After Motorola Milestone, many more Android phones were expected to hit Indian shores and vie for the attention of the Google OS lovers. Samsung will be throwing its card into the market by launching the eagerly anticipated ‘Samsung Galaxy S(I9000)‘, its Android 2.1 powered handset (upgradeable to Android 2.2), in June. Also coming along is the Samsung Wave S8500, with similar specifications, but running Samsung’s proprietary Bada OS. While ‘Galaxy’ will be available at around Rs. 28,000, you can pocket the Wave at about Rs. 25,000.
While Wave offers a 3.3 inch WCGA capacitive touch screen, the Samsuing Galaxy S offers a larger 4 inch WVGA capacitive touch screen. However, both the screens are Super AMOLED, offer 16 million colours and the same resolution of 480×800, which gives Wave a higher DPI. Both handsets offer a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, Bluetooth 3.0, 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, HSDPA and WiFi. Both the devices will have Accelerometer, proximity sensor, and TouchWiz UI 3.0.
Both the phones will set new benchmarks in media performance, as both are first to be certified as HD by DivX, with 720p video recording and playback. DivX says that the certification it has given the Samsung Wave and Galaxy S is based on a “rigorous testing program to ensure a high-quality DivX media experience, including reliable video creation and playback, interoperability with other DivX Certified devices and the visual quality users expect from DivX.”
More about the Super AMOLED screen: it is said to be “20% brighter 80% less reflective, and with 20% better battery life”. Its touch response is also considered to be “super-fast”, and when coupled with the mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) technology, gives astoundingly crisp and vivid images.
Users of the Android 2.1 based Samsung I9000 Galaxy S, in addition, will also have access to Android Market, as well as Google mobile services, which include Google Search, Gmail, and Google Maps. Other features include: Daily Briefing (weather, news, stocks, and scheduler), All Share (inter-device connectivity via Digital Living Network Alliance – DLNA – technology), Home Cradle (stand), Swype (text input method), and ThinkFree (apps for editing Microsoft Office documents). Other interesting features of the Samsung I9000 Galaxy S are: Layar Reality Browser, which allows users to access rich augmented reality content; advanced LBS (Location Based Services); and ‘Social Hub’, which integrates numerous social networking clients and user’s contacts.
It’s interesting that Samsung believes that a new proprietary OS can co-exist with the Android, especially when Samsung itself is launching superb Android phones such as the Galaxy S! But we wouldn’t comment until we get our hands on these phones and compare the two. And believe me when I say, we are salivating at the prospect!