Virgin Mobile will be the first carrier in the US to let its customers get a hold of the LG Optimus Slider, a mid-range QWERTY Android phone. Online customers can order the phone for $199.99 on a pay-as-you-go plan starting on October 16th. Best Buy and Radio Shack will have the phone on October 31st, with Target following on November 6th.
Unfortunately we still don’t know what resolution the 3.2-inch touchscreen is using, though a quick estimate in Photoshop puts it at either a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio. The screen size means that this is a different and likely earlier bit of hardware than the Optimus Q2 revealed a couple of weeks ago. The back camera is 3 megapixels, which should be good enough for some quick daylight shots, and the flash will cover party-goers at night. The phone measures in at 4.52 x 2.23 x .58 inches, appreciably small if thick.
Virgin calls the slider “perfect for the heavy social networker,” and backs that up with a customized Virgin Mobile Live 2.0 lifestyle application. This grants users access to Virgin’s exclusive music stream with GJ Abbey Braden, though it’s not mentioned whether this will cost extra a la V-Cast. The app also interfaces with Facebook and Twitter, naturally.
[via Virgin]
