Motorola Evoke to go live on CricKet June 3rd

Wanted to get CricKet service, but wanted to get a touch-screen phone with said service? Starting around June 3rd, you’ll be able to do just that, provided you have enough cash on hand. The phone in question is the Motorola Evoke QA4, a luscious slider with a whopping 2.8-inch screen and a slide-out numeric keypad for those who get queasy at the sight of an all-touchscreen unit.

Previously, touch-screen phones could be had on CricKet service, but they’d have to make the jump, via complicated “flashing” techniques, from other carriers, an iffy process to say the least. This one is so far exclusive to CricKet, so everything should work great out of the box, including high-speed 3G internet on CricKet’s relatively new AWS band, which serves places like South Texas and Chicago.

The QA4 is no iPhone, and nobody’s giving any subsidies to make this touch-screen unit easy on the wallet: the phone runs around $280, plus a $15 activation fee in most markets. You will also need to add a $15-per-month data plan on top of whatever voice package you decide to buy, a first for CricKet, giving the QA4 a monthly price of $40 to $75, depending on the market and the plan chosen. This is a bit high for unlimited carriers; Boost Mobile does unlimited voice, text and data for $50 per month, while MetroPCS has its own touch-screen phones weighing in at the same $50. However CricKet has one thing that neither MetroPCS or Boost have, at least not yet: real high-speed data access.

Other features of the QA4 include a 2-megapixel camera (the same as the iPhone), MicroSD storage up to 8GB, Stereo Bluetooth and, for whatever reason, no MMS. Then again, e-mail, which is included in the $15 data pack (half the price of AT&T or Verizon’s offerings), is a viable substitute.

Want a review? We do too…be on the lookout for a full info page here at PrepaidPhone.com soon, and maybe even a review if we don’t have to pay for the phone ourselves