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Sprint unveils Motorola Photon 4G global smartphone, Triumph for Virgin Mobile

Before Thursday's press conference, there wasn't much of a clue as to what Sprint and Motorola would be presenting. It turns out that Sprint is rolling out a pair of new Android-based Motorola smartphones.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Before Thursday's press conference, there wasn't much of a clue as to what Sprint and Motorola would be presenting. It turns out that Sprint is rolling out a pair of new Android-based Motorola smartphones.

The first device announced, which also turns out to be the more powerful of the duo, is the Photon 4G. Powered by a NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, the Android 2.3-based handheld is Sprint's first international 4G device.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse dubbed the Photon 4G as "perfect to blend personal and business needs." On the business side, the features that defend that argument are the global capabilities, the ability to double as a 3G/4G mobile hotspot and the advanced security precautions, including data encryption and the option to wipe the device's memory clean remotely.

Based on a promo video displayed during the media event, the Photon 4G can also fit into a docking station, much like the HD multimedia dock for the Motorola Atrix 4G, to display work on a computer display.

The Photon 4G is also a fairly strong contender when labeled as a personal smartphone, or as Hesse labeled it, a "multimedia powerhouse." The Gingerbread smartphone sports a 4.3-inch touch screen and is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera and webcam.

Then there is the Motorola Triumph, which will be exclusively for Virgin Mobile's prepaid brand. For a prepaid phone, this is quite an impressive device.  Sporting a 4.1-inch WVGA touch screen and running on a 1Ghz processor, the Triumph features 32GB of expandable memory, HD video recording on the 5-megapixel rear camera, a front-facing VGA webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and HDMI output.

The Triumph is also pre-loaded with multiple apps, mainly for social networking and personal use, such as Facebook, Google Talk and YouTube. And for the "tech-savvy" Virgin Mobile bunch, there's also Virgin Mobile's Live 2.0 music player.

This little guy (it's only 0.4-inches thick) has to settle for Froyo, but as long as the price is right, then this might be one of Motorola's better deals.

Both Motorola devices will launch this summer. Pricing has not yet been revealed.

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