28
Sep
2009
Samsung Genio Touch S3650. Cereal bars for all!
Ah, our old favourite makes an appearance: Utterly Redundant Marketing Slogans (or URMS, for short), how we have missed you.
Sometimes URMS are funny because they’ve been created by someone in Korea, then badly translated. Fun Time Phone in Pocket for All, would be a hastily made up example. Sometimes URMS are just outright lies. Colour Like No Other, from Sony is a pretty decent one there (because, right, yeah, your TVs make red seem like no other red or green anyone has ever ever seen, course they do).
Then sometimes, as is making an appearance right now with the Samsung Genio Touch, you get URMS that are so outrightly pointless that you have to wonder if they’re actually a joke. To cut the suspense, Samsung’s effort here is “touch for every lifestyle”. So this not only applies to the Samsung Genio Touch, but also to every touch phone they release from now on in. Okay, you think, so what’s so bad. Well, think about it. Marketing slogans and ads are supposed to differentiate products from the crowd. Make you think that phone A or Cereal Bar B has something about it that is so special, so unique, that you can’t but buy it. Touch for every lifestyle says the exact opposite. It says, we make touchscreen phones for everyone, all of you, we don’t care who you are or what you do or what makes you special, we don’t even care about you at all, but hey! That’s a good thing, because that means we’ve got just what you need. Idiots.
What’s that? You wanted to know about the phone, rather than listen to us rant about URMS. Bah! What did you expect? This isn’t a blog for every lifestyle. Check out this Samsung Genio Touch review, or have a look at the official press release for more facts, less rants.
18
Aug
2009
Samsung S9110. Back to the future
We like a good bit of retro action here, and the Samsung S9110 is giving us retro tingles aplenty. For the simple reason that two of the best ever things we owned here as kids were:
1.The calculator watch. Admittedly, thinking back, this might not have been the best thing ever – “kneel before me friends, for I can now multiply large numbers on my wrist” – but at the time it did seem pretty amazing. A calculator! On a watch! On your arm! Amazing…
2.The TV remote watch. Now, hitting the market as it did while we were in high school, this thing was a stroke of genius. As long as you had your little book of codes relating to which channel you need to set the thing to in relation to the brand of TV (or VHS player) you wanted to control, you were set. That meant that whenever a teacher wanted to show you a video, you were then in complete control, tucked just peeking out of your sleeve as this thing was. Interesting sex bit on a biology video? REWIND! Boring bit of chatter from some historian. MUTE! Absolute genius… Nearly caused many a teacher to have a breakdown.
And now, we have the Samsung S9110, arriving in little more than a few weeks, and we are very excited indeed. Fair enough, it might actually be kind of awkward to plug headphones into the thing, or to use the speakerphone function. In fact, we think beyond gimmick value there might not be all that much going here… but come on! It’s a watchphone! A watch, on a phone! Woooooo…
Check out this Samsung S9110 review for some slightly less teenage-giddy opinions, or just have a look at these Samsung S9110 deals instead.
7
Aug
2009
Samsung S5600 Preston. Better than peaches
Sometimes the names of things amuse us. Sony Ericsson’s constant use of names that sound like characters out of Lord of the Rings for example. Satio, hast thou seen the ring?! Aino, where have you been Aino, we though you were lost to Mordor forever! Others, like Nokia, just annoy us. Is that the 6700?Or the 6710? or the 6705? Ohhhh, it is the 6700, but they also had another phone also called the 6700 a few years ago, but we have to ignore that. Great, thanks.
