Basic features:

CorbyTXT (B3210)

• Dimensions: 110,96 x59, 55×12, 9 mm
• Weight: 94 g
• Full QWERTY keypad
• 2.2 inch QCIF 262K TFT-LCD screen
• 2MP camera, Video: H.263, MPEG4, WMV
• Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• FM-radio
• 40MB internal memory, expandable microSD cards up to 8 GB
• Battery: 800 mAh
• One finger zoom, Smart Unlock
• Quick launch buttons on the front
• USB connectivity
• Price : Rs. 7900

Corby Mate(B3313) :

• 2.0 inch TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution
• Full QWERTY keypad / Keypad slides out
• 2MP camera
• 40 MB internal memory, expandable with microSD card upto  8 GB
• Bluetooth
• Quad-band GSM support
• Available in Black, Blue, Pink, Green colors
• FM Radio
• Quick touch access to various applications
• Price : Rs. 7300

Here is the list of common features regarding the Messaging and Emailing facilities available in Corby TXT and Corby Mate.

• Buddy list
• Chat style SMS
• Easy Email set up wizard
• Instant chat messenger
• Integrating User Generated Content sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Friendster.
• Allow users to update their current status and access friends’ updates through pop-up SNS.

• Samsung CorbyTXT B3210 aka Genio QWERTY coming soon to India
• Samsung Corby S3653

Samsung have announced the badaOS for their mobile phones. It will be a replacement to the Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms. The name “bada” is derived from a Korean word signifying “ocean”. The name was chosen as it represents the endless possibilities with the OS.

Samsung bada is a new open platform that enables a richer user experience in applications on Samsung mobile devices.

Right now no further information on the platform is available. Sasmung only gives us a sneak peek and slight info at an official site.

The official announcement should be in December when Samsung will officially launch the OS along with the SDK.

Here’s the link to the official site

Source

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• 2 MP Camera
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Messaging Trainer
• Email support
• FM Radio
• Music Player
• Social Networking Service
• Instant Messenger

Samsung Corby TXT Price will be around Rs.8000 approx  and might be launched soon

• Samsung launches CorbyTXT and Corby Mate in India
• Samsung Corby S3653
• Nokia N97 vs HTC Touch Pro 2 Photo Gallery
• Nokia 5800 Xpress Music Touch phone launched in India
• Samsung Star Mobile Phone Sales Exceed 5 Million

This is the Samsung SCH-B710 which is special in a lot of ways apart from its unique form-factor. The B710 looks like a regular slider handset. But when you turn the display sideways, it transforms into a 3D Screen.

The phones also features:

• 3D Camera with Dual Camera Lens
• TV Tuner
• 3D Parallax Barrier Display

As of now this is a Korea exclusive phone and is not available elsewhere. But since it’s so unique, we are hoping it would be launched in other countries as well.

No other specifications are known. Pricing and release date is also unrevealed. But we will keep you up-to-date on any new information.

Source

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As you all know the Omnia HD is Samsung’s first S60 5th edition device and the third touch screen S60 phone to be launched. Samsung with a good experience in touch screen phones, has for some reason failed to deliver a product that sets it apart from an N97 or a 5800. Sure, in terms of the hardware and the camera performance, the Omnia HD is one helluva performer, but some downright silly niggles keep the Omnia HD from becoming a high seller. The good part of it, a firmware update can easily fix it.

So let me run you through the software or rather the OS of the phone. The Symbian based S60 5th edition is an OS designed originally for non touchscreen phones and later, adapted to touchscreen phones. This is very much evident from the manner in which the menu and options are designed. Samsung has on it’s part tried to customize it and make it more finger friendly, it has in some cases succeeded and in other areas failed.

The Omnia HD has two distinct icon sets working in tandem in a theme (Samsung LBS image and the above). This makes using the phone confusing initially and also points to a shoddy customization process. A single complete icon set should have been used instead of 2 different ones.

