Boost Mobile snags Samsung Transform Ultra with Gingerbread for Oct. 7

A refresh of Sprint's original Samsung Transform, Boost Mobile's Transform Ultra hits the prepaid carrier on October 7.

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Jessica Dolcourt

Sept. 15, 2011 9:13 a.m. PT

After impressing us with the higher-end Samsung Galaxy Prevail, Boost Mobile and Samsung are angling for a second success with the prepaid Samsung Transform Ultra.

A reboot of the ho-hum Samsung Transform that parent company Sprint debuted a year ago, Boost's Transform Ultra features Android 2.3 Gingerbread as its up-to-date operating system. It also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and a 1GHz processor to keep it humming along. For multimedia needs, the Transform Ultra is home to a 3MP rear-facing camera, and a VGA front-facing camera. The smartphone comes with a 2GB microSD card included, and takes up to 32GB total.

What's more, the Transform Ultra comes with another legacy from the original Transform, and that's a morphed version of Sprint ID that Boost Mobile is terming Mobile ID. We weren't fans of Sprint's in-your-face treatment of the service, which urged you to download preset "ID packs" that smelled to us like bloatware. However, Sprint has made some modifications to blunt the rough edges, and recent models, like the Motorola Photon 4G, have a much subtler iteration. We hope that the Transform Ultra's Mobile ID remains as unobtrusive as possible.

The prepaid Samsung Transform Ultra will hit Boost Mobile customers on October 7 for $229.99, without a contract. Just a day before the handset becomes available, Boost is raising rates for its unlimited talk, text, and data plan for Android phones.

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