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PC Authority > Features > Samsung phone launch: flip phones are out, touch is in
Samsung phone launch: flip phones are out, touch is in
Samsung F400 – what’s that song again?
A phone that hasn’t even been announced or released, this little gem is a dual slider with external speaker. Even better, it features a 3.5mm headphone jack, which we can definitely say is better than than 99% of the phones out there that feature mini or micro headphone jacks.
3.5mm jacks are the universal standard in headphones and it’s a nice change being able to use your own best set rather than those flimsy phone buds that pop your ear drums.
Best feature: Shazam! No, it’s not your own personal Genie, although that would be nice. Shazam is the kind of technology that would have appeared in an 80’s sci-fi film, had the 80’s film writers bothered to forecast the growth of mobile phones.
In actuality, Shazam works by sampling the first couple of bars of a tune (captured from a shopping mall or concert for example) and then proceeds to find the title and artist of the given song and finds you a place to download or buy it online.
Shazam is a third party software release, so we’re not sure if it’s more of a gimmick at the moment. The unit we tested was a US prototype, but we’re assured that all the features including expandable memory of up to 4GB will be retained in the future Aussie release.
Samsung U900 – Customise your phone.
This Olympic themed phone is to be released in two weeks time (late June, 2008).
It features a unique ‘adaptive touch window’, which is Samsung's answer to a touch screen. It works very effectively and feels quite a bit like a mouse stylus.
This stylish slider phone uses an adapative touch window (that works kinda like a mouse) and can be easily customised, including the ability to change backgrounds, colours and touch pad designs.
It also comes with a good quality camera (5MP), facial detection technology and German speaker sound design.
The U900 also features some of the fastest HSDPA on the market for a mobile with 7.2mbps.
A variant of the phone for different networks will be released, so don’t be surprised to see two or three similar models of the same phone (we did).
Best feature: Tie between ‘adapative touch window’ and customisations.
Samsung F480 – An iPhone killer?
Finally, a full touch compatible phone for the touchy-feely iPhone crowd.
Bundled in a stylish leather case to protect the screen, it looks a real iPhone competitor, although it could just be a little late with a rumoured September release date – youch.
The phone sports 7.2Mpbs high speed data transfer, but with no GPS makes Apple happy, but Samsung fans less enthused.
The 2.8” display works really well and the bundled apps were easy to navigate at first glance, but we’re going to have to take a longer look at this in the future to make our final conclusions.
A 5MP camera comes with facial detection and smile detection, the sort of feature that will hopefully catch out grumpy, frowning people in a click, and replace them with exciting, popular and good looking copies. Well, if only...
Best feature: Touch screen; gotta love that touch power.
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comments: 1
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austhome
Jul 23, 2008 10:39 AM
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The only thing I see as a problem with touch screen phones is battery life as my wife has a touch screen phone that has to be recharged every 2 days, the reason we were told is that it's touch screen and that it chews up the battery charge for that reason. I have a different phone than hers that isn't touch screen and i charge the phone less frequently than she does.
Comment made about the PC Authority article:
Samsung phone launch: flip phones are out, touch is in?
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.
What do you think? Join the discussion. |