Our review device came with only two themes and none of them were exciting enough to have, I’m sure the Omnia HD could have been given some great themes, like the i450 had, once upon a time. The accelerometer also was programmed to work in the most vague manner I have seen. For example, when the screen was tilted to landscape mode, one would naturally, that the phone’s orientation would also change, but in the ‘Main Menu’, it refused to do so. If you were to tilt the phone in a sub-menu, it will work just fine. As silly and unimportant it may sound, this little niggle really irritated me. Every time I needed to do something with the phone, I would have to constantly rotate the phone. This made the phone an extremely impractical device to have. It also meant that taking screen shots in landscape mode was not possible and I could not get even a single screen shot in the landscape mode.

Another place where this auto rotation problem made things irritating and down right frustrating was the input via a QWERTY setup. The phone’s OS was not programmed to show a number pad which could be used to key in text. It kept on switching between a QWERTY (landscape) and the menu screen (portrait). This meant I sparingly used the keypad and relied mostly on a QWERTY device of Nokia for my typing needs.  I wonder why Samsung could not implement landscape view for the main menu, it did implement it elsewhere in the phone!

The browser is another area which disappointed me, why for the love of good things, could Samsung not implement fullscreen view as a default is beyond me. A 3.7 inch screen should have had default fullscreen view in the browser! I had to manually do it everytime for a good internet experience.

The Bluetooth option on the phone also has two distinct menus. Why did Samsung do that? I have no idea. While one involves a lot of touch input and every selection must be saved for the phone to process. This setup is simply ridiculous and makes one ponder why could this not have been automated. The other menu for bluetooth  seems to be the answer to that question. This UI execution for switching the bluetooth on and off is very simple and easy to use. It should be made mandatory in all phones. One has to tap the center of the screen, and the bluetooth is switched on, the ‘advanced’ settings are conveniently tucked away under an icon. Now why did Samsung not make this the only way to use bluetooth in this phone? Only Samsung UI designers would know.

Widget Support is another area where the Omnia HD scores really high. The TouchWIZ based widget support means that many of the options and settings are available in the form of shortcuts and you can have them either on the sidebar or on 1 of the 3 screen panes. While it is not as novel a way as N97, this kind of design for the UI makes it possible to do much more on the homescreen, and that is a good thing. I did miss a certain setting found in the Nokia devices about cycling the wallpaper, and I hope it comes to the HD soon.

Another area, where Samsung have worked is in the music player area. The music player is application in the Omnia HD has been executed really well, it is clear Samsung did not want the standard Nokiaesque music player application to ruin the music experience. So all that can be made easily accessible to the listener in terms of settings was put up front in the form of buttons onscreen. What this allowed me as a listener was to play with the music settings and choose on the go how I wanted my music to sound without having to dig deep into the menu.  The landscape mode in this application revealed an iPhone sort of browsing of the tracks on the phone. The visualizations also were absolutely wonderful. Samsung’s UI designer have really worked on this part of the UI and delivered a superior experience when compared to a Nokia N97 or even a 5800.

The music on the phone with the presence of a Dolby 5.1 setting along with many other options made for a very very interesting and fun experience. I’ve never had so much fun listening to music on my phone. The customizations possible with regard to how your music sounds is really good and far more than what any other music oriented device offers in the market today. The speakers are loud and I mean really loud, the supplied handsfree is also very nice, but when connected to a high end full cup headphones, the quality of output jumps several notches. Full marks for music to the Omnia HD, it’s not as ‘loud’ as the N82 but is certainly much more clearer and refined. I wonder how this would have translated onto a proper home theater if the HD had an FM transmitter.

Now we know that Samsung has DivX and Xvid support out of the box, this support meant that I had a PMP and a phone built into the same device. This is where the Omnia HD beats every other Nokia touchscreen phone. The large AMOLED screen coupled with DivX support gives a superior viewing experience, one that I have never witnessed in other touchscreen phones. When it comes to entertainment Samsung seems to have a much better package than a certain company based in Espoo. Oh and the Omnia HD is extremely capable of playing the files uncompressed and is also capable of full HD playback if I am not wrong.

