Motorola's Android i1/Opus One Confirmed

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This rumored phone has been hinted at for a while from various sources but now pictures of it have materialized. It’s a new iDEN-band phone from Motorola that was codenamed the Opus One and will be called the Motorola i1. It looks to be the first iDEN Android mobile phone.

For those who don’t know, iDEN is a low-latency cell communication standard from Motorola that is used almost exclusively in the United States. Sprint is the most notable user, and they provide a “push-to-talk” service that emulates a walkie-talkie. They’re better than walkie-talkies, of course, because they aren’t limited by range like radios.

“Sources from Motorola” are now confirmed to various websites across the internet that the Motorola i1 (a name  that was revealed to the public via a FCC regulations page a few days ago) is in fact, the mysterious Motorola Opus One that was leaked in pictures in December of last year.

Details are still scare on the internal workings of the phone. It’ll be running MOTOBLUR (as you can tell from the screenshots) and will come with Android 1.5. Versions of Android earlier than 2.0 will not be able to run certain popular Google apps on Android, so this is a bit of a bummer. However, we could see a OS update later to get Android 2.x on the phone.

No word on pricing or a release date, but the phone is expected to be unveiled at the CTIA trade show later this month.