LG’s keyboard-enabled update to the Optimus One just launched on Verizon as the LG Enlighten, and has been tipped for Sprint as the LG Optimus Slider. It looks like we can add one more carrier to that list, with the Optimus Slider showing up again, this time as a Virgin Mobile handset appearing in Best Buy’s computer system.

Sprint’s version of the smartphone was supposed to be here by now, and there’s been no indication as to just what’s holding it up or when it might finally arrive. There’s also no release date set for the Virgin Mobile Slider; it’s simply marked as “coming soon”.

The Enlighten may be only $80 on-contract with Verizon, but a no-contract Virgin Mobile Optimus Slider is still just $200. That will let it serve as an inexpensive step up from the $150 Samsung Intercept, also on the carrier. Sure, the processor may not be any faster, and the screen’s the same size, but it’s newer hardware and will arrive with Gingerbread, as opposed to the Intercept’s Froyo. Heck, maybe you just think the Optimus Slider looks better. The one advantage the Slider definitely has over the Intercept is its higher display resolution, at HVGA instead of WQVGA. Whether or not these tweaks are worth $50 is up to you.

Source: Best Buy

Via: Unwired View