Overall the UI on the Samsung is really good, but as mentioned earlier there are niggles which only tend to frustrate and hold the device back. Then there are other things which seem to take the device ahead in terms of user experience. But this half finished work means that one is left wanting for more. I’m sure all of this can be fixed with one major firmware update, in  fact it should be, a superior product than it’s intended rival, the Omnia HD would then become the rightful heir to being the flagship of the Symbian S60 5th edition OS.

I would rate the software a high 7/10, capable of much a higher points, let down only due to a half finished UI.

After such an exhaustive overview of the software, I’ll be brief about the accessories that come with the Omnia HD.

The Samsung Omnia HD ships with a Micro USB charger, a data cable, a 3.5mm audio plug earphone (handsfree), a TV out cable and manuals and PC suite CD. What I liked about the last bit was that everything was packaged in small things, a mini CD instead of a regular CD, smaller handheld size manual instead of a booklet. Everything else was the same but the finishing was good and the cables did have smaller rubber enclosures at the ends, meaning that it wasn’t thick. This made them look really good. The handsfree that came with the Omnia HD was also very good. The earphones are of the kind that kill any outside noise, delivering a superior audio experience in a compact package. The output was good and it did not disappoint when listening to songs with the Dolby switch on!

I would give the Omnia HD a healthy 8/10 in this department.

• Samsung Omnia HD Review Part-2: Screen and Backlighting
• Samsung Omnia HD Review Part-1: Design
• Samsung Omnia HD and Omnia Pro launched in India get a Price
• Samsung Omnia HD i8910 makes a debut
• Samsung Omnia HD Photo Gallery

The Goodies

• 800MHz CPU
• 3.1 inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen with 16 million colors with 800×480 px resolution
• TouchWiz 2.0 User Interface with Motion UI, Media Gate 3D
• Supports Quadband GSM Networksand Dual band 3G with HSDPA support
• 5 Megapixel Camera with DualLED Flash and AutoFocus
• Bluetooth , USB 2.0, Wi-Fi , GPS
• 8GB inbuilt memory plus microSD expansion.
• MP3 , 3.5 mm audio jack , FM Radio
• MP4, Divx, Xvid Video playback.
• Accelerometer , Proximity Sensor, TV-Out

The Looks

Hardware is solid and provides easy gripping. it has only 3 keys in the front  – call button end call button and a hexagon menu button in the middle . The Menu button minimizes the current running app and long press of this button allows users  to end all application in one go. The AMOLED screen is one of the best in the market and is very responsive even though its resistive. The display performs really well indoors but not very usable under direct sunlight.  The phone is prone to catch dust and finger prints easily. But this is the case with most touchscreen phones . The problem exists even in the iPhone 3GS and the HTC Hero which claimed to address the issue with  a Oleophobic screen.

On the left side of the device you will find the volume rocker keys. On the right side you will find the lock key and the camera key along with the 3D Cube key.

On the top you have the microUSB port an the 3.5mm audio jack. On the rear you will find the camera along with the flash.

The 800 Mhz CPU rocks for Multitasking

Response time of the phone was pretty good and with just a light press on the screen you get what you want. You need to press as its a resistive screen unlike the LG Arena which is the same league features a Capacitive screen.  Talking about the multi-tasking of Jet, I opened 18 applications simultaneously and the phone did not hang but on initiating 19th app it said “Not enough resources , close some applications and try again”. Its quite impressive that the 800 mhz processor does wonders for multitasking. Jet has a provision to end all the applications in one go , but it seemed there was a small bug in this feature if you consider it should end Wi-Fi and Bluetooth also or else you can consider it a feature.

File copy speed was impressive.I copied 1GB of data ( 873 photos-67secs , 350 pdf files-41sec, 53 vidoes-62 secs , 102 songs-64sec ) from Laptop(Lenevo S10 Atom processor )  to Samsung Jet , it took me 264 secs.

