T-Mobile's Wi-Fi cell phones

Kent German
Kent German Senior Editor July 2, 2008
The T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service provides a convenient and affordable way to combine your cell phone and landline into one service. Just pair a cell phone equipped with Wi-Fi and a wireless router, and you can make VoIP calls from the comfort of your home without eating into your balance of calling minutes. Then, when you're ready to leave, you can switch seamlessly to T-Mobile's network and make regular cellular calls. T-Mobile now offers six cell phones that are compatible with the service. Nokia makes both the 6301 and the 6086. The 6301 has a candy bar design that mimics the ergonomics of a cordless phones, and it comes with a convenient charging base. Samsung offers the SGH-T409, the Katalyst, and the SGH-T339. The T409 is a simple flip phone, the Katalyst has a slider design, while the SGH-T339 comes in bright red. If the above models don't satisfy your feature needs, you also can use the RIM BlackBerry 8820 with HotSpot @Home. It offers everything you'd expect in a BlackBerry device.
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Product Samsung Katalyst (T-Mobile) Samsung SGH-T339 (T-Mobile)
Price Pricing is currently unavailable. Pricing is currently unavailable.
CNET editors' rating 3.5 stars 3 stars
Average user rating 2.5 stars 2.5 stars
Release date Info unavailable June 23, 2008
Bottom line
Despite a few design quibbles, the Samsung Katalyst is a great HotSpot @Home phone with above-par call quality.
The Samsung SGH-T339 isn't a bad T-Mobile HotSpot @Home phone but there are better options available.
Service Provider

T-Mobile

T-Mobile

Cellular technology

GSM

GSM

Band / mode

GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband)

GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band)

Talk time

Up to 300 min

Up to 390 min

Wireless Interface

IEEE 802.11b

Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Weight

4.1 oz

3.3 oz

Full specifications Full specifications Full specifications
Buying choices

Pricing is currently unavailable.

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