THERE’S a lot of attention being paid to the coming of Apple’s iPhone 3G to the Saudi market. The iPhone is the right choice for some, but it’s not perfect for all. Handsets are supposed to be about more than prestige. Functionality is really what should underlie any handset purchase.
Consider the OMNIA touch phone which Samsung Electronics has introduced to the Middle East. Bringing together high performance business content, top of the range style and a dynamic multi-media experience, the OMNIA is an elegant touch phone for sophisticated consumers.
“The Samsung OMNIA is everything you could ever wish for in a mobile phone. Whether it’s surfing the Net at high speeds, listening to your favorite radio station whilst navigating to your destination or sending high quality photos to your friends, whatever it is, this phone does more,” said Sandeep Saihgal, GM, Mobile Phones Division at Samsung Gulf Electronics. “We are pleased to be able to offer the OMNIA touch phone in both English and Arabic and hope that this feature will further solidify Samsung’s prominence in the full-touch market.”
Samsung’s OMNIA is emerging as a hot-seller in major European smart phone markets, taking the number one position in some markets and ranking highly in all. Samsung’s patented TouchWiz user interface makes entering data and text simple. The Samsung OMNIA’s high resolution touch-sensitive screen uses intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations as well as an on-screen keyboard. It has a wide 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD screen, a five-megapixel CMOS camera with the latest value-added features and the handset’s internal memory, available in 8GB or 16 GB capacity, ensures ample storage space.
Based on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system, the Samsung OMNIA gives users a mobile extension to their PC experience, with access to MS Office documents such as PowerPoint, Excel and Word. Users can also send and receive e-mail and manage their appointments in Outlook while on the go. The handset retails for $655.
If you are a Nokia fan, then you’ll need to be on the lookout for the Nokia E75. It should be arriving in the Kingdom by the end of March, retailing at about AED 2300. This handset is a businessman’s delight as it allows direct access to Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes and has an enhanced e-mail user interface. The device also offers improved calendar capability, as well as contacts and task management.
“With the Nokia E75 we took a lot of inspiration from the Nokia 9300, which was our first mini communicator,” said Kai Oistamo, executive vice president at Nokia. “Owners of the Nokia 9300 loved the messaging functionality a full keyboard provided, but also used the traditional phone keypad a great deal. With the Nokia E75 we kept these essential ingredients, significantly upgraded all of the features and made it as compact as possible.”
The Nokia E75 also comes with full Nokia Maps and assisted GPS, and a great gaming experience with N-Gage on board. With Ovi Files, also included on the Nokia E75, important files stored on a PC can be remotely managed and shared, even when that PC is switched off.
Nokia is also showing off the Nokia N86. This handset combines wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 megapixel sensor, resulting in performance comparable to a stand-alone digital camera. The N86’s camera function is designed to excel in both bright and low light conditions, and it’s optimized for both video and still imaging. The handset’s high-speed connectivity ensures easy and convenient sharing.
The N86 includes 8 GB of internal memory, which can be increased with an exchangeable 16 GB microSD card. The device also offers a bright OLED screen, easy photo management, full sync capability with PC and TV-out support for slide shows. The Nokia N86 is expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2009 with an estimated retail price of euro 375.