Music and Video Playback

Jet is a good all-rounder phone and the Music features are worth appreciating. The Audio clarity is pretty good and there are  lots of options and controls. The 3.5 mm jack gives the user an option to insert high definition ear phones to make your music experience even better.Syncing with Window Media Player is also possible.Etiquette pause was a real beauty as you just need to keep the phone with screen facing down and the music is paused. The best part was the music player widget which lets you play , pause , skip tracks right from the homescreen. There is FM Radio too incase you run out of Audio tracks and the interface was refreshing and there’s auto-tuning just in case you don’t remember the Radio stations. Video playback was flawless but it drained the battery quite fast. The support for Divx and Xvid video is worth appreciating.

Camera

The Camera on the Jet does its job very well and the pictures taken with the phone look pretty decent. While many Camera phones take lousy useless pictures, the Jet will not disappoint you .It has lots of options to customize your photo before and after the click and smile detection is a great addition.The phone allows Photo tagging which is becoming a part of most cameraphones. While the Jet takes good pictures it does not come close to the Nokia N97 , N86 or SamsungOmniaHD. We won’t complain as the the Camera is not the main selling point of the Jet. The phone records video at 30 frames per second at a 720×480 resolution which is decent.

3D Cube and Motion UI

It was a good move by Samsung by introducing 3d cube / Motion component. Tutorial given is self explanatory and users may get to used to it very easily if he really want to use JET by  Motion. It does have a learning curve and you might not understand how to use it the first time. Its all about minimizing the human effort and opening and closing the applications just by a snapping the phone to left or right while held in the hand. A photo gets clicked by tapping the phone twice and phone turns to silence if kept with screen facing floor. Moving the phone 3 times in right direction closes the open application or turning the phone upside down will open the application etc . These really added attraction to Jet but I was more comfortable while using phone in generic way that is though keys .But the new motion experience was unique.

Usability

Changing the wallpaper in the phone was never so easy as its in JET . We need to just move a finger on the Home Screen from left to right or right to left and your wallpaper is changed. Gestures unlock and application launch was cool. There is an interesting feature of Message Log , it means log for sent or received messages are maintained in the call logs , it cant be of much use to the end user but once you see your message entry in the log it feels good.

Connectivity

The phone is fully loaded when it comes to Connectivity options. Bluetooth , WiFi, microUSB , Mass Storage mode. It supports Quad band GSM Networks and does 3G on 1900/2100 Mhz. It supports HSDPA 3.6 Mbps also.

Browser – Jet has one of the best inbuilt browsers you would find on a phone running a Proprietary OS. The Dolphin Browser is based on WebKit and offers full flash support , one finger zooming, ad-blocker, Kinetic scrolling. It gives you a great mobile browsing experience as it  quickly loads web pages. It has left behind the two finger zoom of iPhone because here its now possible with 1 finger and that too in a fraction of seconds. Tap,Tap and zoom if you want to zoom into a section of the webpage. Scrolling had a bit of lag at times but responded pretty well. The browser supports multiple downloads also but it acts like Firefox’s sibling and eats up memory quickly.

Social Networking

Jet has an application folder called Communities and there you have access to  all our social networking portals at one place ex. Facebook , Picasa, Flickr , Friendster, MySpace and Photobucket.Sadly there is no way support for 3rd party apps like Fring and Nimbuzz.

Features worth a mention

• Samsung has broken the myth of large processor means less battery as we have normally seen in case of  other phones . With a 800 Mhz CPU battery performance is pretty good while you receive calls, tune to music or browse internet for decent amount of time.

• Voice Quality is good enough and one need not to hold the phone so close to ear to listen the voice.
• Reject a call if used can be helpful to avoid unwanted repeated calls and its well defined feature in jet. This feature used to be in some phones but Samsung has provided good interface to use these tiny softwares to be productive for the end users.
• Jet has its configuration settings at one place which gives user an ease to configure the device the way he wants the device to behave and user hardly gets confused about settings as all are well defined in one place.
• Features like Fake Call provided in JET do add value to the phone and I really enjoyed using this cool feature.
• Trimminga video reminds us of  some 3rd party software for our laptop/PC but yes this time its available in mobile too and JET has made it possible , Just shoot video and cut and upload .
• Smile detection , No I am not talking about my cybershot digicam but I am talking about smile detection available in JET , so just a smile and you are shot if you are in front of Jet.

