T-Mobile unveils Galaxy S 4G smartphone, G-Slate tablet specs

But it still offers no pricing or exact ship dates

T-Mobile USA today said the Galaxy S 4G smartphone will ship this month and offered more details on its G-Slate tablet by LG, saying it will have an 8.9-in. 3D-capable display when it ships this spring.

Pricing and an exact sales date were not disclosed for either device. The lack of details led some analysts to posit that T-Mobile was trying to show off the hardware ahead of tomorrow's arrival of the iPhone through rival carrier Verizon. The iPhone goes on pre-sale Thursday for current Verizon customers, and will be available to non-Verizon customers next week.

The G-Slate was briefly shown to reporters at the International Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) in early January, with few details about it other than it will go on sale in the second quarter of the year and run Android 3.0, also called Honeycomb.

At that time, T-Mobile also unveiled the Dell Streak 7, a 7-in. touchscreen tablet running Android 2.2 that T-Mobile put on sale today for $199.99 after a $50 rebate, subject to a two-year service agreement.

G-Slate is the first 4G tablet from T-Mobile, meaning it can access the T-Mobile HSPA+ network, where available, with theoretical download speeds of 21Mbit/sec. T-Mobile has said the network averages 12Mbit/sec.

To watch 3D graphics on the G-Slate, users will need 3D glasses, T-Mobile said. Users will also be able to record 3D and full HD video.

A rear-facing stereoscopic video recorder with 1080p resolution uses a 5-megapixel camera. The tablet runs an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor and features Adobe Flash support. It will come with 32GB of internal memory.

The Galaxy S 4G builds on the successful Samsung Galaxy S line, with the added capability of 4G access in some areas over HSPA+. It will be the first smartphone from T-Mobile on that faster network, but will still run Android 2.2, as does the predecessor T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant, a Galaxy S phone.

With the same 4-in. Super AMOLED touchscreen as the Vibrant, the Galaxy S 4G has appears from photos to have the same body and shape as the Vibrant, which is 4.82 in. by 2.54 in. by 0.39 in. thick. (Additional Vibrant specifications are available on the T-Mobile site.)

The Galaxy S 4G has front and rear-facing cameras, with the rear camera featuring a 720p resolution camcorder, which can be used to improve video chats with others who have a compatible mobile device. Data plans for the smartphone will start at $10 a month, T-Mobile said.

The G-Slate tablet will have an 8.9-in. 3D-capable display when it ships this spring

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .

Read more about smartphones in Computerworld's Smartphones Topic Center.

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