Verizon Wireless has announced the Thursday launch of the Samsung Stratosphere Android smartphone, its first LTE smartphone with a hardware QWERTY keyboard and its version of the Samsung Epic 4G currently sold on Sprint. Pricing is set at $199.99 after new 2 year agreement before an additional $50 mail-in rebate, bringing the total to $149.99.
Like the Epic 4G, the Stratosphere features a 4.0 inch wide capacitive Super AMOLED display, 1GHz ARM Cortex based Hummingbird processor, 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, 720p video capture and Bluetooth with stereo audio support, a six axis accelerometer, DLNA media streaming with Samsung Media Hub support and front-facing video camera for video calls. Differences from the Epic 4G include Android Gingerbread and Samsung’s Enterprise Platform enhancements such as VPN, encryption and Mobile Device Management (MDM). EAS includes features such as direct push, email, calendar, contact sync and Global Address List (GAL), as well as EAS policies including storage card encryption, device encryption, and simple and complex password support for complete enterprise support thanks to Cisco, Sybase and Afaria.
