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At the CommunicAsia 2009 conference in Singapore and simultaneously at Samsung Unpacked events in London and Dubai, electronics giant Samsung announced the Jet, a smartphone the company is touting as “smarter than a smartphone.” The touch-screen device features an 800MHz processor and Samsung’s proprietary OS, which includes the Web browser Dolphin.
While the phone isn’t currently scheduled to come to U.S. markets anytime in the near future, the Jet boasts a competitive set of features, including Samsung’s TouchWiz 2.0 user interface with motion UI, smart unlock and a customizable widget screen. And the device’s dimensions are smaller than that of Apple’s best-selling iPhone.
Samsung claims the Jet’s 3.1-inch 16M WVGA AMOLED screen (four times higher resolution than a WQVGA screen) offers “the most vivid and colorful full-touch mobile experience available.” With the 800MHZ processor, the Jet is the fastest full-touch handset in the world, according to the company. The screen also has a 180-degree viewing angle and consumes 40 percent less energy than a mobile phone equipped with TFT-LCD display, Samsung claims.
The Jet is packed with multimedia features, including a 5MP camera, built-in GPS, DNSe & SRS Sound Effect technology for enhanced sound quality, and DivX and XviD video support for video downloading and viewing. The GPS system features geo-tagging, enabled through a geo-magnetic sensor to send location information and updates on traffic conditions by SMS, link location information to navigation, and a compass. The GPS application can run on “Drive to” or “Walk to” modes.
Samsung claims the Jet is the first feature phone to adopt the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Email system, offering a streamlined user interface as a result of improved push e-mail for both business users and end consumers. The Jet’s touch-screen technology is highlighted with “one-finger zoom,” which enables one-hand operation to zoom in and out. One-finger zoom can be used for the Dolphin browser and also for the file viewer to see TXT, PDF and PPT files.
JK Shin, Samsung’s executive vice president and head of the mobile communications division, said the Jet provides a “seamless and unrivaled” mobile experience as a result of the company’s accumulated technology leadership and pursuit of perfect craftsmanship. “Our aim is to deliver ultimate satisfaction to our consumers, and I believe that Samsung Jet answers the calls of today’s mobile users who want smart features and easy-to-use user interface,” he said. “This product perfectly reflects our consumer-oriented strategy.”
Rounding out the feature package on the Jet are features like “smart unlock,” a security feature that enables users to unlock the phone and execute the menu directly by drawing an alphabet letter on the screen. Users can set up the menu that they want to go to directly according to the alphabet letters from A to Z.
The Jet also features “motion gate,” Samsung’s motion recognition engine, which brings users access to multimedia content as well as speed dialing by tapping, tilting or flipping the handset.