Heir Apparent


The upcoming Samsung i310 Smartphone.

For the past several months, I've been seeing phone, smartphones and PDAs come and go. Nothing has really impressed me enough to even consider replacing my current sidekick, the O2 XDA II Mini. Some have gotten a bit close- like the upcoming Sony Ericsson W950i, whose nice, slim, calculator-like form factor attracted me. Even more amazing is the 4 gig flash memory in the phone. However, the W950i has no camera, and the Symbian OS doesn't have the video playing capability I require. Recently, I saw the Nokia N91 and while that was cool, it was inadequate for me again.

But now, here comes the Samsung i310. It's a smartphone, running Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone, and comes with a hi-res 2" screen, 2 megapixel digital video and still camera with flash and, get this- an 8 Gigabyte Hard Disc. 8 GIGS!!! WHOA! Imagine how many movies, anime episodes and other videos I can stuff into 8 Gigs! Plus, the phone comes with a TV-Out feature, so I can conceivably watch loaded videos on a bigger screen than the supplied 320 x 240 TFT screen. Awesome!

It seems perfect- the only flaws seem to be a slightly smaller screen size and that I have to sacrifice some apps made for Windows Mobile 2003, which will not be playable or usable in the Windows Smartphone, plus the loss of a touchscreen and stylus input. However, I do have my prime app- The Core Media Player which is pretty much MPEG-quality video anywhere, anytime. And the huge storage space plus a great camera should make up for that.

Pretty awesome gadget... I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for it locally. But will it really replace my Mini? We'll see then, when I get one in my grubby, mobile-hungry hands. Heh.