3G Aigo P8888 MID priced at $717
With CES 2009 a mere month away, I don’t have much time left to find my ideal mobile blogging device. My original vision of walking the showroom floor with the Gigabyte M528 MID was abandoned after its US product page was removed and delivery estimates were pushed back, so it was with renewed hope that I read UMPCPortal‘s news yesterday that the 3G-enabled Aigo P8895 (a model number that was not included in the original launch announcement) would be globally available through mobilx this month.
After confirming that US consumers were exempt from paying VAT (despite the "$861 inc VAT" price on the product page), I was pretty much sold. Without VAT, the black Aigo with built-in 3G and 3-megapixel rear camera would only be $717, less than $20 more than the 3G/cam-less white P8860 MID.
As soon as I confirmed that the 3G module would work in the US with an AT&T SIM card, I would begin writing the revised lyrics to "All I Want for Christmas" so that I could serenade my husband.
While I waited for the official yay or nay, I decided to check out the P8895’s product page again just in case I missed something about the supported 3G bands. To my horror, I was greeted with this:
Great.
Fortunately, a quick search on mobilx’s page revealed a new listing for a 3G Aigo, the P8888W:
I didn’t know what the "W" was for, but the P8888 was definitely a model I had not only heard of before but that had its own official Chinese product page as well.
Unfortunately, those official specs indicate that the P8888 supports CDMA wireless networks. So unless this is simply a typo for W-CDMA (which is used by AT&T) and I hear confirmation from someone who actually tests it out, it looks like my search for an uncompromised mobile blogging device continues.
Interestingly enough, I see that the availability date for the Gigabyte M528 (£456 excluding VAT, or ~$673) is now showing "estimated 9 days" for UK customers. That would definitely work with AT&T, right?
[Aigo P8888W at mobilx]
