866 Cellphones
Just another Cellphones News weblog
Sony Ericsson to focus on Cyber-shot phones in the US – C905 confirmed
Author: +866.com20 Mar
Rumors about the arrival of Sony Ericsson C905 in the US have been around since November 2008, and now it’s all confirmed.
Reuters reports that Sony Ericsson will put a serious effort to promote its Cyber-shot camera phones in the US, starting the second quarter of 2009.
In particular, SE will introduce the 8 Megapixel C905 slider to US customers.
Jon Mulder, Sony Ericsson’s head of product marketing for North America, is confident that the C905 can attract a considerable number of buyers: “We know that this device is going to be relevant to consumers in the second half.”
The Cyber-shot phone should be sold for $199 to $249 if a North American carrier decides to offer it with a 2-yr contract agreement. And that carrier is likely to be AT&T – since we saw a C905a with AT&T firmware some time ago.
The C905 will be the second 8MP camera phone launched in the US, after T-Mobile’s Samsung Memoir, which is currently sold for $249 (with a contract agreement for two years).
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5 million Samsung TouchWiz F480 phones sold
Author: +866.com11 Mar
With Samsung being the world’s second largest handset manufacturer, it’s no wonder its touchscreen phones are sold in millions of units.
As we already reported, Samsung shipped more than 10 million such phones in 2008 only, having a quarter of the global touchscreen market.
Now we’re hearing that the most successful touchscreen phone from the South Korean company is the Samsung F480 TouchWiz.
Launched back in May 2008, at the same time with the new TouchWiz UI, the handset was sold in about 5 million units until now, and 500,000 units are still being shipped each month, all over the world.
F480 apart, Samsung should expect high sales for its 2009 touchscreen phones too, since handsets like T-Mobile’s Memoir, Omnia HD and the Ultra Touch S8300 can definitely attract lots and lots of customers. And let’s not forget that Samsung will soon come up with at least one Android smartphone – which will surely have a touchscreen display.
Via NewsWire.co.kr
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T-Mobile Samsung Memoir review
Author: +866.com6 Mar
It is a time for rejoicing in North America as Samsung has officially kicked off the era of high-res cameraphones with the brand new Memoir, released on T-Mobile Feb 25, which features an 8 MP camera.
What does this mean for the mobile phone industry? Up until now, phones have featured sub-par cameras with okay quality.
Since the Memoir is sporting a camera with better better megapixel count than my own personal digital still camera, and actually takes better pictures, it means phones and legitimately good point-and-shoot digital cameras can all be merged into one device.
And this is just the beginning. Sony Ericsson is quick on Samsung’s heels by announcing 12 MP Idou, set to be released in the second half of this year. LG is planning one as well. This means we can expect to see a lot more phones with really high camera resolution in the near future.
Of course, megapixel count ain’t everything, and may not even mean much beyond certain point. Though every little bit helps. Your camera phone probably won’t ever be as good as even average DSRL, but that old point-and-shooter you’ve been bringing to trips and parties? That may well be coming with you in your phone very soon, if not now.
In the meantime, the spotlight is all on the Memoir, so let’s focus on that!
I was genuinely excited to see the Memoir show up at my doorstep. The buzz on this new phone has been overwhelming and is a great offering for T-Mobile, which (with the exception of the G1) seems to get passed by on many hyped-up phones.
T-Mobile Samsung Memoir User Interface
The Samsung Memoir features Touchwiz UI. Touchwiz is an easy to use interface which is largely defined by its customizeable drag-and-drop widgets. The widgets are meant to work as convenient shortcuts for the user — pick which widgets would be used the most, and then simply hold your finger over it and drag it onto the main screen and place it wherever you would like.
Examples of widgets include Bluetooth, Web, calendar, voice dial, and SMS, though there are around 15-20 different types of widgets you can choose from. You can use all or none of them, if preferred.
I did not have any problems finding my way around the Memoir because of the Touchwiz. My one frustration is that Touchwiz, without the right OS to back it up, does not have much of a selection of applications. This could potentially be a large concern since many rival manufacturers are announcing methods of downloading apps. I even tried to download Google Maps and discovered this was not possible. While it doesn’t have to be a smartphone, I would find it much more beneficial to have extra options available.
