2 posts tagged “samsung”

It seems the full crop of new mobiles phones at the MWC '09 is in. While The Symbian-Guru Guru was pretty excited and had big expectations of the MWC `09, I on the other hand did not expect anything really wowable. Merely more megapixels and more/bigger touchscreens. And sadly I was mostly right.

Touchscreen developments

Yep, almost every company came with more touchscreens. Only Nokia introduced no new touchscreen devices, showing contentment with their 5800 ExpressMedia and the yet to be released N97. Note that I am not counting the new Nokia navigator with a touchable area for zooming. An interesting development is that Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 has become more finger oriented, finally. And very promising Samsung used Symbian S60 5th edition for their latest and greatest touchscreen: The Omnia HD.

Samsung Omnia HD

The Omnia is a very promising media phone. OLED screen, 8 MPixel photo's. Video upto 1280x720p@24 fps, even GPS and a compass. Specificationswise it completely blows the competition out of the water and with S60 5th edition being among the more pleasant touch interfaces. it should do well. Sadly there is no Xenon flash, only a single led. However neither the Nokia 5800 nor the N97 can match its hardware specifications. And with all of them running S60 5th edition It seems Nokia's only advantage over this Samsung will lie mostly in OVI's additional internet services additional software and regular firmware updates/improvements. Which BTW are not to be dismissed lightly. All in all the Omnia HD looks very impressive.

Nokia N86

Though SonyEricson presented a 'concept' of 12 MPixels, Nokia's N86 is currently perhaps the most promising cameraphone announced. The multi-aperture and a mechanical shutter will improve the image quality. Expect enhanced image depth and sharper images. Compared to a N82 the N86 lens setup has a similar amount of light per pixel while at the same having 60% more pixels. In comparison The E71's lens collects 30% less light per pixel and 36% less pixels.

The N86's lack of a Xenon flash will no doubt annoy staunch photographers. However if the LED's are of high quality they could still approach the colorspectrum Xenon well enough, that flashed photo's don't look off-color. Though the significant longer flash duration of LED's will cause more motion blurring in your photo's. The latter is less important, particular if as compensation the double LED's can be used as a torch and for filming in the dark.

No phones for social bloggers

No real combinations of a quality media phone (photo and video) with a decent mini-qwerty were expected by me. The announced E75 has a qwerty but only 3.2 MPixels, with a single LED and no mention of a Zeiss Tessar lens. No doubt it will fall in the same quality category as the E71: Only nice for sunny holiday pics. However the E75's video is specified at 640x480@30 fps compared to the E71's 22fps despit the phone's smaller size. On the other hand the E75 design does not even come close to the stylish curves of E71. The E75 looks flat and squared. A shade of polished ugliness, particular in the colors red and yellow.

Acer came with the M900. It main features are a 5 Mpixel camera, GPS, fingerprint scanner  and QWERTY! Making it the sole competitor for the Nokia N97. With Windows Mobile 6.5 as the OS choosen for the Acer M900, it will no doubt do well in buisiness circles. Though wether WM6.5 will be really that more userfriendly than WM6.0, I doubt it. I do hope the Acers'  photo's and video options will compare favorable to what we are used from Nokia's N-series devices as the N97 is in need of decent competition in that aspect. No doubt a qwerty version of Samsung's Omnia HD would give the N97 stiff competition. Indeed I hope they do. For now the N97 seems the only phone suited for a social blogger's appetite.

Conclusion

Samsung's Omnia HD was the most exciting annoucement, I guess. Though without qwerty I doubt I'll go for it. As such my N82 has little fear of being replaced. The N86 would be a nice upgrade to the N82, but the difference is simply not big enough. Which in my eyes sums up the MWC '09. The N97 is still looking to be the best choice in the near future. Though I'd prefere a slightly smaller device. And yes, the E71 is still my most wannahave-because-it-looks-so-very-cool-phone. Still the new E75 is a better choice with the 3,5 mm audio connector and the larger keyboard for big-thumbed geeks like me. I guess I have to be a little more patient for my next dream phone.None seem as much a step forward as the N95 did.

In the past Nokia has won the Eisa Award of Media Phone since the category was created in 2005. This year, 2008, the category was changed into Smart Phone. After Nokia's winning streak with the N90, the N93 and last year with the N95 the award now goes to the Windows 6.1 Pro running HTC Touch Diamond. Quoting Eisa's statement on the new winner:

Here’s a device that is certain to attract undivided attention from gadget connoisseurs everywhere. The Touch Diamond’s glossy, shiny case contains an operating system based on Windows Mobile v6.1 Pro, enhanced with a new 3D TouchFlo interface. Images on the 2.8-inch VGA touch-screen are very sharp and clear, making the Touch Diamond a refreshing and rewarding device to use. No user will want for anything in terms of functions, since HTC has included a 3.2 Megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory, an FM radio and GPS navigation. Connectivity options include HSDPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB. By achieving such slick looks and performance, the Touch Diamond is a clear winner.

Though the touchscreen makes for a larger display, I'd rather choose myself the E71 (not in the least because of Symbian) or the HTC Touch Pro, both with a mini-qwerty keyboard. According to the dutch Tweakers site the 3G iPhone did not enter as a contestant since it was not available for testen. Though it is doubtful it would have won anyway.

Also the Samsung G810 running S60 wins the European Photo Phone of the Year award:

Is it a phone, or is it a camera? Only a few years ago the SGH-810’s features would have been unimaginable on anything but a high-spec camera. It offers 5 Megapixel resolution from its CMOS sensor, and protects its optical 3x zoom lens with a sliding cover. Image quality is surprisingly good in bright light, while in low-light conditions the xenon flash is a real bonus. Numerous camera-style photo functions include auto focus with face detection, panoramic mode, macro capabilities, multi-shot mode, digital image stabilization and red-eye reduction. Plus the SGH-810 device also includes Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS Geo-tagging, USB, an earphone socket and a slot for microSD memory cards. Best of all, it manages to look at once both elegant and robust.

Sony Ericsson scores with the W980i as the Music Phone of the Year:

Who could resist this piano-black Walkman-series phone? It’s a quad-band handset loaded with 8 GB of internal memory, a 3.2 Megapixel camera, an FM tuner, Bluetooth stereo, and a music player that operates even with the phone flip-lid closed. Opened out, the handset reveals its 2.2-inch QVGA display with 262k colors and stunning picture quality. One incredibly valuable innovation is the built-in FM radio transmitter. This broadcasts phone-based music playback to a standard car radio, even transferring artist and track details via RDS. The music player handles a wide variety of audio file formats, and automatically sorts tracks according to a range of criteria. Finally, two excellent features are the SenseMe and Shake control. These group tracks by mood, enabling track changes and entire playlist shuffling with just a simple flick of the hand.

The full list of awards can be found here.