As of this week, you get something new if you’re on a two-year T-Mobile contract: once a year smart phone upgrades at new customer prices, with tiered discounts based on the duration of your contract. Customers with…less smart phones can upgrade for new customer prices after a year of their contracts.

You do have to start your two year hitch over when you get your new phone, and contract-less Even More Plus customers aren’t eligible, obviously. TmoNews has the goods:

Basically, beginning January 27, customers can upgrade their smartphone every year for the same price as new customers. In addition, customers with voice and text phones can also upgrade to a smartphone at month 12 of their contract for the new customer price. Additional discounting periods are also launching for customers with 1-11 months of service and 12-21 months. As we stated before, the “Early Upgrade Discount” consists of Tier 1, which will require 1-11 months of active service on a $29.99 or higher individual rate plan or a $49.99 or higher individual family rate plan. Also you must have 1-11 months since the last discounted handset purchase. On the other hand, the “Early Upgrade Plus” which consists of Tier 2, will require 12-21 active months on a $29.99 or higher individual plan or a $49.99 or higher individual family rate plan. For the “Early Upgrade Plus” you must have 12-21 months since the last discounted handset purchase. But here is something to take note of. Smartphones will qualify for a full discount pricing at the “Early Upgrade Plus” level.

Anyway, if you’ve been chafing at running out your contract, or that G1 or myTouch looks less pretty next to something newer, you get a once a year upgrade from now on. And just for anybody who might have been wanting, and this is very good news, a list of T-Mobile US’ current Android offerings, and a little about what’s rumored for 2010. I’ll be including Amazon prices for anybody curious who isn’t a T-Mobile customer, at the moment.

Click on the T-Mobile links for full specs on each of the released devices, except the first one. (TmoNews has a handy comparison chart up, too.)
 
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Available Now…

Nexus One

First of all, the big question: do you now qualify for a Nexus One upgrade, now? I’m guessing yes if you fill the above criteria, because I know I didn’t, last time I checked, and now I do. I’m in the first year of this contract, so I can get one for $279. Do feel free to check, it’s not like you’re going to add a big chunk to your phone bill by accident or something. (The phone, you buy with a card, directly from Google.)
 

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G1

The first one, the grandpa, the caveman – probably not the one you’d want, right now, but prices are lower than ever. With a new contract, T-Mobile sells the G1 for $99, Amazon sells the G1 for $49.99.
 

 
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myTouch 3G

The second gen successor to the G1, minus the slider keyboard, but with a nicer form factor and beefed up hardware. T-Mobile’s got the myTouch 3G $149.99, you can find them at Amazon and elsewhere for a hundred, sometimes. (Not now.)
 

 
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CLIQ

The other big Motorola Android release last year, sporting a pretty great keyboard and the proprietary Motoblur interface, aimed at heavy tweeters, texters, and general social media heads. Lags behind on Android OS upgrades, always, due to the extent to which Motorola customized the OS, so if you’re a modder or praying for 2.1, this probably isn’t the phone for you. Big chatters seem to love them, though. T-Mobile sells CLIQs for $149.99, Amazon’s got the insane price on CLIQs with new contracts: $19.99.
 

 
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Behold II

The Samsung TouchWiz UI has its share of detractors, some people love it, though, and for a mid-priced Android phone right now, the Behold II’s got some pretty sweet features, not least of which is a five-megapixel with flash. At $149.99 from T-Mobile and $49.99 from Amazon, that alone makes the Behold II worth checking out.
 

 
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myTouch 3G – Fender Limited Edition

If you’re going to buy a myTouch now, you might think about this one, even if you don’t care about simulated wood grain casing or a bunch of Clapton songs. (Then again, the myTouch 1.2, with the same specs but no FenderClapton-ness, should be here shortly.) The Fender LE’s got more RAM, ships with a 16 gig card that’d set you back more than the difference between T-Mobile’s prices, and best of all, has a regular old 3.5mm headphone jack, rather than using a Mini USB adapter.  This one’s T-Mobile only, and the myTouch 3G Fender model will set you back $179.99.
 

 
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Coming Soon…?

Motorola Sholes/MOTOROI

Personally, I’m waiting on cashing in my upgrade until I see what happens with this bad boy, at least, lumps and all. South Korea’s first Android phone is currently selling like crazy, and small wonder: 3.7” screen, expandable to 32 gig, 8 megapixel camera with flash, 720p video and HDMI output, not too shabby. The processor’s the same as the Droid’s, so no Snapdragon speeds, here, if that’s what you’re looking for. Sholes/MOTOROI is supposed to be coming to T-Mobile in March.
 

 
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myTouch 1.2

This one’s definitely coming in a few weeks – the above shot’s from  an eBay auction canceled recently. Basically the same as the Fender LE, obviously.
 

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myTouch Slide

Rumored as the replacement for both the aging G1 and the Sidekick line, the form factor on this prototype doesn’t resemble either – or the myTouch – but it’s HTC all the way. The hardware doesn’t sound like a lot to write home about – ARM11 processor – but it does have a flash, outside-accessible SD slot (I knew it reminded me of my old Wing…), and a trackpad instead of a trackball. Mid-May, sounds like.
 

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Motorola Zeppelin

According to the Czech site that leaked the pic, five megapixel camera, Motoblur. TmoNews says it’s coming in March.

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Nexus Two

The next Google Phone may or may not be the Motorola Shadow, as rumored, but it’s definitely a Motorola, one of the 20-30 Android phones that company plans to ship this year. Real Soon Now.
 

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Other than that, all we’ve got to offer are these shots from a trade show brochure B3ler3fonte posted over at xda last month, of Q1-Q2 2010 HTC Android phones T-Mobile’s got dibs on. Some of these are meant only for Asian markets, apaprently, all won’t be coming to the US. Some nice eye candy for now, though, and it looks like all the upcoming HTC phones have flashes on them. You can see more in Android Central’s post from December:

 
^RNL

(special thanks to TmoNews and their exhaustive work tracking down T-Mobile rumors)