Verizon and Samsung announced the Stratosphere, launching October 13th at $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year agreement. It was Verizon’s first smartphone combining 4G LTE support with a sliding QWERTY keyboard, closely resembling Sprint’s Epic 4G.
Key specs included a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1GHz Samsung Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera with 720p video, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot for up to 8 devices, DLNA via AllShare, Samsung Media Hub, Bluetooth 3.0, and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n. Business features included Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Cisco AnyConnect SSL VPN, device and SD card encryption, and Sybase Afaria mobile device management.
