Samsung G800 London Launch Event

Introduction:

We’re back from the British Museum in London, UK where Samsung hosted the SGH-G800 launch event and presented its new line of mobile GSM phones for the European market. Although they are not targeted to the States and will work only in areas with 1900MHz GSM coverage, we will show them as they are quite interesting and their US-bound versions may appear in the future.

Samsung Mobile are known for their great variety of phones in any segment and for their model-naming scheme, which resembles a code-name. Those models are rather confusing and similar to other manufacturers, the Koreans plan to differentiate part of their future models into different lines – Style, Photography, Music, Internet, Business. This would help the customers to easily understand what the phone’s main target is.

Camera:

Style:

Giorgio Armani Samsung phone is one of the results of the brand’s “strategic” cooperation with other companies. It comes as reply to the PRADA phone by LG and is one of the devices in the “All-touch” category with minimum physical keys. Being one of the smallest such devices doesn’t necessarily mean it is weak in functionality – the Armani phone has the Croix interface (found on the F700) but personalized by “Armani” color scheme, 3-megapixel camera, multimedia player and FM radio.



Internet:

Under the Internet category we were surprised to find the SGH-F700. We consider it more as a all-in-one device with multimedia purpose than as Internet-one, having it mind it lacks WiFi. Although it was announced and showcased during the February 3GSM show in Barcelona, Spain it was one of the “new” devices here. Samsung have the right to show it as new, as the final variant has gone through a few changes, now different in dimensions, with increased display size, new QWERTY design and Stereo Speakers. Like the Armani phone, it uses the Croix Flash-based user interface. Unfortunately, the manufacturer has stripped the camera resolution down to 3-megapixels from 5 in the first announcement.

The other device positioned in the category for Internet is the i780 which looks well here but would also fit in the Business It is Windows Mobile 6 Professional device with quadrangle touch sensitive display and full QWERTY keyboard. Interesting feature is the touch-pad that is used for controlling a pointer over the display, which additionally increases the resemblance with Windows computer. We’ve seen similar solution in HTC P3300 Arthemis, but had different hardware, using trackball.



Business:

For the business users Samsung presented two nearly identical smartphones - a candybar (i550) and a slider (i560) both running on Symbian v9.2 S60 operating system. The multimedia features are FM radio, 3.5 mm stereo jack, 3 megapixel camera with flashlight. Another useful feature is the GPS which will help you to always find your way and know your position. For storing your files you have at your disposal 150MB internal memory and microSD slot for memory cards. Both displays are with QVGA resolution and 262k colors but with a different size: 2.4 inch for the slider and 2.6 for the candybar. Another interesting difference is that the i550 uses a trackball for navigation instead of the standard d-pad of i560.

Music:


Like the rest of the major manufacturers, Samsung is trying in its own way to get into the “music” oriented phone game. Even though pretty much almost all contemporary devices (except the ultra and low class ones) nowadays feature music player of some sort, the manufacturers are trying to lure customers with every possible tactic: - Sony Ericsson with the “Walkman” branding, Nokia with XpressMusic serial, and Samsung with the alliance with Band & Olufsen to introduce the Serenata (F310). It is the second phone from the partnership, with the first being the Serene.

The new model features completely new design, but is used in similar fashion, with the display being below the navigation wheel, which of course creates some confusion in the user at first. Don’t look a keypad or similar text entry input, as everything is done via the huge scroll wheel with a central selection button. Getting it for the first time in your hand you will notice that it is quite big and heavy and the design is like a pocketsize old school juke-box. Slide it down and a loudspeaker pops up from behind ready to play your tracks with Band & Olufsen quality. And just to be sure that all your favorite songs are in your hands the Serenata comes with 4GB build in memory.




The F210 is a music oriented phone with FM radio, Bluetooth stereo and all that comes in a small dimensions and interesting swiveling design. It has 1 GB internal memory and a slot for microSD cards for storing your tracks and other files. The phone is with a 262k color display and 2 megapixel camera with a reflector on the back of the upper part. Some of you may remember X830 which had similar design except for the keypad which was with buttons in two columns instead of the standard one used here (three).

Another music phone is the i450 with FM radio, Bluetooth stereo and the interesting thing here is the N95 like dual slide. Slide up for the numeric keys or slide down to reveal the loudspeaker and the touch sensitive control. This control surface is touch-sensitive and looks like raised waves and it can be used for managing the phone’s player. According to Samsung, thanks to the build in Bang & Olufsen amplifier, you will be able to enjoy high quality sound with minimum distortions at higher volume, but we would prefer to test it on final unit before commenting. The 3G UMTS/HSDPA smartphone runs on Symbian v9.2 OS and features 1GB internal memory and if that is not enough there is a microSD slot for memory cards here too. The display is 2.3 inches with resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and the camera is 2 megapixel with a flashlight.