Preview of the Samsung Jet S8000
The Samsung Jet is a new touchscreen phone from Samsung that boasts an all new high speed processor that promises to deliver a phone that is smarter than a smart phone. Well, here at Mobiles.co.uk we plan to put these claims to the test as we get hands on with the Jet (aka S8000) in our full review. Read on for our thoughts on this latest Samsung mobile phone.
The Jet is fairly typical of modern touchscreen phones. The front is dominated by the display which comes in at a reasonable 3.1 inches. Above the display we find the ear piece, a front facing camera and a stylish silver Samsung logo. Below we get call end and answer keys (physical buttons rather than touch sensitive) and a nice menu button styled as a 3D cube. All three physical buttons sit in a nice brushed metal panel. On the right side we get a screen lock key, a multimedia key which launches a cube on screen that features (among other things) your photo and video gallery and music library assigned to different sides of the cube and the camera capture key. On the left side sits the zoom/ volume keys (which personally I feel are better suited to the right hand side so they're near the camera button). On top we get the 3.5mm jack and micro USB port and on the back sits the 5.0 Megapixel camera. The phone weighs around 110g which is light without feeling flimsy. Rounded edges and smooth, high quality materials give the Jet a great in hand feel and a nice finishing touch are the reflective red stripes on the back which are visible only when the phone is held at certain angles. All in all, nothing we've not seen before (save perhaps the aforementioned red styling) but all perfectly executed.
The S8000 features an AMOLED display with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution. Samsung are raving about the fast processor but in truth it's the display they should be making the most noise about; it looks absolutely stunning. Colours are sharp, bright and vibrant. Samsung are also keen to point out the positive impact AMOLED has on battery life which is also a plus but it's the quality of the screen that proves the real draw here. Held next to rivals such as the iPhone and Nokia N97, the Jet simply blows them out of the water, it's that good. The relatively modest size but increased number of pixels packed in that small space also helps the Jet to look crystal clear when reading text, browsing the web and looking at images. In terms of usability of the touchscreen, the Jet doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of the visual quality. Using resistive technology enables you to use a stylus but forfeits the kind of sensitivity found on a capacitive display (iPhone 3GS). At times the screen doesn't feel as responsive as its rivals and will take a bit of getting used to. That being said, it's still one of the finest resistive touch screens available and if you're patient with it, you'll get the most out of it and learn to love it. This is most apparent in the handwriting recognition software which takes a little getting used to but after a few minutes you can go full steam ahead and write up a whole sentence on screen and the phone will then interpret it and your message will flash up on screen! Not perfect (the letter k is particularly troublesome) but easily the best example of handwriting recognition software I've ever used.
The Samsung Jet runs on Samsungs own TouchWiz user interface which works in a similar way to LG's new S-Class UI. The focus is on widgets and the home screen so on the Jet we find three different home screens that you swipe your finger across to navigate between. On each separate home screen you can add shortcuts (widgets) and set up each screen to focus on a specific area such as having one dedicated to connectivity with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, YouTube and Facebook widgets, one dedicated to music with your radio and MP3 player widgets and one focused on keeping on top of things with a clock, calendar and memos. This interface works extremely well and the fact that you can change the background wall paper on each screen makes navigating between the three even easier. At the bottom of each screen you get four ever present icons which access the phone keypad (for dialling), phonebook, messages and the main menu. Opening the menu presents you with the same three paged system but can be slightly trickier to navigate. The empty space used to swipe to navigate the different home screens is now occupied by icons in the main menu so accidently opening the camera when you're trying to get to the next page can become an infrequent yet annoying error. The attempt was to recreate the iPhones menu but as the Jet uses a resistive touchscreen, it's not as easy to navigate. One last feature of TouchWiz is the 3D cube which is launched from the button on the right side next to the camera button. The cube gives you quick and easy access to all the fun stuff on the phone such as games, your photo and video gallery and the music player. It looks good and is easy to use and is preferable over navigating the main menu. Aside from the slightly flakey main menu, TouchWiz does a good job and is easy to use and features enough customisation to please even the fussiest people.
