Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year - Gizmodo Comments

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

mariogalaxyman — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:17:25 EST

AND I JUST BOUGHT A P2!!!

mariogalaxyman

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

deron — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:41:32 EST

How can anyone compare this to the iphone when I don't see any wifi mentioned?

Er...

deron

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

Atagahi — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:33:09 EST

I'm sorry, Samsung. If you are going to the trouble of making an iPhone ripoff, why make the UI/icons so ugly? Why wouldn't you exploit the color screen with bright, engaging icons?

If I pulled this out to brag to a random Australian, my luck would be that they'd pull out their iPhone and say, "You call that a user interface? THIS is a user interface!"

If they have iPhones in Australia, that is.

Atagahi

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

benbot80 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:08:25 EST

@ djfred

That much built in storage is normal for most phones, that's why it's got a memory card slot so that you can add as much storage as you like.

Plus, why are peple saying it' so much more expensive tan an iPhone??

This is WITHOUT A CONTRACT. If it was selling it with only a contract: like the iPhone, it would be the same price or less. That's why phone contracts were invented: to make it look like a better deal when all they are really doing is ripping you off.

benbot80

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

benbot80 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:57:19 EST

Before everyone starts saying that its too expensive, remember that this is the price for the phone in the UK.

This is the normal price for a high-spec phone at launch over here. Remember that electronics in Britain cost nearly twice as much as their American brothers...

benbot80

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

skeeveAGAIN — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:18:31 EST

@djfred:
Clearly then you didn't actually pay any attention to his points. Which was basically that the price is way too early to call. Just because this phone is more than the iPhone in UK doesn't mean it will necessarily be so in the US. It's all about pricing for the market which is different for each product. You can't make absolute judgments like that. Also, critiquing the icons and UI is extremely premature at this point given that the photo you see there is fairly low resolution and you haven't really seen any kind of videos and/or reviews. As far as built in storage: Not everybody needs to store all their music on their phone. I know that's hard to understand but bear with me here. Some people, don't care about having an all-in-one device. They'd rather have several that each do what they're supposed to as well as they possibly can.
Let's just wait and see before we start calling this in favor of your die-hard fanboyism ok?

skeeveAGAIN

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

scuba_steve — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:16:02 EST

I'm not defending the quality/functionality of the Samsung as a device... I prefer my iPhone (which I got from the US to make the most of that nice exchange rate). I'm just saying it is priced the same as most smartphones (a fairly vague term).

You can't convert the price from GBP/Euro then compare it to similarly priced phones actually available in the US... It just doesn't work out as a fair comparison. Maybe a phone with those specs is worth $400 to you guys, but maybe that's what it would be sold for... Until you know you can't really include the price in any judgement.

The identically priced N95 is available free with most contracts here... If the Samsung is (or quickly becomes) free too, then it starts to look like a bargain compared to an iPhone (£270 RRP + minimum £35/Month contract). Basically, if you want to compare like for like, don't do direct exchange rate conversions, and don't compare the contract-only iPhone to a SIM-free Samsung.

scuba_steve

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

djfred — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:04:09 EST

That comment was addressed to Scuba_Steve.

djfred

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

color_guru — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:03:41 EST

Only 130 MB of internal storage!!!

color_guru

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

djfred — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:03:22 EST

Your points are well made and would mean something if the iPhone weren't available for less money with more built-in storage, legible icons, and a decent UI. But it is and this comes off as half-hearted and poorly executed attempt at playing catch-up just like the LG Prada.

djfred

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

scuba_steve — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:15:08 EST

You really have to stop just converting Pounds/Euro/whatever to USD and then acting horrified at the price. Firstly, that price is for a SIM-free phone, and is fairly reasonable. The original N95 was over £600 (yep, that's over $1200) SIM-free when it launched and it's £374 now (that's $734). Secondly, the conversion just doesn't work like that. The device will be priced for the market. The iPhone in the UK works out at $530... But that's not what you pay over in the US.

scuba_steve

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:08:03 EST

@TallDudeFromBrazil et al: Wow. I was going to make some snarky comment, but I really couldn't figure out WTF that was even supposed to be in my snarky imagination, much less in reality.

I take my comment back and agree with the rest of you...that icon is straight ridiculous.

92BuickLeSabre

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

elmyc — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:02:28 EST

@TallDudeFromBrazil: Scrambled Google maybe??

elmyc

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

Kaiser-Machead — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:59:51 EST

That has to be the absolute worst way to put "Google" on the menu. Must they stack and cram the letters? I'm sure a simple G would suffice.

As for Jesus Phone, it has a nifty cross on it, so maybe it is!

$734? Man, the fuckin' iPhone is way overpriced, this is a great....oh...wait....that's more???

Kaiser-Machead

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

Sora57 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:52:38 EST

@TallDudeFromBrazil:

The thing next to the camera icon looks like "google" to me.

Sora57

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

Cheve — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:51:00 EST

Of course it's the jesus phone, when they tell you the price , you go "jesus!!! you're insane"

Cheve

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

TallDudeFromBrazil — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:45:11 EST

@92BuickLeSabre: AND icons....
WTF is that thing on the right side of the camera icon?

TallDudeFromBrazil

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:39:22 EST

For $734, I also expect a better UI font.

92BuickLeSabre

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

TallDudeFromBrazil — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:33:20 EST

The only company that remains true to its origin's ( lightweight bricks with amazing technical resources) is Nokia.

TallDudeFromBrazil

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

skeeveAGAIN — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:31:29 EST

Although now that I look more closely, it seems to be a bit older. (i.e. lacking a few things the F490 has)
Almost perfect.
Almost.

skeeveAGAIN

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

TallDudeFromBrazil — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:31:27 EST

The funny thing is that ALL new cellphones...by new i mean yet to be released...looks like iPhone's wannabe's. And people still discuss if apple changed the cellphone industry or not...

TallDudeFromBrazil

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

PJK — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:30:33 EST

I'd be excited, were it not for Samsungs track record of horrible UIs.

PJK

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

skeeveAGAIN — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:28:29 EST

@kevininstereo:
Ok... Thank you.
Seriously.
I want that phone.
I've been fed-up with my helio (ocean) since day one. It's nice and all, but way too lacking in soooo many areas.
I want this phone.
I'm sure you all care loads, but I'm in a good mood so I don't feel bad about self-indulgent rambling.

skeeveAGAIN

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

color_guru — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:28:26 EST

I have no problem with touchscreen only, but you have to have fantastic software word recognition. Hate to bring it up, like the iphone's...

color_guru

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

kevininstereo — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:25:41 EST

@skeeveAGAIN: Samsung also has the f700.. looks just like this one but with a slide-out qwerty. check it

kevininstereo

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

nachobel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:24:26 EST

It's the Jesus phone at last!

nachobel

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

bubba451 — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:11:19 EST

Apparently, Samsung is making a serious play for the "Jesus Phone" title.

bubba451

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

skeeveAGAIN — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:03:35 EST

Ok I know this is the new trend and all with phones like this but WHY NO QWERTY!?

Am I the only person here that likes touch-screens, thin phones and buttons? I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of thinness to get a slide out/flip out/whatever qwerty keyboard in. It's so much easier to dial and type on.

But then, I haven't had a chance to see how Haptics feels. Fingers crossed?

skeeveAGAIN

Samsung Touch-Screen F490 Cellphone Launched Today, To Be Licked Later in The Year

ossnap — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:02:35 EST

734 dollars oh hellz to the nizoe. /pass

ossnap