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As we reported earlier, AT&T has launched the Palm Centro, which had been a Sprint exclusive for several months. Now comes word that Sprint is now carrying the Samsung Ace, a variation on the Samsung SPH-i325, which happens to be the very same smartphone model AT&T's BlackJack II is based upon.

The Ace is tablet-shaped and can be used both in and outside the U.S.—typical of handsets offered by GSM carriers like AT&T, but rare for CDMA operators like Sprint. This world phone capability is, perhaps, the Ace’s most interesting feature. So in addition to a Sprint-standard CDMA radio with EV-DO 3G data networking, the Ace sports a second, GSM-type dual-band (900/1800Mhz} radio for use when abroad.

Unfortunately, you won't be getting super fast cellular-wireless 3G (or even 2.5G EDGE) GSM data networking with the Ace in areas outside the U.S. That's because the Ace's GSM radio tops out at anemic GPRS data-exchange standard.

Like the BlackJack II, the Ace integrates a BlackBerry-like QWERTY thumb-keyboard and a 2.3-inch, 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA) resolution display. Because it runs on the Windows Mobile 6 Standard platform, the display is not a touch screen.

The 4.65 x 2.32 x 0.46-inch and 3.9-ounce smartphone includes 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM, and a microSD card slot for gigabytes of extra storage. There's also a 1.3 megapixel camera, 1300 mAH standard battery for around 4.3 hours talk time, and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless with support for stereo headphones.

As the Centro support's AT&T-specific content, so does the Ace for Sprint. This includes Sprint TV's over 50 channels of live television and on-demand video and audio, for example.

Available online now, the Ace won't hit Sprint stores until early next month. It sells for $200 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.