T-Mobile unveils 'budget' smartphones Samsung Gravity SMART & Exhibit 4G, available in June [Updated]

Not everyone can afford to drop several hundreds of dollars on the latest smartphone plus a multi-gigabyte per month data plan, but they should still be able to enjoy the convenience of mobile connectivity. That's why T-Mobile is offering two Android smartphones the Samsung Gravity SMART and Samsung Exhibit 4G for budget conscious customers this month. But are these deals good for consumers?

Both the Exhibit 4G and Gravity SMART will cost under $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate on a two-year contract. [Update 1: A T-Mobile rep just informed me by email that The Exhibit 4G will cost $79.99 and $69.99 for the Gravity SMART, after the rebate.] And T-Mobile offers a data plan that starts at $10 per month for 200 MB but it is not easily accessible on the website because the option only appears after you select a voice/text plan [Update 2].

The Exhibit 4G's budget friendly price tag hardly makes it a lesser smartphone. It has a 3.7" capacitive touch screen (480 x 800 pixels), a 1GHz processor, a 0.3 megapixel front-facing and 3.0 megapixel rear camera with LED flash plus camcorder, Wi-Fi connectivity, runs on Android Gingerbread (2.3) and is designed for T-Mobile's 4G (HSPA+) network. With "theoretical peak download speeds of 21Mbps," users can enjoy live and on-demand channels from T-Mobile TV, watch movies from the Samsung Media Hub and play games like Scrabble and Bejeweled directly on their phones.

Gravity SMART, on the other hand, is more geared for SMS-fanatics who want the convenience of a touchscreen as well as a slide-out, four-row QWERTY keyboard. It runs on Android Froyo (2.2) and features a 3.2" capacitive touchscreen, a 3-megapixel rear camera with LED flash that doubles as a camcorder, GPS, and is powered by a 800 MHz processor.

Because these budget smartphones are only available at sub-$100 prices with a 2-year contract, I wonder if the minimal savings is really that valuable to customers in the long run. After all, 3.0 megapixel is quite out of date even by phone cameras' standards , and for $100 more customers can opt for the latest phone, also with similar conditions (requiring a two-year contract). Now if these prices were available sans contract then these phones would be quite a steal.

What do you think? Are these prices about right or a rip-off for the technology?

[Source: BusinessWire, PhonesArena.com]