HTC Merge Android Smartphone Pre-Orders Go Live With Alltel On March 28th [HTC Merge Coming To Alltel, Will Bring 3.8" Display, 5MP Camera, Android 2.2 & $124.99 Price Tag]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Wednesday, 23. March 2011 under: Mobile/Cell Phones

HTC officially announced the Merge smartphone back in late-February and at the time they told us that it would be coming to “North American operators” during the spring. Well, it looks like spring has sprung for Alltel Wireless.

Yup, Alltel has announced the soon-to-be-availability of the HTC Merge smartphone. Or more specifically, they have announced that the handset would be available for pre-order beginning on March 28th. In terms of price, expect to pay $124.99, which comes after a mail-in-rebate and along with a two-year agreement.

That said, while we are happy to see that March 28th is relatively close (next Monday), there are still some details that Alltel has yet to mention. First, when the actual availability is going to come and second being the mail-in-rebate — how much is it?

Otherwise, $124.99 on a two-year agreement sounds like a fairly respectable price considering the specs. Just to begin with, the HTC Merge features Android 2.2 Froyo and HTC’s Sense user interface. In addition you will also find a 3.8 inch touchscreen display, 800Mhz Qualcomm processor, 5 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording and a landscape slide-out QWERTY. Other goodies include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 3.5mm headphone jack and GPS.

With that, while this announcement was for Alltel, the Merge is also expected to come available with Verizon, which sort of makes sense considering the handset is a CDMA world phone. And coincidentally, is also HTC’s “first Android-based CDMA world phone.” And lastly, while this announcement was less than complete, we will remain on the lookout for a bit more information – you know, such as when the phone will actually be available for purchase as opposed to a pre-order. And if nothing else, the HTC Merge does make a nice addition to the current Android lineup with Alltel which consists of others such as the HTC Desire and the HTC Wildfire.