Samsung though have taken a step into a whole new realm though with the Samsung S5600 Preston. Because, well, we don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this one. Preston? Is this like the mobile phone version of calling your kid after the place where you knocked your missus up by mistake, a la Brooklyn, a la Chelsea? Were a bunch of hardcore R&D geeks sat around a Travel Lodge on the outskirts of Preston when one of them suddenly shouted, “I know, we’ll just slightly re-jig the Tocco Lite, add some GPS and 3G, give it a silly name, then sit back and watch as millions and millions of people look for Samsung Preston deals.” Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Either way: Preston? SERIOUSLY?! Oh well. It’s better than Peaches I guess. Check out this Samsung Preston review if you want more than some spurious musings, or have a look at Samsung’s official page for, well, The official Samsung Page. Or – and we really, really don’t actually recommend this – watch this video of some sad goon unpacking his Preston for the first time. Disturbing stuff.
8
Jul
2009
Samsung Pixon 12. Big feet don’t impress all the ladies
Imagine the scene: Cristiano Ronaldo steps up to that makeshift podium in the middle of Real Madrid’s stadium the other day, takes the microphone, and starts to tell the world how he is the greatest football player ever, how he is going to win the Champions League single-handedly, how he is worth every one of the many, many pennies they’ve spent on them and, this would be the interesting bit: he said he owes all his footballing prowess to the fact that he has really big feet…
It would seem a little odd, wouldn’t it. Him claiming that just because he has bigger feet than anyone else, it means he’s better at football than us all. And, odd as it sounds, that’s just what’s happening here with the Pixon 12. Because although the Samsung Pixon 12 is going to be an industry first – the first phone ever to be released with a 12 megapixel camera onboard, that doesn’t actually mean the camera’s going to be any good. The only thing it guarantees, in fact, is that the file sizes will be monstrously big (up to 18MB in some cases). We could go into the science of this but you’d be asleep faster than a reporter having to listen to what Ronaldo did actually say the other day, but trust us: more megapixels most definitely do not = better pictures. That’s not to say a camera with 1MP could be as good as a camera with 12MP, of course, but the key is to find the balance, to use the right amount of megapixels for the job. And something nagging inside us is screaming that 12MP is a whole bag full of too much for the tiny lens/receptor that this thing is carrying. Oh, and with the stupendous 150MB of onboard memory with the Samsung Pixon 12, you might also need to be upgrading after, oh, your first 8 pictures or so.
Anyway, check out this full Samsung Pixon 12 review for more specs, less diatribe, and have a look at this little video below too.
7
Jul
2009
Samsung i7500. Is that a Google in your pocket?
Without us really noticing it, we now live a Google life. Our email is Gmail, our chatting is Google Talk, our calendar is Google Calendar, we threw all our Ordnance Survey out years ago in favour of the incredible Google Maps, and with the rumoured Gdrive apparently not far away, we’ll soon store all our music, office files and photos on Google’s servers instead of our own computers. And are we sad about it? Do we feel as though our privacy is being impinged? Do we care about the monopolies law? Not even slightly! We don’t care because Google just do things well. In fact, we’ll go further than that: everything Google do they do utterly brilliantly, so why the hell shouldn’t we use their services if they make our lives better / more efficient.
Anyway, with the imminent launch of the i7500 it feels like our lives will be that little bit more complete because we’ll have all the Google life-improving services we want on a phone via the Android OS. Wahoo! And yes, we’re well aware of the HTC Magic being the first UK-released Android phone, but given HTC’s whopping 0.16% share of the European market, we’re assuming that fact might well have slipped by many people. The Samsung i7500 is the first Android phone from one of the big three manufacturers, and we couldn’t be happier that this means more people than ever are going to get some Google goodness in their lives.
The phone also has Samsung’s fantastic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, a very impressive 5MP camera and a raft of other decent features that you can read about in this Samsung i7500 review, but for us, all you need to know is that the Samsung i7500 will be the phone that brings Google to your pocket. Saucy.
