Microsoft's Kin phones are back from the dead – sort of. Verizon announced Thursday that it is now offering the Kin ONEm and the Kin TWOm, but the devices are now features phones, not smartphones.
"They provide an option for customers who liked the form factor of the previous Kin phones but want an Internet-capable device that doesn't require a data plan," a Verizon spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
Verizon said it changed the name of the phones because the software for the Kin ONEm and Kin TWOm differ from the original Kin phones. The Kin Loop, Kin Spot, Kin Studio, social-networking integration, and automatic back-up have been removed. The original Kin phones ran their own OS, which was similar to Windows Phone 7, but did not allow for app downloads.
The Kin ONEm (above) is available for $19.99 with a two-year contract or $119.99 without, while the Kin TWOm is selling for $49.99 with contract and $219.99 without.
Microsoft introduced its Kin phones for Verizon in April. They were designed to appeal to social-networking focused teens and twenty-somethings, but given that most smartphones have social components these days and Apple released its wildly popular iPhone 4 just two months later, the Kin did not exactly fly off the shelves.
By June, Microsoft announced that the Kin was effectively dead. The company would fold the device into its Windows Phone 7 unit and focus all its efforts on the October launch of its new mobile OS. Microsoft said at the time that it would continue to work with Verizon to sell current Kin phones, but by July all online sales of the Kin One and Two were suspended, and Verizon reportedly returned unsold Kin phones to Microsoft.
Both phones support text and multi-media messaging and include the Zune media player, a Web browser, and e-mail support.
The Kin TWOm features a 3.4-inch, 320-by-240 touch screen. It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 8-megapixel camera with flash, and supports HD video. It has 8GB of storage and is Wi-Fi capable.
The Kin ONEm features a 2.6-inch, 320-by-240 touch screen. It also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera with flash, but does not support video capture. It includes 4GB of storage and is Wi-Fi capable.
To compare, see PCMag's full review of the original Kin One (with slideshow) and Kin Two (slideshow below) smartphones.