The Pharos Traveler 117 has just received the FCC’s blessing so you might be able to purchase one soon enough. It’s a phone and it’s a GPS device. It’s actually a pretty smart phone. Let’s take a look at its main features:

• Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Tri band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity (850/1900/2100 MHz)
• 2.8 inch resistive TFT touchscreen display with 480 x 640 pixels
• GPS and A-GPS
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0 connectivity
• 2.5mm headset jack (that’s not a typo, there’s no 3.5mm jack)
• 2 megapixel camera
• Secondary VGA camera for video calls
• 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7201 processor
• 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM
• microSDHC memory card slot
• Windows Professional 6.1

The Pharos Traveler 117 will cost you $529.95 unlocked so get ready to pay the price if you want the device. We don’t know what carrier will pick the 117 up and we have absolutely no idea why the smartphone comes with a 2.5mm headset jack. Still better than the G1 when it comes to getting music to your ears.

Pharos has revealed a new member to its Traveler line giving T-Mobile users another option if GPS is the keyword in their search.  The aGPS aside, the Pharos has much more to offer compared to the previous models in the Traveler series. For starters, it’s expansive 3.5-inch wide VGA screen should suffice to help you forget there ever was a device called the iPhone and its versatile network support for GPRS/EDGE, 3G, UMTS, HSDPA at 7.2Mbps, and 2 Mbps HSUPA on US and European bands must have you speed freaks on the high already.  There’s 512MB of flash memory onboard with SDHC memory card support and the 528MHz processor aided by 256MB RAM should keep this baby humming Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional without a glitch.  WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, and aGPS make up its connectivity options with an FM tuner and a 3-megapixel camera thrown in for good measure to make it a damn decent device.

The Pharos Traveler 137 smartphone is set to make an appearance in the first quarter of 2009 at a well-deserved price of $600.
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