The ugly

Samsung need to provide 3rd party application support which is currently very limited.This is where Samsung has to really push hard if it wants to compete with the big guns – Apple App Store,  BlackBerry App world , Nokia Ovi Store. Samsung does provide the option to download ringtones , wallpapers etc but user is already bored of this level and is looking for innovative apps.The phone had an option to add email accounts but please don’t give user the pain to enter incoming /outgoing server details manually. Widgets can be downloaded but the number is limited and they are also not according to Indian taste so high end localization is requiredJet is scratch prone and scratches become a part of jet very soon.So bit of care has to be taken. The unit we got maintains a weak connection with a Wi fi but yet the connection was succesfull.Whenever we put a sim card in a phone the operator settings are delivered on the handset but it dint happen in case of JET so I manually configured Airtel settings and browse the internet from the data services available from the operator.Users need to install a bulky 104 mb New Pc Studio for charging through USB and managing the device. For Managing its fine but we expect charging to work out of the box.

Conclusion

The Samsung Jet retails at around Rs.19500 now and for the price it does provide loads of features which are packed in a great form factor. The phone certainly has one of the best touchscreen displays in the market but a Capacitive screen like on the iPhone or LG Arena would be more than welcome.  The phone handles calls pretty smoothly and provides decent battery life.  Die-hard smart phone users might find it difficult to get used to the Jet due to lack of 3rd party software but the average user might find the phone above expectations !  I would recommend the Jet just for the Screen and the Features.

• Samsung OMNIA II and Jet Announced!
• Samsung Blogger Meet @ TGIF, Delhi

Earlier, we brought to you pictures and information about the Samsung W8200 Giorgio Armani phone. That phone was rumoured to be cancelled and we believe it has been.

Instead, Samsung has announced a handset with very similar yet improved features.

Here are the features:

• Windows Mobile 6.5
• 3.5″ AMOLED Touchscreen Display
• QWERTY Keyboard
• 5 Megapixel Camera, GPS
• 8GB Intenal Memory, micro-SD Card Slot

The phone reminds you a lot of the Nokia N97/Mini. The QWERTY Keyboard being nearly identical.

The cost however will be much higher for the Giorgio Armani as it’s a fashion phone and it should cost you around 1000 US$.

Source

• Samsung W8200 Giorgio Armani Phone!

In the second part of the review, we focus on one of the most important aspects of the Omnia HD, it’s screen and also backlighting. We had earlier focused on the the design aspect.

The Omnia HD has one of the biggest screens you will find in smartphones today. At 3.7 inches, it is nothing short of gigantic from the perspective of phones. Since the Omnia HD is a touchscreen device, the screen is what makes the device so big and hard to pocket. It’s almost like a huge bar of chocolate. While that may be a shortcoming, the increased screen real estate means that things are easier to read and maneuvering through the menu too.

The benefit of the AMOLED screen also makes itself visible, with richer renditions of the 16 million colour palette, watching a video or a photo is nothing short of ecstasy. Movies on this screen are absolutely a treat to watch (Entertainment capabilities will be reviewed in another part so sit tight!) on the huge screen. Pity a kickstand was not provided.

The capacitive touch on this screen is also a good inclusion. It makes navigating through the menus and other things easier and less of a hassle. But I did find that, the feedback one gets on the N97 while touching or navigating through a list is much superior than on the Omnia HD, whose screen feels rather lifeless in that respect. Samsung could have improved the touch feedback on this baby, in it’s current form, I don’t like it. Another thing, which seems missing on the Omnia HD is the option to control the sensitivity on the device. This is a feature that’s not there on the N97 too, but given it’s capacitive screen, I feel it should have been included, as the screen is far too sensitive at times.

That, then goes without saying that operating through the menus is not at all a hassle as even the slightest touch is registered, making it easy to operate the phone. This is where the Omnia HD beats the N97 hands down.

I’d give it a strong 8.5/10 when it comes to screen. Some niggles do exist, but they can be corrected.

