S6700 heads a busy month for Samsung
Samsung went for it this month by announcing four handsets in one go – all of them mid-range. The best of the bunch appears to be the S6700 – which seems to be a timely update of the D600 series of sliders that performed so well. The upgrades haven’t been too much – just a 3.2 megapixel camera, but the phone does come complete with the MicroSD slot which appears to be setting the standard nowadays. A nice bonus is the GPS receiver which appears a bit out of place on a mid-ranger.
C5510: A slimmed-down alternative
The C5510 features a similar design to the S6700 but with an inferior camera (2 megapixel), and a smaller screen. There’s some crossover in that it contains a larger memory (512Mb on-board vs 120Mb for the S6700); in our own opinion the phones will be for different networks, or indeed, different markets.
Samsung M2510: M is for Music
Not officially, of course, but we reckon that’s a damn good guess. Rather a bold move for them to use a bit of colour for their handsets but this is aimed towards the younger folks. With some music keys for start/stop and a standard 3.5mm jack, audio is the key focus of the phone. It’s no surprise that most of the high-end features have been omitted; no 3G, and only a 1.3 megapixel camera.
Samsung M2310: The clamshell version
Of course, it’s hard to forget that clamshells are another thing that Samsung do quite well, so it’s no surprise to see the same phone in this format. With the music keys on the front, it’s likely that this will be slightly easier to use. The phone is complete with just a VGA camera which is pretty obsolete and worthless these days, but points to the phone being made available at a very low price point. Coupled with a 8GB micro-SD, it could still be a good purchase.
Samsung to take on E-Series and Blackberry
A rather intriguing release is the B7320 Omnia, which looks set to challenge Blackberry in the PDA-phone stakes. This phone features full functionality with email clients with Windows 6.1 Mobile software. Par for the course for a business handset, the rest is rather under-specced and more in line with the current market, with a 3 megapixel camera. It’ll be interesting to see which networks take this on alongside their current Blackberry contingent of phones, or indeed, handsets like the Nokia E72.
B7300 Omnia Lite – A halfway house
Perhaps as a compromise to the B7320 comes this version which does away with the QWERTY keypad in favour of the more recent designs, but it also keeps much of the same features. This means the same software, the same camera and the same Micro SD card slot. Certainly this is some sort of compromise for those who can’t afford the high-end Omnia handsets but there is a danger of some sort of convergence with the Tocco range.
S8000 Jet – another contender for IPhone
Samsung has continued it’s rapid development of Apple-style handsets with the release of the S8000 Jet. This is really crammed with multimedia features, such as support for virtually all the popular file types out there, and a standard 3.5mm jack. The OS has been upgraded, with a more easier-to-use Web client, and a 5 megapixel camera. Available in 2GB or 8GB versions, the memory is also upgradeable via MicroSD. Certainly one of the better ones out there, but as always, decent applications are likely to be a concern.
Samsung B7610: Omnia goes QWERTY
One eye-catching model announced this month was the B7610 – seemingly a top-end phone similar to the Jet (above) but with the addition of a slide-out keypad, for those who do not like the mini-style of the B7320. This is even more high-spec though, with a 5-megapixel camera with flash, 2GB of on-board storage (expandable to 32GB), Wi-Fi, GPS and Windows Mobile. Clearly a contender for the Nokia N97, it remains to be seen if this will be a success.
E1107: Samsung releases solar phone
In what could be an innovative move, Samsung has released a solar-powered phone. Although unlikely to reach Western markets, it’s likely to have a decent impact in places where power is a luxury (or indeed, not available). The vast majority of the back of the phone is given up to a solar panel, which will offer, it is claimed, 5 to 10 minutes talk-time for each 1 hour of sun. This would mean that further charging may still be needed, especially on bad weather days or at night, but this is a step in the right direction.
The bad news is that it’s priced at a slightly higher point than other entry-level phones but considering there is a solar panel in it, not surprising. We’d like to see an even more basic version – a mono version would surely attain a better battery life and could offer more or less the same features.
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