if you read this weblog by feed, you've already seen some pictures of this - but i've been using a samsung A790 given to us by qualcomm/verizon to test an application, and it's a quad band phone which includes both CDMA and GSM bands. this is marketed to verizon's "business customers" - i'm not sure why they don't offer it to the general public.
i know this picture shows a cingular SIM card in the phone, and to clarify, that SIM does not work - it was just what i had on hand when i took the picture. when you switch to GSM mode with this card in it, you get a "please insert a Verizon SIM card" message and it prompts you to go back to CDMA mode. flipping between CDMA and GSM is a manual process, and is meant for when you get off the plane in europe or asia.
incidentally, when i put in a vodafone españa SIM card, it did seem to accept it, which makes sense given the owenership structure of those companies.
my only other comment is this phone has about the worst keypad i've ever used on a phone. way worse than nokia's wackiest design.
digging around a little, i see there are more of these dual CDMA/GSM phones coming out, especially in China, where they already use SIM for CDMA.
see this link on the motorola A840 over at mobileburn.com
Posted by Steve at August 10, 2004 08:38 AM | TrackBack