Design of the Samsung Memoir for T-Mobile
In many ways, the Memoir is essentially a Samsung Behold with 3 more megapixels added to the camera. But there are some differences in outward appearance. For instance, the Memoir was designed to look more like a digital camera. Touchscreen phone on front, 8 MP camera on back.
When compared to other touchscreen phones the screen size of the Memoir is average. I sized it up next to the HTC Touch Pro and iPhone 3G, both well-known touchscreen powerhouses. The Memoir’s screen was larger than the Touch Pro but smaller than the iPhone.
Also, the camera lens on the back is a bit bulky. In fact, the Memoir won’t even lay completely flat because of the camera bulging out the back. It’s not a noticeable difference unless the phone is laying on its back.
In addition to the touchscreen, the front of the Memoir offers 3 physical buttons — send, end, and previous.
On the left I find a charger port and expandable memory port.
The right side has the volume, lock, and camera buttons.
Ultimately the phone design is unique in that the back almost doubles as a Samsung digital camera — which is the whole point. The front of the phone itself does look somewhat boxy, with the Behold featuring more of a curvy design than the Memoir.
The Memoir was a bit lighter than I expected, weighing in at 4.4 ounces and is sized up at 4.17″ x 2.11″ x 0.55″.
Features of T-mobile Memoir
Camera — Certainly the camera was the whole focus of the Memoir. The 8 MP camera is no old-school offering. Here is an example of a picture taken with the Memoir camera.
The camera also features a spectacular Xenon flash. Pictures taken in pitch black still turn out really well.
Needless to say I came away very impressed by the quality of the flash. Also, red-eye reduction helps, especially for a guy like myself that wears contacts or glasses.
The camera comes loaded with 16x digital zoom, video recording, auto focus, multi-shot, panoramic mode, self-timer and support for uploading all your pictures directly to Flickr or Snapfish from the phone (without having to email or other apps). Lastly, the camera features antishake — meaning, the camera won’t actually take a picture while the phone is moving. This prevents you from having to retake the same picture over and over again just to get one that isn’t fuzzy.
So, how good is the video recording on such a nice camera? The camcorder takes 30-frames-per-second video plus it has a slow-motion mode to capture 120-frames-per-second video. Not too bad at all, I’d say.
Here are some of the pics I took with the Memoir; one of the pics of me was taken in complete darkness, but I’m sure you’ll figure out which one it is. (click on thumbnails to see full sized image)
The pics of the mountains were shot in landscape scene, whereas the pics of me were shot in portrait scene (the one of me on the left looks a little creepy). There are several different scenes for different styles of photography.
This next pic is a zoomed-in version of the first pic I showed off.
One hesitation I have about the Memoir’s camera is that it’s a bit on the slow side. It takes 3-4 seconds to start up, and 6-7 seconds between taking pictures. Also, the shutter lag is somewhat slow as well; I noticed that when taking pictures it took a couple seconds to actually take it after pressing the button. A couple times I attempted to press the shutter a second time because I thought I hadn’t pressed it well enough.
Is the camera good enough to get rid of your digital camera? The jury’s still out on that one. It’s a great camera but, any way you look at it, it still is a camera in a phone, and will have its limitations as a result. The technology will improve over time, and phone cameras will continue to get better and closer to digital camera quality. The Memoir is certainly a good start.
Multimedia — Another strong point of the Memoir is its multimedia capabilities. In fact, there is a widget specifically made for the media player that you can put on the main screen, rather than having you going through the main menu.
I watched Ice Age on the Memoir with no complications. While the movie itself didn’t cover the entire screen, it was still refreshing to be able to watch a movie with the .avi format on a non-smartphone. Very convenient for keeping the kids busy or relaxing when the kids are asleep. Or if no kids are involved whatsoever. We’re not picky!
Speaker sound quality was excellent when watching the movie, and I did not require headphones to aid the sound.
Keyboard — Choose to have the QWERTY style in landscape mode or alphanumeric style when in portrait.
Email — The Memoir supports T-Mobile’s Mobile Email application, which gives access to Gmail, Yahoo, Windows Live, AOL, and support for many smaller companies such as Juno and Earthlink. I must emphasize that this does not provide push email; rather, it is a style of pull email that notifies you when a new message has popped in your inbox, at which point you hit the link to the Email app. Really it just adds an extra step to retrieving your email.
