India's first CDMA Android smartphone at Rs 19,900

Reliance Mobile and Samsung Mobile on Thursday announced the launch of India's first Android-powered CDMA handset, Samsung Galaxy i899.

Samsung Galaxy i899 will offer an enhanced experience of seamless speed data on the move, offering speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps to Reliance Mobile customers.

The phone is priced at Rs 19,900, Reliance Mobile customers upgrading to Samsung Galaxy i899 will also get free data usage on Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ - 10GB for 1 month for prepaid customers and 15 GB per month for 2 months for postpaid subscribers.

The new smartphone available only on Reliance Mobile network will also be the first CDMA device to be launched in India pre-installed with Android market, an online applications store developed by Google for Android devices.

The new Samsung Galaxy i899 on Reliance Mobile CDMA network offers:

• Display: 3.2" HVGA, 16M color, AMOLED  with touch screen panel.
• Camera: 3.2 Mega Pixel with Auto-focus and LED flash.
• Connectivity : Bluetooth 2.1(HSP/A2DP) / WiFi / USB 2.0.
• Data: Download Internet Speeds up to 3.1 Mbps; Upload Internet Speeds up to 1.8 Mbps.
• Browser : Mobile Safari web browser supported.
• Memory: 230 MB built-in memory, expandable up to 32GB through microSD slot.
• Battery:  1440 mAh battery capacity.
• DivX Video Playback Supported.
• Preloaded Apps : Android Market, Google Maps, Facebook, Gmail, Google Talk, MySpace, Orkut , YouTube.
• Users can download and install various apps from Android Market.

"The launch of Samsung Galaxy i899 Smartphone, is in line with our strategy to offer next-generation services with unmatched  voice clarity, hi-speed wireless data network access and ultra-fast application downloads on India's largest and only nationwide CDMA mobile service to Reliance Mobile customers," Vrajesh Shelat, head of handset & data services, Reliance Communications, said in a media release.

The touch-screen CDMA smartphone would also enable high-speed access to popular social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, et cetera.

The phone has a 3.2" AMOLED touch-screen, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a media player and expandable memory up to 32GB. Samsung Galaxy i899 also comes with popular smartphone features including support for phone, email, text messaging, Wi-Fi, HTML web browser, etc.

Announcing the launch, Ranjit Yadav, director, mobile and IT, Samsung Electronics, said, "With this association we hope to target a large consumer base of Reliance Mobile subscribers by offering them the feature rich Galaxy i899, India's first CDMA Android Phone. Applications from the Android Market can be easily downloaded and installed on to the Galaxy  i899 very fast,  thereby opening up an entirely new world of applications for the mobile phone users , which they can further customize as per their preferences."