Verizon peeps have all the luck. According to a leak by IntoMobile, the Samsung Gem will be a lower-cost version of the Fascinate, running Android 2.1, when it is released sometime soon. The Gem looks not-so-vaguely like the newly-released bada phone, the Samsung Wave, on which the company installed their own awful software onto some beautiful metallic hardware. Honestly, 800×480 Super AMOLED on a 3.2″ screen is GORGEOUS. That the UI and apps are wholly unusable is infuriating.

So Samsung must have taken a cue from their manufacturing process; they know they’re not selling a ton of Wave devices, so why not take the hardware as is, or close enough, and slap some Android love on it. Makes perfect sense to me. Heck, I’d buy one if the price was right.

Along with the Gem, the Fascinate will be coming to Verizon in the next few weeks as well. This is their Galaxy S variant and shows little difference to the already-released Captivate and Vibrant, on AT&T and T-Mobile respectively. Rogers will also soon be getting the Captivate, and Bell the Vibrant even sooner, this week in fact.

(IntoMobile)

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