Samsung Unveils Windows Devices

Samsung ATIV S: World's
first Windows 8-powered smartphone

Nokia may be Microsoft’s partner on Windows phone hardware, but Samsung got the jump on its competitors by announcing the first handset to run Windows 8.

The ATIV S, Samsung announced Thursday, sports a 4.8-inch screen, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and is just one-third of an inch thick.

The phone also has NFC and Bluetooth support, 1GB of onboard RAM, an 8 MP rear-facing and 1.9 MP front-facing camera, as well as the the option for 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage. The phone also has a slot for an SD card.

Samsung has made a big deal, too, out of the phone’s battery — a key component if it’s going to be able to power that screen for the whole day.

In a post announcing the phone over at Microsoft, Windows Phone marketing director Ben Rudolph also said that the phone’s design, which has a rounded bezel that tapers toward the back, make the phone very comfortable to hold.

The ATIV S also has an actual Windows button instead of a capactitive one, a design choice that bucks the mold a bit in the consumer tech world’s seeming war against physical buttons.

The ATIV S is flat-out beautiful, and it has the guts to match. But what’s impressed me most about the ATIV S is Samsung’s attention to detail. To get to your Start screen, you hit a raised physical Windows button, not a capacitive one. The speaker bar on the front and the back, as well as all of the buttons, are aluminum, not plastic. And the display glass has just the slightest of rounded edges. It all adds up to a device that looks great, feels great, and performs great.

The wait is over: Samsung unveils Galaxy Note II with Jelly Bean

“I am pretty confident it will even outsell its predecessor,” said JK Shin, Samsung’s chief of mobile business.

Samsung has sold some 10 million of its original Galaxy Note devices, creating a new product category which has smaller screen than tablets, but bigger than smartphones.

Samsung hopes the new device will take the focus away from its loss of the court case. Apple is now seeking speedy bans on the sale of eight Samsung phones, moving swiftly to turn legal victory into tangible business gain.

The Galaxy Note phablet, one of the most popular Samsung devices after its flagship Galaxy S, is not included in the list of the potential US sales ban, and Samsung hopes the phablet upgrade will lift any post-Apple gloom at the South Korean group.

“There won’t be huge innovative changes in design, but the Note II will feature quite a few improvements and enable Samsung to carry on its strong sales momentum in the category,” said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. “With the launch, Samsung will also be trying to turn around downbeat sentiment after the US legal defeat.”

Specs wise, it has a 1.6 GHz quad core processor, 2GB Ram, 3,100m Ahbattery , an 8 megapixel rear-facing and a 1.9 MP front-facing cameras with HD video recording.

It comes in HSPA Plus or 4G LTE connectivity versions, and 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB tiers with expandable micro SD memory slot

A few interesting software features were shown off, such as Best Faces which allows users to choose the most preferred face or pose of each person from group portrait photos, and Smart Stay, which uses the camera to prevent the device from going into standby mode when it detects a user in front of the device.

The new version of the Note will feature a thinner and slightly bigger 5.5-inch screen, powerful quad-core processor, the latest version of the Android operating system called Jellybean, and improved stylus function.

“The Galaxy Note II is a strong successor to its surprise hit predecessor. Its clear differentiation is a big advantage in a congested fourth quarter market,” said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.