Judging by recent leaks and tips, the next Android phone for AT&T could be the Motorola Sage. First spotted in the FCC last week, the quad-band device appears to support AT&T’s 850 and 1900MHz bands in addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Assisted-GPS, and EDGE. Over the next few days, a handful of images emerged showing the Sage and its sliding QWERTY form factor, looking much like the T-Mobile Cliq.
If you are familiar with Motorola’s Android handsets so far, you’ll likely recognize shades of T-Mobile’s Cliq XT and the keyboard on AT&T’s Backflip. Aside from the touch pad on the bottom front, the pictures show that the phone also features a Micro-USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD card expansion slot, and a dedicated camera button. According to an Engadget source, the device has Android 2.1 with the new, less-obtrusive MotoBlur interface.
Without knowing the processor and memory for the Sage, I would imagine the handset will carry a $99-$149 price tag. Historically, Motorola has released high-end Droid devices for Verizon and entry-level consumer phones for everyone else. Looking at what we’re given so far, I see another low-tier AT&T model in the future.
