Samsung GALAXY Chat | US$tba | www.samsung.com
the proliferation of touchscreen has left non-touchscreen devotees pretty much cornered. i mean, you hardly find handsets that are not touchscreen these days. the good news for non-touchscreen lovers is, Samsung hasn’t forgotten about you. yes, we are aware that BlackBerry is still making a few but faint subtle kicks, however, in case BlackBerry 7 OS is not your cup of tea, you can always opt for the Android-powered Samsung GALAXY Chat. it combines the best of both worlds: a 3.0″ QVGA touchscreen and a full QWERTY keypad, plus the goodness of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS.
the handset itself is not much of a looker but socially-active users will appreciate what it has to offer: it comes pre-installed with Samsung’s ChatON communication service that connects users from any phone platform into a single community, allowing for impromptu group chatting and messaging. and it can do that at a press of a button – thanks to the dedicated launch key. its email functionality also gets a boost from predictive search capabilities and mail folders nesting too. other features include a 800MHz processor, 4GB of internal storage (expandable up to 32GB via microSD), a 2.0-megapixel main camera (no front-facing camera, though), video and audio playback with FM radio function, WiFi (b/g/n) and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity, customizable Favorites tray, launching of camera or viewing of notifications directly from the lock screen, and sensors that include accelerometer, digital compass, as well as proximity sensor. also included is the usual suite of Google Mobile Services including Google Talk, YouTube, Google Maps et cetera, and Samsung’s AllShare Play that allows user to play multimedia content from or to other connected devices.
the handset is available from this month in almost everywhere else except the U.S. really, it will be first launch in Spain and thereafter, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, China, Southeast and Southwest Asia. see what i mean? according to Samsung, it will be “priced competitively”, though no detail was divulged at this point.
