Archive for Samsung
Samsung Rogue From Verizon
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Verizon looks set to release the Samsung Rogue this coming September 8th, also known as the u960. This model will feature a touchscreen display and come in a slider form factor. It will be equipped with a full QWERTY keypad, a 3-megapixel camera, GPS and EV-DO connectivity. As for the u450 Intensity, this model will also sport a sliding QWERTY keypad, although the camera takes a hit by being a 1.3-megapixel shooter only with Bluetooth connectivity. The Rogue will cost $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate while the Intensity is going for $29.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, where both are available on a 2-year contract.
Samsung Omnia HD i8910 Review
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A Symbian-injected followup to the so-so Windows Mobile Omnia, the HD i8910 is a specced-out slab of phone from Samsung, with a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, 8MP camera, HD video recording and a definite thing for multimedia.
The Price: TBD, at least as far as subsidized carrier deals go. You can grab it unlocked now for about $650, but 3G may not work on your carrier.
The Verdict: The Omnia HD does everything fine, and a few things extremely well. Video playback is top notch and widely compatible, the camera is among the best I’ve ever seen on a cellphone, and the video recording can actually hang with a lot of pocket cams, like the Flip or Kodak Zi series. On all other counts the phone never falls flat, but it never really shines, either.
The Hardware: Your first impression of the Omnia HD is that it’s big, but that’s not really fair: It’s a tall device, but it’s not meaningfully larger than any of the other popular touchscreen phones on the market today—it’s just proportioned differently (see the gallery below for comparison). And for all the hardware crammed inside, it’s reasonably thin. Speaking of guts: It’s got HSDPA (on European bands), GPS, 8-16GB of internal storage with microSD expansion, and 8MP, 720p-recording camera sensor, a built-in flash bulb, a forward-facing video camera, USB connector and a 3.5mm jack. The lack of HDMI-out is semi-replaced by DLNA network streaming, though it’s not really an even trade. At any rate, it’s a healthy phone, hardware-wise.
Samsung touts the AMOLED screen over pretty much everything else, and with some good reason. It’s vibrant and sharp, but side by side with an iPod Touch, it isn’t strikingly better. The benefits of the OLED, such as they are, seem to manifest themselves more in the phone’s long-ish battery life than anything else. In terms of touch, it’s a capacitive panel, and it’s extremely responsive. Any lag or difficulties with touch controls or soft keyboard are entirely down to the software.
Cellphone cameras are generally horrible, so the Omnia HD’s camera is a rare treat. Seriously: I even trusted it to shoot a headphone review last week, and it came through impressively well. It’ll match a low-end point-and-shoot in most situations, barring low-light—the sensor can’t really handle darker situations too well, and the flash is pretty wimpy—and fast-motion scenes. Video, on the other hand, is at least pocket-cam quality. In daylight it’s razor-sharp at 720p, while in low light it’s passable. Novel-but-not-terribly-useful slo-mo and high-speed modes are thrown in for good measure. The Omnia HD doesn’t quite match up to the best-of-the-bunch Kodak Zi8, for example, but it’s amazingly close, especially for a phone. A phone, with a decent camera! How did this happen?
Samsung Instinct HD Pops Up On Best Buy’s Website
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As it turns out, Instinct HD really was the final name that Samsung decided for its Sprint-bound S50 / m850 Dash, at least as far as Best Buy is concerned. The “Weekly Ad Specials” listing confirms that the smartphone really does handle HD video, both recording and playback, with a 5 megapixel camera and a TV out connection for sharing. It’s also got visual voicemail, WiFi, and corporate calendar (likely Exchange and Lotus Domino) support. No price listed, but whatever it is will be effective from today through September 26th, so using our great powers of logic and deduction, we’re gonna predict it’ll hit stores sometime within the next month — bold assumption, we know. Don’t let us down, Samsung.
