Sprint Salutes the Motorola Admiral with PTT

The Motorola Admiral, Sprint's first Android-powered handset to offer the carrier's Direct Connect Push To Talk service, is now available at this carrier's stores.

In addition to push-to-talk capabilities, the Admiral was built to military standards to withstand dust, shock, vibration and intense temperatures. The Motorola-made handset sports a 3.1-inch VGA (640 x 480) touchscreen, which is situated above a QWERTY keyboard in a BlackBerry-esque design, and runs AndroidOS 2.3 Gingerbread.

It packs a 1.2GHz processor and comes with 4GB of internal storage that is expandable via a microSD card. Equipped with a 5MP rear-facing camera, the Admiral can also act as a mobile 3G hotspot for up to five devices, though that will cost an extra $30 per month. 

The smartphone costs $100 with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in rebate. Sprint business customers may be able to activate the device on a Sprint Business Advantage and Data plan, which starts at $60 a month with a $10 a month premium add-on for smartphones. While on sale today through direct sales channels, telesales and online, the Motorola Admiral will be made widely available starting Nov. 13. 

The Admiral joins the ranks of the Kyocera DuraMac as part of Sprint’s next-generation Direct Connect push-to-talk service, which operated on the carrier’s 3G CDMA network instead of Nextel’s iDEN network. Sprint plans to phase out iDEN in 2013, claiming the new service provides users with faster data speeds.