The phone lineup is headed by LG’s Rumor Touch. It replaces the outside physical buttons that dominated the earlier Rumor with a 3-inch touchscreen and has a relatively high-end feature set for the price that includes GPS, 32GB microSDHC support and a 2-megapixel camera. It ships sometime before the end of March and will have its price revealed closer to the launch date.
Also involved is the Lotus Elite, a new version of the wide messaging clamshell that adds a larger 2.4-inch external LCD in addition to a same-size display on the inside; it also takes up to 32GB in microSDHC storage and has dedicated buttons for messaging and social networking. Like the Overdrive, it should ship on the 10th for $100 following a contract and rebate.
Wrapping up the news is word that a version of the Samsung Moment has been outfitted with a Mobile DTV tuner and can pick up free, digital over-the-air broadcasts without sacrificing its Android platform. Sprint is trialing these versions of the smartphone in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas in winter but hasn’t said whether it will make this regularly available.
