Samsung Galaxy S I9000

The Samsung Galaxy S is one of the best Android smartphones. Considering that the Motorola Droid X and the HTC Evo 4G are eons away from being launched in India, the Galaxy S will be the best Android device option for Indian users.

The Galaxy S has everything you would want in a smartphone: Android 2.1 with TouchWiz 3.0 and Swype (will soon be upgraded to Android 2.2), a gorgeous 4 inch SuperAMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, 1 GHz ARM Cortex processor, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB internal memory with upto 32 GB microSD support, a 5 MP camera with autofocus which can record 720p video at 30 FPS, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, a GPS transceiver with A-GPS and much more.

This will probably be my next phone (if I don’t get floored by the Samsung Wave).

The Samsung Galaxy S will be priced at around INR 31000.

Samsung Wave S8500

The Samsung Wave is the first smartphone powered by Samsung’s new Bada OS.

It is an excellent phone with superb hardware specs. It has a 3.3 inch SuperAMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. It is powered by the new Samsung Bada OS with the TouchWiz 3.0 UI. It has a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, 512 MB RAM, 1.5 GB internal memory (partitioned) and supports upto 32 GB microSD cards. It is a multimedia powerhouse with a 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash which can record 720p video at 30 FPS and has features like face, smile, blink detection and touch focus. It also has the usual connectivity options: 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and GPS.

It can play DivX, XviD and MKV files right out of the box and comes with DNSe which results in excellent audio quality.

The Samsung Wave is expected to be priced around INR 19000.

Bada OS is still in a nascent stage and it couldn’t have had a better launch vehicle than the Samsung Wave.

The Bada Application Store is supposed to have around 100 free applications at launch. As it grows popular, more and more developers will flock to it resulting in more, better applications being available. Check out http://www.bada.com/badadevices for more details on Bada OS and their developer tools.
Samsung also has a Bada OS Developer Challenge going on with a total prize money of 2.7 million dollars.

The CrunchPad, developed by Fusion Garage, a startup based in Singapore is rumored to release this November.

CrunchPad Specifications:

• Dimensions: 12.77 x 7.83 x 0.74 inches
• Weight: 1.2 KG
• Screen: 12 inch touchscreen display
• Processor: Intel Atom N270, 1.6 GHz
• RAM: 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• Software: Linux based OS, Webkit Browser
• Peripherals: 1 USB port (for keyboard or mouse)
• Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, Mobile Broadband
• Price: USD 399

It looks pretty stylish and has nice specs. However it has no usable internal memory; maybe only some form of persistent cache for the browser. All the applications it can run will be web based, in the cloud; you can’t use them without an internet connection. Hopefully they will add some more USB ports and some internal memory. Or atleast lower the price a bit. Otherwise, I don’t think it will stand a chance against the Apple Tablet.

More on the CrunchPad – Wiki – Engadget – TechCrunch

It seems to have been modelled after the Sony Mylo and has significant improvements over the PSP 3000. It has a sliding form factor with better controls, Bluetooth and 16 GB internal memory. Reportedly, it has just a 3.8″ display compared to the 4.3″ one on the previous versions. It’s also 40% lighter than the PSP 3000. With the PSP Go, Sony ditches the UMD drive and has launched the online Playstation Game Store to allow direct game downloads. IMO, the older candybar design was much better than this one. Also I would’ve liked a bigger display. More details to be updated soon.

Official Press Release

Nokia has unveiled the new Nokia N97, its flagship N Series model. It sports a huge 3.5 inch, 640 x 360 pixel display with a QWERTY keyboard, 32 GB onboard memory, a 5 MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, A-GPS and the latest version of the Symbian OS – an upgraded version of the 5800 XpressMusic‘s Symbian OS v9.4 S60 v5.

It is priced at EUR 550 and is expected to be available by Q2 2009. The days of the iPhone, Xperia X1, HTC Touch Pro surely seem numbered.

Not many details are out yet, keep watching this space for more details.

Official Press Release