Verizon Makes It Official, Announces The Samsung Illusion

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Coming off quite a few rumors, of which the most recent appeared earlier this morning — Verizon Wireless has officially announced the Samsung Illusion smartphone. And nicely done, the handset will be available for purchase very soon.

In fact, Verizon will have the Illusion available beginning tomorrow November 23rd. And in addition, given this is an official announcement with a soon-to-be-release — they also offered up the pricing details. The Illusion will be selling for $79.99 on a two-year agreement.

Though, worth noting on that price, there will also be a small window where you can get it for free. Those shopping online between November 24th and November 28th will be able to get the Illusion for free on a two-year agreement.

And last in terms of the availability, as the previous rumor implied — this handset will not be available in Verizon retail stores until sometime in January 2012.

Moving past the release date and pricing and into the specs and features. And since we have already seen most of the hardware specs, lets focus on the ones that are being highlighted by Verizon. Those include the following goodies such as support for Microsoft Office Exchange.

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread – support for Google Mobile Services including Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Search and Google Maps
• SWYPE Technology – input text faster and in a more intuitive way with one continuous finger motion across the screen keyboard
• Corporate email support for Microsoft Office Exchange – customers can synchronize corporate email, contacts and calendars from their office email
• Full suite of messaging options, including text, picture and video messaging
• Mobile Hotspot capability – share 3G connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices
• 6-axis accelerometer with compass
• Bluetooth 3.0 technology – support for headset, hands-free, stereo, phonebook access and object push for vCard and vCalendar
• Wi-Fi Connectivity 802.11 a/b/g/n
• microSD card slot with support for up to 32 GB (2 GB pre-installed)

In addition, the Samsung Illusion was also noted as being “designed with the environment in mind.” Some of those details include that the Illusion scored an 84 (out of 119) to get a Platinum UL rating and that the rear casing and battery cover is made from 70 percent post-consumer material with front casing being made from 35 percent post-consumer material. Otherwise, the packaging was made from bleach-free paper and comes printed with vegetable ink.