The Memoir will not support corporate email.
Internet — The internet browser on the Samsung Memoir is actually a HTML browser. I was able to look up several websites and have them look almost identical to how they would appear on Firefox or IE. It was nice to be able to switch from landscape to portrait if the website looked better that way; the only negative about browsing on the Memoir is that with the screen being smaller, not the entire website will fit. This is something easy to get used to for a tech geek such as myself, however, that uses mobile internet as much as I use it on my computer.
Fortunately T-Mobile chose to add 3G service into the Memoir to allow for faster internet and email downloading, but unfortunately for me my local area does not have T-Mobile 3G yet. Thus I could only judge internet speeds by T-Mobile’s EDGE network. It still wasn’t terrible, but I would love to hear comments from anyone who does live in a 3G area.
GPS — Since the Memoir has a-GPS built in, it is easy to get Telenav set up on the phone. I was able to utilize the Navigation system and get step-by-step directions spoken to me as I drove around to different places.
Memory — The Memoir holds 100 MB internal memory and has support for up to 16 GB external memory via MicroSD. There is a 1 GB MicroSD card included in the box, but if you are buying the phone mainly for the camera, I strongly recommend getting a larger card to hold more high-res pics and videos as well as put a little music on there if you want.
Performance of Samsung Memoir
Battery life — On a standard battery the phone is rated to get 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours standby. I would say that is a rather accurate estimation, as the 3G network and high-res camera will suck up a lot of juice. Again, if you are using the camera religiously, get a car charger just in case; chances are you’re going to need it often.
3G – The jury’s still out on this one as I did not have the opportunity to play around with the 3G network. EDGE worked decently, as expected.
Sound quality – I love the speaker on the Memoir. The calls I made came out very well and quite clear.
Touchwiz UI — It does take a little getting used to the new UI. It performs well, with only a slight half-second delay between screens. I do wish that Touchwiz offered more widgets, perhaps as a downloadable update. But that’s really my only complaint.
Overall I was impressed by the Samsung Memoir. The camera is of course the most notable feature and, with it being better than my own digital camera, made my mouth water. The thing is, though, that Samsung did not just slap a phone onto a camera; I feel that Samsung did a great job fusing two of their best consumer electronics together into one. It really isn’t a surprise though, since Samsung has already done this on several phones prior to the Memoir and has had plenty of time to get it right.
The Memoir is now available on T-Mobile for $249.99 with two-year agreement. For a phone and 8 MP digital camera together, that’s still a pretty good price. Please let us know your thoughts on the Memoir in our comments section!
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T-Mobile Samsung Memoir Launched
Author: +866.com28 Feb
As expected, T-Mobile has launched the highly-anticipated Samsung Memoir. The Memoir, which will be the first carrier-branded high-end camera phone available in the US, is going for $499.99, $249 if you’re willing to accept a 2-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate. Features of the Samsung Memoir include:
Quad-band GSM/EDGE
WQVGA display
TouchWiz user interface
Haptic feedback
microSDHC card expansion
Bluetooth with stereo support
GPS
8-megapixel camera with xenon flash
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Samsung Memoir finally available from T-Mobile
Author: +866.com26 Feb
T-Mobile USA and Samsung have kept their promise regarding the release of Samsung Memoir, and now the 8 Megapixel camera phone is finally available for purchase across the US.
Coming as North America’s first 8MP handset, Samsung’s Memoir T929 is a full-touchscreen phone that can be bought for $249 with a 2-yr T-Mo contract agreement. Or, for those who don’t need a new contract, the phone costs $499.
Its 8MP camera features autofocus, xenon flash, geotagging and video recording at 30fps. And while it may not take pics at a quality comparable to a digital camera, it could still prove to be one of the best cameras you’ve ever seen packed into a phone.
Among Memoir’s other specs, we must mention:
- 3 inch TFT touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels
- TouchWiz UI
- Accelerometer
- A-GPS
- Stereo Bluetooth
- HTML browser
- 1GB MicroSD card in the package
- Talk time: up to 5.5 hours
- Standby time: up to 12.5 days
- 105.9 x 53.6 x 14 mm
- 125 g
T-Mobile sells the Samsung Memoir both via its official website and in its retail stores across the US.
