It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about the Zio from Kyocera. Which isn’t a bad thing, more or less, but it could be, considering the device itself isn’t the worst Android-based handset to get released this year. In fact, it would actually be quite a catch for most people, and considering the phone line-up on Cricket Wireless right now, it’s pretty much the best device you can get for the carrier. So, if you’re wanting to take a look, here’s the preorder page.
The rumored release date for the Zio is August 15th, and it would take full advantage of Cricket’s fully unlimited plan, which only runs $55. As a refresher, the Zio features a 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen display, 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, a 3.2MP camera on the back of the device, and it will launch with Android 1.6. (Yes, we know — not cool.) As you can see from the image, it’s got a trackball, and it has plenty of hardware keys for you to take advantage of. It may not be the most attractive handset out there, but it’s certainly not the most disgusting, either. Price wise, you’ll be looking at somewhere between $250 and $300, but that’s without a contract.
Oh, and yes. Kyocera is saying the Zio will be upgraded to Android 2.x at some point in the future, but they don’t give a clear time frame. Which we should expect. And considering you have to look at Cricket Wireless as the middleman, there’s no telling when that upgrade might happen.
[via Android and Me]
