Time was when a smartphone meant any Nokia phone with a Symbian S60 operating system. That was just a little over half a decade ago. But now, a smartphone pretty much means having a computer in your handbag or pocket.
We’ve seen a war of the touch screens (even if QWERTY keyboards are far from going extinct) as well as a showdown of new operating systems (Google’s Android mobile OS is the biggest news here). Of course, the form factors get slimmer and lighter with each new model. The screens get bigger and brighter as well, and so does the camera resolutions. Let’s take a look at these smart new handsets now.
Samsung Wave S8500
Samsung makes a big splash with the new Wave S8500, the first mobile handset that runs bada, Samsung’s new open mobile platform. Boasting a high-speed 1GHz processor, a Super AMOLED 3.3-inch display, a Social Hub, and TouchWiz 3.0, the Wave was built to offer users first-class level of performance and customization.
The Wave’s Super AMOLED display features a high-resolution WVGA (800×480 pixels) screen with anti-smudge technology. Social Hub seamlessly integrates all major portals’ e-mail, IM, and social networking services directly into the Samsung Wave. TouchWiz 3.0 UI, on the other hand, offers a tactile, intuitive user experience, and includes new features such as motion UI, Smart Unlock, and customizable widget screen.
The Samsung Wave is equipped with a five-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 3.0, and Wi-Fi 802.11n, and supports DivX, Xvid, MP4 and WMV, as well as virtual 5.1 surround sound. The bada platform allows mobile users to simply and easily download an abundance of applications from Samsung Apps, including games, eBook, and health and lifestyle applications.
Samsung’s open mobile platform, bada (which means “ocean” in Korean), is the driving force in accomplishing the Korean giant’s vision of a “smartphone for everyone.”
The key characteristics of bada OS are its being user-interactive (based on Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, the bada platform provides flash and Web control, motion-sensing, fine-tuned vibration control, and face detection as well as support for sensor-based, context-aware applications), service-oriented (it supports various features such as social networking, device synchronization, content management, location-based services, and commerce services), as well as being open and configurable (this platform allows developers to easily take full advantage of mobile device capabilities to create applications).
Samsung Galaxy S
Ultra-slim, extremely lightweight and sporting a brilliant four-inch Super AMOLED screen, the Samsung Galaxy S packs all the punches needed to take on Apple’s iPhone 4 – thanks to a combination of speed from its 1GHz application processor, a vast array of inspired features, entertaining content and sleek design.
The Galaxy S boasts Samsung’s super-fast TouchWiz 3.0 UI, giving users instant access to their mobile lives. The “Smart Life” is further realized through intuitive, integrative features, including Swype text input service, a rich augmented reality browser, Layar, and advanced Location-Based Service (LBS) capabilities.
Android Market and Samsung Apps deliver a world of rich, entertaining and useful applications and experiences. Apps across various categories, including games, e-books, and lifestyle and health services can be downloaded on the fly on the Galaxy S.
In addition, the Galaxy S puts the world at your fingertips with services like Layar augmented reality browser and Swype, the latest technology that enables you to type messages quickly with a gliding motion of your fingers. The Galaxy S includes Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Talk as well.
The Galaxy S’ dazzling Super AMOLED screen boasts technology used in Samsung’s award-winning LCD and LED TVs, making pictures sharp and videos look incredible. Users can shoot, edit, play, and share HD videos all in the palm of their hands.
The Android 2.1-running Galaxy S offers an innovative and intuitive user interface, giving users the flexibility and control to create their own personalized space. The Samsung Galaxy S can be tailored to respond to adjustable user settings, gather information users want and need and ultimately deliver a daily briefing designed by its owner.
On the navi-side, the Galaxy S lets users find their route, thanks to directory service applications like Yelp and Layar, which helps them find various retail outlets and points of interest by category. Meanwhile, Google Maps with Street View (subject to network and regional availability) allows them to navigate unfamiliar routes.
Last but not least, the Galaxy S makes Smart Life a reality with Social Hub, an integrated social-networking feature that brings together social networks services like Facebook and Twitter, along with users’ contacts and messaging services, into a single, easily accessible place.
