Sprint Finally Offering Refurbished Phones for Regular Sale

Sprint has finally decided to let customers buy refurbished phones in addition to new ones, a great way to save some money the next time that you buy your next phone. Something that other phone carriers have been doing for a long time now, refurbished phones used to only be available when you got needed to get a phone replaced. Some of the phones that are available to be refurbished include the HTC Hero, Blackberry Bold 9650, and the Sanyo 2700. Hopefully, more and more phones will be available refurbished soon, since you can save over $100 buying a phone refurbished instead of new from Sprint. (Sprint)

Sprint Passes On Nexus One After All

Following in Verizon's lead, Sprint recently announced that they weren't going to be carrying the Nexus One phone. Similar to Verizon's reason, they are saying that another Android phone will be available for customers who want one. For Verizon, this means the Droid Incredible that is now available, and for Sprint it is the coming Evo 4G, and maybe even the rumored Hero 2. Although some people will be sad for the phone to be canceled by another carrier, the Evo 4G is looking to be such a good phone that you might just forget all about that Nexus One. (Huffington Post)

HTC Legend Coming to Sprint?

It looks like the popular Hero has a follow up device, with the HTC Legend supposedly coming to Sprint. With a new unibody design and still having the same Sense UI, it is essentially just an updated Hero. And to support it coming to Sprint, it has already cleared the FCC tests that are required for every phone before being released on the United States. (Engadget)

New Smartphone Low Prices

Starting this week, multiple smartphones from Sprint have dropped in price. Here are a few of the dropped phones:

Palm Pixi: $49 (was $99)
HTC Hero: $149 (was $179)
Samsung Moment: $99 (was $179)
Blackberry Tour: $99 (was $149)

Maybe the most notable of these smartphones is the Palm Pixi, which is only a couple of months old. If this is anything like the Pre, the price has dropped so soon because of weak sales. The launch of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on Verizon might have a hand in that, though. The Moment is now a great deal if you are looking for an Android phone, especially with the full keyboard and Android 2.1 coming soon. If you are in the market for any new Sprint smartphone, though, now would be the time to buy for low prices. But if you are looking to get the latest and greatest, these price drops might just mean we are going to be getting some new smartphones soon, such as the Bold. (Sprint)

HTC Hero Now Available

In case you haven't already head, the HTC Hero is now available from Sprint. The Hero is somewhat similar in design to the European Hero, but it now doesn't feature the large chin that the European version has, and also has a larger trackball surrounded by flush (but easy to press) buttons that were all right below the screen on the European version. The Hero also is much snappier than the European Hero, which was known for it's lag time, partly because of the HTC Sense UI. The Sense UI is also on this version of the Hero, but it seems that the software has been modified so the lag time is gone from the phone. The whole phone is great from my use. It has a gorgeous multi-touch screen, a great web browser, and the entire phone is very customizable and has a great feel to it. Every feature of it is great, including the multiple home screens that now come with it. The virtual keyboard is also great, and you can use it either in vertical or horizontal, or use a modified (like the Blackberry Pearl) keyboard or a number pad with T9 text input, also. And in case you were worried about breaking it, don't worry, because the built quality is some of the best I have ever used (er, felt), and it doesn't seem like a few drops w0uld hurt this phone. It is available from Sprint for $179 with a two-year contract.

Samsung Moment Coming Soon

The Android revolution is here, and it's coming fast. Now that there are more Android phones coming, and not all the phones are on T-Mobile anymore in the form of the G1 and the My Touch 3G, people are starting to realize that Android is a powerful platform. The OS has already come to Sprint on the HTC Hero, but it was covered over with the (great) HTC Sense UI. Although the HTC
Sense UI is great, some people would prefer the stock Android OS without Sense. Welcome Samsung Moment. The Moment is the second device that will be coming for Sprint, and will probably be the second that isn't from T-Mobile. Although it doesn't seem to have as solid as a build as the Hero, it features a faster processor and a slide out keyboard. The phone also features an optical touch pad, similar to the new Blackberry's, which is a nice touch instead of the trackball that HTC has put on their Android phones. The Moment is geared more towards users that want a keyboard on a phone, not just a full touch screen. This will be a great device for that market, and will be a solid smartphone to Sprint's already robust smartphone lineup. Expect to see the Moment sometime in November.