Kyocera chose CTIA New Orleans to show off it’s new entry level CDMA QWERTY slider, the Rise. It’s clearly not gunning for the Droid 4 with a 3.5 inch HVGA display, but beyond that, the specs seem decent enough for smartphone beginners. These include a 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor, 512 MB of RAM, 2 GB of on-board storage along with a 2 GB microSD card preinstalled, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash. Interestingly enough, the phone is running Android 4.0 in it’s stock form, with only a few smatterings of applications like Swype and an Eco Mode app to be found.
While Kyocera isn’t announcing carrier partnerships, it’s telling that the Rise isn’t a LTE device. Chances are, it’ll be on Sprint, one of it’s prepaid divisions, or a regional carrier, as Verizon requires all new smartphone’s to have LTE connectivity.
We’ll let you know when more news on the Rise is released. Personally, it’s exciting to see a new hardware QWERTY device…it’s a segment that many say is dying, yet has many fervent fans.
Source: Kyocera