Other Samsung Galaxy features include eBook; All Share, which enables inter-device connectivity via DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) technology; Augmented Reality, which shows users’ surroundings and displays information on camera-view; Write and Go, which lets users jot down an idea first and decide later which format (i.e. SMS/MMS, e-mail, calendar or memo) to use it on; ThinkFree, which are apps to view and edit Microsoft Office 2007 documents on; and Smart Alarm, which wakes up the user with an alarm sound inspired by nature and an automatic display light.
Cherry Mobile Trident
It may not be a traditional smartphone as far as cutting-edge operating systems, gigabyte memory, aftermarket apps, touch-screen interfaces or high-resolution cameras are concerned. But for the supremely affordable price of P6,490, Cherry Mobile’s new Trident triple-SIM phone is as smart as they come.
The Trident’s sleek, glossy black finish and suite of productivity features makes it perfect for those who want a certain level of professionalism together with triple-SIM functionality in their phones — at a budget price.
The Trident features a QWERTY keypad and Wi-Fi/GPRS connectivity for Web surfing as well as e-mail sending and receiving capabilities. A document viewer allows the user to view files in Word and Excel, while the Google Maps can be used as a reference guide in locating various places.
Younger cellphone users and home-based users, on the other hand, will enjoy a number of entertaining multimedia features, including a music and video player and an FM radio. The Trident is also a free-TV phone that even allows the user to record his favorite television shows and save the videos on a microSD card.
Other special features include a two-megapixel camera with video calling and an E-buddy chat function that allows the users to connect to their friends through Yahoo Messenger and Facebook chat. The Trident’s touchpad allows easier navigation, while a G-sensor allows users to change the screen orientation from portrait to landscape by tilting the phone.
Apple iPhone 4
Apple fans are rejoicing over the arrival of the latest iPhone iteration, the Apple iPhone 4. Jam-packed with new features, it’s hard not to get excited over this latest toy from the Cupertino-based company.
The iPhone 4 is equipped with multitasking capabilities that can run your favorite third-party apps — and switch between them instantly — without slowing the system down or draining the battery unnecessarily. Listening to your favorite music in the background is possible even while checking your e-mail, surfing the Net, playing games, etc.
With this smartphone, you can get VoIP calls while using other apps or keeping GPS running; even uploading pictures to photo service sites can be done in the background while using the phone for some other task.
The iPhone 4 brings the excitement back for video calling with FaceTime. Talking to loved ones overseas is much easier this time. It works right out of the box — no need to create special accounts – and just needs iPhone 4-to-iPhone 4 connection via Wi-Fi. The front camera of the iPhone 4 is built specifically for FaceTime use.
Now with the camera built in the back, you can take high-definition videos and photos in both bright and low-light settings. In dark environments, the built-in LED helps illuminate the scene. Video editing is also possible with the iPhone 4’s Camera app.
If there are subjects in both the foreground and background of the scene, camera focus can be adjusted with a simple tap on the screen. Just select the object you want to focus on in the display and the camera adjusts the exposure to match the lighting.
With the Retina display, everything you see and do on the iPhone 4 looks stunning. The Retina display’s high pixel density makes individual pixels undistinguishable, making text and graphics look smooth and continuous.
The iPhone 4 packs four times the number of pixels into the same 3.5-inch diagonal screen, resulting in 326 pixels per inch. Also, the Retina display offers four times the contrast ratio of previous models, so whites are brighter and blacks are darker on the iPhone 4.
The iPhone 4 also uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology – the same used in Apple LED Cinema Display and iPad — to achieve a wider viewing angle than on typical LCDs. The Retina display glass is chemically strengthened to be harder and more scratch-resistant. It also features an oil-resistant coating that helps keep the screen smudge-free.
BlackBerry Torch 9800
Not only is the BlackBerry Torch 9800 Research In Motion’s first smartphone to combine a slide-out BlackBerry keyboard with a full touch-screen display, it’s also the first device from the company to feature the BlackBerry 6 operating system.
This redesigned interface works seamlessly with the 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen and optical trackpad and features expanded messaging capabilities and intuitive features that simplify the management of social networking sites and RSS feeds. It even has dedicated YouTube and Podcasts apps plus a new application called Visual Voicemail that allows users to select the voicemails they want to hear first.
The Torch 9800 runs on a 624MHz processor with a 512MB flash memory and 4GB built-in memory storage. This can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card. Connectivity options include tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE support, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), and Bluetooth 2.1.
