Users of regional carier US Cellular, rejoice! You now have an option for an LTE smartphone, in addition to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The Galaxy S Aviator is now available from the wireless provider for $199.99. less a $100 rebate. If you happen to live in one of the few areas that US Cellular actually offers LTE service in addition to 3G, you can pick it up for $99. The phone will go on sale on US Cellular’s website and retailers today.
The Galaxy S Aviator is essentially a re-skinned version of the familiar Samsung DROID CHARGE. It’s a 4.3-inch Gingerbread phone that would have been at home on any carrier about nine months ago, but now feels a little dated – especially considering that it takes three c-notes to walk out the door with one in most of US Cellular’s coverage area. The screen is a Samsung Super AMOLED with a resolution of 800×480. The processor is a 1Ghz single-core, which should be enough to handle Gingerbread 2.3.6 with TouchWiz. Don’t hold out for an Ice Cream Sandwich update any time soon.
The phone packs an 8-megapixel 720p camera, 2GB of internal memory and a MicroSD card slot. A 1600mAh battery should last a while, but you might want to keep those streaming videos and downloads waiting until you can hop on a WiFi network. US Cellular’s LTE network is just starting, which is more than we can say for the likes of T-Mobile and others – here’s hoping they get more robust smartphone options soon.
Wow, what a rip!