Following up on the leak last week, Samsung and Sprint have jointly announced the launch of the Samsung m350 Seek, the replacement for the Exclaim.
As previously reported, the Seek features a 2.6 inch QVGA touch display while still retaining the QWERTY keyboard along with a 1.3 megapixel camera, media player, 3.5mm headphone jack and support for 32GB microSDHC cards. The phone is available for $29,99 in Cool Blue and Scarlet Red, with availability in Fantasy Pink (pictured at right) slated for June 6th.
Sprint is also launching a new recycling program with the phone, whereby the packaging will include a prepaid mailer and can be used to recycle old handsets under Sprint’s recycling initiative.
I don’t see how the Samsung Seek/M350 can be considered a replacement to their Exclaim/M550 when the Seek doesn’t have video capability and is only 1xRTT. I personally see the Samsung Seek as an entry level QWERTY sliding keyboard targeting tweens/teenagers/young adults/those who want a touch screen device yet don’t care about 3G data access.
Sprint rep said this phone is evdo capable and on their site it states “3g speeds where available”. This phonenews article doesn’t mention anything about the speed capabilities. If this phone is in fact evdo capable then its a great price. I’m getting this for my wife if its evdo. I guess we’ll see when I try it out.