While I was at Singapore for Nokia Connection, another bunch of friends from the press attended Samsung’s Communicasia ‘09 “presentation.” For them, this was the launch of the Samsung Jet, a touch screen phone similar to the OMNIA HD, except that it still uses Windows Mobile 6.1.

Their take away for the jet is that you don’t need to pinch to zoom in (obviously comparing to the iPhone). The “one finger zoom” feature is the highlight of the device, where pushing and holding to a part of the screen will allow you to zoom in and out when you move your finger up or down.

Supporting the latest smartphone features including user-friendly menu navigations, multi-task manager and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Samsung Jet boasts world firsts in both display technology and speed of performance. Its 16M WVGA AMOLED display (3.1”) offers the most vivid and colourful full touch mobile experience available. The WVGA AMOLED screen provides a resolution four times higher than a WQVGA screen. Its 800MHz application processor makes Jet the fastest full touch handset on the market today. [Press Release]

[photo credit via Samsung PR // Flickr]

Post from: Cellphone9

Look what LG sent me to play with. *Teehee*

The price point of the LG Arena looks a bit steep for a phone in this caliber (the Nokia 5800 is about a hundred dollars less), but yeah it does have some claim of having that very interesting S Class 3D interface. Well, let’s see!

You can see the full unboxing but of course, this deserves a full review. I will have something up soon. In the meantime, do enjoy the weekend!

Post from: Cellphone9

Happy weekend! Samsung sent over their new OMNIA HD for testing purposes. If I were to cut this review into one sentence, I’d be obliged to say that the OMNIA HD is essentially a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that’s running on a nice big 3.7 inch AMOLED screen. Put together S60’s touch screen UI and Samsung’s design elements and you got yourself an OMNIA HD.

Here’s my treat for the full review of the OMNIA HD.

[photo c/o author at A Bugged Life]

Post from: Cellphone9

So they at technogra.ph are giving away an LG Cookie touch screen phone. For those of you who have it bad at raffle draws, well this contest requires a little bit of design skills. You will need to download a special template which you can edit to show off your most creative thumb print. They’re giving away two phones — one for the lucky guy and another for the lady who can get those mad design skills to work.

You don’t need to be very good at Photoshop to win — your friends need to vote for your design to win. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the phones!

Post from: Cellphone9

The front of the phone resembles pretty much what every other iPhone wannabee looks like – clean, prominent screen with three buttons; while the back resembles a digital camera – 8MP excuse me. What makes this phone truly shine are two things: WiFi connectivity and a very decent camera. The phone is “ruled” by the haptic touch which gave the iPhone its iconic user interface. Although it is not at par with Apple’s, LG’s KC910 is still a worth look into.

The Renoir comes with the following specs:

8MP camera
3 inch QVGA screen
WiFi connectivity
GSM HSDPA Connectivity
FM Radio
Bluetooth 2.0
MP3 / AAC Playback
70 MB internal memory / 8GB microSD expansion

Post from: Cellphone9

I got to hold the Samsung OMNIA HD for a while — it was running on a prototype OS so I really couldn’t do much with it. No worries.

The Samsung OMNIA HD runs on Nokia’s famed Symbian operating system, not Windows Mobile 6.1. Perhaps the most WOW-ing thing with this device is its very crisp OLED screen. The phone uses its iconic Samsung widget interface to decorate the front of the device. Once you get apps running, you’ll start to notice the familiar S60 menu.

All in all this looks like it’s going to be a really good follow up to the “affluent” OMNIA line primarily because of the choice of operating system and bright screen.

Image: Self

Post from: Cellphone9

Now that I got to hold one for a few hours, I must say that the UltraTOUCH hype doesn’t live up to the full capacity of the phone. Don’t get me wrong here — if someone asked me buying advice, I’d gladly say that the UltraTOUCH is still a decent phone to own. The lack of the directional pad and the addition of the touch screen are fine points to consider when choosing this phone. In short, it works well. There’s no revolutionary technology behind this phone but if you’re looking for something small and thin with a touch screen that works, then this is a good option.

[photos own]

Post from: Cellphone9

This is probably nothing new in both fabrications but it is creative though. I was able to film this during the Windows 7 beta launch back here in Asia. This is a standing booth for the marketing team of the Samsung Pixon 8800. The booth is obviously made to show off the touch screen features and widgets but what’s more interesting is how the booth really interacts. Hidden on the top part of the booth is a Nintendo Wii like sensor made to track the movement of your hand.

Pretty neat eh?

Post from: Cellphone9

So Nokia launched their new 5800 XpressMusic phone, which by some comparison is similar to the iPhone because of its touch screen. Of course, with the iPhone being the phone to beat, journalists can’t help but ask and compare this little beauty to the iPhone. You can’t blame them. It’s part of a story angle for human interest.

So all things come in context if you read this post first. Read it? OK great.

It is good that product managers are very aware of the competition. But marketing is marketing – they should only mention the “other phone that begins with an i” if a journalist asks a question pertaining to that during a press conference. Otherwise, I don’t see a need to passively promote your competitor’s products.

So a journo did ask about the iPhone and guess what the Nokia product manager said?

Well according to Rico, the PM simply says that the touch screen feature is there to offer a new variety of choices for consumers and some consumers do prefer a touch screen.

What a brilliant answer! No really!

In the PR industry, public relations specialists should train their clients to answer these difficult questions and the PM for the XpressMusic series isn’t stupid. It is a tactic PR practitioners use for their clients – don’t answer the question directly. Instead, use that as an opportunity to get your key communication points through.

As someone who’s been through this process before, I can easily point out that one of the key communication points is that the new touch screen of the 5800 series offers more choices for consumers as this is Nokia’s first touch screen phone.

That’s how it’s done! Not like that other PM in my previous link, that sounded so defensive.

[source image: Nokia PR Photos]

Post from: Cellphone9

It’s a Cybershot that just happens to have a phone bundled with it. With the way consumer cameras are taking touch screen adaptation rather seriously, so does Sony Ericsson. The new Sony Ericsson C902 brings touch screen controls for easy and quick navigation. Other specs include a 5MP camera, Bluetooth, HSDPA, 160MB of internal memory + memory expansion up to 8GB.

The C902 only comes in one color. More information can be found in the Sony Ericsson website.

Post from: Cellphone9