are the T-Mobile Tap and the Nokia 3711. The latter is an affordably priced, clamshell feature phone. It supports T-Mobile’s 3G network and Web browsing via T-Mobile’s Web2go. There’s built-in GPS, a 2-megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth, and support for e-mail and instant messaging. The 3711 runs the Series 40 operating system and will be available in a shade called “sable” in the coming weeks.
 

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The Tap is a touch-screen phone geared toward Web browsing, via T-Mobile’s web2goSM service, and enjoying multimedia apps. It features a 2-megapixel camera with video, stereo Bluetooth, GPS for use with services from TeleNav, and support for e-mail, SMS, MMS and IM. It will arrive later in the year in berry and midnight blue finishes.
 
Among the powerhouses in the lineup is the Android-running myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition, a take on the myTouch that features a guitar-inspired wood-grain finish, a preinstalled 16GB microSD card and a 3.5mm headset jack for rocking out to the preloaded video and audio clips by “iconic musicians,” according to T-Mobile.  
 
It offers all the features and services of the myTouch—images and a side-by-side comparison with the Touch Pro 2, also from HTC, can be seen here—which, of course, includes access to Google’s Android Market. According to T-Mobile, the number of app offerings in the store is now in excess of 10,000. The 3G Fender will arrive “later this year,” according to T-Mobile, for a not-yet-disclosed price.
 
Also running Android is the Samsung Behold II, which was first introduced to the world Oct. 5. It features a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen; Samsung’s cube menu, with its quick access to six apps; and Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, which offers a choice of three home screens and the ability to customize them with shortcuts and widgets. Included is 3G and Wi-Fi data connectivity, a 5-megapixel camera, and an interface to Amazon’s MP3 store.
 
It’s the first Android phone available jointly from Samsung and T-Mobile, and pricing and arrival information are still to come.
 
Completing the lineup, and also running Android, is the Motorola Cliq—to view a slideshow, click here—which Motorola introduced with much fanfare Sept. 10.
 
The Cliq features a 3.1-inch HVGA full touch-screen display and is the first Android phone with MotoBlur. This social networking functionality collects contact information from all aspects of the device—including calls, work and personal e-mail accounts, Facebook, photos and more—and syncs and streams them together.
 
Cliq will be available to T-Mobile customers on Oct. 19, in either winter white or titanium, for $199.99 with a two-year contract. The rest of the country can pick one up beginning Nov. 2.
 
“We’re thrilled with the assortment of devices this holiday season, particularly the numerous Android-powered phones with features that range from personalization to premiere music experiences to multimedia entertainment and social networking,” said Todd Warren, T-Mobile director of product marketing, in a statement.
 
T-Mobile has reported it is upgrading its 3G network across the majority of its coverage areas to the HSPA 7.2 standard, and that by the end of 2009 it expects to cover more than 200 million customers.