Samsung’s smartphone department has always been a bit of an “oddball” to me, announcing Palm OS smartphones like the i530 that never drop(except to staff of the Athens Olympics…and to Theo Poon). Samsung recently started to do Series 60 phones, and had a nice booth at the Symbian Smartphone Show. Here are a few impressions:
Samsung booth
Samsung’s booth was rather classic - no crazy sportsmen like at the Motorola booth. However, there were loads of phones available for visitors to play around with at the five stands:
Samsung i400
Samsung advertises the i400 as “the world’s slimmest S60 slide-up:
The phone itself is a small device with a slide-out multitap keyboard - next to a Treo 680, the device doesn’t look that small any more:
Samsung didn’t give any real further specs:
Samsung i450
Samsung’s i450 is a S60-powered phone targeted at audiophiles:
It is similar to the i400, however, sliding the screen downwards exposes an ipod-like control wheel. The phone has a 3′5inch headphone jack and uses Bang&Olufsen technology to improve audio quality:
Here is a video showing the Samsung i450 in action:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4772567466219330357&hl=en
Samsung i520
The i520 was also shown at the booth - here are a few images of this business phone:
Of all Samsung phones shown, the i520 seems to be the smallest to me:
Samsung i550
The i550 seems to be Samsung’s “professional” S60 smartphone, offering GPS, HSDPA, a large QVGA screen and a 3.2MP camera:
Unfortunately, Samsung stuck to a smallish multitap keyboard - a feature that will reduce usability significantly(IMHO):
Samsung gives a tiny bit of extra specs here:
Here is a video of the Samsung i550 in action:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=27052534879065674&hl=en
Samsung i560
The Samsung i560 is very similar to the i550 specs-wise(except for the lack of GPS) - Samsung positions it as a “sleek smartphone”:
Compared to a Treo 680, the actual size of the unit becomes visible - not at all sleek…
Here, Samsung gives the following specs:
Overall, I can confirm that all four Samsung phones exist and are alive and kicking - but I have no idea when they will finally hit the market…
