Comments on Samsung i600

[Robert Levy]

David Shier of Pocket PC Magazine and BluetoothNews.com (http://www.BluetoothNews.com) wrote in to share his impressions on the presentation that Verizon did for his Pocket PC User's Group the other day. Here's what David had to say:

"The i600 presentation was good, but a bit short since Joel from Verizon had a lot to cover. He did pass the i600 around so everyone was able to get a brief hands-on look at it. A few observations were:

1) The key clicks were quite loud – I assume that they are software generated and could be turned off or down.

2) The screen was very bright and got good marks for color.

3) The phone will be released with the 2002 OS. They didn’t have any information about a release of Ozone on the i600.

4) Of course, no Bluetooth. <arrgh!>

Overall, I like the clamshell design, but my personal experience with the MS Smartphone has not been positive so far. Plus, the lack of Bluetooth is a showstopper for me."

[thetruth]

Was a release date mentioned?

[Jason Dunn]

Was a release date mentioned?

If they're out showing it off, you know it's gotta' be soon...hooray! :way to go:

[WintermuteX]

of course not, trix are for kids silly!

but if i were to bet id put my chips on the 15th of september

-Matt

[Kevin Daly]

I'm puzzled as to why anyone would release a new device under Smartphone 2002 at this late stage...there are enough improvements in Smartphone 2003 (incl. support for Bluetooth, and better performance, the latter being one of the key areas where Smartphone 2002 has looked bad against Symbian) that you would think it provides vitally needed competitive advantage.

[rbrome]

I'm puzzled as to why anyone would release a new device under Smartphone 2002 at this late stage...there are enough improvements in Smartphone 2003 (incl. support for Bluetooth, and better performance, the latter being one of the key areas where Smartphone 2002 has looked bad against Symbian) that you would think it provides vitally needed competitive advantage.

The i600 was essentially completed by Samsung over a year ago. It has been making its rounds (repeatedly) through Verizon's infamously strict testing cycles since then. No doubt upgrading to 2003 would cause the process to start all over again. Do you really want to wait another year? I think at this point it's better that Verizon gets something out the door. Also, their priority (as usual) is making sure the hardware they offer is reliable, instead of just throwing stuff on the market untested just to be first, like certain other carriers (cough... Cingular... cough...)

[encece]

Is there an integrated or detachable camera?
I currently have a Mitac under TMobile. I HATE TMOBILE! I LOVE VERIZON...except for their lack of versatility using CDMA.
But I'd hate to switch phones/carriers unless it were for a better phone. I'll deal with the bad reception in my home until something better comes along.

[Gorskar]

well I like the look of the i600, but I know I'd much rather have a Mitac for the built in camera, and all the other goodies.

Anyway seeing as the i600 is CDMA its pretty useless this side of the pond.
But the important thing is it finally delivers a Microsoft powered smartphone to the masses in America, making the platform potentially much more mainstream. With this phone on the market I imagine we will see lots of new software from our American friends and lots of new visitors to the websites that support SP2002/2003.

As its a stylish looking phone though it should do reasonably well despite its failings.

[mar2k]

Is there any official specs on the i600 from Samsung? Specifically I am wondering whether it uses the slower OMAP CPU that the Orange SPV has or if it is powered by some variation of Intel XScale...

[KeilwerthSX90R]

4) Of course, no Bluetooth. <arrgh!>



Are you referring to no bluetooth built in or is the OS such that bluetooth SDIO cards won't work?

Thanks,
Josh

[thetruth]

What is the purpose of providers (in this case, Verizon) being silent on the dates of upcoming hardware releases? I understand not releasing a date during the testing phase...but once it passes testing and they have set the "launch" date of a phone, why not hype it, advertise, offer pre-order promotions, whatever?

Seems to me, the more, and sooner, people know about it...the more people are liking to buy it (probably extending their contracts) and talk about it to their friends, etc. Why keep the date so hush hush once it is set and without doubt going to be met? Sounds like fuzzy business logic to me...what am I missing?

Thanks,

[Robert Levy]

a) they haven't finished testing
b) they don't want people to hold off on buying a new phone until the i600 is released

[thetruth]

Well, I understand if they are still testing the phone. Their fear of losing sales between the announcement and the availability date could probably be avoiding by strategically timing the announcement. If you announced a phone 3 months before it comes out, sure, they'd probably lose sales over that quarter. But if you announce your phone 2-3 weeks before it becomes available...I don't know if they would really loose anything (esp. with Verizon's other phones) among the consumers willing to drop $300+ for a new phone. Oh well, I'm hardly an authority on business itself, much less that particular industry, much less the practices of a 100 billion dollar company. :oops:

[Gorskar]

I think it has the faster 200mHz Xscale processor, but no camera.
Not quite sure where that floated into my head from, probably if you search modaco you'll find more reliable info.

[greenmozart]

a) they haven't finished testing
b) they don't want people to hold off on buying a new phone until the i600 is released

a) over a year to test a phone with an outdated OS
b) I'm holding off buying a new phone until the i600 comes out

Looks like their strategy isn't working very well on me. :?

[francois]

Is there any official specs on the i600 from Samsung? Specifically I am wondering whether it uses the slower OMAP CPU that the Orange SPV has or if it is powered by some variation of Intel XScale...

the i600 runs on a 200 MHz StrongArm 2 processor.

francois

[KeilwerthSX90R]

It looks like it will be X-scale. Let's hope the facts in this article are true. Also, X-scale brings hope for the latest OS.

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/1364.html

[francois]

Well, I understand if they are still testing the phone. Their fear of losing sales between the announcement and the availability date could probably be avoiding by strategically timing the announcement. If you announced a phone 3 months before it comes out, sure, they'd probably lose sales over that quarter. But if you announce your phone 2-3 weeks before it becomes available...I don't know if they would really loose anything (esp. with Verizon's other phones) among the consumers willing to drop $300+ for a new phone. Oh well, I'm hardly an authority on business itself, much less that particular industry, much less the practices of a 100 billion dollar company. :oops:

Believe it or not, 2 or 3 weeks before the handset launches, they are usually still in user-friendly testing. They may be sitting in the warehouse, waiting to be shipped to retail stores, but testing still isn't complete. It's not too late - or uncommon - at that point for software changes to be made and issues corrected by reflashing the phones.

[francois]

It looks like it will be X-scale. Let's hope the facts in this article are true. Also, X-scale brings hope for the latest OS.

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/1364.html

As far as I know now, it's going to be an Intel PXA 250 running Smartphone 2002 v3.0.

Francois