The slider styled, TouchFLO and Windows Mobile 6.1 equipped HTC Touch Dual is expected to finally become available at Best Buy retail locations, Best Buy Mobile locations and online this weekend. Having been announced back in April and the pre-order page showing up online last month it feels like its been a long wait, but with the Touch Dual’s features it should prove to be well worth it, especially for 3G loving AT&T customers. The Touch Dual will be sold unlocked and retail for $549.99.

As expected the HTC Touch Dual has begun to show up at Best Buy, still limited to a pre-order at this time, however it will be retailing for $549.99. The Touch Dual offers quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support, which will be a plus for 3G loving AT&T customers. However the handset will be unlocked, so users on more »

Today at CTIA 2008, HTC announced that the HTC Touch Dual will be made available in the U.S. starting this quarter. If you recall, last year saw the arrival of the HTC Touch, a touchscreen-based smartphone rocking WinMo 6.0, Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth 2.0, a 2-megapixel camera and the TouchFLO user-interface under the hood. The HTC Touch Dual is a new iteration of that previous device, now offering the added convenience of a slide-out keypad and an updated OS with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. And oh, if you’re a mobile computing warrior, don’t get too excited. It looks like they took out the Wi-Fi feature from this baby. All the other differences set aside, the HTC Touch Dual is worthy of some praise of its own. After all, it’s going to be one of the first few devices running Windows Mobile 6.1, and it will be fully integrated with HTC’s proprietary TouchFLO technology, their answer to Apple’s multi-touch.

The HTC Touch Dual will feature a 400MHz Qualcomm processor, 256MB of ROM and 128MB or SDRAM, a 2.6-inch touch-sensitive TFT-LCD screen, 3G, HSDPA, and GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, as well as Bluetooth, a MiniUSB port, dual cameras and a MicroSD card slot. A 5-way navigational pad also sits between the call and end keys up front, for you to run to in case you get tired of the touch-based TouchFLO user interface. Be sure to check out more HTC updates and announcements here on Gadgetell as CTIA 2008 continues. Continue reading for the full HTC Touch Dual press release.