Here’s an official hands-on video with the phone:
Via Samsung USA
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Samsung Memoir Unveiled At MWC
Author: +866.com18 Feb
Samsung certainly isn’t going to just sit back and let Sony Ericsson’s W995 Walkman phone enjoy all the plaudits for its 8-megapixel camera, and thus it has unveiled its own Samsung Memoir which boasts an 8-megapixel camera sensor too. Aside from the obvious photography features, the Memoir is also able to record up to an hour of video depending on the resolution used. Other features include TV-out, TouchWiz user interface, 3G, widget support, haptic feedback and A-GPS. In case you might not have noticed, photographer and model Helena Christensen is a spokesperson of the device. A quick recap of the phone and its features include:
Best-in-class digital imaging features
Xenon flash
CMOS auto focus
16x digital zoom
Adjustable brightness and flash
Blink detection, face detection, anti-shake to reduce blur and geo-tagging
Five different shooting modes
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T-Mobile Samsung Memoir release date announced: February 25
Author: +866.com18 Feb
T-Mo USA has already officially announced the Samsung Memoir, about ten days ago, but back then it said nothing about the handset’s release date.
Well, this tiny detail was just unveiled in Barcelona, at MWC 2009, so now we know that the phone will be on sale starting February 25 2009.
In order to better promote Memoir’s capabilities, Samsung and T-Mobile have teamed-up with Danish model and photographer Helena Christensen.
In case you don’t know yet, Samsung Memoir has an 8MP camera with autofocus, Xenon flash, blink detection, face detection, geo-tagging and video recording. Sure, it’s not a 12MP camera, like the one Sony Ericsson Idou will bring, but it’s still the best camera ever packed into a US phone.
If you want to check out some images Helena Christensen took with her Samsung Memoir, visit this address.
Samsung Memoir’s price is said to be of $299 with a 2-yr contract agreement.
Via Press release
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T-Mobile Samsung Memoir release date announced: February 25
Author: +866.com16 Feb
T-Mo USA has already officially announced the Samsung Memoir, about ten days ago, but back then it said nothing about the handset’s release date.
Well, this tiny detail was just unveiled in Barcelona, at MWC 2009, so now we know that the phone will be on sale starting February 25 2009.
In order to better promote Memoir’s capabilities, Samsung and T-Mobile have teamed-up with Danish model and photographer Helena Christensen.
In case you don’t know yet, Samsung Memoir has an 8MP camera with autofocus, Xenon flash, blink detection, face detection, geo-tagging and video recording. Sure, it’s not a 12MP camera, like the one Sony Ericsson Idou will bring, but it’s still the best camera ever packed into a US phone.
If you want to check out some images Helena Christensen took with her Samsung Memoir, visit this address.
Samsung Memoir’s price is said to be of $299 with a 2-yr contract agreement.
Via Press release
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Samsung Memoir Coming To T-Mobile
Author: +866.com7 Feb
T-Mobile subscribers who are looking to pick up a new phone will certainly want to keep an eye on the upcoming Samsung SGH-T929 Memoir, which should be available on T-Mobile before February is out. Aside from its 8-megapixel camera, one of the more stand-out features of the phone is its ability to upload photos directly to online photo sharing sites like Flickr, Kodak gallery, Photobucket and Snapfish. The phone also has Samsung’s popular TouchWIZ user interface, virtual QWERTY keyboard, MP3 playback, aGPS, Bluetooth, 3G and voice activated dialing. There isn’t any pricing information regarding this phone just yet, but we should know in a few weeks time at most.
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T-Mobile kind of previews the Samsung Memoir
Author: +866.com7 Feb
Last week, we’ve reported that T-Mobile USA might release the Samsung Memoir on February 25, and now it seems that this launch date is a legit one.
According to Cell Phone Signal, T-Mobile sent a preview of the new handset, saying that it will be out this month. Its price should be of $299 (with a 2-yr agreement), but this is not yet confirmed.
Since the Memoir comes as the first 8MP camera phone in the US, T-Mobile is obviously proud of launching it, and it will probably market it as a perfect alternative to a digital camera.
Apart from the 8MP camera, Samsung Memoir is said to also feature a wide touchscreen display, HSDPA connectivity, GPS and stereo Bluetooth. Now let’s hope that, when finally released, it will meet T-Mobile customers’ high expectations.