3
Jul
2009
Samsung Jet S8000. So square it’s hip
If there’s anything re-runs of TV shows like Happy Days taught us, it’s that being square is not the way to be. That square, in fact, was the opposite of cool. Well, that was then, this is now, and with the Samsung Jet ’s new TouchWiz interface, being square (or being cubed, at least) is now very much cool. This is because the new UI – designed by Samsung specifically for touchscreen use – is based around a floating cube that can be accessed by pressing the great looking button at the bottom front of the handset. The UI really does feel completely designed around you. Whether you want to jump to the FM radio, the video player, the internet or whatever else, it’s all available within a click and then a couple of spins of the cube.
As a mid-range phone (there’s no confirmed release date or pricing yet, but we have the feeling you could find yourself a real bargain for this thing once it’s released) the Samsung Jet S8000 is actually pretty well stocked. It might not have the sheer power and specs that the recently blogged about Omnia 2 has, but if you’re not someone who needs the absolute best and most powerful (and most expensive, of course) then this thing could be for you. Especially if you’re someone who likes the more fun / entertaining things a phone can do. The 5MP camera, for example has – deep breath – autofocus, dual LED Flash, Face Detection, Smile Shot, Panorama Shot, Blink Detection, Geo-tagging and a Photo Editor. Not bad, huh? Add to this some GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and everything else you’d expect these days, and the Samsung Jet starts to shape up as an impressive little performer.
And did we mention the fact that it’s also stunning? Well, it’s also stunning… this really is one of the sexiest phones we’ve seen in sometime. Something about the almost transparent glossiness and the feel of its curves makes us come over all shaky and in need of a cold shower. Hmmm… maybe we do spend too much time around phones. Who cares though, we’re proud to be square. Check out this Samsung Jet Review, or have a little look at this video for a sneek peek of what’s to come.
2
Jul
2009
Samsung Omnia 2 i8000. Bigger and better
Bigger is not always better. America has proved that with, well, with just about everything. Its people, its cars, its mortgages… But sometimes the mobile phone world can slip into the misguided belief that bigger is better, that all people want is function after gadget after gizmo after add-on after app. And sometimes they go to far. Long gone are the bricks of the earliest phones of course (don’t you just love when you see old films featuring them?) but some of today’s so-called smart phones are getting distinctly bricky again, despite what you thought we’d learnt.
The Samsung Omnia 2 is one of those phones. At nearly 12cm tall, this is no discreet pocket dweller. But, and it’s a big but, there’s a very good reason for this. It’s because the Samsung Omnia 2 I8000 has the biggest screen you’ve ever, ever, seen. Well, the biggest screen you’ve ever seen on a mobile phone. At 3.7” and 480 x 800 pixels it is an absolute monster of a screen. And where Samsung have come good is that they’ve not just made it big for the sake of bigness, they’ve made it of the highest quality to boot. Made using the AMOLED technology that they have now taken a pioneering lead in bringing to the mobile phone market, this super-high-end phone (with all the GPS, 3.5G, Wifi, 8.1MP camera and everything else you could hope for also included) is only 12mm. That’s 12mm… 1.2 cm… and it has a 3.7” screen! That’s like one of those size zero supermodels who get chased around by the paparazzi these days.
So, big isn’t always better, but something it can be mightily impressive. The Samsung Omnia 2 will be landing with a bang sometime in the next couple of months. In the meantime you can dribble over all the specs in this Samsung Omnia 2 review, or spend a little bit of time watching this video
30
Jun
2009
Samsung Omnia Lite B7300. Light, slight, bright
The Omnia range of phones from Samsung are all about everything. That is, about having the most, the best and then even more crammed into the handsets. The fastest internet connections, the largest memory, the longest talk time etc. Not surprising, really, given that ‘Omnia’ means everything. The Samsung Omnia Lite though is an attempt to take some of what’s best of the Omnia range, and deliver it in a more streamlined package. The cream from the top of the milk, if you like.
So while the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 might not be delivering the very best of everything, it’s doing a very good job of delivering a lot for what should be – in smartphone terms at least – a reasonable rate. And thanks to the slimming down of some of the less vital features, the phone is also a hell of a lot less bulky than its older Omnia siblings. At only 13mm thick it will in fact be one of the slimmest smartphones on the market.
