Samsung has thrown its hat into the smartphone ring with the Jet S8000 – a handset with a powerful processor and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support.
When we look back on summer 2009, it will be remembered as the summer of the smartphone. Apple’s iPhone finally got round to cut and paste, MMS, video recording and all the basics we had been waiting for, while Palm knocked us on our feet with the Pre’s unified contacts plus background apps.
And don’t forget today’s official launch of Nokia’s N97 (yes, let’s not talk about the N96), plus the forthcoming new generation of the E series smartphone: the E72.
And here comes Samsung with the S8000, a brand known in recent times for great cameras, robust sound experience, good design and nice widget-ised home screens, but not exactly a proponent of the smartphone, right?
Yesterday’s launch of the Jet S8000 is hoping to change all of this. In fact, Samsung’s tagline for the Jet is ‘smarter than a smartphone’.
So what makes it so clever? The 3.1-inch touchscreen handset has an 800MHz Samsung 6410 processor that will support the widget-heavy 3D-style Cube interface.
The web browser is Samsung’s own Dolfin browser with one-finger zoom and multiple window browsing.
Lookswise, it has the same kind of piano-black plastic finish as the Palm Pre, but the AMOLED screen seems much brighter than that of the Pre, iPhone or Nokia’s handsets.
By Marie Boran