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Samsung and T-Mobile launch three new QWERTY phones, including the Smiley

By | June 23, 2010, 5:01pm PDT

Summary: T-Mobile is a network heavily focused on text messaging and with Samsung just announced three new QWERTY devices. They range in price from $20 to $75, after rebates.

I rarely spend much time with feature phones, but last September I took a look at the Samsung Gravity 2 and had to admit that was one fine messaging phone that has some excellent capability at a low price. Since then my youngest daughter received a Gravity 2 for her birthday and my middle daughter continues to use her first gen Gravity. T-Mobile announced three new messaging focused Samsung feature phones today for immediate availability; the Gravity 3, :) and Gravity T. Yes, you see that correct the second phone listed is the :) or phone currently known as the Smiley. These three phones range in price from $19.99 up to $74.99, with mail-in rebate and two-year agreement. All three support Exchange email (WOW) and T-Mobile Social Buzz (a new integrated social networking application).

Samsung Gravity 3

If I had to stick with a feature phone I could easily be satified with my daughter’s Samsung Gravity 2 and the Gravity 3 just continues to build on a very popular device with much of the same in terms of specs. It has a 2 megapixel camera, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, microSD card slot, integrated GPS receiver, integrated music player, and more for $49.99 after $50 mail-in rebate.

Samsung :)

The Samsung :) is available now for $19.99 (after $20 rebate) and has a vertical slider form factor with the keyboard located under the display. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera, 3G wireless radio, integrated GPS receiver, microSD card slot, and typical basic feature phone functionality. It looks to be a fairly decent low cost messaging device that will probably be a big hit with teens.

Samsung Gravity T

The Samsung Gravity T is similar in appearance to the Gravity 3 with the side slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but incorporates a touch screen with on-screen keyboard. It also has a 2 megapixel camera, integrated GPS receiver, 3G data radio, and stereo Bluetooth support. The Gravity T is available for $74.99 after $75 mail-in rebate.

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Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 125 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes an HTC Radar 4G, Dell Venue Pro, Apple iPad 2, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N9, Apple iPhone 4S, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

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