Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Thoughts on the Samsung Jet (U8000)

Summary:

truely excellent. probably the best touch non-smartphone out there. now if Samsung release a SDK for TouchWiz and get some more widgets out, then it'll become a smartphone. It takes guts to release a phone with this power and not use WM, s60 or android. Good on yer Samsung!

Comparison with the iphone:

In terms of comparison with the iphone, this is less then half the price, has a higher resolution screen, a better camera and a faster CPU. I think the OS (on the latest firmware) is pretty amazing. Good browser if slow (not as good as android or iphone but still fine to use), reliable (I mean toshiba takes bog std WM 6.1 and mucks that up), easy to use. For sending emails, sms, music, browsing, and yes, normal telephone calls, the jet is a really solid phone. nice to use. and comes with a case! which you don't even have to take off to answer, nice!. I think this is a great package. I hope Samsung stick with TouchWiz. I love competition

Final musings:

Just to answer a whole load of questions:
1. Yes a 800x480 is far superior to a 320x240 screen. And OLED is noticeably better then LCD. However you are limited by how much the manufacturer uses it in their software. SAMSUNG use it in the browser and home screen, but not much in the rest of their apps.
2. This is not a SMART phone. Therefore you are limited to the inbuilt software and extra JAVA apps you can install. Saying that the inbuilt software is comprehensive and covers: facebook (link), youtube, email (pop & imap), browser, weather (accu), google mail, google search, CNN mobile, kelkoo search, myspace (link), notepad and a bunch of other widgets that can be shown at will.
3. There is no MS office capability.

In summary, this is a very well designed touch screen phone which is a pleasure to use and does most of what folk want it to do. I especially like the leather case included which allows you to answer the phone without taking it out of the case! However it is not a smart phone and is not a natural competitor for an HTC Hero,

Magic, Diamond 2 or a Nokia N97 say. That does have advantages, as the Jet does what is says on the Tin reliably, and doesn't get over complicaterd fiddly or crash all the time (at least mine never crashes with the latest firmware).

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