Samsung InstinctQ For Sprint Pictured
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Going off mere clues, hypotheses and shreds of evidence, we’ve been trying to wrap our brains around the InstinctQ for a while now — and finally we’ve got a picture that firms everything up: it’s definitely an Android-powered landscape QWERTY slider for Sprint. We know the Hero’s in the pipeline, too, so between these two, Sprint could be poised to catch up to T-Mobile in a big, big way (as far as Android goes, anyhow) this fall. We think we’re digging the touch-sensitive Home, Menu, and Back buttons, and the expansive keyboard looks plenty usable. The screen isn’t looking quite as vibrant as its autobahn-driving European cousin, the Galaxy — but we’ll wait on passing final judgment until it’s in our hands, of course. Any chance that’s happening soon?
Samsung Launches TouchWiz SDK For Cross-Platform Bliss
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Now that Samsung’s standardized on the TouchWiz interface across its entire touchscreen line — dumbphone and smartphone alike — they’ve created a fertile playground that offers developers the opportunity to reach a good chunk of the world’s second largest phone manufacturer’s devices. A dedicated software development kit for TouchWiz is now available direct from Samsung, and since your average code monkey doesn’t necessarily have access to fifteen different phones running multiple versions of every platform Sammy supports, they’re also offering up their Virtual Device Lab that’ll let devs test their wares on everything the company has on tap. For distribution, Samsung will have a number of channels available: its Application Store, a new Widget Gallery that’ll premiere on Verizon’s Omnia II launching later this year, and — perhaps most tantalizingly for developers — the possibility of inclusion right in the frickin’ ROM if Samsung really loves what you’ve done. Considering that you’re targeting S60, WinMo, and a wealth of proprietary OS devices in one fell swoop, this could end up being a huge distribution channel.
White Samsung Galaxy Spotted In The Bush
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We just caught a glimpse of a white / silver Samsung Galaxy yesterday, but it looks like any doubts about its realness have now been put to rest, as the very same Android-based phone has now been spotted in the wild. As you might expect, however, there’s apparently no other differences compared to the standard black Galaxy we’ve been seeing all along and, just like the black model, this one will reportedly be available first on O2 Germany before rolling out to other carriers in Europe. And, no, there’s still no word of a release ’round here.
Samsung Confirms a Tegra-Based Smartphone Is In The Works
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NVIDIA’s Tegra chip has shown itself to be quite a gem, especially in the field of augmented reality zombie destruction. Looks like Samsung agrees with that sentiment, and has confirmed that it’s currently developing a smartphone with the powerful processor. That’s not a lot to go on, but knowing the capabilities of the CPU, we’re excited. It’s probably safe to assume an AMOLED touchscreen is a given, as well as a plethora of TouchWiz widgets, but whether or not the phone goes with Windows Mobile or Android is still a mystery. A recent rumor suggested one of the “top five” smartphone makers would be releasing a $199 GSM-based Tegra device by year’s end — no indication if these two reports are one in the same, but we’d love to see what Sammy has in store sooner rather than later.
Solar Cell Phone Is Earth Friendly, Dirt Cheap
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You don’t generally expect much from a cell phone that costs less than sixty bucks, and with the Samsung E1107, you don’t get much. It’s got a 128 x 128 display, an FM radio, and a built-in flashlight. The reason that you’d buy it is the solar panel the takes up the entire back of the phone, promising up to 10 minutes of call time per hour in the sun. While not the most efficient way of charging your phone, it’s a million times better than an iPhone 3GS at out of power performance, and at least gives you an option for mobile charging.
The other reason to get this phone is that it’s good for the Earth: it helps reduce global warming. Not in the way you’re thinking, that would be too obvious. No, I’m talking about how having a solar panel out in the sun absorbs photons, preventing them from imparting their horrible energy into the ground and making everything just a little bit cooler. If everybody was using solar powered cell phones, not only would we be saving energy charging them, but charging them would actually cool the planet by some fraction of a degree that I’m just going to go ahead and call significant and important! Yay solar power!
So far, the E1107 is available pretty much everywhere except the US. Why must they taunt us so?
