Samsung i7110

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Leaks of the Samsung I7110 spilled onto the Web as early as August, but it wasn't until early this month that we got an exclusive preview of the latest S60 smart phone on the home ground of the Korean chaebol.

Upside
One glance at the I7110 and you can tell it is modeled closely after the Soul^b right down to the use of materials. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to call the I7110 a reincarnation of the Soul^b, albeit in a larger form factor. In the hands, this candy bar delivers a very solid metallic feel. The keypad had good travel and colors on the 2.6-inch OLED screen appear punchy. The biggest difference compared with the Soul^b is the optical directional mouse that we first saw on the Windows Mobile-based Omnia and subsequently on the INNOV8, too.

Going by its specifications, the I7110 is poised to rival Nokia's multimedia-rich Nseries. Given that this Samsung belongs to the Infotainment series, we wouldn't have expected any less. The handset runs on the S60 3rd Edition platform and packs a full suite of connectivity features. This includes quad-band GSM with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and a built-in FM transmitter (a first for the Korean). The I7110 has 128MB RAM onboard which is pretty much a standard for smart phones these days and should be enough to power the S60 software and most of the apps based on our experience.

For navigation, the I7110 uses maps from Navteq. A preinstalled third party GyPSii app will allow users to geo-tag their photos, as well as share pictures and videos, locate friends and points of interests (POI) directly from the map's user interface. There's also an integrated compass for pedestrian navigation, but this is available currently in only 10 Western Europe cities. The list will expand to about 31 cities by the second quarter of 2009 to include more Western and Eastern European countries.

As for multimedia, the I7110 comes with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with an LED flash module, 30fps video recording in VGA resolution (120fps in QVGA), compatibility with DivX and MPEG formats, support for DNSe 2.0, and a microSD expansion card slot that supports up to 16GB of memory. There's also an onboard motion sensor that changes the screen orientation automatically when the phone rotates from portrait to landscape mode.

Also for the first time, Samsung will be introducing its application catalog on the I7110. This, we learned, is similar to Nokia's Download! app on its handsets and will allow users to download and purchase programs directly on the device. According to Samsung, the 1,200mAh battery will deliver 11 hours of talktime and just under 18 days on standby.

Downside
Even though Samsung will bundle an adapter for connecting to a 3.5mm headset via the phone's proprietary port, it's still a pity the Korean chaebol didn't include a built-in one on this handset.

Outlook
Based on our early impressions, the I7110 looks every bit a well-rounded smart phone with rich entertainment features. The handset is expected to be available in Asia next month. Also, we are hoping that the pedestrian navigation features will make their way to Asia, instead of being a Europe-centric offering.