Cricket Communications and Boost Mobile aren't the first place you'd go looking for bleeding-edge phone hardware — what they often sell is last year's model, at a lower price and without a contract. Samsung sent one such phone to each carrier today, the Transfix to Cricket and the Transform Ultra to Boost, both of which are close kin to last year's Sprint flagship, the Samsung Epic 4G. Both phones run Gingerbread and have slide-out QWERTY keyboards, and both have specs that impressed in 2010: a 1GHz processor, 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and 4-inch screen on the Transform Ultra; and an 800MHz processor, 3.2-megapixel camera and 3.2-inch display on the Transfix. You can buy either (or both, if you're so inclined) today without a contract, and you'll shell out $179.99 for the Transfix and $229.99 for the Transform Ultra. There's value to being off the cutting edge, too, as both carriers offer plans for their new phones that include unlimited texting and data for under $60 / month.
Cricket and Boost get new QWERTY Android phones from Samsung
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
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