Verizon Touts Multimedia On Touchscreen Smartphone

Verizon Wireless this week unveiled its newest smartphone, the XV6900 with touchscreen and stylus access to its EV-DO 3G network with a full keyboard, camera, and suite of Windows enterprise applications built in.

In addition to the Qwerty keyboard, the XV6900 has a five-way enter/navigation button, as well as one-touch access to functions like e-mail, text messages, calendar appointments, contacts, and weather forecasts, for example.

"The XV6900 is a stylish, compact and versatile touchscreen smartphone that gives busy professionals the high-speed connectivity of the Verizon Wireless broadband network," the carrier said Wednesday, in a statement.

The new handset uses the Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system, and provides access to the mobile versions of Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; the handset also has an Adobe Reader LE PDF viewer. PowerPoint and PDF files are view-only on the XV6900, Verizon said.

The smartphone also has a built 2.0-megapixel camera and a 2.8-inch with 240 x 320 pixel density. It also has Windows Media Player 10, instant messaging capabilities via AIM, MSN, and Yahoo, and a Bluetooth 2.0 interface. The XV6900 is Wireless Sync-capable, and also comes equipped with ActiveSync 4.5 and Windows Mobile Device Center, and support for Office Outlook Mobile and Exchange with Direct Push.

In addition, microSD slot can add up to 8 GB of memory.

The XV6900, which Verizon was demonstrating at last month's CTIA tradeshow, will be available April 30 and costs $350 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year service agreement, the carrier said. An additional $100 credit toward the purchase of the handset is available for customers who sign up for qualifying voice and data plans.