VHA’s 3 network has already landed the Xperia X10, Telstra launches next Tuesday and both Optus and Vodafone are expected to follow within the next fortnight.
Three has pipped Telstra in releasing Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 smartphone ahead of the national carrier.
The Android handset is
now available from all Three dealers for $79/month with 250MB of data and $550 of calls, or a hefty 2GB on the $99/month Unlimited Cap (where ‘unlimited’ of course refers to talk and text).
There are plans with smaller monthly outlays but these require a handset repayment and come with a too-small serve of data – for example, the $69/month plan comes with only 100MB of data and calls for an extra $5/month for the X10, so you’ll end up paying $5 per month less than the $79 plan but getting less than half the data and $100 less in calls and SMS.
Telstra says it’s on track for next week’s debut of the X10 on Next G, with ‘free handset’ plans starting at $99 with no data (an extra $10 gets you 150MB, or 300MB for $29).
Three and Telstra offer the same base model X10 which runs on the 850MHz and 2100MHz bands to permit roaming from Three’s limited 3G network onto Next G.
Vodafone and Optus will carry the 2100MHz/900MHz X10 for their dual-band networks, and both carriers are said to be finalising their plans to list the Xperia X10 by mid-May.
And speaking of Optus and Android, the buzz is that Optus has also signed up to stock HTC’s svelte
Legend smartphone (shown below) under a similar exclusivity deal as Telstra enjoys on the
HTC Desire.
The Legend’s MacBook-inspired manufacturing process has the phone milled out of a single block of aluminium into a seamless frame so that the shell doubles as the chassis.
Having played with this during HTC’s launch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, we’d rate this as the most beautiful and ironically most ‘desirable’ Android phone yet. Let’s hope the rumours are solid and the Legend soon becomes reality.