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T-Mobile To Launch Its Own Branded Budget Smartphone (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the exclusive-offerings dept.

In a throwback to a time when carriers differentiated themselves by branding and selling exclusive phones, T-Mobile announced Wednesday that it's launching its very own budget Android smartphone called the Revvl. CNET reports: The Revvl, which runs on Android Nougat, offers pretty basic specs: a 5.5 inch HD display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. But it also throws in a fingerprint sensor and will cost T-Mobile customers just $5 a month with no down payment through the company's Jump! upgrade program. It goes on sale Thursday. In a blog post, T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert said the company is catering to those who want the latest smartphone technology but can't afford to pay for high-end devices.

5 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. I have one rule when buying a cellphone by dugancent · · Score: 2

    Never buy a phone a Carriers name printed on it, or has an OS customized with their bloatware and branding.

    --
    SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
    1. Re: I have one rule when buying a cellphone by maggard · · Score: 2
      Then you're accepting a substandard service.

      A carrier's handset is optimized for their network. In T-Mobile's case that be VoLTE on 700MHz. Outside of iPhone or Nexus/Pixel devices you're very unlikely to get that extended network.

      A carrier's features. For T-Mobile that'd be Wifi Calling: SMS & HD voice calls using a VPN over Wifi. Also taking advantage of RCS for native video calling and advanced SMS.

      Carrier support. Got a problem? Carriers know everything about their own handsets, not so much about random third party ones. There's always self-service but most folks want answers given to them, not puzzling it out for themselves.

      --
      I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
    2. Re: I have one rule when buying a cellphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      "That's a lie perpetrated by the man to keep a user tied to the man. Man."

      Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man..

  2. Update availablity? by Archon · · Score: 2

    This is potentially a good/great phone to recommend to price-sensitive users but will depend on (1) can be unlocked from T-Mobile, and (2) based on such thin margins what's the firmware update situation going to be?

  3. Vodafone in the UK have done this for years by rklrkl · · Score: 3, Informative

    It might be news in the US, but Vodafone in the UK have done this for years. They have a "Smart" range - here's one of the cheapest at 49 pounds PAYG (and a 10 pounds top-up I believe).