ITG xpPhone gets priced, not more expensive than a netbook

The ITG xpPhone saga continues. We've covered the news extensively, with two major bits of information missing - pricing and release date. Well, now the pricing is known and it's just the release date that's left to be announced.

The ITG xpPhone is one of those emerging MID-slash-phone devices - an AMD CPU on the inside, running Windows XP or Windows 7 and all the wireless connectivity options you can think of.

The specs read more like a netbook - 512M/1/2GB RAM, 8-64GB SSD, 30-120GB HDD. The AMD CPU is clocked at either above or bellow 1GHz, though there are no exact numbers quoted. The screen of the ITG xpPhone is 4.3/4.8/7-inch touchscreen with 800x480/1024x600 resolution. For over-the-air connectivity, you get GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G/CDMA/EVDO with optional upgrades for WiMAX and LTE. There's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS of course.

And of course you get the flexibility and familiar environment of Windows XP (or Windows 7). There are dedicated dialer, contact and other apps you'd expect from a phone. The custom UI looks quite polished actually.

So, with netbook specs, you'd expect a netbook price and you would be right - depending on configuration, the ITG xpPhone costs between 400 and 650 US dollars (280-450 euro). Sure, there are cheaper netbooks out there, but none of them are this small - 158 x 75 x 16 mm, 400 grams.

But will the recently announced LG GW990 prove too much of a competition for the ITG xpPhone?