The Samsung Jet features an impressive 800MHz processor that Samsung claim to deliver lightening quick performance. Menus open instantly, applications launch with little delay and photos and videos in your gallery take no time at all to load. The impressive processing capabilities also allow the Samsung Jet to multi-task (run multiple applications). Though in my opinion this has limited application in a non smartphone, it does work well. A great example is if using the pre-installed Google maps software. On normal feature phones if you receive a text you'd have to quit out of the map to view it. With the Jet you can minimise the application (just like on your home PC or Laptop), read and reply to the text and then open up Google maps and it will have saved just at the point that you last left it. The multi-tasking abilities also come in handy when waiting for something to load (or download). Whilst waiting for a web page to load why not play a quick game of tumbling dice or listen to your music player. Samsung promote the Jet as a phone for the impatient and the super fast processor built in certainly backs this up.
Complimenting the 5.0 Megapixel camera, the Jet includes a host of camera features to position itself as a top of the range camera phone. Capturing images at a maximum 2560 x 1920 pixels, Samsung have also squeezed on board Autofocus, Macro mode and face detection which all work well to ensure photos are fully in focus whatever the situation. Anti shake works well to minimise blurring for even the shakiest of hands, Blink detection is included so ruined family photos are a thing of the past and a powerful dual LED flash illuminates well in low light conditions. There also over a dozen different scenes to choose from ranging from standard options like portrait and landscape to more daring settings such as firework, sunset and candle light. We could moan at the 5.0 Megapixel camera when there are so many 8.0 Megapixel options but this would be unfair (besides, pixel count isn't everything). The Jet produces some stunning photos with bright vivid colours and sharp details and with tons of combinations of settings, you can set up the phone up to suit the situation perfectly and make sure you get the best shot. The camera interface is also simple to use. The main display acts as the viewfinder and on both sides we get two bars which hold all the various settings and options menus.
Video capture on the Jet is also just as impressive. The phone captures video at a maximum 720 x 480 pixel resolution and offers the ability to record in slow motion (great fun and really impressive to watch), record with or without audio and even apply a range of special effects including recording in Black and White or negative. The dual LED flash also acts as a video flash when recording video so video capture doesn't have to stop when the sun goes down. Once you've saved your photos and videos they are automatically added to the gallery or video file (depending on whether it's a photo or video of course). Flicking through images is easy and a handy date sits above each photo reminding you when the photo was taken. The 3D cube (remember that?) also has its own quick gallery that looks like a rolodex. Flicking down with your finger flicks through photos and videos with ease. Personally I would have liked to see this style of gallery replacing the one found in the main menu but as both are easily accessible, users can access whichever they find most appealing.
The Jet couldn't really claim to be fast unless it was well equipped in the connectivity department and thankfully that is the case. On board we find HSDPA connectivity (reaching a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps) and Wi-Fi so you should be fairly well covered wherever you are. The on board web browser is nice and easy to use. Actions such as adding favourites, book marking pages and typing in URL's is clear and easy, pages load quickly and zooming in on text is handled by the options icon (sadly no pinch zooming). In addition to the web browser, the Jet also includes widgets (that can be added to the home screen) for Facebook and YouTube. The Facebook widget takes you straight into your profile and mirrors the Facebook experience found on a PC with the ability to update your status, reply to messages, write on friend's walls, poke and browse photo galleries. The YouTube shortcut takes you into a mobile version of the popular video sharing site and gives you full access to the entire YouTube video gallery.
So as we come to the end of our review, we must try to draw some kind of conclusion on the Samsung Jet. If you're after a smart phone, you're probably best looking elsewhere as you won't find the kind of App eco-system that is growing on Apples iPhone and the Android and Symbian platforms. This means that save for some Java apps, you're really limited to what's on the phone already. The lack of a smart phone operating system is also slightly disappointing considering the powerful processor that lurks inside the Jet. If, however, you're after a touchscreen phone, the Samsung Jet is easily one of the best available. The display looks stunning (better than anything else we've seen), Touchwiz is easy to use, looks good and sports a healthy level of customisation, the built in camera is excellent and the look and feel of the phone is spot on. Samsung keep getting better and better and this latest effort is easily among their strongest.
Dan, Mobiles.co.uk
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