With the screen being so impressive, one would expect that the backlighting would also be great. Well, for the screen it is exceptional. AMOLED screens are one of the best technologies for screens, though their legibility in direct sunlight is absolutely pathetic. It is no different for the Omnia HD too. It is however the backlighting for the keys, which is absolutely shocking. Samsung has not given backlighting to a single key on the phone. This is one of the biggest omissions one could have for a phone. With not a single key being back-lit, one is often left helpless. This omission is most evident when you need to take a call, as you tend to be left wondering where the call key went. I find this omission a critical drawback in an otherwise good phone.

In the night, one would have to feel their way to unlock, start the camera or increase/decrease the volume. I am wondering how could Samsung forget this necessity in an expensive phone like this and provide it in its cheapest models??

I won’t give it a score, simply as there is no backlight. 0/10.

Stay tuned as we put the Omnia HD through its paces!

• Samsung Omnia HD Review Part-1: Design
• Samsung Omnia HD and Omnia Pro launched in India get a Price
• Samsung Omnia HD Review Part-3: Software and Accessories
• Samsung Omnia HD i8910 makes a debut
• Samsung OMNIA HD vs HTC Touch Pro 2 Photo Gallery

Samsung has added 3 new phones to the Guru range of phones right in time for the festival season. The new models 1160,2120 and 2130 are priced between Rs2200 – Rs3600

Guru 1160

This is an entry level basic phone with 12 hours of talking time, FM radio , dual loudspeakers and a flashlight.

Samsung Guru 1160 Price – Rs.2249

Guru 2120 and Guru 2130

The 2120 and 2130 offer a Camera for the first time in the Guru Segment.

2120 comes with interesting features like a color display , bluetooth , VGA Cam, Music Key, Fm Radio with inbuilt antenna, GPRS and microSD Slot. One interesting feature is the Bike Mode in which users can prefer to automatically receive calls from preset numbers. 2130 is very similar to 2120 but is slightly different in the looks department.

Samsung 2120 Price – Rs.3240

Samsung 2130 Price – Rs.3600

The guru phones have helped Samsung grab a lion’s share of the entry level / low cost phone segment.

Anyone using a guru phone here ? Share your thoughts !

Via SamsungHub

• Samsung Solar Phone

Its sensuous design aims to stand out from the crowd thanks to the handset’s pop-style contours and curved body design. The handset comes with a selection of coloured yellow, white, orange and pink covers. In the package of the Corby, it also offers an additional standard black cover. Samsung Corby is considered to be an advanced communicator as it is bundled with wealth of communication options available to Corby owners.

Users can update current status and access friends’ updates, live feeds on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter through simple Pop-up SNS which stands for Social Networking Service.Users can upload photo & video to these SNS and User Generated Content sites through Communities solution.

The Samsung Corby incorporates Samsung’s new Touchwiz UI and haptic feedback system making touch screen operations simple and easy to use. The handset offers tangible feedback when you make a selection on the touch screen and through the device’s widget system, users can further customize the handset and interface with useful applications and widget that move with drag and drop ease. It’s a trendy phone with a full touchscreen which attracts many mobile users. With the launch of Samsung Corby , Samsung now has a portfolio of eleven touch screen models , priced in the range between Rs 9600/- to Rs.33,990/-.” we are looking at maintaining our market leadership in the touch screen portfolio in India “ states Mr Asim Warsi , GM-Marketing , Samsung India Electronics Ltd.

To look at the technical specifications of the new Samsung Corby, it has 2.8” QVGA 262K TFT-LCD Full touch screen with a 2 megapixel camera with MPEG4 video recording. It has value-added features like Pop-Up SNS, Cartoon UI, One Finger Zoom, Dictionary, Smart Unlock. Memory card can store data upto 8GB with microSD facility. Samsung Corby is a new arrival in the market right in time for the festival season.

Samsung Corby Price

This handset will cost you Rs 9600

• Samsung CorbyTXT B3210 aka Genio QWERTY coming soon to India
• Samsung launches CorbyTXT and Corby Mate in India