It's official - flip phones are out, and touch phones are in, as shown by this week's major launch of a new crop of phones by Samsung, as it goes in to battle with the iPhone.
Gearing up towards the opening of the Olympic games in September, Samsung are releasing a number of new mobile phones to coincide with the world’s premier sporting event.
There was a definite move away from flip phones at the event, with Samsung mobile phones director Josh Delagado acknowledging to the press that this was not something the company had specifically focused on, but as a reaction to changing market forces.
Most of the new phones we saw were ‘sliders’, phones that push out instead of flip and often have touch capabilities of some sort, combining entertainment features such as mp3 playback with iPod-like scroll wheels.
From what we saw, we can safely say that touch is in and flip is out. Some of the latest phones include:
Samsung i617T, with the power of 6.1
The i67T is being launched around September of this year in time for the Olympic games.
It will use the latest Windows mobile 6.1 O.S, features a bright 2.4” QVGA screen, push email, mp3 player and a 2MP camera. To be launched as a Next G product on the Telstra network.
Best feature: The i67T uses the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, which shows a marked improvement over 6.0.
Samsung i780 – Built in Wifi
We were impressed by this phone as a viable alternative to a standalone GPS device. This phone comes with built-in GPS and an optional Nav Kit solution; which includes a phone cradle, dash/windscreen attachment and a car charger.
But that's not all - it's also 3.5 HSPDA 3G enabled. A 2MP camera and up to 2GB of expandable memory round out the device. But one of the coolest parts is the 'touch pad' under the screen, which is very versatile and could even replace your old stylus.
This phone was released a couple of weeks ago in early June.
Best feature: Built-in Wifi – one of the first Samsung phones on the market with this feature, and very helpful for grabbing a better Internet connection when you can’t afford that 3G data charge.
Samsung G800 – Phone in a camera. And there is a difference, trust us...
Probably the coolest phone in the Samsung collection, the G800 serves to remind us fitting a camera into a phone is mostly gimmickry stuff, until you see what makes this phone so special.
We were told by a Samsung rep that it’s the only phone on the market to offer a 3x optical zoom. On a phone! It feels like a camera (it’s a little fatter and wider, but that’s to be expected), but is really a great phone as well.
This photographic feat is helped by the camera’s impressive specs, including facial recognition technology, WDR (wide dynamic range) and 5 megapixels of image quality.
It’ll be available on the 3, Vodaphone and Optus networks respectively under different pricing plans.
Best feature: Tie between 3x optical zoom and social networking auto-synchroniser. The ‘auto-synchroniser’ as we have aptly named it, allows your photos (e.g pics taken on the road) to be automatically beamed across to your Facebook, Flickr or dare we say it – your MySpace account in a matter of seconds.
It works by automatically syncing up your password and username for the specific accounts and sending them across a 3G network. We’re impressed.