Feeling Samsung's Soul

John Chan | Feb 12, 2008

One of the main features of Samsung's latest Ultra Edition handset is the navigation button under the screen. Well, technically, you can't really call it a button because it doesn't depress, but is instead a touch-sensitive panel with a screen beneath it. Samsung dubs it the Magic Touch by DaCP.

When at the default Home screen, the four-way navigator shows shortcut icons that will bring you to the messaging, ringtones, music and Google apps. The center lets you get to the main menu. Once in the main menu, the center turns into an OK button, while the four around it become arrows for navigation. We further tried this out in the music player and calculator apps and found it to be very helpful for navigation. The concept is not new, of course, and you may find it similar to the Optimus sold by Russian design firm Art Lebedev, a keyboard with keys that have an OLED display each so they can display appropriate icons aside from the letters in the QWERTY layout.

Even though the navigator doesn't depress, there is feedback in the form of a tiny vibration whenever it is touched. This lets you know if you've managed to successfully "press" the button. It works pretty well and certainly alleviates some of the misgivings we have about touch-sensitive buttons.

On the form factor front, we have to say that this device feels very well-built. The metallic finish feels good in the hands and the slider moves up and down smoothly. Its numeric keypad is flush with the inner surface, but the keys are pretty well spaced-out and don't fare any poorer than most other mobile phones with slide-out keypads.

Check out some of our pictures of the Magic Touch.