The Samsung Illusion The Samsung Illusion smartphone, made from recycled materials, will be offered for free by Verizon Wireless with a two-year contract from Thursday through Monday in an online promotion.
Aside from the five-day promotion, the Illusion will cost $79.99 starting tomorrow online, Verizon said. The device won't be sold in Verizon stores until January, however.
Verizon also announced a slew of other Thanksgiving holiday promotions subject to two-year agreements, including the red Droid Incredible 2 smartphone, which will be in Verizon stores on Friday for free after a $50 rebate. The 4G LTE Revolution by LG will also be offered for $50 online Thursday through Monday.
As for tablets, Verizon is making the 4G LTE-ready Motorola Xoom available from Thursday through Monday for $200 with a two-year agreement and a data plan starting at $30 a month (for 2GB of data). That price brings the Xoom with LTE, normally $500, in line with the new Wi-Fi-only Amazon Kindle Fire at $199.
Other holiday savings from Verizon will be offered at online starting on Thursday , the carrier said.
The Samsung Illusion runs Android 2.3 and supports Exchange corporate email. It has a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, 2GB of internal storage with microSD card slot and a 3-megapixel camera.
The Illusion's rear case and battery cover are made from 70% recycled material, while the front case is 35% recycled. The box is 60% recycled material. Included is a high efficiency charger that has an alarm when the device is fully charged.
The two-year agreement with the Samsung Illusion and other Verizon smartphones requires a nationwide talk plan that starts at $40 a month, plus a smartphone data package that starts at $30 a month for 2 GB of data.
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 .
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