NEC Terrain
NEC to Bag Its Smartphone Business
NEC plans to exit the smartphone market, according to Japanese publication Nikkei. NEC's decision comes ater the company failed to forge a smartphone partnership with Lenovo. It tried to sell NEC Casio Mobile Communications to Lenovo, but the deal fell through. The two firms had been speaking since late last year. NEC indicated earlier this year that it might exit the cellphone market altogether, and the Nikkei now reports that NEC may sell some of its cellphone patents. The most recent NEC device to reach the U.S was the Terrain, announced by AT&T just last month.
Hands-On: NEC Terrain for AT&T
The Terrain marks the first handset NEC has offered to the U.S. market in close to 10 years. Here are our first impressions of this rugged workhorse.
AT&T Announces the Rugged NEC Terrain with PTT
AT&T today introduced the NEC Terrain, a ruggedized Android smartphone that offers AT&T's enhanced push-to-talk services. The Terrain features a 3.1-inch screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm snapdragon S4 processor, and a physical keyboard for text entry. It also includes a 5-megapixel main camera and VGA user-facing camera. The device ships with 8GB of internal storage, and support for microSD memory cards up to 32GB. The Terrain has a dedicated PTT button and earSmart technology, which NEC says gives the Terrain's dual speakers a significant boost with echo cancellation and noise suppression. It is ruggedized for protection against dust, water, and shock. The NEC Terrain will be available beginning June 21 for $99.99 with a new contract. It can be purchased through AT&T's business sales channels.