So what will you be getting for your money? Well, as you should expect, not the top end kind of specs you’d expect if you were paying top whack, but it’s also a not too shoddy line-up either:
- GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA + WiFi data connectivity
- 3.0″ touchscreen with 240 x 400 pixels, 65k colours
- 3 megapixel camera
- TouchWiz 2.0
- 107 x 52 x 13mm
- 103 grams
- Bluetooth 2.0
- 250MB of internal memory, expandable with MicroSD to 32GB
- GPS
- FM radio
- OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
And that Windows Mobile 6.1 will be fully upgradeable to 6.5 if that hasn’t happened already by the time this thing ships. We think the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 might make a lot of people very happy indeed, especially those who’ve been tempted by the Omnia range, but have shied away from paying the kinds of prices necessary for them. Read a full Samsung Omnia Lite review here for a load more specs and info.
30
Jun
2009
Samsung Omnia Pro B7610. Sneeze and you’ll miss it.
With a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth, wireless, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and not much else to write home about, you’d think the forthcoming Samsung Omnia Pro might get slightly lost in the market even if it was released now, let alone if it actually makes its supposed launch of October. (read a full Samsung Omnia Pro review here for more specs). However, one thing might just save it, and that’s it’s screen. So what’s so good about the touchscreen on this thing? Well, not only is it big, at 3.5”, but it’s also an AMOLED.
That’s right, AMOLED. No, we didn’t just sneeze as we were typing, AMOLED is a new type of screen that’s starting to be fitted to portable devices such as the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610. An acronym for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (no, again, we didn’t just have a sneezing fit), all you need to worry about is that this will be one of the crispest, brightest displays you’ve ever seen. What about battery life? we hear you hollering. Well, the best thing about these types of screen is that they’re also low on power consumption, meaning you can use the full force of the screen to watch videos, surf the internet and so on without worrying about carrying your charger around with you. In’t technology brilliant?!
Whether this will all still be quite as impressive come the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610’s October launch we’re not quite sure, because brilliant as it is, technology also moves at a fair old pace and we fear that AMOLED might become yesterday’s news even before you’ve managed to remember what it stands for to impressive your mates. One more time: active-matrix organic light-emitting diode…
Check out this not-so-hot video that manages to not quite prove how good the screen is.
2
Jun
2009
Samsung Pixon 12 coming to a network near you
Samsung has announced that they will be releasing an upgraded version of their original Samsung Pixon and they have come up with the original name of the Samsung Pixon 12. So what is different between the original Pixon and the newer Pixon 12? Well, the number of megapixels that you get for your money is an obvious one. It seems that Samsung are going head to head with Sony Ericsson’s newly named Sony Ericsson Satio, originally named the Sony Ericsson Idou, in an attempt to keep pace with market demand. On a personal note I think I preferred the name Idou, but that is another post in itself. If we are to go on looks, for me the Satio wins hands down for me, it is an altogether slicker looking handset, assuming that the pictures we have seen are what the handset will actually look like when it is released later this year. If I am honest I would have thought that Samsung would have upgraded the looks of the Samsung Pixon 12 somewhat, as for me it does look a little outdated, but for those who are going on performance alone, I’m sure it will not disappoint. You can also be pretty sure that the Pixon 12 will be released before the Satio to ensure that all those people desperate for higher pixel levels opt for Samsung over Sony Ericsson. You can also be sure that the other manufacturers will be quick to follow suit with handsets with equal or greater numbers of megapixels for you to choose from. Personally I feel we have reached the peak in the megapixel debate. Other aspects are now far more important for me. I now want WiFi, HSDPA and even streaming TV. The introduction of the iplayer on certain handsets is a great feature to have on your phone in my opinion. So let’s see something more than just megapixels on our handsets…please?
