Samsung launches new smartphones, tablets in S’pore
Samsung on Wednesday unveiled new smartphone and tablet devices soon to be available in Singapore, among which include the much-awaited Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet.
Galaxy Nexus ($948 without line contract, Feb 2012)
Labelled as the "world's first smartphone running on the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich", the Galaxy Nexus sports a sleek 8.94mm thick body and features a massive 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display at 720p resolution. Weighing just 135g, it has a computing power of a 1.2GHz dual core processor.
The new Ice Cream Sandwich mobile operating system introduces innovations such as Face Unlock, which uses facial recognition to unlock the phone. Using NFC technology, Android Beam allows the sharing of web pages, apps, and YouTube videos with friends by simply tapping the phones together.
Unlike the one rolled out in the U.S, the Galaxy Nexus that is made available for the Singapore market is not LTE-enabled, though two out of three telcos here offer Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband packages for customers.
The much-awaited Galaxy Nexus, which is largely touted as a strong competitor to Apple's iPhone 4S by renowned technology bloggers worldwide, is said to have disappointed local fans as it will only be made available next month, instead of the original release schedule of January 2012. It is priced at $948 (inclusive of GST) without line contract.
Galaxy Tab 7.7 ($898 without line contract, Feb 2012)
In just a year, Samsung has come up with a set of new tablets, like the Galaxy Tab 10.1, 8.9, and 7.0. And the latest device in the product line -- the Galaxy Tab 7.7 -- is set to arrive in Singapore next month.
The world's first tablet to feature the brilliant Super AMOLED Plus display, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 sports a stylish metal casing design with ultimate portability. Featuring a 1.4GHz dual core processor, the device measures only 7.89mm thick and weighs 335g, making it easy to fit into the jacket pocket or purse.
It runs on the Android 3.2 Honeycomb mobile operating system and is pre-loaded with Game Hub, giving users access to social games containing lightning fast graphics.
The tablet will be available in February 2012 at $898 (inclusive of GST), without line contract.
Besides the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 7.7, Samsung also showed the Omnia W (which runs on the Windows phone 7 platform), Galaxy W and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.
LTE-enabled devices coming soon
A Samsung spokesman said that the company plans to roll out LTE-enabled devices for the Singapore market by the first half of this year. He did not mention specifically what the devices will be.
The LTE mobile broadband, which is touted as the successor to the current 3G networks, is currently available for SingTel and M1 customers. It allows mobile users to surf webpages and stream high-definition videos at speeds about three times faster than the current speeds on 3G networks.
