AT&T to sell Android tablet, 5 smartphones on 4G LTE

Computerworld - LAS VEGAS -- AT&T said it will unveil five Android smartphones and one tablet, the Pantech Element, on its 4G LTE network sometime early in the year.

The announcements were made at the AT&T Developer conference in Las Vegas, which is running in conjunction with the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The Element will sell for $300 and a two-year contract, The tablet, with an 8-in. touchscreen, would be available Jan. 22. It is the first LTE-connected Android tablet, and will run the Android 3.2 mobile operating system. It is also waterproof, as demonstrated when a Pantec executive dunked the device into a tank of water on stage at the conference.

Of the five new Android smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Note may be the most unusual, since it features a 5.3-in. touch screen, larger than other models in the market which generally have touch screens in the 3.5-in. to 4.3-in range. Its size makes it the largest screen on a smartphone, and it runs at 1280 x 800 pixels resolution.

It comes with a stylus called the S Pen for touchscreen input.

AT&T also announced the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD with a 4.65-in. screen and a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, as well as the Samsung Exhilarate, made of 80% recycled post-consumer materials. It has a 4-in. touch screen.

The first Sony 4G LTE smartphone, the Xperia ion, will also first run on AT&T. It runs Android 2.3 and will include a 4.6-in. display.

Pantech's Element tablet, running Android 3.2, can be purchased with a new Pantech Burst smartphone for $249.99 if both are on contract. The Burst has a 4-in. screen and sells for $49.99 on its own with a two-year contract.

David Haight, vice president of business development at AT&T, said in an interview that the Pantech bundle of the Element and Burst promises to be successful, since AT&T discovered that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 8.9 did well when paired with Samsung smartphones during the holiday season. He didn't provide specifics on Galaxy Tab sales, however.

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Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

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