Samsung Innov8 (i8510)

Features

The Symbian S60 platform has been Nokia's playground for some time now, but Samsung is stepping up to the game with recent S60 devices like the G810 and the Innov8. In a nutshell, it's still the core S60 architecture we are looking at, although Samsung did throw in cosmetic changes to the software skin and added minor enhancements to the user interface.

The highlight of the Innov8 is obviously its 8-megapixel camera. Typical of an imaging-centric phone these days, there is a barrage of settings available to the user. These include an auto panoramic shooting mode, smile shot option, face and blink detection and geo-tagging capabilities. VGA video capture is at 30 frames per second and there's also a slow-motion QVGA recording mode at 120fps. The camera is accompanied by a built-in LED flash. Unlike Sony Ericsson's implementation for its Cyber-shots where sliding open the lens cover automatically activates the camera, you'll have to unlock the Innov8 and hold down the shutter to jumpstart the shooter. Don't get us wrong, there's nothing wrong with this, but Sony Ericsson's approach is by far more intuitive.

Given that it's one of Samsung's flagship products, and will probably stay so for the rest of the year, the Innov8 comes with a full suite of connectivity features. Besides a side-mounted 3.5mm audio jack, it also has dual-band HSDPA and quad-band GSM cellular radios, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, DLNA streaming and integrated GPS with support for Assisted-GPS. The NAVFone navigation program is loaded onto the bundled 1GB microSD card and you'll need to manually install the app on the handset. On the other hand, Nokia preinstalls its Maps software for most of its recent handsets. The software license provided is for life and includes turn-by-turn navigation.

The Innov8 comes in 8GB and 16GB flavors, but according to Samsung, it hasn't started selling the higher-capacity model, yet. The onboard memory capacity is indicated above the phone's display, on the left. Our review unit was the 16GB version.

One of the more logical routes Samsung has taken with the Innov8 is its bundle of third-party applications out-of-the-box. The list of programs which came preinstalled on our unit included Fring (for instant message and VoIP), ShoZu (multimedia upload app), Yahoo! Go, GyPSii (location services and social media platform), RoadSync (push email with Microsoft Exchange), video editor, QuickOffice (read-only) and Smart Reader (business card reader). And because the INNOV8 is based on the S60 platform, third-party applications are readily available on the Web.

On the entertainment front, you have an FM radio, the standard S60 music player, Real Player and two full version games--FIFA 08 and Asphalt 4--at your disposal. Games-wise, the full-version approach is a little different from Nokia's demo games on the N-Gage-enabled handsets, though we've seen some of the recent Finnish models bundled with vouchers for users to download the full licensed versions. Most common music formats, including MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR and Real Audio, are supported. The onboard accelerometer, besides automatically rotating the screen when the phone is turned sideways, mutes music playback when you turn the screen facing downward.

If you do a search on the Web, you'd be able to find some rumors about a Widget interface, similar to the ones on the F480 and the Omnia, but without touch capabilities, for the 16GB model. We confirmed this with Samsung and were told that this was never announced or officially released. That's not to say the chaebol won't roll out the feature with a firmware upgrade in the near future.

Tags: Light-emitting Diode, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Camera, mouse pointer, numeric keypad

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