Alltel tries iPhone rivalry with Samsung Delve

Alltel on Thursday became the last major US carrier to take its turn at a full touchscreen cellphone with the Samsung Delve. The handset has some of the styling cues of the Instinct for Sprint but uses non-touch call and menu buttons. Importantly, it also stands as the first American phone to carry Samsung's TouchWiz interface, which lets users add software widgets to the phone's home screen for quicker access to apps or surface-level information. The Delve goes without a smartphone operating system like other high-end devices such as the Omnia, however.

Hardware features are very similar to the Instinct and include a two-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth with stereo audio support and a GPS receiver. A similar cost-cutting move for storage sees the Delve go without significant internal storage in favor of microSDHC cards up to 8GB; Alltel says this can be partly overcome thanks to free access to nuTsie, its custom-built app that lets users stream their iTunes playlists and others' over the phone's EVDO-based 3G link.

Alltel is accepting pre-orders for the Delve today and will start shipping on November 7th for $200 on contract, matching the price of the iPhone 3G but coming above the $129 price for an Instinct.

Filed under: iPhone, mobile phones
Other story tags: Samsung, iTunes, sprint, Alltel