Other features include a built-in GPS for location-based apps and geo-tagging photos taken with the 5MP camera. The Torch 9800’s camera has flash, continuous autofocus, image stabilization scene modes, and zoom, plus VGA video recording. This smartphone is also equipped with a standard 3.5-mm stereo audio jack.
HTC Legend and Desire
Taking Android to the next level are HTC’s two new smartphones – the HTC Legend and HTC Desire.
The Legend boasts a sleek uni-body design machined from a single aluminum block and features a stunning 3.2-inch AMOLED HVGA display, a 5MP autofocus camera, multimedia apps, microSD card slot, 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The traditional trackball has also been replaced with an optical joystick.
The HTC Desire, meanwhile, delivers brilliant, sharp and vivid images and videos on its expansive 3.7-inch AMOLED display. The Desire lets you multitask without skipping a beat, thanks to its 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. As with the Legend, the Desire runs Android 2.1 with HTC Sense and comes with an optical joystick, 5MP autofocus camera, multimedia support, expansion slot, and 3G/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth for connectivity.
Nokia N900
Nokia is playing up the Linux angle with the release of the N900 mobile computer. Taking its cues from the world of desktop computing, the open source, Linux-based Maemo (a.k.a MeeGo) software delivers a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device.
Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the N900 empowers users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the cellular features, touch-screen, and QWERTY keyboard.
With a powerful ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory, and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration, the N900 makes for a PC-like multitasking device. Switching between apps is simple, as all running content is constantly available through the dashboard. The panoramic home screen can be fully personalized with favorite shortcuts, widgets, and applications.
To make Web browsing more enjoyable, the N900 features a high-resolution 3.5-inch WVGA touch screen and fast Internet connectivity with 10/2 HSPA and WLAN. Thanks to the Mozilla browser, websites look the way they would on any computer. Online videos and interactive applications are vivid with full Adobe Flash 9.4 support.
Messaging is easy and convenient, thanks to the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Setting up e-mail happens with only a few touches and the Nokia Messaging service mobilizes up to 10 personal e-mail accounts. Text message or IM exchanges with friends are shown in one view and all conversations are organized as separate windows.
The Nokia N900 has a spacious 32GB of storage, which can be expanded up to 48GB via a microSD card. For photography, the Maemo software and the N900 come with a new tag cloud user interface that will help users get the most out of the 5MP camera and Carl Zeiss optics.
Nokia N8
It features a 12MP sensor with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash. It can record HD-quality 720p videos, too. No, this is not your next digicam. It’s Nokia’s new N8 smartphone.
The N8 is unlike any other Nokia device as it features a substantially larger camera sensor and has the capability to edit recorded videos using the built-in editing suite on the device. It is powered by the new open-source Symbian^3 platform and has a 3.5-inch HD capacitive touch screen with multi-touch and pinch-to-zoom capabilities.
Symbian^3 is the first fully open source version of the Symbian platform. It introduces major advances such as an improved networking architecture (ideal for streaming HD audio and video), full HDMI support with HDCP to provide a great high-definition video experience when you plug phone into a television, graphics support for advanced layering and effects, and improved single tap support to make the UI more fluid and easy to use.
This powerhouse smartphone can also double as a portable entertainment center. Users can watch HD videos with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound and connect it to a dedicated Web TV application for access to news and entertainment anytime, anywhere. It also has an HDMI connector that allows you to connect the phone to your HD TV.
It brings your social networks straight to your homescreen with live Twitter and Facebook updates and comes with free global Ovi Maps as well.
Storage is via built-in 16GB of memory that’s expandable to 48GB via microSD card. It has three customizable homescreens and improved 2D and 3D graphics for a faster and more responsive user interface.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini, X10 mini pro
Currently the world’s smallest Android smartphones, the Sony Ericsson X10 mini and X10 mini pro pack heavy features in their tiny frames.
Both quad-band phones feature a 2.55-inch scratch-resistant TFT touch screen that support up to 16 million colors. Connectivity options also abound, including GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, and microUSB.
The X10 mini and X10 mini pro also come with five-megapixel autofocus cameras (can shoot both stills and videos), geo-tagging, photo and video light, and the Sony Ericsson album application that organizes your image files.
Other features include MP3/MP4 players, TrackID music recognition, and access to Google services like Search, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Talk, YouTube, and a host of other fun and useful applications.
The X10 mini pro comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.