Bam! Right off the bat, this morning brings not one, but two new Samsung phones to Verizon.
First up is the WinMo 6.1 powered Samsung Saga, pictured on right. For 200 bucks and a 2-year contract, you’ll walk away with a QWERTY keyboard, 2.2″ touchscreen, optical mouse, and support for Stereo bluetooth. They’ve also packed in WiFi (802.11b/g), quad-band radio, and a 2-megapixel camera with microSD support up to 16 gigs. This one should be on the shelves as of this morning.
Next up is the Samsung Renown, which is a bit less smartphone and a whole lot more brown. It’s got quad-band GSM to keep it tickin’ round the globe, a 2.0 megapixel shooter, stereo Bluetooth, microSD up to 8GB, and support for Vcast Music/Video. This one won’t hit the shelves till December 1st, at which point you can pick one up for $179.99 on a 2-year contract. Having a hard time figuring out what’s making this one so pricey? Us too.
Optical mouse? WTF? Were you just checking to see if anyone was paying attention?
Hah! Nah – A few Samsung phones (The Omnia and the Saga, for example) have an optical sensor on them which acts as a pointing device. Imagine a trackball, but flat. It’s really more of an optical trackpad, but Samsung’s press releases always refer to it as an “Optical mouse”.
See the big circle under the screen on the Saga? That’s the “mouse”.