Telstra Ramping Up 4G Network With New 4G Phones

24 Sep Telstra Ramping Up 4G Network With New 4G Phones

Following on from the announcement of Telstra’s plans to expand its 4G network, Telstra will launch two new 4G Motorola handsets before the end of the year as well as the 4G version of the widely popular Samsung Galaxy S3 and the 4G capable Nokia Lumia 920.

The Motorola RAZR HD and the RAZR M will be sold exclusively in Australia through Telstra. The RAZR HD has launched with the smaller RAZR M expected to be available in November.

Both phones were officially announced at  a global launch event in New York earlier this month, with the main difference between the two handsets found the in the screen size and design.

Motorola describes the larger RAZR HD as “the world’s most compact 4.7in smartphone,” measuring just 8.4mm thin. Both the RAZR HD and the smaller RAZR M feature a gorilla glass screen, a Kevlar fibre backing and a splash-guard coating that makes the phones “water-repellent”. In addition to the outside of the handsets, Motorola has also coated the internal components with the splash-guard material.

In terms of the hardware the phones are packing, both are powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, have 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot for memory expansion. Both phones are feature an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera and will initially ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software, however Motorola says an update to the latest 4.1 Jelly Bean version will arrive before the end of the year. In terms of the screen size, the RAZR HD has a large 4.7 inch screen (nearly as large as The Galaxy S3’s 4.8inch screen) with a 720p HD resolution of 1280 X 720, while the smaller RAZR M has a 4.3inch screen. Motorola says it pushed the screen as close as possible to the edge of the phones in order to maximise the screen without compromising on physical size.

The new 4G- capable Nokia 920 Lumia smartphone is among the first device to feature Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone 8 operating system, which Telstra will be selling exclusively. There’s a lot riding on the Lumia 920 and 820, both for Nokia and Microsoft’s WP8, with both hoping that these smartphones will succeed in the highly competitive smartphone market. For more information, check out our post on the Nokia 920 Lumia here.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 proved to be a strong contender in the smartphone market against Apple’s iPhone, with 10 million handsets sold within two months of its release. While this figure does still pale in comparison to the two million iPhone 5’s sold in 24 hours, the Galaxy S3 has definitely struck a chord with consumers, and may see another (albeit small) surge in sales with the release of a 4G version on Telstra’s Network in October.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 features a 4.8inch HD Super AMOLED display with 720p resolution and a 1.4GHz Quad-core Exynos Processor with 1GB RAM. It has a 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a choice of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB internal memory which is expandable to an additional 64GB with a microSD card. Telstra will offer the Galaxy S3 4G in Titanium Gray and Onyx Black and it will ship with Android’s latest OS, 4.1 Jelly Bean.

 

Current Telstra 4G smartphones include the HTC One XL, the HTC Velocity 4G, the Samsung Galaxy sII 4G, the HTC Titan 4G and of course the iPhone 5.