Samsung JET Launch Function and Our First-Look Product Comments

When you hold it in your hand, at first glance, the Samsung JET looks and feels almost exactly like the Nokia 5800 XPress music.

Being a big-time fan and user of the Nokia 5800, this blogger decided to sample out the Samsung Jet's features- and even compare the Samsung Jet with the Nokia 5800.


(Samsung Jet (left) and Nokia 5800 (right)

Samsung Jet (Right) and Nokia 5800 XPressMusic (left)
Samsung Jet (Left) and Nokia 5800 XPressMusic (Right)

Incidentally, both the Samsung Jet and the Nokia 5800 belong to a family of touchscreen phones which are seen by many to be "iphone competitors" or "iphone wannabes"-- and the following features distinguish these from various other phones like the Samsung Omnia HD or Nokia N95 :-
- Almost entire front-side covered by touch-screen-
- All functions accessible by touch-- no keypad- but just 3 function keys on front- and some keys/buttons (eg: camera) on the side.
- Accelerometer and gesture support- phone detects motion- allows user to access functions by tapping or shaking the phone.
- Extensive Tactile feedback through vibrations
- Camera with Geotagging
- Built in GPS functionality
- Wifi Access
- Email.
- Widescreen for easy internet access
- Widgets- which are applications built around a website- accessible through shortcuts like all other installed applications- but which are written entirely in JavaScript/HTML and which run inside a instance of the phone's web browser.

So... those were the similarities between the Nokia 5800 and the Samsung Jet, now lets see the differences- how he specifications of these two phones differ and also what are the comparative advantages and shortcomings of each of the above.

The two best things about the Samsung Jet-- which make it REALLY AND TRULY WORTH THE MONEY are:-
(1) the ultra-long battery life (240 hours on standby = almost 10 days)-- which makes the Samsung Jet great for business users and especially international travellers or field-staff

(2) The very large 800x480 screen-- to many 800x480 would be just numbers-- but these numbers are big-- when one observes that the Nokia N95's screen size is 240x320; the Nokia 5800 and the Nokia N97 have a screen-sizes of 640x360 and the Apple iPhone has a screen-size of 320x480 pixels; so truly, browsing websites on a Samsung Jet is like having a Laptop computer in your pocket-- it beats even the Nokia E90's 800x352 screen-size when it comes to a laptop-like website browsing experience.

There is the presence of AmoLED display technology- which gives brighter more vibrant colours; as well as blacks which are almost totally dark with no exitting light. The Samsung Jet's LED based display technology, and it's vibrant colors have to be seen to be believed.

This AmoLED technology which is based on Light Emitting Diodes (LED) is from standard LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology technology used' in the Nokia 5800 and most other phones.

As expected from phones of this class, the internet browsing experience is good-- and the Samsung jet supports a browser technology called "Dolphin"- which is built upon the WebKit browser base-- and atleast to us, the browser experience felt excellent.

The most glaring limitation (atleast for power-users like me) of the Samsung jet compared to various Nokia touchscreen phones is the fact that while the Nokia 5800 supports symbian OS- on which one can install native applications- which can access and change each of the phone's underlying hardware features;
the Samsung Jet runs on a closed operating system called the "Samsung Handset Platform" (SHP)- which is a lot like Nokia's Series40- in that it can install Java applications- but cannot install native applications.
This felt bad- because with a expected street price (Rs.21,000-Rs.22,000) that's almost Rs.4000 more than the street price of a Nokia 5800 (approx Rs.18,000-Rs.19,000/-); one would have expected more from the Samsung Jet.

The other glaring limitation of the Samsung JET is the sluggishness with which the handset responded-- I am not sure if this was because the demo pieces were overloaded and hence we did not see it the way a user would OR is it that this sluggishness is a part and parcel of the Samsung JET ?
With a advertised processor speed of 800 Mhz one expects responses which are fast or of a speed that's ultra-fast and far beyond fast.

Other things I noticed about the Samsung Jet were:

a. 6-sided cube user interface (one of the very few phones that have actually tried experimenting with 3D- and to a very good effect). Infact, if I understood correctly, the center button- which is hexagonal in shape- can be pressed in any of the 6-directions.

b. The 2-buttons apart from the center button dont have backlights- a big disadvantage for people-- that may want to check email on the move lying in bed in a hotel thousands of miles away from home.

c. The amoled's crisp colors and level of contrast-- especially when there is a dark background has to be seen to be believed and puts the Jet far ahead of competition.

So... that's all folks-- check it out-- and if you like it OR find more that you dont like, feel free to mail us here at DelhiVoice... on nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com (Nalin, writer of this article) OR reachsuren(at)gmail(dot)com.

And do... scroll down to see the snaps.