Verizon's XV6800: EV-DO Rev. A phone in the HTC TyTN

Engadget Mobile dropped the news a few hours ago with some Verizon news to combat all of the Sprint EV-DO Rev. A battle plans: VZW will get a CDMA version of the HTC TyTN called the XV6800. Based on the pic from Engadget Mobile, the device will support the newer EV-DO Rev. A network and expands upon many features from the XV 6700: same basic goodness on the outside, but much more in the chewy center:

• Bluetooth 2.0 support
• 802.11 b & g
• 2 megapixel camera
• 256 MB RAM and 96 MB of ROM

I've had the XV6700 for about a year and I absolutely love it. It's actually my most used device, but these specification increases are a welcome change. We'll be looking to eye-spy this at the HTC / UTStarcom booth at CES in a few short weeks. If I like what I see (and I expect I will), I think this will be my next phone.

Comments

[DarrenS]

Glad I waited. I was planning on upgrading my 6600 to the 6700 -- I would have been extremely upset!!!

Looks like a great device -- especially since Verizon has increased the memory over Cingular's 8525.

I hear Verizon will be launching the 6800 on January 15th.

[Woadan]

Kevin, I may, depending on price, get one as well. It'll break up the Q Continuum, sadly, but it was probably going to happen one day any way. Thanx for the head's up, amd Happy Holidays to you and James and the jkOnTheRun family.

[Kenny]

Is the new xv6800 considered a Pocket PC? Is it comporable in features to my current aging Samsung i730?

[Kenny]

Oh yes... also can I give my current samsung i730 to my wife, and have her use it with our current Verizon accounts? She needs to get organized. We were looking at standard PDAs. I'm now thinking I can recycle my old pda/phone with her.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Kenny, the XV6800 is expected to be a fully featured Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition device. It should the same feature set (or in some cases more features) than your Samsung i730 including support for the next generation of faster EV-DO. I don't see any reason your wife can't use the i730 if it's already tied to your Verizon Wireless accounts. You would simply add the new XV6800 to your existing account; Verizon should be able to move your phone numbers to the respective devices.

[Jamey Russell]

Hmmm... Here's an interesting link I found today when I put in Verizon XV6800 into google.

http://www.thepocketsolution.com/verizon_xv6800_accessories.html

JF

[6800envy]

any update on the verizon release date of the xv6800? my 6600 is on its last legs.

[Ryan]

OK, so does anyone know when this phone is planing on coming out? I went to the Verizon store today and i was going to buy the 6700, and they told me that this one was going to come out. Can some one please help me and tell me about when this phone is going to come out. Thank you in advance

[Alex]

I just spoke with UTSTARCOM tech support and they told me the device
would out sometime this summer. The tech support guy claimed their
engineers had turned the device over to Verizon last month, but
Verizon wanted time to test it out. THIS BLOWS

[Pegleg]

Why only WM5 and not 6? Big mistake!

[MIke Wetzel]

I talked to a Verizon tech yesterday who said they were suppose to start getting trained on the 6800 this week but then it was canceled.
She seemed to think it would be out this week or next. I'm watching daily. . . even hourly!

[Gaines]

In anticipation of the launch of the Verizon XV6800, we've launched a community website where people can trade tips and have discussions. This is a sister site to SprintMogul.net, but will contain only information relevant to Verizon's version of the phone.

http://www.VerizonXV6800.net